Update: This product is now out of print, and has been replaced with materials from NCFCA Comprehensive Guide to Policy Debate program.
Please Note: This is a revised and slightly expanded version of Introduction to Argumentation and Debate. You do NOT need both!
There is nothing particularly special about this text that will make one a national champion. However, it must be remembered that a student should be firmly grounded in the fundamentals before proceeding on to the more complex skills. An Introduction to Policy Debate does an excellent job of concisely and succinctly instructing teachers and students in the fundamentals of debate. Broken into nine chapters, this book covers the basics of debate with brief and clear descriptions. The initial chapter seeks to simply bring the reader into the world of debate and offer a frame of reference with which to make sense of the rest of the book. The second and third chapters serve as a crash course in the rudiments of logic and evidential research—the foundation of any debate (as well as any argument in life). Chapters four through seven focus on the "how-to" of debate theory for both sides of the debate. Chapters eight and nine focus on speech delivery with specific instructions to each speaker in the debate rounds. (There are four speakers in every debate round—two teams with two members each. Every speaker has three "speeches": a constructive speech, a rebuttal, and a cross-examination.)
An Introduction to Policy Debate is just that: an introduction. It is not meant to be an exhaustive work expositing the complete elements of, or a full "how-to" manual for debate. On the other hand, it is an excellent overview of cross-examination debate without reading a thick textbook. Easily read in a day or two.
Written by Christy Shipe (the daughter of HSLDA president Michael Farris).
Table of Contents:
- Introduction to Debate
- Logic
- Evidence and Research
- Affirmative Stock Issues
- Affirmative Case Construction
- Negative Arguments
- Speaker Responsibilities
- Speech and Delivery
- The Debate Round: What to Expect
Resources
Glossary
Index
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