Watched a one hour documentary couple of nights ago about the collegiate-level National Debate Tournament. Caused me to reminisce a little bit about my high school debate days and I became curious about how many people on these boards have particpated in organized high school or college debate.

If you have no idea what I'm talking about, please visit your friend and mine: Wikipedia: Policy Debate

Unfortunately, you can't click both HS and college if you did both. If that applies to you, just click college. Lastly, I'd be interested in how competative people were. Anyone win a championship or regularly break at national tournaments?

Happy debating and happy holidays!

I have no formal training in this area.

It works differently in the UK, but I did some inter-house debating in my school (age 11-18) and took part in the whole school's internal debating.

All very formal, "this house believes...." stuff.

I'm sure this will come as a shock but I have no real formal education in debate to speak of except what I learned in philosophy about debate. And I'm sad to say that none of the lessons in that area are worth a hill of beans against good showmanship.

The closest thing I have had to debate training came from "differences of opinion," mostly within my family. And sometimes, if words could draw blood, we would have needed transfusions.

I had a sister on a debate team in High School, but I was never allowed to attend one of her debates.

As I left the church after the wedding, I referred to my first wife using the phrase "my wife." "I'm not your wife." I was informed as she threw her wedding ring at me. It took her 22 years to persuade me that she wasn't, so I must admit that I can hold on to my point of view long past the point where I should have conceded.

Most of my skills at research and documentation came about though because my ex was opposed to nuclear power plants because they were modern. I tried to research and argue that they were safe, a trend of the future, etc. As I continually lost those debates with my ex, I wrote letters to the newspaper protesting the construction of a nuclear power plant within earshot of my home. I became a front page story in the local news. That led to having to defend my opinions to co-workers, supervisors, contractors, neighbors, shop-keepers, etc. As I worked rotating shifts, these arguments often took place in the wee hours of the morning. (2 & 4 AM coffee breaks, etc.) I never seemed to change any minds. (The rumors that the utility would pay you to use electricity from a nuclear plant persisted despite the fact no one could produce any record of that happening.) In my win column, in one of my letters I suggested that the utility could salvage some of its investment by using an alternative fuel. The "nuclear plant" in Midland, MI burns natural gas. This is despite the original response from Consumers Energy that the plant was designed to be a nuclear plant, and the design could not be changed since construction had already begun.

High school debate team for the junior and senior years, regional competitions, paper awards (no loving cups, dang it). Had a great coach, journalism and speech with actual field experience on city and foreign beats. He liked to fish, which brought him to the N. MN climes. We were grossly underfunded, anybody surprised? Basketball was the big thing, then hockey. We provided our own transportation, no overnighters allowed.

Took a speech minor in college and got the argumentation/debate stuff at that level. No competition though, and I never made it to being a high school teacher for a few reasons -- no jobs, no other coaching thing than forensics, no money for internship, decided I didn't like kids all that much.

In philosophy the logic part fits. Have ghost written online college lectures on critical thinking, which included things like underlying motivations, premises, fallacies, marketing techniques. Since my formal training, marketing has taken over debate quite a bit. Caveat emptor, eh?

Does my giant brain count as a qualification? Seriously, I have no formal experience in debating or logic. I took one philosophy class in University, and dropped it after six long and miserable weeks.

The only debates I had in high school were with my parents, over what my curfew should be or whether it was REALLY true that my steady, Jerry, would never amount to anything in life (they won, last I saw him. lol)

The debate folks moved in a different circle than I did in high school. They were all serious dudes in preppy clothes who wanted to be lawyers. I was a drama hag, spending all my time with twinkly fellas who would be doing my hair ten years down the road.

Addenda:

I've seen some references to college Philosophy courses here. Intro to Philosophy was one of my stranger classes. I had not yet been diagnosed as diabetic, and I was drinking Coca-Cola during class in the hopes of staying awake. The sugar was more powerful at putting me to sleep however, than the caffeine was at keeping me awake.

My wife at the time, (my ex) ran a daycare home, and my professor was one of our customers. Thus I was discussing the course, outside of class, five days a week and carpooling to and from class with him. My dept. superintendent's wife sat next to me in class, and I got feedback from him as to what his wife was seeing in class. (And in class, I learned that he had told her, "[Curmudgeon] turns in the craziest grievances and suggestions. They make no sense at first, but when we try to do the paperwork to show him why, we usually find out that he is right.")

I was told that the instructor, when he was having difficulty making a point, would wake me up to ask me a question. I would give a clear answer that the class could actually understand, then go back to sleep. Graded on a curve, I was told I got the only A in the course. I was told that it was unanimously voted by the class that I was "The World's Most Obnoxious Student."

