What do you think?
Rate this book
Competitive Debate: The Official Guide
The bible for debaters and their coaches.
Nearly every high school and college in America has a debate club and/or a debate team. There are hundreds of competitions at the county and state level, culminating in heated national competitions. Yet, at many high schools and colleges, coaches are drawn from the history or English departments with little or no experience in the highly structured procedures of this popular discipline. And while competitive debate has been growing each year as a prime academic activity, there have been no popular handbooks to help students and coaches prepare for contests effectively and efficiently. Practical and authoritative, this guide includes not only tips and guidelines for effective preparation and delivery, but full-length, actual transcripts of successful competitions in each format. Endorsed by the two national governing bodies for competitive debate—the National Federation of State High School Associations and the National Forensic League—and priced for the budget-conscious student and high school teacher alike, Competitive Debate: The Official Guide is set to become the instructional “bible” for tens of thousands of present and future debaters and their coaches. Inside, Dr. Richard Edwards—award winning debate coach, professor, former competitive debate judge, and author—leads readers through the three popular formats of competitive debate:
• Policy Debate
• Lincoln-Douglas Debate
• Public Forum Debate
Nearly every high school and college in America has a debate club and/or a debate team. There are hundreds of competitions at the county and state level, culminating in heated national competitions. Yet, at many high schools and colleges, coaches are drawn from the history or English departments with little or no experience in the highly structured procedures of this popular discipline. And while competitive debate has been growing each year as a prime academic activity, there have been no popular handbooks to help students and coaches prepare for contests effectively and efficiently. Practical and authoritative, this guide includes not only tips and guidelines for effective preparation and delivery, but full-length, actual transcripts of successful competitions in each format. Endorsed by the two national governing bodies for competitive debate—the National Federation of State High School Associations and the National Forensic League—and priced for the budget-conscious student and high school teacher alike, Competitive Debate: The Official Guide is set to become the instructional “bible” for tens of thousands of present and future debaters and their coaches. Inside, Dr. Richard Edwards—award winning debate coach, professor, former competitive debate judge, and author—leads readers through the three popular formats of competitive debate:
• Policy Debate
• Lincoln-Douglas Debate
• Public Forum Debate
384 pages, Paperback
First published June 3, 2008
30 people are currently reading
85 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
April 3, 2010
This is a great resource for a beginning debate coach. It explores LD dbeate, Policy debate, and Public Forum debate.
November 5, 2021
Didn't "finish" reading because the book is quite extensive explaining the variations of competitive debate, most of which I don't need to know. Our team willl practice only extemporaneous debate, where they receive the proposal and a packet of related articles about an hour ahead. So the chapter on research doesn't apply. Neither do sections on Lincoln-Douglas style debate.
In the sections I read, there was a lot of applicable information. I tried to summarize it for the team. I imagine as I become more familiar with debate and see/hear different types of arguments that this will be a helpful reference.
In the sections I read, there was a lot of applicable information. I tried to summarize it for the team. I imagine as I become more familiar with debate and see/hear different types of arguments that this will be a helpful reference.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews