New and Overwhelmed

[OnMyOwn]

Hi. I'm a freshman and our school does not have debate, but I finally talked my principal and a teacher into letting us start a program. My teacher doesn't know anything though and is just being a sponsor so we can have a program. He is really not any help. I downloaded and have been studying like stock issues and stuff. But now I know I need to write an affirmative but I don't know where to start. I feel lost. Is there any books that we should buy? I saw a long list of vendors on the uil website, but don't know which I should ask my principal for. It doesn't sound like you guys use books but write all your own stuff. How do I do that? I don't even know for sure how to set up an affirmtive. Does anyone have an example that they would share? Thanks so much. I've always wanted to debate and was upset when we moved to a school that didn't have a program.

[BritainKennedy]

www.planetdebate.com/blockhouse is a good place to start for evidence and see how it's formatted. Once you understand it you want to definitely do your own research (if you have a local university or anything that would be best, as they have research databases such as lexis.)

To see how debates are actually played out, understand it's definitely not what you're thinking right now. Successful debaters aren't the ones that sit and talk slow and persuasively (usually), speed and efficiency kills, you'll learn that soon. Look at some videos on youtube, shouldn't be that hard.

[OnMyOwn]

Thanks. I will go look at that website now.

[BritainKennedy]

Not a problem, any questions ask. It's kind of hard to explain how to "learn debate" without specific questions. lol.

[frododebater]

first of all dear what state are you in?? if you in UIL dont talk to Bitty its VERY different to what hes use to running

[BritainKennedy]

You know Jesi, I can still debate policy