mnballots

MN Ballots

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MN Ballots

For tournaments that do not have online ballots, this is where all of my “online ballots” will go so you know exactly what is happening in the round.

Paradigm

Background: Head Coach at Robbinsdale Armstrong and Robbinsdale Cooper HS in Minnesota. There I coach LD, PF and Congressional Debate.

Most Important: Debate should be about comparing and weighing arguments. In LD (and optional in PF) there should be a criterion (standard) which arguments are weighed through. The purpose of the criterion is to filter out arguments. So simply winning the criterion does not mean you win the debate. You should have arguments that link to the winning criterion and those arguments should be weighed against any opposing/linking arguments. If the debaters do not weigh the arguments then you force the judge to do that weighing for you and that is never good.

Overall: Debate should be inclusive and available to all people. If you goal is to speak as fast as possible and run the most obscure arguments ever to exclude people then this isn’t a winning strategy for you. My suggestion would be to run topical arguments at a pace that is inclusive to all students. The more obscure the argument the more time you should spend on explaining it. Don’t just throw out random words and assume I’ll fill in the blanks for you.

Disclosure: I typically do not give any oral critiques. All of the information will be on the ballot.

Past Ballots