Introducing Policy Debate

Introduction to Flowing

Introduction

The AUDL’s curriculum emphasizes key skills in four areas: reading, speaking, note-taking, and asking questions. However, policy debate demands a specific style of note-taking that students may be unfamiliar with called “flowing.”

Notes, or “flows” should be written vertically. Student should divide them into seven columns – “1AC,” “1NC,” 2AC,” “2NC/1NR,” “1AR,” “2NR,” and “2AR.” They also have access to flow sheet templates in the tournament workbooks.

Flows should contain as few words as possible, as students will need to be efficient to flow all arguments. Here is an example of flows for the “Dogs Advantage” and “Cats Disadvantage”. Students should leave space between each argument (2-3 fingers’ worth) so that they don’t run out of room when flowing responses in later speeches.

You should encourage students to add layers of complexity to their flows over time. Novices must eventually learn to write down the authors and dates.

Learning Objectives

In this section, students should:

Understand they must pay attention during every speech in a debate round.
Write vertically in columns to save space for future speeches.
Develop strategies to write efficiently by using acronyms, symbols, etc.

Points of Improvement

Here are some things to look out for as students hone their flowing skills:

Students get distracted or overly frustrated during flowing activities, causing them to produce incomplete flows. Encourage them to get down as much as they can and let them know flowing takes practice and can be tough even for experienced debaters.
Students do not use columns to structure their flows, making them disorganized. Try giving them a flow sheet from the tournament workbook as a reference!
Students continue to write in full words, making them miss arguments.
When prompted to re-read their flow, students misunderstand or can’t read what they have written down. Encourage them to use different shorthand strategies so that they can understand what they’ve written!
- Emphasize that the point of a flow is for them to be able to keep track of what arguments have been made in the debate in an organized fashion.

Signs of Progress

Here are some positive signs that students are learning to flow effectively:

Students flow entire speeches or debate rounds, proving that they can pay attention.
Students either use their flow sheets or make their own seven-columned sheets.
Students take notes in their own shorthand, and they demonstrate understanding of what they’ve written down by responding correctly to arguments in debate rounds or by successfully re-reading arguments from their flow.