Anja+Beth

--Anja Beth redid a 1AR from a debate where the block went for Cap K, De-Dev and some case defense. The RA judging her told her to card the environment and to spend more time on cap...some tweaks on the line-by-line. --I stopped her 10 seconds in to the speech - she has to slow down to start her speech. When debaters start at full speed, they make more "backtracking errors" (repeating over half words). I missed the first two arguments. We also are pushing ourselves too fast in text of cards - we are losing some enunication. --I am not sure if this was the nature of this debate but quite a few arguments in this speech were not mentally processing for me. I just did not understand a lot of what Anja Beth was saying - it was a combination of clarity, lack of pauses between sentences/arguments, and even just not getting what she meant by the words I did understand. A lot of this may be due to the entirety of the 1AR was scripted out - it just felt as if paragraphs of words with no commas/periods/delineations were hurtling at me. I had Anja Beth take a couple of minutes to try to package differently - each set of arguments that she was extending (like "Growth solves terrorism") needed to have a precise label to start that section. I also wanted her to be mindful of needing to (a) have very brief pauses to distinguish between arguments and (b) focus on clarity. There are times when she is moving her mouth over words to keep her speed up but she is not actually saying those words.
 * __Speech Redo from Practice Debate #9 - 1AR - 07/28 - Comments by Tara__ **

--Anja Beth restarted and I stopped her again after about 30 seconds. I picked up on another key issue - she had a lot of unnecessary words scripted. I asked Anja Beth to go through what she had just read and delete unnecessary words - I did not want her to get rid of arguments or warrants, but unnecessary words that may have added to the word jumble - i.e. instead of saying "terrorism is a million times less likely to happen in periods of growth", she should say something like "growth ensures terrorism won't occur". --I let her start again and let her go for a much longer period of time. It definitely helped the mental processing of having Anja Beth give short labels before sections of arguments, take out unnecessary words, and to have brief pauses when sentences/paragraphs ended. Much better with some minor tweaks!! :)

__Both teams need to be better at paperless. Remember to save your speeches before you end prep time, if possible. __ 1) general: Good, specific cross-ex questions of the 1AC. Pointed out some good examples of author bias (the AIA card about airports and the global economy, for example) good speaking style---clear and quick. Clear up a little bit on the text of cards, you’re almost entirely comprehensible, with some drills you can be. I thought the 2NC was very good, you answered everything thoroughly. 2) Recommended Drills: Pen drill (talk slowly, DON’T SPREAD, but overenunciate every word, Backward Drill (spread from right to left from the last word in card to the first word in tag,), Spread for 5 minutes overenunciating every syllable 2NR---you need more depth. The 2NR needs to advance a cohesive, strategic argument, especially when you are going for the K. First talk about the impacts, don’t just say “liberty outweighs,” explain why---“liberty and freedom of choice form the basic ethical values of our society, those have been coopted by rampant expansion of the government and all the mismanagement, taxation, and injustice that comes with it. Without freedom, humans are categorized as mere cogs in the statist machine.” Something like that.  I did like how you combined case arguments with the critique. Explaining why their case impacts are false or why their internal links are wrong helps prove the K because it demonstrates how the government is not up to the task of the plan.
 * __Practice Debate #8 - Neg vs. Vivienne/Trisha - 07/25 - Comments by Zane__ **

1) Speed/clarity issues with constructive or rebuttal: Speed 2) Recommended Drills: Speed 3) Assess use of evidence in rebuttals: quantity, quality, and comparison: It was actually decent, she read more evidence, made uniqueness framing issues, I was impressed <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">4) Strategic Choice and Execution of 1AR: Need more time on the counterplan, isolating and impacting each solvency deficit, less time on case, answer the turns case args <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">5) Rebuttal Re-do suggestions: Answer turns case, spend more time on the CP, compare the reasons why the econ is high/low, be more efficient on case
 * __<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Practice Debate #7 - Aff vs. Noah/Avi - 07/24/2012 - Comments by Rahim __**

<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">--I had Anja Beth redo her 2NC from yesterday's practice round with a diligent focus on structure - we wanted clear signposting and answering 2AC arguments in order. This is what I primarily focused on when watching this redo. <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">--Still want her to slow down on overviews/first few words of the speech...it sounded much better when I said "clearer" about 10 seconds in to the speech. <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">--So far, signposting on the CP is perfect (we are on 2aC 4). Her speech is much easier to flow and she is going in 2aC order. She sounds more in control of the speech and there is more engagement with Aff arguments - i.e. direct clash - instead of just reading cards that may or may not apply somewhere. <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">--Pretty good on the "Perm: Do the CP" - I would like to hear the words "CP functionally bans the plan" - a lot of debate is about packaging arguments in ways that judges are used to and in the most offensive ways.
 * __<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Speech Redo from Practice Debate #5 - 07/22/2012 - Comments by Tara __**

