“You Don’t Cut Cards?!”

Sample card is taken from an excellent article by Victory Brief’s Lawrence Zhou in his article “How to Cut A Card”.

“You don’t cut cards?!”

My first reaction to the concept of World Schools debate was shock, if not absolute fear. I stood open-mouthed, jaw on the floor in front of my new debate friends, trying desperately to wrap my head around what they were telling me. 

The image I’m painting for you right now may seem dramatic, but as someone whose entire debate career had revolved around evidence and copy-pasting from articles, my first response to “substantives” was confusion and dislike. 

The funny thing is, I can’t say this reaction has changed in the past couple of years. I got the same response from an LD friend recently (“What do you even argue about??”) and had plenty to say.

A strange sense of déjà vu hit me–yet this time, I was on the receiving end of the endless questioning. 

It is easy to rebuff what we are confused by or what we find unfamiliar, and this was my natural response. The other 9th-grade LD-ers and I came together in a rare moment of unity in a fight about which form of debate was real debate. The answer is still inconclusive–mostly because the idea of “real” debate depends on who you talk to. For policy or LD debaters, it could be the effective use of evidence to prove impacts and the battle between those pieces of evidence. For World Schools Debaters, it could be the effective use of simple logic and rhetoric to engage effectively with your opponent’s arguments. This is why making the switch from a more analytical form of debate to a more rhetoric-involved, looser form is incredibly difficult. 

The purpose of this article essentially builds off of and functions as a sequel (High School Musical 2?) to Irene John’s recent article here on the WOWI blog. In it, she encourages new debaters to give World Schools a try, and I’m here for some advice on what happens after you make that choice. 

First off, great decision! World Schools is a friendly, collaborative community by definition and is a great learning place. The first and probably most important concept to understand is that World Schools Debate was made to be accessible, the idea being that a person who has never watched debate could walk into the middle of one and understand the arguments being made. The same can’t exactly be said if a debater was in the middle of spreading an incredibly complicated kritik, though. Interesting? Definitely. Comprehensible? Not so much. 

There are two mistakes that are easy to make–that I made–when switching to WSD. 

The first is assuming accessibility equals simplicity. Yes, the complex jargon and plethora of abbreviations are removed but don’t make the mistake of thinking WSD is easy to debate just because it is easier to understand. 

The new aspect of debate that you will absolutely need to practice and ask questions about is rhetoric. Rhetoric, also called style, is the art of persuasive speaking and eloquence. In WSD, this ranges from punny intros to the way you frame your substantive arguments. You can no longer rely on what’s highlighted; this is a stage where your words, and your power have to come into play. Ultimately, rhetoric has always been what made me love World Schools (as our team’s self-proclaimed “intro person”) and the lack of it was what tore me away from Lincoln Douglas. Good rhetoric from a great speaker can transform the way a judge looks at the debate as a whole. It tells judges, “I know what I’m saying, I believe in what I’m saying, and I’m passionate about what I’m saying.”

During the WOWI summer camp in 2023, my teammate Safiya and I would often tell each other before the other person went up for their speech, “Rhetoric it up.” What we meant was: be persuasive, get attention, and be as passionate as possible. The greatest advice I’ve gotten about rhetoric was “don’t speak at the judge; speak to the judge.” Coming from a form where I would throw words at judges at breakneck speeds or just simply yell, this helped me significantly. 

Note that “rhetoric” doesn’t equate to throwing a low-effort “imagine you’re a single mother” intro into every speech. Humor, sarcasm, and emotion all come into play. But that’s another article in itself (see: Poorvi Kumar’s awesome intro article!).

The second mistake many make mindset-wise is assuming evidence and logic has no place in World Schools Debate. That line can and should be blurred in WSD. Examples and facts are a key part of substantive arguments and can be the tide-turners in debates. For example, an impromptu motion my team recently debated had to do with women getting more lead villain roles in films. The example of Harley Quinn was used effectively by both sides as a symbol of either progress or backsliding–the argument became our winning point. 

A great example or statistic doesn’t have to be read verbatim from a blue-highlighted academic paper to be powerful; it can be general knowledge or even better, current events. 

How can you make sure to avoid these mistakes, though? Honestly, that mindset shift takes a good amount of time. My public speaking background helped me significantly, but switching to one form of debate from another is like having a song stuck in your head. It’s annoying, and it takes time to figure out. But don’t get rid of the skills you already have–they are valuable, and you worked for them! Instead, apply them and adapt them. You know a lot about evidence–great–learn some more about principle arguments and you’re on your way to your first solid substantive. Love a good policy extinction impact? Awesome; scale it down, learn how to weigh, and we have a great 3rd speaker in the making. 

Keep an open mind as well as an open Google Doc. Those same debaters I jokingly argued with in 9th grade have become some of my best friends and greatest supporters in 10th grade–so don’t be afraid of change and what it can bring you.

At the end of the day, here’s the lesson you should take away from this article: don’t be 9th-grade me. Don’t assume that there are clear, uncrossable lines between each form of debate and that they should always fight each other. Hopefully, World Schools will teach you, as it taught me, that collaboration is never too distant a thought and that we accomplish so much more when we work towards it together.

So throw away that blue highlighter, slow down the spreading, and get to those intro drills! Happy debating!