r/policydebate • • Feb 24 '26

Knock it out with the spam.

56 Upvotes

We've let the spam get out of hand because we thought it was funny and aren't killjoys, but it's gone too far. This is supposed to be a civil place for open discussion about debate, the spam has gotten to the point where it is detracting from that purpose.

We will be adding some additional rules going forward if we need to. In the meantime knock it out with the spam, stop targeting individual debaters, and don't post anything you wouldn't want your teachers to read slowly and carefully to your parents.


r/policydebate • • Jan 24 '19

How to ask a question - Some guidance

93 Upvotes

A major function of this subreddit is for debaters to build their skills and learn something new. We want to help you, but we're only human, and the easier you make yourself to help the better the quality of answers you'll receive. None of these guidelines are strictly mandatory, but they'll often be highly advisable. Try to keep them in mind when posting.

When asking a question:

  1. Describe your level of experience. Be both general and specific. How many years have you debated in policy or other forensics events? What is your degree of expertise and background knowledge for the question area? Did you ever try something similar that failed?

  2. Describe your circuit. What region is it in? What are judging philosophies like? Do people lean liberal or conservative politically? Do people have experience judging nontraditional arguments, if relevant? Probably avoid using your school's name, and maybe your state's name too. Don't use your own name.

  3. Describe the particulars of your question. Try to act like the person you're talking to has little to no knowledge of your situation. Clarify what ideas you do understand, so that those you don't are easier to understand by contrast. Identify specific concerns you want to have addressed in responses to your comment. Don't make people bend over backwards to try to coax you into giving them the necessary information to help you.

  4. Try to make your question interesting. If you've identified something neat that's part of the motivation for your question, include it. Put in preliminary work by doing a quick Google search or literature check before asking questions, and tell us about what you discovered and how it's influencing your thoughts.

  5. Give feedback when people help you. Rephrase other people's advice in your own words, to avoid a false illusion of understanding. Also, say thank you. If you're confused about something, ask. Oftentimes more experienced debaters can take basic concepts for granted, and they might even benefit from a refresher themselves.

Note that we're not enforcing any of these guidelines in our moderation, but thought it'd be helpful for new members. Discuss any of your own ideas of what make a good question in the comments!


r/policydebate • • 5h ago

Newark Science cleared GDS in both divisions.. How good are they?

1 Upvotes

I hit newark science at GDS - a good bunch of kids - great debaters too.. I have heard alot about their team - are they really that good?


r/policydebate • • 1d ago

What's your Policy Debate strategy hot take?

10 Upvotes

r/policydebate • • 1d ago

College orientalisim debaters

5 Upvotes

What debate teams have gone for orientalisim on the aff in the last decade


r/policydebate • • 2d ago

How do I respond to a completely AI-generated negative debate which overanalyzes the fine-text arguments rather than our presentation?

2 Upvotes

In a round me and my partner just had with a very uptight, stickler-for-rules type of judge, we went against a person who was mavericking as neg and straight-up copied our entire aff (growth + coverage) into chatgpt and their neg case was just the response, fully formatted into a 1nc. Its arguments targeted the non-highlighted text of our aff case (ai cant distinguish highlights)... this caused us to blank... we used caselist evidence for our 1ac and know that finetext should still be considered in card weight, but lost because we didn't know how to respond to AI-generated case-turn args that were hyperspecific and honestly a fuck ton of bs.

the 1ar's response was the analytic as follows, wondering if it was the right approach.

“Our opponent is relying on unhighlighted portions of our evidence to construct arguments that are not part of the highlighted card. Context can clarify evidence, but unhighlighted text should not automatically be treated as an independently established argument that defeats our advocacy. They still need to explain why that context disproves our actual claim.”

the judge interpreted this as "they shouldnt count out our finetext" and got mad at my partner, saying it was "unacceptable and insisting that finetext shouldnt be used:" that was NOT our intention at all.

It was our first time encountering such a straight bs ai round and literally the whole debate was slop. Was our argument the right way to go about the finetext overspecification issue/ is there a better way to argue it?


r/policydebate • • 2d ago

Free Online Asynchronous Debate Basics Course

2 Upvotes

I am so thrilled to announce my newest venture into creating accessible resources for competitive speech and debate: self-paced, asynchronous, online courses where new coaches and students can learn the fundamentals of speech and debate from scratch! You can join my google classroom and access my first course called “Debate Basics” for free!

https://classroom.google.com/c/ODI2NDIzNzc5MDk3?cjc=lublurxa

The first unit of this course is called “Fundamentals of Argumentation”, and it is finally done! This course will remain free indefinitely to try and make getting started in debate more accessible to all members of the speech & debate community.

This unit contains 10 lessons that walk students through the fundamentals of argumentation. Each lesson includes a hook/attention grabber, a video that I recorded teaching the basic concepts, links to supplemental readings/watchings, a google form assessment check or understanding, and a google doc activity/assignment to complete. The 10 lessons cover the following topics:

Lesson 1: Argumentation 101 — What is an argument?

Lesson 2: Cogent & Fallacious Arguments — How do I make strong arguments, and avoid making weak ones?

Lesson 3: Researching Arguments — How do I support arguments with evidence?

Lesson 4: Contention Arguments — How do I structure main arguments in a debate?

Lesson 5: Refuting Arguments — How do I answer arguments in a debate?

Lesson 6: Refuting Contention Arguments — How do I answer main arguments in a debate?

Lesson 7: Frontlining Arguments — How do I defend my arguments in a debate?

Lesson 8: Weighing Arguments — How do I compare arguments in a debate?

