Tag Archives: Topic Discussion

Lexington, KY- Andrea Reed in a letter to the LD Advisory Committee makes several announcements regarding the 2015 TOC. 1) Former Director Andrea Reed announces that she will be stepping down as Director of Debate at UK Debate. However, she “agreed to stay on as co-Director of the TOC along with Dave …

Lexington , KY- The TOC has announced the bid levels for tournaments for the 2014-2015 season. This was found at https://ci.uky.edu/toc/ldqualifiers20142015. AUTOMATIC QUALIFIER- Octafinals at the 2014 TOC The following LD debate tournaments are OCTAFINAL qualifiers for 2014-2015: Apple Valley (MN) Berkeley (CA) Bronx Science (NY) Glenbrooks (IL) Greenhill (TX) Harvard …

Los Angeles, CA-Congratulations to La Jolla’s Ram Prasad for winning the Downtown Pod and Loyola’s Chris Kymn for winning the Westside Pod. Chris had to leave early due to a travel conflict, so the runner-up, Peninsula’s Akhil Jalan, took Chris’s place in the final round. On a 2-1 decision (Bob …

Since the beginning of the year I’ve had a few words in my paradigm about debaters who are struggling with speech impediments. This never came to actualize itself or be a relevant question for me, however, until fairly recently. At Blake, I had just finished judging a round when one …

My name is Richard Dunn. I am a Lincoln-Douglas debater from a school in Southern California with a small debate squad, and an even smaller LD team. This past weekend I attended my first TOC bid tournament, the Victory Briefs Tournament at Harvard-Westlake. Although I went 3-3 and did not …

On Why Debaters Should Make Deductive Arguments Analytically Terrence Lonam As many people know, most of the cases I ran my senior year were largely or entirely analytic in nature, i.e. I didn’t really use cards. I think that, although I’m obviously biased, this is a trend that should spread …

This year, the National Symposium for Debate jettisoned the traditional, lecture-based, resolutional analysis lecture and replaced it with an online discussion. In this video, five NSD staffers-Alex Smith, Jeff Liu, Larry Liu, Elana Leone, and Ari Parker-discuss their thoughts on the 2013 institute topic: Resolved: The United States ought to …

Chris Vincent, director of forensics at Fern Creek High School, was on the top of the 2-1 decision for Rebecca Kuang in the final round of the TOC. Vincent, a college policy debater at the University of Louisville, graduated from Fern Creek in 2008. As a high schooler, he was …

From the National Forensic League Website: Resolved: Rehabilitation ought to be valued above retribution in the United States criminal justice system.

The NFL has announced the new topic for November/December. It is Resolved: The United States ought to guarantee universal health care for its citizens.

The NSD Topic Analysis is now online! Find it at NSDVideos.Weebly.com. Click the “Debate Camp” option at the top, then select the video from the page. Make sure to thank Eric, Rebar, and Emily for helping you prepare for the topic!

I apologize for not updating more regularly, but NSDUpdate is blocked at Ben Davis High School.  Here are the top 14 topics. This is not the final wording so your edits/thoughts can still be accommodated: 1.     The United States is justified in intervening in the domestic affairs of other countries …

Topic Selection Reform: What Should Be Changed, and How to Get InvolvedArticle by Steven Adler As I’ve written previously, the NFL is in the process of reforming its topic selection procedure, and there is opportunity for the community to provide feedback. I have spoken with Joe Vaughan, who is chairing …

It’s Time for the ‘Conditionals’ Argument to DieArticle by Christian Tarsney It’s that time of year again! The TOC is just around the corner, with all that that entails, and hopefully if you’re heading to Kentucky next weekend, your prep is progressing well, and you’ve got visions of plastic ponies …

The Future of Topic Selection Reform Steven Adler I am writing this to inform the community of plans for topic selection reform moving forward and to let interested parties know how they can make a difference outside of the round. After much careful consideration, Paul Zhou and Adam Hoffman have …