Difference between revisions of "Introduction to Circuit Debate"

1. Rewrite layer section

== Introduction ==

=== What is Circuit Debate? ===

Despite the fact that Circuit debate occurs around the country, there is certainly a community within the group. There are probably no more than ~300 debaters who consistently attend multiple circuit tournaments each year, and as a result, it is easy to get to know people who you frequently see at tournaments. Back in the era before online debating, you would be dedicating your entire weekend to traveling and competing at tournaments, so people would form friendships within the circuit.

=== Why should I Circuit Debate? ===

Circuit Debate can certainly feel overwhelming when you are first introduced to it – there are many things one has to learn to compete at the highest levels. So perhaps before figuring out how to learn circuit debate, it is worth considering whether you would like to learn circuit debate.  

Ultimately, you should not make your decision to debate based on this short paragraph but should highly consider consulting with debaters currently in the community to give context to your personal situation. Virtually all debaters will be willing to tell you their own personal experiences, and a good place to start asking questions might be the [https://www.facebook.com/groups/165730540520021 Small School's Facebook debate group].

=== How can I learn to Circuit Debate? ===

As mentioned before, getting introduced to Circuit Debate can feel overwhelming with all of the concepts there are to learn. Luckily, there are many in the community who are willing to help. Below is a table of resources that contain links to various documents and websites that are intended to help out. If you know of any resources that meet the criterion of being substantial, community-endorsed, and helpful, feel free to add it to the list.

{| class="wikitable"

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| [https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1w_Qrm3LUNrDDgOzc-h7i_3UDaV3OniNN29FMk5ZI-Ek/edit#gid=0 HSLD Resource Directory Spreadsheet] || This spreadsheet contains links to many more resources that you might benefit from within the community. From videos of debaters to suggested drills, this website has a lot of useful information.

|}

=== What does a National Circuit tournament look like? ===

In the era before online debating, National Circuit tournaments would typically be hosted at high school or college campuses, attracting hundreds or even thousands of speech and debate students, depending on the size of the tournament. People would travel to National Circuit tournaments from across the country, which necessitated paying for transportation and housing for the tournament (not to mention paying tournament entree fees and paying your judges). Typically, people's choice to travel to a tournament depended on whether it was "worth" going to. That is, if a tournament awarded many bids, such as an octa-finals or quarter-finals level tournament, the number of debaters competing in that tournament would increase, and debaters would be willing to travel from further out since their chance of getting the bid was perceived to be higher. These tournaments with higher bid levels also typically have better judge pools, too. Smaller tournaments, such as finals or semi-finals bids, typically attract debaters from around the area and might have more lay judges and rounds, even as a tournament on the national circuit.

At the conclusion of the tournament, awards are typically given out for the top speakers of the tournaments (determined by your speaker points) and for the elimination round that you have reached.

==== What are prefs? ====

Most national circuit tournaments offer "prefs", or the ability to rank your judges based on your preference for them to judge you. Usually, you rank all judges in the pool on a scale of 1 to 6, with 1 being your most preferred judge, and 6 being your least preferred judge. When being assigned an opponent, you will be assigned a judge who both you and your opponent mutually prefer, that is, the judge who you and your opponent have the closest pref match, with higher prefs being preferred. The manner in which you pref judges is completely subjective, though debaters will typically pref the judges who they think have the best ability to evaluate the style of argumentation that the debater likes to read.

== Foundational Ideas ==

In this section, we will lay out some of the foundational ideas of National Circuit Lincoln-Douglas debate. We will assume a basic level of familiarity with traditional Lincoln-Douglas debate.

=== Argument ===

All arguments are composed of a claim, warrant, and impact. The claim is the statement that the argument is attempting to prove. The warrant is the evidence, or reasoning, that backs up the statement. The impact is the implication, or relevance, of that argument. For instance, suppose you are attempting to prove that pencils are better than pens. Your argument might go, "Pencils are better than pens because they allow you to erase mistakes, which can save you a lot of time when writing." Try to identify the claim, warrant, and impact within this argument.

Many arguments within LD contain a card for the warrant to the argument. A card is a piece evidence, typically taken from a website, database, or book, that supports an argument you are trying to make. As such, many arguments will start with a claim, followed by the card which contains the evidence that supports your claim. The impact is often found within the card itself, or you can explicitly write out an impact after the card. Since many sources of evidence are long, and we do not have enough time in round to read out every word of the evidence, the cards are "cut." This means debaters will read only certain words of the evidence to make their point more quickly. See here on a video for how to cut a card. Note that it is against the rules of debate to only read selective word to misrepresent what the original piece of evidence is saying.

=== Turns ===

Now that you understand how to structure an argument, you might wonder how to go about responding to them. Luckily, your intuition might serve you well here! You respond to arguments in LD no differently than you would respond to arguments in your day-to-day life, though in this section, we will more formally introduce the two different types of ways of responding to arguments.  

==== Link Turns ====

Suppose that your opponent argues, "Passing the resolution will cause tensions to escalate between the U.S. and China, which is bad because that has the potential to turn into war." Note that this argument has a clear claim and impact, but is missing the warrant. For this example, assume that evidence was read backing the argument's claim.  

