There are plenty of old school debate traditions that I think still make sense to practice -- such as printing off all of your cases and most important blocks, using a padfolio to read off of, and using a dedicated non-phone timer
I do not consider cutting physical cards to be a good idea at all. As the number of cards increases, it becomes increasingly difficult to keep them organized, quickly recall them, or even carry them around. These problems compound over time, especially as you change topics. You never know when an old backfile will be helpful, and you won't be able to physically bring or search old physical cards
Policy debaters use to lug around several large rubbermaid tubs each. Moving those things around was a serious logistical challenge. Not to mention the challenges that can be associated with printing everything under the sun
I agree with everything in this comment.
One thing I forgot to mention in my comment is that, not only do you have to deal with all of the drawbacks that /u/NewInThe1AC outlined (which does add up to make a big difference at a high level of competition and if your goal isn’t to work toward that then just do whatever you feel like doing), you’re also exposing yourself to disclosure theory.
Probably not very common at the high school level, almost certainly not in a traditional circuit, but the notion that “I’m going to make it harder for my opponent to fact check my case so it’s easier for me to win” is very commonly ground for theory arguments in some circuits.
If you’re disclosing your case on the wiki, then having physical cards doesn’t really do very much for you. If you’re not disclosing your case on the wiki, then (in certain circuits) it doesn’t matter what your secret case says because people are just going to go for the strategy of trying to win on reading disclosure.
In the college LD world I only judged one team that used paper cards, though they weren’t note cards, it was just a printout of their case for giving their opponents and the judge in-round. The competitors still reading off a word doc in the round.
The reason they used paper was so they could ask for their cards back at the end of the round and make it harder for their opponents to send their files to a coach and have that coach cut answers to it for future rounds.
Personally, I don’t think there’s any practical benefit to using paper cards. It makes your prep substantially less efficient, which I think outweighs any benefits it may or may not offer.
It also makes it harder to share cards with your teammates, which, if you’re not doing, puts you at a significant disadvantage against teams that do once you reach a certain level of competition.
And then have a counter about inability to afford a "good" computer and how a judge can't vote against the debater for something that isn't expressly forbidden and would otherwise be a barrier to entry for the team. Reject the initiating team so they can't intimidate other debaters from debating how they want to within the confines of the rules.
Wow that was a run on a run on a run of a sentence.
I last debated when everything was on paper. There really is no reason to go backwards on this.
Technology solved all of the problems with digital debating and paper debating is a mess. We only did it because at the time digital debating was worse.
You gotta remember that back in the day computers were slower, judges and tournaments outright banned laptops, a lot of folks couldnt afford them (let alone the school provide them like today), there was no Verbatim, many cards had to be scanned as images because OCR software was useless, etc.
The only thing you would get from paper files today would be cutting cards from books that aren't available digitally. This is a bit of an edge case simply because most books are available digitally now.
But if you find yourself having to do that, scan the pages of the book, and pull the text via OCR. It's a little more work in theory but it just isn't worth it to try to debate on paper.
The one time I enjoy physical cards (in policy) is when it has a performative purpose. For example, my team found an old book about debate (like a century old) and we wanted to use it for our debates, so we brought the physical book underlined. That being said, we also found a digital copy and cut it and put it in the doc, so our opponents could also read it. Outside of that and an accessibility accommodation, I would advise that most cards cut are on your computer.
The one time I enjoy physical cards (in policy) is when it has a performative purpose. For example, my team found an old book about debate (like a century old) and we wanted to use it for our debates, so we brought the physical book underlined. That being said, we also found a digital copy and cut it and put it in the doc, so our opponents could also read it. Outside of that and an accessibility accommodation, I would advise that most cards cut are on your computer.
The only reason I would tell debaters to have physical cards is maybe have the 1AC printed that way if you have some PC issues you’re not delaying the start of your round.
Otherwise there is no good reason to move backwards. There’s too much evidence to make printing all of it worth it. As another debater coming from the before times when we had plastic tubs, it sucked and this is better. Trust.
I'm a fan of reading off a paper case (because laptops are bulky, a binder looks professional). I also would flow on paper. Everything else I much prefer digitally.
If you are just going to have a handful of cards, it might be fun.
Cards have a big downside--organization. I debated policy near the end of the card era. We had thousands of cards all neatly indexed and filed. But to use the cards, you had to take them out of their neat rows. After each round, you had to take the cards you had pulled and put them back in their proper places. Since tournaments wanted to rush you to your rounds even then, the refiling would be pretty haphazard. That meant that the day after a tournament, you and your partner spent a couple hours getting all the cards properly refiled.
I have to admit I miss the physicality of cutting cards. I miss the smell of ditto ink on the team evidence sheets we got and I miss the smell of the rubber cement we used to glue those bits of evidence onto 3x5 cards (4x6 people were heretics in our minds).
Nostalgia is fun, but take it from an Old--you don't want to go back to those days.
This seems like a hot take but my partner and I placed 3rd at both districts and state in 2022 with the use of our cards printed and pasted on to notecards. We used notecards page sleeves in a binder with dividers and the ease of being able to just put them in order when going up to speak made us much more organized.
