This article covers Stoa's current LD resolution: Preemptive warfare is morally justified.

Affirmatives everywhere are winning with a really simple narrative: "we have...

Value, StrategyJoseph AbellFebruary 18, 2018Stoa, LD, Preemptive Warfare, Applications, Six Day War, Strategy, Preemptive

Cross Examination: Two Patterns to Avoid

Cross-examination is difficult, and there's very little formal theory on how to do it. Most competitors just stand up and start asking the witness questions, hoping that eventually, they'll build up enough momentum for the witness...

Cross ExaminationJoseph AbellFebruary 12, 2018Cross Examination, Debate, LD, TP, Witness, Examiner

How to Explain Things - Part 2

In the last post, I talked about Reference Points: a way to identify the starting point of any explanation.

The second step, logical chronology, tells you how to take your audience the rest of the way.

Logical Chronology

Logical Chronology is the act of presenting ideas...

Joseph AbellFebruary 4, 2018Comprehension, Policy, Value, Case Writing, Evidence

How to Explain Things - Part 1

There are two basic tools that make explanation possible. This post covers the first one:

Reference Points

Reference points are things that two people already know, like a shared language. This post is written in English, because I know that’s what you speak. If it were written in Swahili, it may still contain useful information, but it would probably be useless to you.

Beyond language...

Policy, Value, ParliJoseph AbellJanuary 28, 2018Comprehension, Case Writing