Author Archive
Debriefing the Double Up
Some thoughts from this weekend: 1) The tournament really benefited from the great Midwestern schools that swelled the ranks. Some great debaters to watch, and got to hang a bit with Glenn Prince again. 2) The cultural gulf between L/D in the Midwest and L/D in California is fairly wide. Some evidence: One California judge [...]
Starter Packet for 2011-12 Topic
I attach here a starter packet for teams looking to begin practicing. It is likely of lower quality than the larger teams already have, but it should allow small and/or new teams to start practicing right away. It includes a currency manipulation aff (donated by Danny), some specific negative against currency manipulation, a specific DA against currency [...]
2010-11 Yearlong Sweeps Results
Once again, NFA L/D in Southern California has experienced it’s largest year on record. Here are the final results of this school year’s yearlong sweeps. These results take into account the California Double-Up, Fall Champs, Sunset Cliffs, Golden Cowboy, SoCal LD Champs and Spring Champs. For the Lincoln Division (Highest percentage of wins): 1. Moorpark [...]
So, what should I be doing while on break?
There are, of course, as many good answers as there are people in the world. Let me give a couple of suggestions: 1) Take a step back, and enjoy some great literature that may touch on this year’s debate topic. Some suggestions: Crime and Punishment (1866) by Fyodor Dostoevsky – A truly fascinating story about [...]
Sweepstakes Update #1
Here’s the first sweepstakes update. The only adjustments I made to the official results were to add the results of the novice final round. Novice and Junior were combined in prelims and on the cume sheets, but as no novices broke to elims, the top two novices (CBU’s Faris Sweiss and Glendale’s Armond Aivazyan) debated a [...]
Annual Sweepstakes Awards
What follows are the guidelines for annual sweepstakes awards as appoved by the Executive Council: There will be three divisions of awards that SoCal-LD.net will recognize annually. The first, called the “Lincoln Division” will recognize schools who have the highest winning percentage in NDA L/D rounds held in Southern California. A school will be given [...]
What to do in cross-ex?
A common question new debaters ask is, “So, what do I do in cross-examination?” This is of course a question with as many good answers as there are coaches and competitors. Here are my guidelines for cross-ex: 1) Only ask questions if you already know the answer. An exception to this is when you’re clarifying [...]
1st Workshop vodcast
Down at the coach’s conference, I was talking with Danny about putting together some videos to make a kind of “virtual workshop” that this site could use in the place of traditional workshops. The traditional ones are great, but in addition to travel times and hosting stress, we also have the problem of some schools [...]
Last Minute Seminar Info… and Request for Help
As some of you know, tomorrow a seminar will be held at Cerritos College which will include a demonstration of NFA L/D (after lunch, around 1:30). Three notes: 1) If you observe the round, post your thoughts either as a comment to this post, or to the inevitable review of the round that will come [...]
Yearlong Sweepstakes
I’d like to take this opportunity to lay out the details of the yearlong sweeps, for the purpose of either confirming them or adjusting them before our first tournament. While everyone is more than welcome to add their $.02, only the members of the Executive Committee (currently Myself, Michael Miller, Robert Maxwell, David Saulet, Danny [...]
..and they’re off!
Here’s the new topic as it arrived in my mailbox a few minutes ago: THE 2010-2011 NFA LD RESOLUTION IS AS FOLLOWS: BE IT RESOLVED: THE USFG SHOULD SUBSTANTIALLY REFORM THE PROVISION OF MENTAL HEALTH SERVICES TO THE CHRONICALLY MENTALLY ILL. Share on Facebook
So, what now?
One of the problems facing argumentation and debate teachers and coaches is how to connect the theory of the classroom to real-world situations. There are many ways to approach the problem, but I would like to share one that has worked in my courses at CBU. I use a text entitled, “The Logic of Real [...]
