Given the nature of current forensic practices, there is no sound pedagogical linkage between argumentation and forensics. The past 30 years have witnessed a consistent decline in the scope and diversity of forensic activities, and forensics has become synonymous with contest debating. Debate has become a technical, specialized, jargonized…

The Northwest Select High School Tournament was the result of several concerns among college and high school debate coaches, including the lack of informational exchange between Washington and Oregon teams and an extended opportunity for summer debate institutes and recruitment possibilities. The objective was to have a top-quality tournament…

A transcript of a debate by the Authors at the National Association of Educational Broadcasters conference in Las Vegas, November, 1974. (HB)

Including speech transcripts and judges' critiques, this book presents the results of the 1986 (1) National Debate Tournament Final Debate, sponsored by the American Forensic Association, including the affirmative and negative presentations; (2) National CEDA Tournament Final Debate, sponsored by the Cross-Examination Debate Association, including…

Noting the diversity in the nature and format of individual events in debate tournaments, a study surveyed the reactions of individual events coaches and students to the events offered at tournaments, the descriptions, and the time limits. Thirty-one coaches and 71 students from colleges and universities in the eastern United States responded to a…

A study was conducted to (1) describe the male/female participation and success in regional and national forensic individual events tournament competition, and (2) identify areas of gender-based inequity from these data. Letters requesting 1984-85 tournament results were sent to 44 individual events tournament directors, of which 20 were…

To better serve as a laboratory for argument, individual events competition should represent analogues of "real world" argumentation/communication situations. The individual events laboratory must fulfill a pedagogical function, and should also "create" knowledge about argumentation strategies, specific fields of argument, and…

Forensic directors (n=102) affiliated with Phi Delta Kappa responded to a survey to determine perceptions regarding participation of host school students in their respective forensics tournaments. When asked whether they permitted host school students to compete in their respective tournaments, 56% indicated that they did, but 75% of those had…

Since few debate tournaments can be administered successfully without employing some hired-judge pool, one of the fundamental ethical concerns facing the tournament director is the balance between filling all judge responsibilities and securing competent judges. The responsibility of securing competent judges can be met through a more extensive…

There is very little consensus among Cross Examination Debate Association (CEDA) coaches as to the assignment of presumption in value topic debate. There are really three types of presumption: (1) an identification with the status quo (existing institutions), (2) a psychological state (prevailing opinion), and (3) a decision rule (who must prove).…

The criterion of topicality must be met by all advocates of academic debate policy in order to achieve effective and organized argument. The plan upon which each individual debate round is built must first satisfy the requirements imposed by the resolution. The policy proposal should answer the question of whether the affirmative plan, as a whole,…

An application of behavioral objectives to the evaluation of contest debate. (CH)

Traditionally, the focus of debate has been on what policy should be adopted. The concept of fiat, or authoritative decree or sanction, has enabled debate participants to discuss the relative merits of competing policies without deciding whether or not the policies being compared could be adopted in the real world. While, for the purposes of…

Academic debate may be regarded as an educational game since it includes the adversary quest for favorable decisions from a neutral judge within an artificial context defined by myriad rules and traditions. In academic debate, the requisite fairness is provided by such game rules as time limitations, speaker order, uniform resolutions, critic…