Recurring pressures for fiscal restraint threaten the existence of educational programs, such as competitive debate, which are not publicly perceived to produce worthwhile outcomes. Since debate is misunderstood and expensive, its advocates must be prepared to provide solid evidence of its benefits. Unfortunately, methodological weaknesses in…

Competitive forensic teams should turn to their students for leadership. Such an approach gives students valuable experience in handling responsibility, while relieving school administrators of some of the tasks involved in debate competition. Since forensic students are intelligent and highly ambitious, they should be leaders of debate programs,…

A compilation of statements of the judging philosophies of the judges for the 1987 National Debate Tournament, this booklet presents the views of 132 college level coaches from institutions all across the country. The areas examined in the standard judge philosophy form include (1) personal preferences in regard to a decision making paradigm; (2)…

To grasp what happened to the institutionalization of presidential debates in 1988 it will be useful to ask what is the future of party sponsorship of presidential debates. Given that sponsorship has been an issue discussed after every debate since 1960, either from a legal perspective (i.e. who can sponsor and remain in compliance with Federal…

This report presents the thoughts and impressions of an American student who participated in a series of eight debates on U.S.-Soviet relations held in the Soviet Union. The first section of the paper is devoted to the purpose of and preparations for the debates, which focused on the topics of war and peace in the two societies' systems of values,…

The actual nature of topicality as it is presented in intercollegiate debate rounds has become so split that there are two different types of topicality. The first type (T1) is a "real" argument that is subjective, intentional, absolute, jurisdictional, pragmatic, and focuses on content and product. The second type (T2) is strategic,…

Prepared and designed to provide general information in the administration of speech activities in the Nebraska schools, this manual offers rules and regulations for speech events, high school debate, and one act plays. The section on speech events includes information about general regulations, the scope of competition, district contests, the…

There is a tendency for debaters and judges to view a single quote or opinion as conclusive evidence proving a point. But evidence can only point toward a conclusion; it cannot prove a conclusion conclusively. Experts may offer their opinions (sometimes as fact) but these opinions are only educated guesses. This is not to say that evidence from…

The purpose of this paper is to propose a new, synthetic paradigm for debate analysis and decision making that features the policy systems approach within a context of values as boundaries for decision. As background for the proposed theory, the paper (1) summarizes the notions of paradigm formation and shifts initially presented by T. Kuhn; (2)…

The League of Women Voters is a nonprofit organization that, among other functions, helps voters learn more about issues, candidates, registration, and other election procedures. The most visible function performed by the League's Education Fund in recent years has been the sponsorship of the presidential debates. The League maintains that the…

The purpose of this booklet is to provide a brief overview of some of the issues involved in the 1982-83 high school debate resolutions, which focus on the defense commitments of the United States. The first of the booklet's four chapters provides a review of information sources for use in researching the topic of defense commitments. The…

In 1980, the Sioux Falls Area Press Association in South Dakota attempted to devise a political debate procedure and format that would serve both the candidates and the public. Involving the candidates for the first and second district congressional races and for the United States senate, the televised debates, entitled "Election 80,"…

A report concerning the value of the international exchange debate tour of New Zealand sponsored by the Committee on International Discussion and Debate of the Speech Communication Association is given in this paper. The report provides an examination of the goals and benefits of international exchange debating, discusses how this particular tour…

This study investigated what changes in the television-personality and presidential images of the candidates would occur among first-time young voters due to the first presidential debate. Subjects, 116 18- or 19-year-old students at Purdue University, completed semantic differential forms, before and after the debate, which rated the concepts of…

A new debate strategy which may be used in judging academic debates is the application of policy systems analysis. In the policy systems analysis approach, the negative team must advocate a policy system just as the affirmative team does, providing a comparison for the debate judge. The major difference between systems analysis and traditional…