Even though this example is more oriented around a political issue, you can apply the idea of a link turn to any argument in debate. To make a link turn, you simply need to argue the opposite of your opponent's claim. If your opponent is claiming that pencils are better than pens, to link turn that argument, you would argue that pens are better than pencils.

==== Impact Turns ====

An impact turn concedes that your opponent's claim is true but turns the impact of their argument. Let's return to the earlier example argument, "Passing the resolution will cause tensions to escalate between the U.S. and China, which is bad because that has the potential to turn into war."  

Please note that you need to be careful with certain impact turns. Suppose that a debater argues that, "X policy will cause racist attitudes to increase across the country." A link turn to this argument would be that, "X policy actually will decrease racist attitudes across the country." This argument is clearly acceptable. An impact turn, however, would need to argue that "racist attitudes are actually good," which is clearly an unacceptable argument that cannot be run.

=== Layer ===

In this section, we start to deviate more from traditional LD debate and make our way into circuit LD. In traditional LD, the role of the affirmative and negative are typically clearly defined. The affirmative must affirm the resolution by proving why it is good, and the negative must negate the resolution by proving why it is bad. There is only one way for the affirmative to win, and one way for the negative to win, that is, by proving their respective sides, ''substantively''. Thus, "substance", or the substantive debate whether the resolution is a good or bad idea, would be considered a layer, . In traditional LD debate, there are typically only one layers in the debate, substance.

A layer, simply put, could be defined as a grouping of similar arguments that provide a path for one debater to win the round.

Another common layer in debate is a [[Theory|theory shell]]. In a theory shell, one debater might argue that the other debater was being unfair in the round. If the debater reading theory successfully proves the abuse, they would win the round, causing their opponent to lose. A theory shell would be considered a layer, since, it provides one debater a path to win the round. This illustrates the important point that all layers are not created equal. Suppose that the affirmative debater is winning their case that "States ought to ban lethal autonomous weapons." But further suppose that the negative is winning that the affirmative was unfair in the round because they violated prep time by taking 6 minutes of prep (a silly example). Since theory is considered to be a "higher layer" than substance, the negative debater would win the round, even though they are losing on the substance level. A large component about progressive debate is arguing about which layers in the round should be evaluated first.

=== Role of the Ballot ===

The role of the ballot establishes the conditions under which the judge ought to vote for you. In traditional LD, although not explicitly stated, the role of the ballot might be to vote for the debater who proves whether the resolution is morally desirable or not. In circuit LD, however, there are many more potential roles of the ballots which extend beyond substantively proving the resolution true or false.  

Returning to the previous point, however, role of the ballots need not be entirely substantive. Meaning, debaters may argue that judges should vote for them for reasons other than directly affirming or negating the resolution. One clear example of this might be a role of the ballot of "deconstructing oppression in the debate space." Under this role of the ballot, the debater who best fights against discrimination in the debate space should win the round. Potentially, one debater could argue why certain groups are discriminated against in debate, raising more awareness and brining attention to the issue. Then, they would argue why they deserve the ballot for doing so, even if they didn't directly debate the resolution.  

=== Offense vs Defense ===

In circuit LD, there is an important distinction between offensive and defensive arguments. Offensive arguments are a proactive reason why your argument is correct over your opponent's argument. Defensive arguments are just a reason why your opponent's argument is incorrect. Importantly, a defensive argument doesn't prove why your arguments are correct; they simply weaken your opponent's argument.

One might wonder, what is the point of defensive arguments, anyway? It seems like offensive arguments are always better! Defensive arguments do have utility, though. Suppose that you and your opponent have two arguments that are directly contradicting each other. You could read a defensive argument against your opponent, thus weakening their argument. Then, your argument would win. For example, suppose you argue, "Umbrellas are better than raincoats because they block more water." Your opponent argues, "Raincoats are better than umbrellas because they don't get swept away by the wind." Without any other arguments, there would be no way to determine who is winning! However, you could make the defensive argument that, "Umbrellas don't get swept away by the wind that often, only on windy days!" In this case, you could win this debate.

=== Weighing ===

Returning to the previous example, there are more ways than simply applying defensive arguments to win when two arguments contradict each other.  

=== Tech over Truth ===

== Community Norms ==

=== Disclosure ===

During the past few years, it has become a norm to disclose your cases on the [https://hsld.debatecoaches.org HSLD wiki]. Disclosure entails uploading the case you read during each round after the round has concluded. The affirmative will typically disclose the 1AC, and the negative will typically disclose the 1NC. You should not disclose your frontlines or blocks, as that would put you at a strategic disadvantage; you should only disclose what you read.

There are some exceptions to the practice worth noting. Some debaters do not disclose positions or performances that are of a personal nature to them. Other debaters do not disclose because their school forbids them to disclose. Also, novices are generally not expected to disclose. These debaters are still at risk of having disclosure theory ran at them; however, they might receive more sympathy from their opponents and judges.

=== Spreading ===

Another norm in circuit LD is spreading, or, speed reading. Experienced debaters can typically read their cases upwards of 300 words per minute. Since speeches are limited in time, by spreading, debaters can fit more arguments into their speeches, making responding more difficult. Although spreading might sound incomprehensible to you at first, with enough practice, you will learn to understand spreading and even be able to spread on your own!