LD Training Week 9 - Flowing

Welcome to week 9 of The Great Debate's introduction to Lincoln-Douglas Value Debate. Today's lesson is entitled "Flowing" This lecture gives you an understanding of how LD debaters take notes during a debate round.  Really? you ask, a class on taking notes?  Well my friends, note-taking is important for debaters for 3 reasons.  First, debate gives each side a block of minutes to present their arguments and so you need to be able to remember all of the things your opponent said so that you can refute it.  Second, if you don't address an argument your opponent makes, debaters say the argument is "dropped" and that means that you lose on that particular argument.  Finally, a good debate only happens when both sides are addressing each other's arguments and flowing is the only way you ensure that both teams will be talking to each other and not past one another.  Still not convinced, watch the video and practice debating - see how you're doing then.

Before today's lesson, get a couple blank sheets of paper and 2 different colored pens.  The paper can be white paper, lined paper, or any other kind of blank paper.  I prefer to use a 8.5 x 11 inch "legal pad" so that I can have multiple pages for each debate round.  Figure out what works best for you.

This week's lesson is available on the Great Debate's youtube page. It is also available on the Great Debate website in embedded format. Finally, you can see the videos right here:

If you haven't already, be sure to visit The Great Debate website to request your free packet of outlines. If you are a student, you can request the student packet and coaches can request a coach packet with additional resources including a syllabus and answer keys.

Now that you know what flowing is, it's time to try it out!  There are 2 exercises to practice.  First, have one volunteer in your group stand up and read his or her debate case from the homework.  The rest of the team should practice flowing the entire case.  Be sure you have the definitions, the value and value criterion, each contention, and the sub-points of the contention (especially focus on what the evidence says).  Have another student read the negative case and respond to the 1AC (a full NC) while the other students flow the case on another sheet of paper and flow the refutation on the first sheet next to the arguments the refutation answers.

Next, I would strongly encourage you to find some videos of LD Rounds to practice flowing.  I think the videos of past national finals (available here) are a great place to start, but feel free to use other videos.  Practice flowing as many rounds as you can and the more you flow the easier it will be for you!

By now you should have read all of Coach Marko Djuranovic's Ultimate LD Handbook. Keep the book handy as a reference if you need it throughout the rest of your debate career.

Finally, as homework, try to find "extension evidence" meaning evidence that supports the contentions you already have in your affirmative and negative cases.  Read a few articles (check out the Great Debate on twitter for links to articles on this year's LD topic!) and find additional support you can use to refute your opponent's refutation of your contentions in your case.  I'd suggest finding a piece of extension evidence for each contention in both your affirmative and negative cases.

Have a great week and we'll see you next week for our tenth debate lesson, "Debating Values" where you'll learn how to compare the value you present with the values your opponents present.

If you are interested in learning a form of debate other than Lincoln-Douglas value debate, The Great Debate is a wonderful textbook for policy debate written by the teacher in these videos. The Great Debate provides training in the basics of debate and includes information for debaters who have already learned the fundamentals and are looking for more intermediate level training. The Great Debate has a teacher's guide (coming soon) which includes lesson plans and additional material for coaches. For more information about The Great Debate, visit our website. We also have produced a video training series for Public Forum Debate. The public forum series is another free resource from The Great Debate.