How to research an affirmative case

Researching your own aff is an incredibly fun part of debate, but if you don’t know what to look for, it can also be very time consuming and difficult. With ODEF’s easy guide to researching an affirmative case, you can limit your frustration and maximize your time spent creating winning arguments!

First, find out what topical cases interest you!

Limit your possible topics to a list of things that interest you. They can be from your own imagination, from articles you’ve read, or things you’ve learned about in class. You want to make sure

1) they’re defensible- think about what your opponents would say. Does your idea fit under the topic? Is it totally unfeasible in the near future? Does it cause problems that you don’t want to have to argue about?

2) it’s interesting and has lots of literature about it. If you get bored reading one article about your case, that’s not a good sign. If you can only find one crazy ranting blog post that supports your idea, also not a feasible topic.

South Coast Invitational Results

The South Coast Invitational, run by Bandon and North Bend High Schools, was kind enough to host ODEF’s first tournament, a novice CX division. Teams from Bandon, North Bend, and Coquille competed and amazed in their first tournament ever.

Each of the schools was totally new to the event, and Coquille had a brand new team after a many-year hiatus from Forensics. Big congratulations to Coquille Coach Caron Newman and Coquille Kaitlyn Dixon/Claire Beery, who won their first tournament! There’s a bright future ahead for this program.

Congrats also to North Bend Nathan Highsmith/Michael Hobson, who got second place. North Bend did tons of original research to support their Solar Power Satellites Affirmative.

A big thank you to all the judges and coaches that made it happen! Lots of judges were excited to hear about the return of accessible policy debate to the state of Oregon and were willing judges and supporters.

Please join us for our second workshop and tournament combo series. The workshop is Saturday December 10th and the tournament will take place in January, both at Coquille High School.