Murphy,+Robert

Coach, Albuquerque Academy I am not comfortable with excessive speed. I have 28 years of experience as a practicing attorney. I want to assure the reader that there is no room for speed in the real world practice of law or in the business community. Imagine how foolish it would be to talk that way in a real courtroom in front of a real judge. Excessive speed suggests a tactical decision to obfuscate. Since debate is about communication excessive speed is poor communication. In your preparation, emphasize quality over quantity. My difficulty with speed is even more fundamental. If I cannot follow you I cannot flow your points and I cannot weigh your arguments against those of your opponent. If I can flow your opponent’s arguments they will win the debate. Based on the foregoing it should be apparent that presentation is helpful to me. Clear articulation of standard framework and contentions (tags and authors) and of the impacts will carry more weight than the spread. The more traditional your approach the better it will be received. Apart from these fundamentals, I am open to listening to arguments without imposing my opinions, although well-developed and warranted arguments obviously carry more weight. On rebuttal signpost and stick to it, don’t be scattered, identify clash and why your argument wins.