Finding Your Voice
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FINDING YOUR VOICE FINDING YOUR VOICE A Comprehensive Guide to Collegiate Policy Debate Allison Hahn Taylor Ward Hahn Marie-Odile N. Hobeika International Debate Education Association New York, London & Amsterdam Published by: International Debate Education Association 105 East 22nd Street New York, NY 10010 Copyright © 2013 by Allison Hahn, Taylor Ward Hahn, and Marie-Odile N. Hobeika This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/ Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Hahn, Allison. Finding your voice : a comprehensive guide to collegiate policy debate / Allison Hahn, Taylor Ward Hahn, Marie-Odile N. Hobeika. pages cm ISBN 978-1-61770-051-4 1. Debates and debating. I. Hahn, Taylor Ward. II. Hobeika, Marie-Odile N. III. Title. PN4181.H24 2013 808.53--dc23 2012042433 Design by Kathleen Hayes Printed in the USA CONTENTS Preface ............................................... vii Chapter 1: Basics of Policy Debate ...................... 1 Chapter 2: The Policy Debate Squad .................... 11 Chapter 3: The Topic Process ........................... 16 Chapter 4: Arguments ................................. 22 Chapter 5: Evidence ................................... 35 Chapter 6: Responsibilities of the Affirmative and Negative .............................................. 59 Chapter 7: Speaking and Flowing ....................... 67 Chapter 8: Speeches ................................... 76 Chapter 9: Cross-Examination ......................... 97 Chapter 10: The 1AC .................................. 112 Chapter 11: The Negative Strategy ...................... 136 Chapter 12: Stock Issues ............................... 144 Chapter 13: Topicality ................................. 153 Chapter 14: Disadvantages ............................. 170 Chapter 15: Counterplans.............................. 186 Chapter 16: Kritiks .................................... 201 Chapter 17: Judging the Debate......................... 220 Chapter 18: Your First Tournament ..................... 230 Chapter 19: “Oh Shit” List.............................. 237 Appendixes ........................................... 255 Appendix A: Speaking Drills............................ 255 Appendix B: Cross-Examination Cheat Sheet Guide ...... 259 Appendix C: List of Abbreviations ...................... 262 Appendix D: Paperless Debate .......................... 265 Appendix E: Resources ................................. 269 Glossary .............................................. 272 vi Finding Your Voice: A Comprehensive Guide to Collegiate Policy Debate PREFACE The text that you hold in your hands was created through the combined efforts of three debate coaches who needed a guide for their novice debaters. Having taught at universities and high schools across the United States, we began to notice a trend in the debate community: novices often lacked the information necessary to quickly learn how to compete in policy debate. Exchanging ideas, we each discovered that teaching someone the basics of policy debate was often a haphazard exercise for debater and coach alike. Our own experience was that we had spent years providing preparatory lectures, activities, practice debates—but at the end of the day, our students asked, “what can I read to be ready for tomorrow?” So we searched for a comprehensive guide to policy debate and found several. Some books were written as textbooks, but we were not teaching a course. Other books were aimed exclusively at high school students, and, while interesting, they did not address the complexity of our students’ questions. The last set of books had excellent coverage of standard policy debate arguments but had not kept up with the newest argument strategies. Failing to find an appropriate text, we came together to create a series of crash-course guides to policy debate—those guides were the building blocks for this book. We hope that this text will make beginning to debate a bit easier and lead you to one of the most enjoyable activities available to students. Debaters are smart and ambitious learners, so any worth- while introduction to policy debate must be both stimulating and educationally varied. Some debaters begin with a preference for specific argument styles; others want to sample a variety of argument styles before determining their own style or strategy. Occasionally, a novice debater begins her career by debating with a varsity debater and needs a quick introduction to everything that could happen during the round. To meet your needs, and the various needs of each of our readers, the chapters in this book are self-contained. You can read from cover to cover, gradually building your knowledge of debate skills and arguments. Or, if it is the night before your first tournament and you are unclear about a particular issue, you can delve into one specific topic. The most useful informa- tion, however, might be found near the end of the text where we have included cheat sheets and an “Oh Shit” list for a number of problems that you might encounter. Our combined experiences in debate have given us a pretty comprehensive and diverse knowledge base. Each of us debated in high school and college, traveling across the country as debat- ers and later as coaches. Two of us embrace Kritiks, the third prefers policy arguments. We have debated in front of the most radical and most conservative judges in the country and have tried to prepare you for both extremes. Yet, even as we prepare you to succeed in a debate tournament, try to remember that this community is not only about competition. Policy debate is a cor- nucopia of ideas, allowing students to explore concepts and ideas together in pursuit of their personal and intellectual goals. Debate alumni include John F. Kennedy, Oprah Winfrey, Jimmy Carter, Hillary Clinton, Malcolm X, and Gen. David Petraeus. These individuals have all made their mark on history not because they won or lost a round of debate, but because they learned to think quickly and clearly, explain their opinions concisely, and find evidence to support their ideas. viii Finding Your Voice: A Comprehensive Guide to Collegiate Policy Debate Being a policy debater will teach you how to argue, and, even more important, you will learn to ask sophisticated questions, open yourself to new ideas, and gain in-depth knowledge of a wide range of topics. You will hone your presentation skills and become more confident in presenting your opinion, even if it contradicts that of everyone else in the room. This book only lays out the tools for participating in policy debate; we hope that it will accompany, not replace, your experience of competing at tournaments and entering the policy debate community. A debate community is only as vibrant as the people who gather to grow from one another’s arguments. To paraphrase a great coach, Ross K. Smith: Thank you, our coaches, debaters, and teammates, who have pushed us to think harder, research deeper, get outside of our narrower confines. You pose questions without which we could not learn and improve. We couldn’t do it without you. Preface ix 1 BASICS OF POLICY DEBATE This chapter introduces the basics of policy debate, including people, format, resolution, arguments, judges, and skills. We will investigate each of these topics in more detail in later chapters. What Is Policy Debate? Policy debate is an educational competition in which partici- pants debate the merit(s) of adopting a specific policy designed to address and remedy a contemporary problem. Policy options proposed during the debate must fall under the annual pre- arranged topic called “the resolution.” Debate squads begin preparing research and arguments specific to the resolution during the summer. Competition begins in the fall at weekend tournaments. Each debate involves four debaters organized into two teams who are evaluated by a judge. The Affirmative team proposes a policy and the Negative team is expected to refute whatever policy the Affirmative presents. All teams are required to argue on both Affirmative and Negative sides throughout the course of a debate tournament. People The collegiate policy debate community consists of competitors and coaches affiliated with American colleges and universities. Debate programs are referred to as “squads” and vary in size and structure according to the financial resources and priorities of the institution. Although all policy debate squads are affiliated with a college or university, the nature of the affiliation varies among schools. Some teams have well-funded, university-sponsored programs with entire buildings dedicated to their use. Others are student-run clubs that receive small grants from their col- leges to pay for a few tournaments each semester. Some squads are directed by a professional head coach who manages all administrative and coaching details; some by a group of volunteers or students; and some by a coaching staff of pro- fessor-directors, graduate student coaches, and paid assistants. These individuals are in charge of making all travel arrangements, planning meetings, and coaching individual teams. At tourna- ments, your coaches will serve as judges—though you will never be judged by your own coach. Each debate round will have at least one judge who is responsible for deciding the winning team. The policy debate format calls for two-person teams. Gener- ally, novices pair with other novices, though occasionally a novice might be teamed with a more experienced