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Drawing a line in the sand using false equivalence

06Mar

March 6, 2018 by PotentSpeaking Leave a Comment

If you know anything about fallacies, you’ve probably heard of false equivalence. This fallacy occurs frequently in casual arguments and formal debates. False equivalence is when you compare two unlike things to make a point. While usually you want to avoid fallacies, let me explain why this one might actually be a useful tool. Let’s […]

Debate traditions that you need to drop

07Jun

June 7, 2017 by PotentSpeaking Leave a Comment

When I first joined the NCFCA, I was overwhelmed by all the things I had to learn. Depending on how long it has been since you were a novice, you may have forgotten what it was like to learn all the terminology and ways of doing things. Wait, so what is the difference between Inherency […]

7 Debate Tactics You Probably Don’t Use (but Should)

22Feb

February 22, 2017 by PotentSpeaking 2 Comments

This is a guest post by Isaiah McPeak of Ethos Debate.  I’ve been coaching debate since 2003. Tactics and strategies have come in and out of style. Giovanni asked me to identify some tactics that are underused right now but should be used more often. Here’s what I came up with! Hope it helps 🙂 […]

Book Gleaning — Made to Stick

17Oct

October 17, 2016 by PotentSpeaking Leave a Comment

Book gleaning is a series of posts that highlight specific books and what we can take from them to apply to public speaking. In this post, we’ll be discussing the book Made to Stick, by Chip and Dan Heath. Why do some ideas thrive while others die? And how do we improve the chances of […]

Making an Affirmative response sheet

31May

May 31, 2016 by PotentSpeaking Leave a Comment

Winning Affirmative debate rounds is an essential part of your tournament strategy. If you routinely lose an Affirmative round, that’s a big red flag. You should be able to win all your preliminary Affirmative rounds, leaving you with just one Negative round you need to win in order to get to outrounds. One of the […]

Presentation makes all the difference

05Apr

April 5, 2016 by PotentSpeaking Leave a Comment

Every once in a while, it’s good to be reminded just how much persuasion lies in the delivery of a speech. That is, after all, the point of this website. A good speaker can talk about any topic and make it interesting to the audience. The effective use of vocal tonality, humor, pacing, and hundreds […]

Cross-Examination: Drawing a line

01Mar

March 1, 2016 by PotentSpeaking Leave a Comment

There are plenty of benefits of being the Negative team. One of these benefits is that you have a lot less to prove. The other benefit is that you don’t necessarily have to take a fierce stand on anything until the Affirmative team has. When the Affirmative team proposes their plan, they are taking a […]

Phrases — Getting your #1 point across

19Feb

February 19, 2016 by PotentSpeaking Leave a Comment

Credit for the idea of this phrase goes to Samuel Sefzik. It’s easy for your audience to get overwhelmed in a debate speech. There are a lot of points and plenty of logic floating around in any given debate round. Getting your audience to remember and care about all of your points is usually impossible (unless […]

Why preparation can be a bad thing

09Feb

February 9, 2016 by PotentSpeaking Leave a Comment

It is a common cliche that it is impossible to over-prepared. I can see an argument for it, but do not be deceived into believing that all forms of preparation are good. It is possible to prepare with the wrong goal in mind, resulting in a disastrous round. The kid in the picture is probably […]

Owning the lectern

02Feb

February 2, 2016 by PotentSpeaking Leave a Comment

Credit goes to Samuel Sefzik (several time tournament champion and high-placing debater at Nationals) for the second and third idea. Confident body language sometimes boils down to small details in how you act in a debate round. Some of the things you don’t even pay attention to while debating can affect the judge’s perception of your […]

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Recent Posts

  • Drawing a line in the sand using false equivalence
  • Debate traditions that you need to drop
  • 7 Debate Tactics You Probably Don’t Use (but Should)
  • Book Gleaning — Made to Stick
  • Making an Affirmative response sheet

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