<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"> **__ Practice Debate #5 - Neg vs. Jennifer/Niti - 07/21/2012 - Comments by Tara __** <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">--Anja Beth had isolated her goals for the next few Negative debates as (1) comparative impact calculus between advantages/case/DAs, etc, (2) more warrant explanation on the case debate, and (3) going for the K and being indepth on the framework. I will be looking for these in this debate. <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">--I thought you had a very solid CX of the 1AC. <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">--Is Elections a net-benefit to Privatization CP? I don't think it is... <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">--Slow down on your overviews. <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">--I had to stop Anja Beth about a minute into the speech - I had no idea if she was still in the CP overview OR answering the line-by-line when she started talking about the Perm (the third argument in the flow). I stopped Anja Beth and had her put her speech doc in the order of the 2AC (2AC 1 was Condo, 2AC 2 was Elections links to CP, 2AC 3 was PDB). We also need to do signposting. Anja Beth told me that she was told to not say "they say Condo". We are not at the point for embedded clash yet since the first minute was just literally her reading whatever was on her computer and not debating off the flow. For now, I am having Anja Beth do pretty rigid signposting "2AC 1...they say Condo Bad". Once we have that down, we can move to just saying "The Condo debate". <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">--I stopped Anja Beth the second time of the 2NC to slow down the overview. It was delivered at top speed - major clarity issues. When I had her slow down, it was MUCH better. <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">--I stopped her again on the line-by-line when we skipped 2AC argument #2. <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">--Good arguments to the permutation. <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">--Good to cross-apply both case cards and CP shell cards from the 1NC. <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">--Anja Beth has great arguments but there were some fundamentals that were lacking. We have our flow up there, but we just seem to be debating off the computer, not the flow. 2NC, before the start-stops, was out of order from 2AC and missed 2AC arguments. I watched Anja Beth as well and we had flows in hand, but rarely looked at them. <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">--We have good speed, but we have some clarity issues. <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">--Do more with "Perm: Do the CP". Think about what the CP does. It functionally bans the plan (it rolls back all regulations on private industry and stops investment). How can the plan be included in the CP? This needs to be stated more clearly. <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">--I thought the framework debate in the 2NC was good. <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">--We had the same organizational issues on the K - we did not have answers in order of 2AC arguments and we were not signposting. <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">--Redo: I want you to redo the 2AC - I want us to nail down the organization and signposting. I am going to be diligent with you about this - every set of arguments needs to be tied to something on the flow. I need to know where to flow things. Right now, I am just flowing straight down. I also want us to work on clarity of text of cards and clarity with overviews. I also would like to see more argumentation on the permutation - is there some analyticals to make (i.e. any residual link means the permutation is not net-beneficial, any theory arguments?). <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">--Good to narrow down the debate in the 2NR. Our kickouts should not be quite as blippy. On the CP, the best kick-out is to extend the permutation - you should extend the permutation and state that it is only a test of competition. On the Elections DA, which 2AC argument specifically are you extending? Extend the warrant to why there is no impact. I know this is picky, but you don't want the 2AR able to resurrect anything. <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">--We desperately need an overview in this debate as to why the K wins you the debate. The overview should explain why the Aff is entrenched in the mindset you are kritiking, explain briefly what the alternative is and why it solves, and the impact to the K. <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">--This is just a "packaging of your argument" comment, but it is a pretty big deal. I felt your 2NR was too defensive. It was all about just going and answering 1AR extensions on the K. We are not doing enough explanation of winning your argument. It takes a while to reorient your brain - yes, the 2NR should answer 1AR arguments but that is one piece. The larger piece is winning your argument...explaining key components and how it applies and outweighs the Aff.

__**Practice Debate #4 - Comments by Evan**__

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">1) Speed/clarity issues with constructive or rebuttal: <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Great speed and clarity – tags and analytics should be slightly slower and have a different tone from cards to make flowing easier. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">2) Recommended Drills: <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Read cards for 10+ min to improve speed and endurance <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">3) 2NC—technical skill and coverage for case and off-case arguments: <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">You need an answer to their arms control defense on politics – you’re wrong about having other impacts this doesn’t apply to, so you need some spin about why it’s wrong/Jackson Vanik overcomes problems with arms control. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">On case, you should supplement your evidence with more explanation and extension of the warrants for your arguments. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">4) Assess use of evidence in constructive and rebuttal: quantity, quality, and comparison: <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Couple unnecessary uses of evidence - they have conceded that Magnitsky kills relations, and “econ decline causes war” is a 1ac arg, so you don’t need to read new cards. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">5) Strategic Choice and Execution of 2NC/2NR: <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">The structure of your 2nr could be stronger – you should put your offense (in this case, politics) 1st in the speech, and the top of politics should be an overview that compares your impacts to the most threatening aff impacts. This is where the timeframe analysis you do should go, and it’s also where you can put turns case arguments about how US-Russia relations implicate economic growth. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">You need a little more explanation on politics – the 1AR very briefly extended “HSR popular” so you particularly need a more robust link explanation. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Since you’ve won conditionality is good and you’re not going for the counterplan, other theory like 50 state fiat becomes less important – “reject the argument not the team” should be your primary argument, and you don’t need nearly as many args here as you had in this 2nr. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">5) Rebuttal Re-do suggestions: <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Restructure the 2nr and make the changes described above. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">--You all need to know your speech order before you stand up to give the speech. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">--In cx, questions of the form “you said [argument], but don’t you think [counterargument] is true?” are unlikely to get the other team to just concede they’re wrong. Try to use cx to highlight __flaws__ in their arguments rather than trying to get them to concede. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">--Negative – write counterplan texts __before the round__! You need to ensure that cp’s like states match up as well as possible with the aff so that they can’t get solvency deficits based on your using the wrong mechanism or some other accidental change.
 * __Practice Debate #3 - Neg vs. James/Andrew - 07/16/2012 - Comments by Connor__**
 * __<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Additional Comments about the Debate: __**


 * __<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Elections DA Negative Block Speech - 07/10/2012 - Comments by Robel __**

<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">---Students were asked to create a five minute Negative block speech to extend an Obama Good Elections DA. Students were given the 1NC shell and a file of potential cards they could use for their extensions. They used their own 2ACs from the night before as the 2AC to answer when they gave the extension speech.

<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">--Put impact calculus at the top (not sure if they were supposed to or not for the purposes of this speech)

<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">--Number or letter your arguments – just add a little more structure – it was a little hard to tell when you were transitioning between your different args

<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">--Speedy and clear – nice

<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">--Good signposting

<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">--You have some impact calculus throughout some of the bottom of the flow – just put that at the top