Knowing how to construct a solid argument is an essential skill for school and life. Debate will help you win arguments with your friends and parents. You will learn how to properly defend your ideas and preferences, and get other people to listen to you!! Also, if you want to go to college, there are great scholarship opportunities for those who do competitive debate and go on to debate in college. Moreover, the skills you get in debate help to prepare you for the rigors of college academics.
There are at least two sides to every debate, and valid reasons for preferring either side. Debate is not personal but rather an objective look at an issue from two opposing sides. You will defend an idea with several different arguments and refute opposing views.
Finding the right topic is essential. Students should pick something that a) they genuinely care about; b) other people would want to read about; c) they can make an argument about; and d) they can find evidence about to support their claim. We will further develop our resolutions, research techniques, self-assessment, and verbal debate skills.
There are two formats we will most likely study, Congressional Debate and Lincoln-Douglas Debate. You can find those topics and resources below.
Congressional Debate
These sources are a great place to start when writing legislation, or investigating issues surrounding legislation sponsored by other schools, which you are preparing to debate. All evidence used is subject to verification. Honesty and integrity are of utmost importance. Falsification or deliberate misuse of evidence may result in suspension of legislators by tournament officials.
https://www.speechanddebate.org/resources/
News/Current Affairs (some require subscription/paid access)
BBC..................................................................................................bbc.co.uk
Business Week.........................................................businessweek.com
Financial Times..................................................................................ft.com
Foreign Policy ...........................................................foreignpolicy.com
Foreign Affairs............................................................foreignaffairs.com
Google News ............................................................news.google.com
National Public Radio (NPR).........................................................npr.org
New York Times.................................................................nytimes.com
The Economist..............................................................economist.com
Washington Post ..............................................washingtonpost.com
Policymaking Think Tanks, also known as Policy Institutes
Think Tank Directory (Columbia University)........................................bit.ly/Pl8ev
Think Tank Directory (Harvard Kennedy School)...............................bit.ly/5xj5hR
Think Tank Bank..............................................................................................think-bank.org
Pew Research Center...................................................................................pewresearch.org and people-press.org
Brookings Institution...................................................................................brookings.edu
Hoover Institution at Stanford University ..........................................hoover.org
Center for Strategic and International Studies ..................................csis.org
American Civil Liberties Union (Libertarian).........................................aclu.org
American Enterprise Institute (Conservative).....................................aei.org
Carnegie Endowment for International Peace....................................carnegieendowment.org
Cato Institute (Conservative/Libertarian)...........................................cato.org
Council on Foreign Relations....................................................................cfr.org
Heritage Foundation (Conservative)......................................................heritage.org
National Center for Policy Analysis (Leans Conservative)..............ncpa.org
Progressive Policy Institute (Liberal/Progressive)............................ppionline.org
Rand Corporation (reports, research briefs)........................................rand.org
Government Agencies/Information
Federal Government Portal.......................................................................usa.gov
Congressional Budget Office....................................................................cbo.gov
Congressional Legislation (Lib. of Congress)........................................congress.gov
Independent Legislation Tracking......................................................govtrack.us/congress/legislation.xpd
Open Congress: Issues..........................................................................opencongress.org/issues
Congressional Research Service..............................................................zfacts.com/p/576.html
Air University’s CRS Report Collection...........................................1.usa.gov/QfsH5y
Univ. North Texas Library’s CRS Report Collection....................http://bit.ly/eXw7KS
Department of State – Country Pages..................................................state.gov/misc/list
Library of Congress Country Studies...............................................1.usa.gov/8GdxS
Executive Branch Agencies........................................................................1.usa.gov/Erff
Federal Reserve System..............................................................................federalreserve.gov
Government Accountability Office......................................................gao.gov
Social Security Administration.................................................................ssa.gov
U.S. Courts.......................................................................................................uscourts.gov
Constitutional Law (Law Library of Congress)................................1.usa.gov/OBsd9f
General Reference
Bartleby Language Reference....................................bartleby.com
FindLaw.com.......................................................................findlaw.com
Internet Public Library .................................................................ipl.org
RefDesk ...............................................................................refdesk.com
Virtual Library .............................................................................. vlib.org
United Nations News Service ..................................un.org/News
Journalist’s Resource (see “Policy Studies,” “Reference”) ..........................................................................journalistsresource.org
Source: https://www.speechanddebate.org/wp-content/uploads/2017-Congressional-Debate-Guide.pdf January 8, 2019
Lincoln-Douglas Debate Resources:
http://debate-central.ncpa.org/ld/ (vocabulary and format)
http://www.history.com/topics/lincoln-douglas-debates (history)
http://www.american-historama.org/1860-1865-civil-war-era/lincoln-douglas-debates.htm (great overall info)
http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/blogs/learning/pdf/activities/DebatableIssues_NYTLN.pdf (debatable issues)
http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/blogs/learning/pdf/activities/ProbSolution_NYTLN.pdf (problem-solution organizer)
http://query.nytimes.com/search/sitesearch/ (Use to find articles on the NY Times search engine)
https://learning.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/02/07/for-the-sake-of-argument-writing-persuasively-to-craft-short-evidence-based-editorials/?_r=0 (writing persuasively)
To plan your Lincoln-Douglas Debate, please use this document by copying and pasting this link:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1eW89HA4c6Ds8eraqCSudpapS1OslCiZ215O32B_375I/edit
To learn more about becoming an activist, here is a book resource link: