American Parliamentary Debate Association

By Sean Leonard, Rutgers University 2016 Compared to every type of speech you may give in your debate career, the PMR will probably take the most time to master. Opposition…

By: Michael Norton, Brandeis University 2016 Introduction In parliamentary debate, the Point of Information (POI) is a chance to offer a question or statement to the opposing team while they…

By: Young Seol, Brown University  2014 “On balance, people should not run cases that end with ‘preferable to the status quo.’ Caveat: Opp cannot countercase, tight call, or win.” —…

By: Russell Leibowitz, Brandeis University 2014 Being able to get good speaks against an undertime speech is a valuable skill on APDA. It enables you to move higher in the…

By Russell Leibowitz, Brandeis University  2014 One of the most undervalued debate skills is being able to work well with a partner. Unfortunately, it’s not something that can be easily…

By: Adele Zhang, Barnard College 2015 Counter-cased rounds can sometimes get a bit messy and confusing. The main thing to do is to think hard about the counter-case and ask…

By:  Jodie Goodman, Swarthmore College 2016 When I’m PM’ing, I like to start working on crystalizing the round as early as the Member of the Opposition’s speech. That’s when I…

By: Michael Norton, Brandeis 2016 Introduction: The MG position is one that is highly flow dependent. Not only is the MG speech one that is delivered almost directly off the…

By: Alex Mechanick, Brown University, ’15 What is calling a case “status quo”? Status quo is a Latin phrase meaning “the state in which”, used to reference the present state…

By: Alex Alifimoff, Stanford University 2015 There are a number of schools of thought on how to give proper APDA rebuttals. Being an excellent rebuttalist is a skill that most…