Debate 101

Students will improve their knowledge of what debate is including the structure of an argument, how to research to make warranted claims and speaking effectively and efficiently. 

I was either state or nationally-ranked debater throughout high school. I broke to octofinals at Harvard's invitational tournament. I broke to the elimination rounds during the National Speech and Debate Association (NSDA) national end-of-the-year tournament in Overland Park, KS in 2013, meaning my partner and I were ranked somewhere within the top 80 teams in the nation (out of tens of thousands). As a varsity debater during junior and senior year of high school, I taught novices how to debate both as a student coach at my high school and at the summer intensive program I attended at UTDallas. This included running speaking drills, researching and cutting evidence, prepping casework based on current events, and the like.

I also provided my own input to the NSDA as to which yearly topics should be considered for the Policy Debate category. 

At the University of Florida, I was one of the executive members of the organization that ran the Blue Key Speech and Debate Tournament, arguably the most well-known tournament in the Southeast U.S. I helped lead the tabulation room for Policy Debate in 2018. 

I have also judged over 40 rounds of debate in topics ranging from policy reform to congressional bill simulations. 

During my time at Carnegie Mellon University, I was appointed as one of 4 moderators for the Heinz Forum. The Forum was an organization dedicated to having graduate students, teachers and guest lecturers attend a monthly forum centered around one or more contentious topics up for debate such as the ethics of AI or domestic privacy law. I have also written several graduate-level research papers using either MLA or APA style, one of which was praised directly by the head advisor of my Masters program as their absolute favorite out of the rest of her students. 

1 hour 30 minutes per week in class, and an estimated 0 - 1 hours per week outside of class.

The slide deck information will be coming mostly from this source: https://www.speechanddebate.org/wp-content/uploads/Textbook-Debate-101.pdf

We will refer to: https://opencaselist.com/openev - this is an open source bank for arguments created at summer intensive high-school debate camps (generally run by University programs).