Author: Steve

  • I was wrong about being wrong about debate videos

     (Image credit: Getty Images via @daylife) Now, after just having written about how I think debate videos are bad, let me explain why I think it is incredibly important to keep making them. A couple of months ago, my external hard disk died very suddenly. I was really sad about it, because I knew I…

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  • I was wrong about debate videos

     (Photo credit: BLCbzyB) I am wrong about the importance of videoed debates. Not for the reasons that many of you reading this might think. I still maintain that only other debaters watch them, and I don’t believe the APDA debater who ran for office in Long Island a few years ago was defeated because of…

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  • ECA: Two Thoughts from today’s conference

    Enjoying the ECA Conference very much. Heard a lot of smart things today. Reflecting on them quite a bit, but I have a couple of initial thoughts. First, I think I have found a new rhetorical move similar to Mary Daly’s argument about how feminist and gender issues are always put on the back burner…

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  • Eastern Communication Association Conference in Boston

    Minecraft Castle (Photo credit: Mike_Cooke) Rhode Island is my staging area for my first trip to the Eastern Communication Association conference. I’m giving a paper tomorrow on Minecraft and the ancient practice of Declamation at around 18:30 GMT in Cambridge, close to Harvard University, but not really hosted there or in any association with them…

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  • A debate about poverty, excess and obligation

    bowery mission (Photo credit: niznoz) This debate was set up by the King’s College, as a way to engage a public issue and get public response from it. Not shown in the video was an interesting talk by members of the Bowery Mission – a homeless shelter and education facility in New York. One of…

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  • Destination Debating

    D. T. Fleming Beach Park, Kapalua, Maui, Hawaii, US. Best beach of US scored in 2006. (Photo credit: Wikipedia) There really shouldn’t be a forced choice. One should get married however one wishes. Some people like to elope and run down to the courthouse. Some imagine a small ceremony with just close friends. And some…

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  • Interview with St. John’s Debate Director Steve Llano

    St. Augustine Library at St. John’s University (New York) (Photo credit: Wikipedia) It always seems that spring is when there’s a lot of publicity surrounding the work we do in the St. John’s University Debate Society. Here is an article that was recently written about us for our Alumni magazine. It’s the first time we’ve…

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  • Forays Into Debate

    I’m starting to do a lot more with Skype and debate. I feel this technology is going to be instrumental in developing new debate programs. It’s cheap and easy to run a debate or to have a debate critiqued by someone who knows something about WUDC debating. Here’s my attempt from yesterday. My friend Gabe…

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  • Defending Confusion and Uncertainty in Debates

    My recent attendance at a High School tournament made me realize how often we associate the presence of simplicity or clarity in argumentation with good argumentation. How many times have you seen a team win a debate, or even an argument, by using a strategy saying that their policy or principle makes things uncertain, unclear,…

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  • Teaching Debate From The Wrong Book

    It’s late and I should have gone home a while ago. I did plan on going straight home but it’s just too tempting to go talk and have a drink with my fantastic colleague and a brilliant graduate student (and former student of her’s). We are talking about strategy, for the most part. How to…

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