So I took a college Philosophy course, but I had no experience debating in the class that I am aware of...

I got in a few arguments with various teachers, does that count?

High school debate team my sophmore, junior and senior years. My partner and I actually got to the all-state debate tourney our senior year, although we failed to place.

Also as part of the debate/speech forensics tournaments at the high school level, I did work in Radio speech, being given, say a couple dozen "news stories" as they would have appeared off the the wire service, and having 20 minutes to write and perform a 5 minute news cast, complete with weather.

Also did contemporaneous speaking, where you got a topic 15 minutes prior to having to come up with a 5 minute speech.

That kind of stuff will help your thinking and researching skills tremendously.

I have a wife and kids. 'Nuff said.

I have never participated in a formal debate. I've never taken Philosophy (no time in an Engineering cirriculum...)

I've always been a decent writer, however. I scored pretty high on the AP English test and earned 15 credit hours of college credit.

I think writing skills are more important here than in a formalized debate. Formal debates are often about speaking skills more than content if you ask me.

My only credential is my big brain... and of course my humility.

My credentials?

Loud arguments with my dad about almost anything. (Everytime we had a discussions the next door neighbours tought we were having a fight. ) Does that count?

No bona fides here. I got a Business Management degree; does that count?
I debate here because I think better in writing, if that makes sense. In a speaking situation, I always think of a great point after the discussion's over. This way I can take my time. heh heh heh

I'm a sophmore, debated two years. Went to two week debate camp this summer where I heard about AD. Three weeks ago, I was ranked roughly in the best 5 Lincoln Douglas JV debaters in Minnesota from the State tournament, and had five straight wins after a 1-2 first three rounds.

I don't have any formal debate credentials.

This reminds me of controversy in education a few years ago. That controversy was about whether it was more important to have training in education pedagogy or in subject matter. It's fine to know how to teach, but if one doesn't know what to teach...

I think the same holds true for debate.

I do have a Masters degree in education, a generic certification in the social sciences, a certificate to teach mentally retarded students ands another to work with language disabled students.

I also completed everything except a thesis for a second masters in political theory.

Besides that, I do get some practice in the coffee shop. I combat almost daily whatever foolish notion Rush spewed for the day.

As a Commercial Property Broker it seems all I do is negotiate and debate. It is simply part of the job.

I had trouble answering this poll, due to the fact that I could check off 4 of the 5 answers. Guess its obvious why I love America's Debate then, I get to feed my addiction.

Disclaimer: This post is not meant to brag, but admittedly some of my pride might leak through due to the wonderful experiences I've been able to have in academic debate throughout my lifetime.

I competed in policy debate in High School for 4 years, with an occasional segue into Lincoln-Douglas if my partner was unable to attend a particular tournament. I qualified for Texas state tournament my junior and senior years. I also competed in speech events, in particular the event known as extemporaneous speaking (this was my favorite). Like Leder, I competed in Student Congress my senior year and qualified for the national tournament. That experience was an absolute blast. I also competed in events like Model United Nations, Toastmasters, etc.

In college, I competed one year in the NDT format, but changed to CEDA when I started attending the University of Houston. There I had the rare opportunity to resurrect a nationally competitive debate program that had been inactive for almost 10 years following the oil bust. I shouldered the burden of managing 100% of the details of the program, from budget requests, fundraising, travel coordination, you name it. I continued to compete for 4 more years (long story on eligibility, details far too boring to mention here) and then served as director of the program for 2 more before retiring officially and joining the civilian world and beginning my career in information technology. My highlights including being state champion two years in a row and finishing as one of the top 50 debate teams my final year.

On occasion I have attended a debate tournament (mostly college) to provide judging resources that are usually in very short supply. It allows me to give back to an activity that has given me far more than I could ever repay. I know for a fact that I would not be the person I am today were it not for my experiences in academic debate and related competitions.

One of the things I absolutely love about is the diversity of backgrounds that its members bring to these discussion. As has already been mentioned, many do not have a formal background in debate, but are quite capable debaters in their own right. In the 2 years I've been on this site, I've watched new users enter the realm and have seen their skills grow with each new discussion. Sure, some bad habits creep in here and there, but overall each exchange seems to enrich the community and the argumentation skills of those who contribute.


I would agree with this for the most part, but I would argue that the written skills are also honed in formalized debates. There are a variety of formats that are more extemporaneous than others so your mileage may vary. But I have no doubt that my writing skills were also crafted while I was learning to "think on my feet".

Well this topic turned out to be more interesting than I hoped it would be and I suppose it's my turn now since I started all of this.

