Singh,Danesh

I see the activity of debate as an opportunity for students to develop their ability to deploy and engage individual arguments. But ultimately, debaters must deliver by bringing arguments together to generate a bigger picture that provides a compelling case for voting for them. Explaining link stories effectively is a compelling way to create this picture. Articulating a clear impact analysis is another way to do it. Showing how individual arguments on the flow or across flows interrelate is yet another way to create this picture.

I like debates with a lot of clash, in which both sides are maximally required to put a set of opposing arguments in dialogue with their own. The team that is able to provide argumentative depth and sophistication in how they compare arguments and evidence will get my ballot.

This should probably go without saying, but the task of deploying arguments and framing them effectively and persuasively is the burden of the debaters. What I might personally believe about the truth or falsity of the argument is of little to no consequence; what matters is what the debaters on each side have to say about it. No matter whether what is being promoted is the advocacy of a plan, or that consciousness needs to be raised about a particular issue, the onus is on the debaters to convey how their arguments show why they should win the round.