representative-blank - Tumblr blog

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oh boy. writing bills with other people is… a nightmare

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Season’s starting back up! Can’t wait :D

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Doing speech and debate in high school was crazy, because nearly everyone I talked to was a leftist. It's almost as if when you teach people basic media literacy, they stop falling for right wing propaganda.

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Good luck at everyone going to Nationals!!! except if you go up against my teammates >:D

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hey debaters!!! i didn’t know this, you guys might not have, so make sure to remember this next time you’re researching cases/bills!

actually not emotional over graduating university, just over losing my jstor access

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OMG fellow congress kid!!!!! I thought I was the only one!!

there’s a couple of us here lol, so welcome to the club! so great to finally see more people here lol :D

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i think that policy debaters being allowed to and totally accepted for pulling up to a tournament in a tshirt and sweatpants is really a reflection of what the event is like

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sometimes i'm confounded by how i love love LOVE being a high schooler who literally goes to school(s) on the weekend for the sole purpose of yelling at other teenagers about issues that are really out of our control and wearing fancy little suits while doing so

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hanging with my boys in the senate on wednesday the 15th, cant wait to see what theyve got planned, i hope its a suprise party

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sorry it’s been a while, guys! I’m on Spring Break after a very tiring quarter and my season is pretty much over (rip) but I need to post here so I realized that I haven’t actually said anything about the actual structure of a congress speech, and everything I saw online trying to write my first few didn’t help, so

How to write a congress speech:

Basic format (+ timings) Intro: AGD, say your side, basically it - 15s to 30s

First Point: Claim, Warrant, Evidence, Impact (sometimes analysis) (I’ll explain these things in a moment) - 1m

Second Point: Same as first point - 1m

Outro: Conclusion, tie your speech back to your AGD - 15s to 30s

Now, here’s the massive asterisk over all of this:

All of this, and I mean pretty much all of this, can be changed. Your intro can take 45s if you have a great intro that needs it, as long as you meet your time limit. It can also be shorter, as long as you have an AGD and you need the time for your content.

What’s a claim/warrant/evidence/impact?

This is the structure of a point in a congress speech- Your claim is your point, basically. A warrant is why your claim is true. Evidence is a no-brainer- it’s the evidence you have to support your claim. Impact is, well, the impact of your point or why your point comes true when you pass/fail.

Here’s an example (bc it can be hard to just hear about it, believe me)

So, the bill here is pretty basic- legalizing opioids, this is from a neg speech. (I’ve abbreviated Claim, Warrant, etc, to C,W,E,I)

C: People won’t seek help/treatment (for addictions)

W: They have no incentive to

E: (I’m not typing up my card and don’t want to pull it up, lol, but basically it’s like this:)

Sitename/Institution, Date: Information

I: More drug deaths & ODs because people aren’t getting help

Now, first off- this is a very bare bones structure. I try to quickprep/put little on my pad, as it helps with my fluency. If you need to write it out, write it out, this is just an example of how it works. Some adjustments to the main format:

I don’t count this as an adjustment, but it took me a while to know that it’s okay to have multiple cards in one point, so do remember that- it can really strengthen your claim!

You can have one claim, and have your entire next point be the impact, but you’ve still got to give it a warrant and a card and impact, too. Usually, you just know when to do it

Authorships/Sponsorships - I’m not going to go into great detail because frankly, I’m not great with them - but you usually need to explain the bill, so you don’t really have the two main points- you need to explain each section/clause, not your own two claims

I’ll go into more detail in other posts, but I’ll link them here (also so I remember what I want to do)

How to find good evidence - How to make your speech more polished - How to incorporate refutation in your speech (and how to flow)

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So, it’s the day before the tournament and you have no prep: a guide from a very burnt out debater

Do you care about your ranks in this tournament? Because this will fundamentally change what you should do

If you don’t care about your ranks:

PO. If you don’t know how to PO, have someone teach you and learn quickly. This helps both if you care and don’t care. (I’ll post a guide for PO-ing later)

Crystal. Crystalling is when you summarize all the arguements in a round and argue why your side overall wins the debate. You need to have really good flow and really good fluency/good bs-ing skills because you CANNOT prepare a crystal in advance

Hope and pray a teammate won’t be in your chamber and steal their speech

Possibly, don’t speak on a bill. If it’ll do you better to give no speech than a bad speech (depends on your definition of bad), then don’t speak. It sucks, but if you’re like me, it’s because you’re burnt out

