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SPEED

I would like to add a note to the speed debate from the point of view of a 
former debater now trying to make it in the "real world."

First of all, I sympathize wholeheartedly with Carrie from Rochester and others 
who lost rounds simply because they could not understand what the other team was
saying, let alone speak fast enough to refute their arguments effectively.  At 
my very fist debate tournament, when UVM was still in NDT, my partner and I hit 
Harvard.  It was completely humiliating to get up for a speech and have almost 
nothing to say.  In fact, I went in the bathroom and cried when I found out that
we were going to meet the team again in elims.

But I got through it.  I decided that debate was worth it, and I learned to 
speak fairly fast.  Thinking that speed is a bad tactic to use in debate is a 
justifiable position with some merit, but don't be too hasty to come to that 
conclusion in your first year of debate.  Learn to debate fast, see how you like
it, and then decide if it's really good or bad.  You may say that you do not 
want to have to learn to speak that fast (I said that too), but that is simply 
what you have to do to be competitive.  I didn't want to learn to do a lot of 
things in my life that I had to do to get what I wanted.

Now on the issue of whether speed debate is applicable to life in the "real 
world."  In a word -- YES. What do you have to be able to do to debate fast?  
You have to be able to think quickly, reason quickly, find holes and 
contradictions in other people's arguments quickly, and make you self understood
efficiently.  These are all things you need to be able to do when you try to 
find a job and when you work at that job.  I am an editorial assistant at a 
publisher and when I went for my job interview, my boss saw on my resume that I 
was a debater and was very impressed.  It gave me the perfect opportunity to 
explain why I could do an excellent job analyzing our competitors, analyzing 
reviews of manuscripts to see what the main points were, and developing ways to 
respond to the information I gather from these sources.  Debate helped me devlop
these skills.  

I also think quickly when I get a call from an irate author or contracter and I 
need to stall for time or give reasons why she can not have what she thinks she 
is entitled to.  My boss has praised me highly for this.  I have also learned to
devlop creative solutions to problems. And I win a lot of arguments with my 
office mates over political issues :-). DEBATE, PARTICULARLY FAST DEBATE, HAS 
REAL WORLD APPLICATIONS.

I love debate and hope to remain involved for many years to come.  Dave Foti's 
"ban all former debaters as judges for 15 years" comment notwithstanding, I 
think that former debaters have a lot to offer the activity and a lot to offer 
on the job and in other aspects of their lives.  Long live debate!!!!! 

Always a debater at heart,

Laura E.
Archive created by Jonathan Stanton (jonathan@cs.jhu.edu)
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