There are plenty of old school debate traditions that I think still make sense to practice -- such as printing off all of your cases and most important blocks, using a padfolio to read off of, and using a dedicated non-phone timer I do not consider cutting physical cards to be a good idea at all. As the number of cards increases, it becomes increasingly difficult to keep them organized, quickly recall them, or even carry them around. These problems compound over time, especially as you change topics. You never know when an old backfile will be helpful, and you won't be able to physically bring or search old physical cards Policy debaters use to lug around several large rubbermaid tubs each. Moving those things around was a serious logistical challenge. Not to mention the challenges that can be associated with printing everything under the sun
I agree with everything in this comment. One thing I forgot to mention in my comment is that, not only do you have to deal with all of the drawbacks that /u/NewInThe1AC outlined (which does add up to make a big difference at a high level of competition and if your goal isn’t to work toward that then just do whatever you feel like doing), you’re also exposing yourself to disclosure theory. Probably not very common at the high school level, almost certainly not in a traditional circuit, but the notion that “I’m going to make it harder for my opponent to fact check my case so it’s easier for me to win” is very commonly ground for theory arguments in some circuits. If you’re disclosing your case on the wiki, then having physical cards doesn’t really do very much for you. If you’re not disclosing your case on the wiki, then (in certain circuits) it doesn’t matter what your secret case says because people are just going to go for the strategy of trying to win on reading disclosure.
In the college LD world I only judged one team that used paper cards, though they weren’t note cards, it was just a printout of their case for giving their opponents and the judge in-round. The competitors still reading off a word doc in the round. The reason they used paper was so they could ask for their cards back at the end of the round and make it harder for their opponents to send their files to a coach and have that coach cut answers to it for future rounds. Personally, I don’t think there’s any practical benefit to using paper cards. It makes your prep substantially less efficient, which I think outweighs any benefits it may or may not offer. It also makes it harder to share cards with your teammates, which, if you’re not doing, puts you at a significant disadvantage against teams that do once you reach a certain level of competition.
oh thats why its called a card lol
I love to use them because teams can not use them- ss or download them.
You’re going to get theory run on you lol if you compete at a higher level
And then have a counter about inability to afford a "good" computer and how a judge can't vote against the debater for something that isn't expressly forbidden and would otherwise be a barrier to entry for the team. Reject the initiating team so they can't intimidate other debaters from debating how they want to within the confines of the rules. Wow that was a run on a run on a run of a sentence.
You can capture that benefit from just printing cards you cut digitally
I enjoy physical cards so I can loudly flip the card around to annoy them. For real though you don’t have to scroll to look for a card
I last debated when everything was on paper. There really is no reason to go backwards on this. Technology solved all of the problems with digital debating and paper debating is a mess. We only did it because at the time digital debating was worse. You gotta remember that back in the day computers were slower, judges and tournaments outright banned laptops, a lot of folks couldnt afford them (let alone the school provide them like today), there was no Verbatim, many cards had to be scanned as images because OCR software was useless, etc. The only thing you would get from paper files today would be cutting cards from books that aren't available digitally. This is a bit of an edge case simply because most books are available digitally now. But if you find yourself having to do that, scan the pages of the book, and pull the text via OCR. It's a little more work in theory but it just isn't worth it to try to debate on paper.
The one time I enjoy physical cards (in policy) is when it has a performative purpose. For example, my team found an old book about debate (like a century old) and we wanted to use it for our debates, so we brought the physical book underlined. That being said, we also found a digital copy and cut it and put it in the doc, so our opponents could also read it. Outside of that and an accessibility accommodation, I would advise that most cards cut are on your computer.
The one time I enjoy physical cards (in policy) is when it has a performative purpose. For example, my team found an old book about debate (like a century old) and we wanted to use it for our debates, so we brought the physical book underlined. That being said, we also found a digital copy and cut it and put it in the doc, so our opponents could also read it. Outside of that and an accessibility accommodation, I would advise that most cards cut are on your computer.
The only reason I would tell debaters to have physical cards is maybe have the 1AC printed that way if you have some PC issues you’re not delaying the start of your round. Otherwise there is no good reason to move backwards. There’s too much evidence to make printing all of it worth it. As another debater coming from the before times when we had plastic tubs, it sucked and this is better. Trust.
I'm a fan of reading off a paper case (because laptops are bulky, a binder looks professional). I also would flow on paper. Everything else I much prefer digitally.
Monkeypox lives on surfaces for 3 weeks. So no.
If you are just going to have a handful of cards, it might be fun. Cards have a big downside--organization. I debated policy near the end of the card era. We had thousands of cards all neatly indexed and filed. But to use the cards, you had to take them out of their neat rows. After each round, you had to take the cards you had pulled and put them back in their proper places. Since tournaments wanted to rush you to your rounds even then, the refiling would be pretty haphazard. That meant that the day after a tournament, you and your partner spent a couple hours getting all the cards properly refiled. I have to admit I miss the physicality of cutting cards. I miss the smell of ditto ink on the team evidence sheets we got and I miss the smell of the rubber cement we used to glue those bits of evidence onto 3x5 cards (4x6 people were heretics in our minds). Nostalgia is fun, but take it from an Old--you don't want to go back to those days.
This seems like a hot take but my partner and I placed 3rd at both districts and state in 2022 with the use of our cards printed and pasted on to notecards. We used notecards page sleeves in a binder with dividers and the ease of being able to just put them in order when going up to speak made us much more organized.