Writing Strategic Arguments

What Makes a Good Contention?

When I write a contention, there are a few things I am usually looking for.

First, I want really good link evidence. The link is the card that actually connects the topic to a directional change in the world. This should probably be the most contested part of the contention. I actually like that. If the debate centers on the link, good evidence gives you a huge advantage and usually creates opportunities for offensive link turns in rebuttal.

The next thing I care about is preemption. Debate is a time game. If one argument can solve two problems at once, you basically get twice as much done with the same speech time. Because of that, I almost never just write the first decent contention I find. I want to know what the other side is likely to say before I finish writing my case. What are the obvious responses? What are the common turns? What arguments are going to show up in almost every round? A good contention should already have answers to some of those things built into it.

I also really like extinction plus impacts.

A lot of contentions eventually end in extinction, especially in circuit debate. Once both sides have extinction, I want some extra reason my impact matters more. That could be suffering. It could be a solvency multiplier, like AI helping solve other existential threats. It could be a second chance, like space colonization giving humanity somewhere else to survive.

In lay rounds, I usually go the opposite direction. I want impacts that are concrete and human. Give me a person, a community, a bill they cannot afford, a job they lose, a disease they get, or something else a judge can immediately understand.

Finally, I love deceptive contentions.

Some of my favorite arguments sound close enough to a common argument that people assume they already know how to answer them. Then they spend two minutes reading the standard case dump and you get to explain in ten seconds why it does not apply.

Sometimes all of this leads me into absurdly niche research. Sometimes the best version comes straight out of the core topic literature. Usually it is some combination of the two. My basic goal is pretty simple. Keep it concise. Make it dramatic. Have good evidence. Preempt the obvious answers. And give yourself somewhere useful to go later in the round.