Month: May 2018

By Parker Kelly, George Washington University, ’20 I went to high school in Houston, Texas and did 1 year of PF and 2 years of LD on the local and…

By Eric Tannenbaum, The College of New Jersey ’18 Note: APDA has several motions tournaments throughout the year, but due to their relative infrequency compared to case tournaments it can difficult…

By Miriam Pierson, Swarthmore College ’18 Note: If you want to get a general sense of what a countercase can look like, here’s a link to a video where the opposition…

By Anika Matin, The George Washington University '18 Starting out on APDA, you will come to the realization that you will be the government team about half the time, and…

By Nik Venkatasubramanian, George Washington University ’18 Debating Economics and Finance I: Trade and Specialization Introduction Debate about Economics sounds scary. You scroll through the news every morning and you…

By Andrew Bowles, George Washington University ‘17 I. Introduction In the real world, debates about international relations are often prohibitively difficult to engage in. They require extensive specific knowledge, much of…

By Matt Rohn, Franklin & Marshall ’16 The constructive speeches (the first four) are primarily about two things, making arguments and responding to the other team’s arguments. Once the LOC…

By Danny Jaffe, Brandeis University ’17 Author’s Note: This is a more advanced article on tight calls. Strategies for Tight Calls APDA debaters have devised several strategies regarding tight calls that…

By Harry Zhang, Johns Hopkins ’17 Theory of Debate: Understanding Win Conditions In debate, sound strategy is just as important to success as making effective arguments or writing powerful cases.…

By Mars He, Harvard University ’18 I’ve heard many times, after being in or seeing a debate about art, that art rounds are undebatable, unfair, or pointless because “art is…