Policy Debate Curriculum | Research, Strategy & Competitive Skills

(Click below for more information about each division)

Week 1: Case Construction & Technical Foundations

Advanced Topic Analysis: Students conduct deep analysis of the year’s resolution, identifying affirmative ground, core negative positions, and strategic trends emerging on the circuit.
Research & Evidence Development: Instruction focuses on high-quality evidence selection, effective tagging, card comparison, and file organization for efficient in-round use.
Affirmative Case Design: Varsity debaters refine plan texts, advantages, and internal link chains, with emphasis on clarity and strategic leverage.
Negative Strategy Development: Students work through disadvantages, counterplans, and case engagement, learning when and how to deploy each effectively.

Week 2: Strategy, Execution & Tournament Readiness

Impact Calculus & Strategic Collapsing: Students master comparative weighing techniques to control late-round decision-making.
Theory & Procedural Foundations: Instruction covers core theory concepts, strategic deployment, and effective responses.
Kritik Literacy: Students are introduced to common Kritik structures, strategic framing, and answer strategies appropriate to circuit norms.
Flowing & Line-by-Line Mastery: Advanced flowing techniques support accurate tracking and strategic response selection.
Tournament Simulation: Debaters compete in a structured camp tournament with detailed coach feedback to refine execution.

Week 1: Foundations of Policy Debate

Introduction to Policy Debate: Students learn round structure, speech order, time allocation, and judging expectations.
Research Skills & Evidence Use: Instruction emphasizes finding credible sources, cutting usable cards, and understanding evidence relevance.
Basic Case Construction: Novice debaters develop introductory affirmative cases and learn foundational negative responses.
Refutation Fundamentals: Students practice line-by-line refutation and clear extension techniques.

Week 2: Skill Building & Application

Strategic Organization: Learning how to prioritize arguments and allocate speech time effectively.
Flowing & Argument Tracking: Developing reliable note-taking habits to support in-round decision-making.
Practice Rounds & Feedback: Multiple coached rounds with targeted, individualized feedback.
Tournament Simulation: A final competition experience to prepare students for the upcoming season.
This curriculum will be reviewed by the current year's staff, and some adjustments might be made to what is covered. While most change are small, the staff reserves to make such changes, especially additions that the camp coaching staff feel are late breaking needs based on the topic selection or otherwise add to the educational experience of the campers.