If you care about your ranks:

PO. Same as what I said before- and a lot of judges rank POs very highly. Just make sure what you know what you’re doing, and try to have a gavel beforehand, otherwise you look very unprepared

Try and get speeches from other people. It’s embarrassing, I know, but if they’re not in your chamber then it’s up for grabs if you ask me

Crystal. I’m putting this at the bottom, because as I said- it’s hard even if you take good flow, because you need to have good fluency & improv skills. If you can pull one off, go for it. Crystal your every speech, but for someone who’s not, I’d recommend to try something else

Stay up late & wake up early. I lied, this is the bottom, because IMO, to preform well, you need good sleep, and I can’t recommend this in good faith. But if you can’t PO, crystal, or get speeches from other people, you don’t really have any other choice. And I’ll be honest, it sucks. If you need help with researching, send me a dm and your timeframe and I’ll see what I can do if I see it in time. Just… take care of yourself.

Good luck, y’all! My night before the tournament tips are here, and you’re gonna do great! Remember- you’re always right, and they’re always wrong

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not me sitting like ten feet away from the bitch po that ruined the last three months :)

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Notes for POs, from a very, very pissed off congressional debater:

If there is a tie, you, the PO, vote to break the tie. You do not, and I mean do not, just declare that the bill fails.

If you are at a tournament that doesn’t have preset precedence and recency, and you’re starting out the session, you then need to pick speakers at random. What does random mean? Random means you pick whoever stands up first. Not who you want, not someone from your school, if you need to pick from randomness, you need to pick whoever stands up first.

Do not hold grudges or try and screw over a specific speaker if you thought they did really well. I cannot stress this enough, if you pick randomly, you pick whoever stands up first

more to be added

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if I ever see my bitch ass second session po ever again I am going to beat him to shit both physically and verbally

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okay, it’s the night before a tournament- here’s what I do:

Motivate and encourage yourself. You are prepped. You are ready. You are going to do amazing. If you can’t do it yourself? Send me an ask. You’ve got this, and you should know it

Do stuff to make your voice better. No milk. No chocolate. No cheese. It’ll be worth it. Drink tea, put cough drops and gum in your bag, do whatever you need to do

Finish whatever prep you need to do- and DON’T slack off. I’m slacking right now- if you need to finish padding a speech, pad your speech. Need to come up with an agd? Come up with an agd. Do what you need to do.

Double check everything last minute. Did you charge your laptop? Is your phone charging? Do you have all your prep done? Do you have snacks or lunch for the tournament? Money? Is your bag ready? Make sure you have everything ready for the day of.

Calm yourself down. I know you’ve got that anxiety in your chest, or stomach, or wherever your anxiety and stress settles, but that is what will ultimately hold you back. You’ve got this. It’s okay. It’ll also help with this next step:

Sleep- and sleep well. No matter how early you need to wake up tomorrow, try to get at LEAST six or seven hours of sleep. I know eight is recommended, but we’re debate kids- it’s not realistic. Get as much sleep as you can, it’ll make you feel way better tomorrow.

You’re ready. You’re ready. You’re ready. You’re going to do amazing. You’re prepped and ready and you’re going to so good. If you need any more encouragement, send me an ask or a dm. You’ve got this.

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speech and debate asks

what’s your event?

what state do you compete in?

ever go to nationals?

favorite tournament?

debate crush?

least favorite debate person?

opinion on your coaches?

who’s your personal speech/debate goddess?

any rivals? (schools, individuals?)

event you wish you could do?

event you can’t stand?

any special rituals with your team?

what do you do during down time during tournaments?

best restaurant(s) to eat at after tournaments =?

favorite team (other than yours!)

dream team to compete for (collegiate/high school) ?

do you make friends easily at tournaments?

opinion on forensics camp?

are the non-neutrals (blue, red, etc) acceptable as suit colors?

best college tournament? (harvard, gmu, yale, etc)

NFLs or NCFLs? Both? Any others?

is it NFL or NSDA to you?

best place to practice

favorite place to buy a suit

opinions on heels?

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Hey! I want to follow active blogs about Speech and Debate.

I’m pretty sure the community is pretty small here on tumblr, but if anyone has an active account, I’ll follow you if you interact with this post and have a mainly speech and debate blog!!