Thinking Globally, Debating Locally

Cryptocurrencies are often incredibly confusing; however, they are common in numerous debate topics. This post aims to provide a background for understanding cryptocurrencies and provide additional resources to bolster your knowledge base!  At its core, blockchain technology is a shared database where entries require confirmation and encryption before entering the common server. Thus, the process is highly secure, protected, and guaranteed accuracy, making it an enticing prospect for financial and banking processes.  Cryptocurrencies are digital currencies that mirror the role of a dollar bill in the physical market. While there have been numerous iterations of different digital currencies, the creation of bitcoin in the late 2000s popularized the idea. . Just as an individual works to bring home a paycheck, cryptocurrencies also require work. However, instead of holding a job and having established hours, individuals “work” for cryptocurrencies in the form of “min...

Government and Opposition Member Speeches: My favorite speeches are member speeches! They are so much fun! The member speeches begin the back half of the debate. They have three obligations. First, clean the debate and make sure that everything has a clear framework. Second, you should create a new and distinct case from opening. Third, you need to respond to the other sides arguments.  Spend most of your prep time thinking about a lot or arguments. Be flexible and willing to find new arguments if your opening team uses them during their speeches.  The easiest way to win from back half is to clear up a messy debate. If the top half has not set up a clear debate. (The round is a mess because no one knows what the goal is or people don't understand what the round is supposed to be about.) You can go in and provide new framing. For example, you can explain that the round should be judged based on who creates the most good and stops the most amount of harms. You could ...

Deputy Leader of Government in Opening Government: I think that hardest position to learn is Opening Government. The Deputy Leader plays an important role in the round. Your job is to help your partner prep the model and prep their points. You should prep PM's speech before you start preparing your own.  The DPM has four obligations in the round. First, defend and rebuild the case started by the PM.  Second, destroy the opposition case. Third, add new arguments to the round. Fourth, respond to the back half team.  First, the Deputy Prime Minister defends the case presented by the Prime Minister by engaging any refutation presented against the case by the Leader of the Opposition. The Deputy should take up the Prime Minister’s argument one by one and defend each argument against any refutation by the Leader of the Opposition. Thus, at the end of this section of the Deputy’s speech, the audience should see that the case originally presented by the Prime Minister still...

Leader of Opposition in Opening Opposition:  I find this speech one of the most challenging because you have to introduce the opposition argument, refute the Prime Minister, and challenge any irregularities in the model…whew! Structurally, the Leader of Opposition (LO) is similar to the PM’s speech (many teams will have the same member give both speeches.) Often you will agree with the general idea proposed by the government but disagree with the mechanism. For example, if the resolution was “This house would subsidize all education” The sentiment is to support increasing access to education. On opposition, you can agree with that sentiment, but disagree with the mechanism that for instances the government will provide a voucher program to accomplish that aim. Ensure that you directly rebut the information from the PM. Tips for good rebuttal: ·          Destructive material to discredit material brought by the other side ·...

Prime Minister's Speech in Opening Government: When you start departing, this is the most intimidating speech. I was always scared to start the debate—especially when I was unsure of the motion or how to set up the debate properly. However, after learning more about the opening government position, and mainly the prime minister’s speech, this is actually one of the most fun and interesting places to be in a debate. So…fear not! Together we will walk through the steps on how to make a good prime minister’s speech. How to start?  When my partner and I are assigned an opening government position in a debate, we sit together and re-read the motion three to four times. We always make sure that  together  we understand what the motion is asking us to argue. It the government’s burden to define the motion in a reasonable way that is accessible. Unreasonable definitions create a bad debate, and as the opening government team, you will be penalized for definitions of a mot...

Debating is hard and often intimidating. Most novice debates are just concerned about getting the format correct, let alone speaking! When I first started college debate, I was so nervous I would forget the speaking order, that I forgot what the content of my speech was! Please use this guide and the attached references to squash that fear! The following guide is to give you a background on British Parliamentary Debate :) good luck! Basic Rules and Structure: British Parliamentary Debate, sometimes called Worlds Debate, can seem confusing, but I promise it gets easier with practice. There are four teams in each room. Each team is composed of two members. There are four positions in each round. Opening Government, Opening Opposition, Closing Government, and Closing Opposition. Each speaker gives one seven minute speech.  The speaking order and the positions are shown in the picture below. Speeches and POI's:  All speeches are seven minutes. Members from the opposite...

WELCOME TO OUR BLOG!!! My name is Ciera, and my debate partner's name is Sam. We are very happy to have you here! We are members of the Forensics team at the United State's Air Force Academy. We are preparing to attend World University Debating Championships  (WUDC)  in Cape Town, South Africa. When we first started preparing for Worlds, we were unable to find any training programs, so we decided to create our own and share it in this blog!  Mission: Our mission has four parts: Train, Develop, Network, and Inspire.  We are very fortunate to have a fantastic debate coach, a funded program, and awesome institutional support from the English Department. Not all programs are as lucky. Thus, we wanted to build a program that was accessible to everyone! We believe that debate has the power to change lives by helping people access their voice! Even if your not a debater, we hope you can use this site to learn with us and become informed global citizens. Train: ...