I was in policy debate my sophomore through senior years in high school. Debated in the "open" bracket (as opposed to novice where most people start out) my last two years and made it to the state tournament both times. Ended up getting 3rd in the Washington State tournament as a senior. One bid short of qualifying for the Tournament of Champions, but ended up getting to go to Nationals as an alternate when the qualifying team decided not to go.

Didn't debate in college because my school didn't have a team; although, I probably wouldn't have anyway since it's pretty hard to major in engineering and debate at the same time.

Merry Christmas to those who celebrate and happy holidays to the rest!

To Doclotus: Glad I was able to provide a forum for you to reminisce. No worries about pride leakage, it's obvious it was important to you and kudos for resurrecting a team. That's exactly what my HS coach had to do for me and I'm eternally grateful to her for it.


The first point is right on: this being a written forum, writing skills are paramount. However, I would disagree with the second statement when applied to policy debate. In those debates, I've found that quality of evidence and argument are the biggest drivers in victory. Oratorical style helps, but almost never wins you a round. Undoubtably this is not true for all types of debate, so I'll grant your point there.

Policy is all content. LD is where there's thought. At least my impression. Cuz I watched a final Varsity Policy round, and when the kid couldn't think of any thing, he'd high-pitch his voice and babble, making it sound like he's saying something. LOL! If anybody did that in LD, they'd get 20/30 speaker points.

In University I debated for several years, during the course of which I won about 10 tournaments including Central Canadian Championship (Leger) and Canadian National Championship. I represented my University at World's Debating Championships three times and was in the bracketed final 8 two of those times, and the finals of public speaking once. I also won an assortment of public speaking prizes at national and North American tournaments.

After I stopped actively debating I acted as debating coach for two years for several universities. I also helped organise and run several tournaments.

That was during my Undergraduate degree. Oddly, during my postgrad I never really wanted to get back into it, even though my D.Phil was at Oxford, known for its remarkable debating union. I am a lifetime member of the Oxford Debating Union, but never actually represented it...

Over the course of this time I debated British parlimentary style (standard in Canada as well) American style, Cross-Ex and Scottish style (standard for World tournaments)


And by the way, university debating skills have very little play here on AD. Yes they help you analyse arguments and formulate supported answers, but the primary skill of University debating is thinking quickly on your feet, answering arguments coherently with little to no prep-time, and speaking in a convincing manner. In AD you have all the time in the world to prepare and research your responses, and speaking style is irrelevant, so little of formal debating experience has any bearing here.

So do I Dayton. If you're anything like me, you must be used to losing a lot, at least around the house!

One semester of debate in high school, one semester of logic in college. But mainly I've just spent a lot of time discussing politics and philosophy, ever since I was 14 or so.

I have no debating experience whatsoever. It's all I can do to keep my soldiers-potty mouth out of the threads.

Not really a formal debate, although it was a class requirement in the 10th grade. My first ever debate topic was "Same Sex Schools" go figure... I lost misreably (by lost I mean that I had a rating of 6/20) the students had to decide who the winner was... so 6 students though I was

As Doclotus mentioned, in high school i competed in the event of Student Cognress for my junior and senior years. I qualified for the NY State Torunament both years and earned a qualification for the National Tournament where i missed breaking to semifinals by one point. Congress was one of my passions and i loved every minute of it. Believe it or not, i am lot better at expressing my viewpoint than I am at typing on this site.

At AU, there is a Model UN team and a Debate Team...but after looking into both teams, i didnt find what i was looking for. Model UN had the formality i wanted, but the lack of actual debate (which is traded for mindless caucausing (word?) i suppose much like the real UN) and the incredible boredom it seemed to offer did not encapture my competitive spirit...especially when i was told that "its not about winning." Then why would I do it? The Debate team at AU is almost the opposite. The debate is very informal and while you can talk about important political topics, the debate can also involve debating whats better pizza v chinese food...not my thing really.

So right now i am a competitive spirit with nowhere to harness my energy...whats a guy to do?

Currently on debate team with summer sessions for the next four years (ten days each) in extensive diplomacy and international policy debate. I was a member of Model Congress and Junior Debate League for three years in middle school and I also play devil's advocate in every argument even if I agree with the person... helps me practice and helps them practice their self-control.

I've been doing Parli debate for a year and a half in college now. My partner and I have gotten to finals a couple of times, but we've had a rough semester this year. It hasn't been going well... But next semester should be better.

I love it. I'm hopefully going to keep doing it (I'm changing schools next year) if I can. It's absolutely invaluable. I used to be shy, but debates really helped me open up and my analytical and critical thinking skills are much better.

It's a bad thing though, in the middle of the semester when I get really into debate, because I start arguing with everyone. I point out fallacies (I've had logic too) and inconsistencies in everyone's speech. It makes my friends rather angry sometimes. I can't help it though, I love arguing my point.