LD Training Week 13 - The Clash of Values

Welcome to week 13 of The Great Debate's introduction to Lincoln-Douglas Value Debate. Today's lesson is entitled "The Clash of Values." In Week 10 we talked about how values and value criterion should be more than just an introduction to your case.  The value and value criterion are integral parts of your debate round.  Not only should the value be the focus of your debate round, but the best way to win the debate is to show that your value is the superior value in the debate round.

We've already discussed how to debate the value and value criterion, but this lecture is more focused on how to compare and contrast your value and value criterion with your opponent's value and value criterion.  Once you have attempted to explainhow your value is superior, how your opponent's value is not applicable to the resolution, how your criterion is the preferable way to measure whether a value has been reached, or how your opponent's value criterion is simply a restatement of their value and doesn't measure anything, you have gotten yourself started along the path of clashing values.  However, before the debate round is over you need to provide clear impacts to your judge and audience to help them understand why your value and value criterion are not only a good way to evaluate the resolution, but the most preferred way.

Before we start today's lesson, get a piece of paper and write down the value and value criterion you have been using for your affirmative and negative cases.  Flow them as if they were presented in the 1AC and the NC.  Leave lots of space so you can put arguments under each value and value criterion.  On a second page, write down 3 reasons you think your affirmative value is superior to your negative value.  Do the same thing with your negative value superior to your affirmative value.  Put these pages to the side and watch the lesson.

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.

We now know how important it is to actually compare and contrast our values.  Now it's time to try to clash some values.  Divide into groups of 2 students.  One person should be affirmative and the other should be negative.  Read the value and value criterion sections of your respective cases as well as the tags/section headings of your contentions (out loud) and flow the arguments.  Take 5 minutes of "prep time" and think up 2 reasons your value and value criterion are superior to your opponent's.  Come up with 2 ways your contentions would stand up under your opponent's value and value criterion.  Come up with 2 ways your opponent's contentions cannot defeat your contentions under your value and value criterion.  And finally, identify two ways your value and value criterion are best upheld under your value and criterion.  Next, use 3-point refutation and respond to your opponent's value and value criterion, show how your value and value criterion are stronger, concede your opponent's value and criterion and show how your contentions still win, show how your opponent's contentions can only win under their value and crieterion, and remind the judge how great your contentions fit into your wonderful value and criterion.  Be sure to flow all the arguments.  Take 5 more minutes of prep time and think up responses to your opponent's arguments and then use 3-point refutation to reply to those.  Be sure to keep flowing.  If you have time, continue this pattern without any additional prep time for another round for both speakers.

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.  For a brief recitation of some common LD values, I suggest this short post by the Debate Central team at the National Center for Policy Analysis.

Finally, as homework, review your flows from today's exercise.  Research and write a response to each argument you heard in your practice.  Also, write down 2 different value and value criterion impacts for each contention in your pro and con cases.  Last, read a few articles (check out the Great Debate on twitter for links to articles on this year's LD topic!) and see if you find any other values playing a role in the writings of the experts in your field.

Have a great week and we'll see you next week for our fourteenth debate lesson, "Cross Examination" where we'll discuss the hardest part of a debate to prepare - cross examination.

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.