<p>Does anyone know of any good websites about high school debate and forensics (either/or - whatever you know about)? I've been thrust into the top role in a new school debate club and I'm trying to become as knowledgeable as possible on format, practicing and anything that you veterans deem important.</p>
<p>Thanks.</p>
<p>for information on debate go to <a href="http://www.cross-x.com/home/%5B/url%5D">http://www.cross-x.com/home/</a></p>
<p>for forensic league website</p>
<p><a href="http://www.nflonline.org/Main/HomePage%5B/url%5D">http://www.nflonline.org/Main/HomePage</a></p>
<p>Thanks. I'm looking more for very introductory stuff, though. I know how to speak well and all of that, but it's the format and the different competitions I'm new to. If people have websites or, even better, testimonials from their own experiences, I'd really appreciate it.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.lddebate.org%5B/url%5D">http://www.lddebate.org</a> is pretty good</p>
<p>for speech events, <a href="http://www.forensicsonline.net%5B/url%5D">http://www.forensicsonline.net</a> is a good resource</p>
<p>I did policy debate for about three years. It's great. It's also very cult-like. Don't let that deterr you though. If you have any specific questions, feel free to ask. Policy debate is very technical and focuses much more on technique than eloquence or what we traditionally consider "public speaking skill". It's very evidence-oriented too.</p>
<p>Mediocretes - Did you participate in any of the other events? What were your experiences like?</p>
<p>In general, what kinds of things would you do to get ready for a competition? Also, what would other members of your team who were doing other events do to get ready? I think that kind of information would really help us.</p>
<p>Thanks.</p>
<p>I did Policy for 2 years at a huge policy school. It is very cult - like and it takes up a lot of time. LD debate stands for lincoln-douglas and it focuses more on traditional debate, some morality I suppose as well. Ted Turner or Controversy debate is new and it focuses on a media, more traditional style of debate. Policy debate is something that you cannot just learn, it usually takes a year or so. It involves a lot of quick thinking, heavy researching and speed reading. The speech events im not too sure about. They also have something called Mock Congress? Or something like that.</p>
<p>no other events. once you do policy, you never do anything else. its just like that. hmm, to get ready, thats a strange question. In the days leading up to it, you need to prepare arguments, get evidence, highlight the important parts. immediately before the deate, i dunno, get some sleep. it can get stressfull, and rest is very important. however, on many occasions ive kept prepping up to the very last moment. on multi day debate tournaments, rounds start very early, but you never get a good night's sleep. your in the hotel with all your friends and your hanging out till like 4 in the morning and you have to start debating at 8. its great fun though. policy debaters have a reputation for being concieted about their brand of debate compared to others, but not without good reason. all other things, LD, congress, ted turner, speech, don't compare.</p>
<p>policy debate (if you become competitive in it) and travel nationally it literally becomes your life. you fly out every weekend and compete and get little or no sleep. moreover, your summers are booked for debate institutes were you spend all your time prepping for the upcoming topic. it becomes very time consuming. i do noe that Eli Anders from the policy debate team (CPS- Anders and Burshteyn) who won the TOC (Tournament of Champions) as juniors (which is extremely difficult to do) I believe like its only happened 6 times in the entire history was accepted early to harvard. put another way, debaters as long as they keep their grades up have a very good shot at top colleges. the reason i say to keep their grades up is because i noe a lot of debaters who were kick butt awesome in debate but failed academically making them unattractive to top institutions.</p>
<p>you enter the TOC via bidding at national tournaments. the national tournament is very competitive and rewarding. if you enjoy politics, philosophy (esp. modern and postmodern), and general policy then I strongly suggest you keep with it.</p>
<p>this years topic is UN peacekeeping.</p>
<p>LD is very lame and bores ppl easily. you argue if we have a right to promote overseas democracy over national democracy in the US. its very boring. LD'ers tend to memorize their entire cases and develop automatic argumentation and become quite bored easily.</p>