Author Archive
Introduction to Policy Debate
On my recent trip to China to help run the 2011 China Open I was fortunate enough to give a guest lecture at Beijing Foreign Studies University arranged by my colleague and friend Gary Rybold (Irvine Valley College). My topic was an introduction to evidence-based debate using NFA-LD as my guide. In China most students [...]
Surveying Attitudes Toward Topical Counterplans in LD
Matt Whitman, a debater from Western Kentucky University, has asked me to pass this along – he’s promised to come back and summarize his results when he finishes his thesis. “Aside from the annual topic change, NFA-LD (and really, the rest of forensics) continues to evolve as an activity itself. As competitors, coaches, and critics, [...]
Amended Resolutions
Per an email sent to the IE-L on Thursday, May 5 at 5:49pm the Lincoln Douglas Committee has revised the wording of the 5 resolutions: The Lincoln Douglas Committee has revised the wording of the 5 resolutions for clarification reasons. If you have already voted, and feel you need to change your ballot, send me [...]
Possible Resolutions
NOTE: The possible resolutions have been amended as of Thursday, May 6. You can view the new resolutions here. New Poll available in that post since this one is now moot. From the IE-L: THE NFA LINCOLN DOUGLAS COMMITTEE AS FORMULATED THE FOLLOW LD DEBATE RESOLUTIONS FOR CONSIDERATION FOR THE 2011-2012 DEBATE SEASON. PLEASE READ [...]
Why do you participate in debate?
Now that the season is over I think it’d be a great time to reflect: why do you participate in debate? I often find these conversations are helpful at the end of the season when so many coaches and students are experiencing burnout and may feel like all the hard work of the season was [...]
2011 PSCFA Cool Off
At last year’s PSCFA Fall Coaches Meeting I was able to persuade the coaches to add NFA-LD as an event to the PSCFA Cool Off. This will be the first year the event is offered at our year end novice tournament. It should be a great way to introduce the event to new students and [...]
Possible Topic Wordings?
We probably have only a few more days to submit possible topic words to the NFA-LD committee (specifically Dave Trumble (dtrumble at anselm edu)) since the final five resolutions will be published April 30. If you’ve ever had to write topics for a tournament you’ll know it a really hard job and it’s essentially impossible [...]
2011-2012 Topic – Banking
The second option on the ballot for next year is banking. Again, as with agriculture, I believe the 2nd place topic paper from the previous year is included automatically. Since there was a tie between Ag and Banking both are being included. I imagine the NFA-LD committee may want to revisit this policy of automatically [...]
BREAKING – Board suspends vote – will keep this year’s topic one more year
Just got an interesting email on the IE-L regarding next year’s NFA-LD topic… … The NFA-LD committee has just finished receiving results from the 2010-2011 coaches NFA-LD survey that was sent out two weeks ago to all active NFA member schools. Apparently, preliminary results indicate that a majority of debaters have decided against engaging the [...]
2011-2012 Topic – Ag Policy
The first topic listed for next year was submitted by Kelly Larson At Missouri Southern. I believe it was originally submitted for this year but was second place and thus gets resubmitted automatically. Here is the full topic paper. Here is the statement of significance: The arena for discussion over the next 10 plus years [...]
Next Year’s Topic…
The topic papers for the 2011-2012 Season are available on the NFA Page. Here are the six choices: Agriculture Policy Banking Regulations and Oversight Higher Education The Middle East U.S./China Foreign Policy U.S. and International Free Trade BALLOT FOR VOTING ON TOPICS (voting ends April 6; NFA member schools may vote). Over the next few [...]
Good luck at Spring Champs!
PSCFA Spring Champs is here and the final pre-nationals LD tournament is is looking to be huge! Novice NFA-LD (7) Junior NFA-LD (14) Open NFA-LD (37) Good luck to all the competitors. Novice: Point Loma Nazarene University – Novice NFA-LD – Ben Carney Point Loma Nazarene University – Novice NFA-LD – Brian Bentley Point Loma [...]
