From the Institute
Blog
You Are Not the Florida Panthers
"Every debater has different strengths"
"I Definitely Won"
"Being right will not spare you the work of understanding the person you want to convince"
What we look for in LD Topics
“The best debate topics sit in the middle. They are clear enough to be fair, broad enough to reward creativity, timely enough to matter, and deep enough to produce real clash.”
Judge as an Adjudicator
“At its core, the process of judging is not intrinsically educational, regardless of whether or not debate is an educational activity. To claim otherwise is like claiming a Scantron machine is a math teacher.”
Let’s Play Risk: What That TOC Final Was Actually Arguing
“Obviously, nobody is excited that catastrophe might be more likely. We are excited because catastrophe has become more useful to us in the round.”
The Portability of Critique
"Something that looks like efficiency from my position might look like coercion from another."
What is the Tournament of Champions?
A quick guide to bids, qualification, judging, TOC-style debate, and how it differs from NSDA Nationals.
Transitioning from PF to LD
"the aff does win"
How to Get Good
"Most national circuit debates come down to a handful of predictable controversies"
Writing Strategic Arguments
"I love deceptive contentions"
Portable Skills
One of the biggest surprises of my first six months in government is that debate prepared me both more and less than I expected.
Evan Burkeen: How Debate Prepared Me for Yale
“I don’t just want to learn policy, I want to shape it. Debate gave me a sense of both the stakes and the levers of change.”
Kate Liu: Finding Your Voice Beyond the Round
"Extemp is a particularly tricky activity to achieve equity"
Danielle Pacia: Speech and Yale Law
"Making reading a habit is the best way to develop your communication, writing, and argumentation skills"