Middle School Varsity Curriculum

Choosing Arguments

In Junior Varsity, you learned about choosing which arguments to read in the round and which arguments to extend during the round. In Varsity, you’ll apply those same concepts, but you may also have to choose which case to read when you’re affirmative. If there are multiple affirmatives available, make sure that you pick one to read and don’t try to mix cases. Some things to consider when choosing which affirmative to read:

  • Does one affirmative seem more convincing or intuitive to you? Do you feel more comfortable explaining one over the other?

  • How comfortable are you answering the negative’s offcase positions against each affirmative?

  • Judge adaptation - based on the judge’s background, do you think one affirmative may be more confusing or more compelling?

Even when you’re negative, it’s worthwhile to think about which arguments you like to run against each affirmative before the round. Even if you only like one affirmative, you need to be prepared to answer both of them. Make sure you know which disadvantages, counterplans, and kritiks, go with which affirmatives and find the ones that you like best for each one. Don’t try to make a disadvantage designed for one affirmative work with the other one.

Keeping Things Organized

Try to keep your evidence organized so that you don’t end up mixing up the different affirmative cases or arguments against them. If you have a binder or file folder, consider having separate ones for each affirmative and the negative arguments that go with it. If you want to keep everything in one place, be sure to use dividers to separate the affirmatives, and keep all the negative evidence related to them on the same side.