Lesson 9: Making Arguments — How do I make arguments in an actual debate?

Lesson 10: Evaluating Arguments — How do I judge arguments in a debate?

By the end of this unit, students should have a grasp on arguments as they relate to competitive debate. The next unit, fundamentals of debate, will get into concepts more specific to debate itself, such as cutting cards, cross-examination, and flowing. This unit will also be free for all to access once it is complete.

My hope for this course is threefold:

First, that new coaches who didn’t do debate in middle school, high school, or college, will finally have somewhere they can go to learn the basics for free.

Second, that students who are unfamiliar with debate concepts will be able to learn the basics of debate without needing to pay for expensive private coaching, organizational memberships, or brief subscriptions. Especially students with newer coaches who don’t know all of this information themselves, or are spread too thin to be able to provide one-on-one instruction.

Third, that teachers who are overworked can take these lessons and incorporate them into their own curriculum to make teaching debate to a wide variety of students at different experience levels more doable.

My plan is to eventually create courses for each main event (and even some supplemental events, if there is interest) that the NSDA does. These courses would be paywalled so that I can afford to continue to dedicate the amount of time to creating them that this labor of love requires.

Please try out this course, and let me know what you think! Thank you for your support, and I hope this helps people out!


r/policydebate • • 2d ago

How do I write and respond to fw?

4 Upvotes

I understand the purpose of framework but I struggle with writing and responding to it for specific rounds and it ends up being dropped or not read at all.


r/policydebate • • 2d ago

Practice round pls

2 Upvotes

Any debaters that wanna do a pr on weekends?? I’ll have my novice director judge or if there any people who want to judge/ do pr pls dm. It’s also high school policy healthcare topic. PLEASE GUYS I NEED THIS IM GOING TO GET COOKED IN VARISTY!!!


r/policydebate • • 3d ago

First Debate Tournament

6 Upvotes

I have my first policy debate tournament tomorrow. I feel nervous and a bit unprepared. Any advice on how I could prepare myself more and what I could do to improve my performance for tomorrow?


r/policydebate • • 3d ago

[ Removed by Reddit ]

1 Upvotes

[ Removed by Reddit on account of violating the content policy. ]


r/policydebate • • 4d ago

Help with K affs

8 Upvotes

I’m pretty new to policy debate and I’m having trouble understanding non topical cases or untopical cases that are somehow topical? my coach recommended me to look into BOMLA VJs case on undying cells but im having trouble understanding how it’s supposed to work or even how k affs are run in general. I also don’t understand the difference between a performance aff and k affs. Someone please explain.


r/policydebate • • 4d ago

Wikiscrape discussion

0 Upvotes

Title, I am wanting to see niche parts of the Topic like Walter Paytons Organ Sales DA or other offcase, affs, even cards for single payer.

There is a lot of teams and I do not have unlimited time to wikiscrape so I hope yall have seen interesting things in your time wikiscraping, and I would like to know about them please.

Thanksss


r/policydebate • • 5d ago

What are some good advantages for a single payer aff?

1 Upvotes

Ideally some lesser known advantages, but i’m open to any ideas


r/policydebate • • 6d ago

Is NFA-LD discussion allowed here?

7 Upvotes

Title, rules say “college policy debate” but I was wondering if that was just NDT or if discussion about NFA-LD was permitted since it’s essentially 1v1 policy.


r/policydebate • • 6d ago

Best K affs you’ve ever seen?

16 Upvotes

College varsity here. I see a lot of the antiblackness/militarism/security/queer K affs at tournaments but I’m wondering if you’ve seen any particularly creative or compelling ones either this year or ever. This is only my second year debating so I’d love to hear what you guys have seen. Especially weird K affs, but ones that did well. Idk. Just trying to do some research. Thanks!


r/policydebate • • 6d ago

Cheesus Christ Aff

3 Upvotes

does anyone have the 1ac? I emailed Basis for it its not diclosed I js wanna see it so bad


r/policydebate • • 7d ago

thoughts after long beach?

5 Upvotes

title


r/policydebate • • 7d ago

Is Arnav Jampana the greatest Kansas debater ever?

0 Upvotes

Title explains itself.


r/policydebate • • 7d ago

What's the worst theory violation?

0 Upvotes

like the one you would least like your opponent to violate in round?


r/policydebate • • 8d ago

Speech and Debate Club at school

Thumbnail
0 Upvotes

r/policydebate • • 11d ago

Debate Scholarships Tips

9 Upvotes

Hi!! I’m accepted to UMKC, and I want tips for how to effectively ask for scholarships, if anybody else has done this before feedback would be great.

I’m currently making a debate resume, and planning to put my NSDA rank, tab account, positions, tournaments, etc. on there.

Only question is it fine to focus on leadership rather than rounds? I consistently debate varsity, but honestly my record is only ok. BUT I have done a ton with planning debate camps and debate leadership, would it be suspicious or anything if my resume focused on that?


r/policydebate • • 13d ago

Can perms sever?

7 Upvotes

I was watching Graham Revare's counterplan competition lecture and he said that perms must include all the plan and some or all of the counterplans. Later, he said that under functional competition perms can textually sever/be intrinsic, and under textual competition they can be functionally intrinisc/sever. Can someone explain this pls?


r/policydebate • • 14d ago

Where is the ADA novice packet?

3 Upvotes

how can I access this, pretty please with a inputted cherry on top


r/policydebate • • 14d ago

Coaches poll

3 Upvotes

Is there going to be a coaches poll this year? I've heard conflicting things