What makes a strong rebuttal?
Answering an argument is not the same as beating it. The four moves in every strong rebuttal, in any format.
Blog
Ideas, guides, and updates from Charlotte's debate community.
Perspectives on educational access, practical guides for students and coaches, and updates on how CUDL works, published since 2023.
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Lessons from our Charlotte debate community
Three years of coaching in Title I schools have taught us what makes a program take root and what makes it wither. A retrospective, in five lessons.
2026
Preparing for regional competition
The step from a local tournament to a regional one is bigger than it looks. A checklist for students and coaches making the jump.
2025
How teachers can start a debate program with limited resources
A semester plan for a teacher who has never debated, from format choice to the first tournament.
Debate, college readiness, and economic opportunity
The chain from a first practice round to a first job runs through college. Here is how each link holds up, and what the evidence supports at each step.
Five research skills every debater should learn
Search for the claim, judge the source, read in context, cut the card honestly, and stay organized. No paid database required.
2024
How to build your first Lincoln-Douglas case
A five-step method for writing an affirmative or negative case from a blank page, with a template.
Closing the extracurricular opportunity gap
The activities that shape college applications and careers are increasingly pay-to-play. What that means for Charlotte, and what a league can do about it.
A beginner's guide to Public Forum debate
The round structure, the coin flip, what judges look for, and what to do in your first week.
Building confidence through competitive speech
Confidence is not a personality trait. It is what happens after a student has done the hard thing enough times that it stops being hard.
Why speech and debate belongs in every school
Debate is one of the few school activities with evidence that it improves reading, graduation, and college enrollment. It should not be a luxury item.
2023
Why debate is about more than winning trophies
Trophies are fine. The skills that survive the season are the point, and a program that measures itself only by results will miss most of what it is doing.
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