Congressional

Welcome to Congressional Debate!

Soham Patel

Erik Zhao

Hi everyone. We're your Congress captains for this year. We are both seniors and we both like Congress. Ask us questions on Facebook. Bye.

A Sample Congress Round to Check Out!

Top 5 Reasons to do Congress:

1. Easy to pick up, hard to master
2. Provides the confidence to speak for an audience
3. You get to choose the side you speak for in the debate
4. Combines arguments with style
5. Lots of topics

Here's a long and heartfelt paragraph from previous event captain Ryan Liu:

Some of you might be wondering why you would want to put time into Congress? Well, let me explain. In the end, isn't doing speech about getting practical life skills? And Congress, in my opinion, is one of the most practical events to do if you want to learn skills for the future. It's unlike any other event. Whereas in other events where you only have to convince just one person, or two people, in Congress, you need to convince 14-20 why you have the more superior argument. You get very used to the prospect of having to stand up and addressing over a dozen people, and any fears of public speaking are erased in a short amount of time. You learn to stand by and defend your point as a dozen people are questioning the heck out of you, and that takes a lot skill and practice. And you also learn the ability to listen to the totality of the debate and pinpoint arguments to attack various people, not just one person. The beauty of it is that Congress functions both as a speech and a debate event, so you get the best of both worlds. It takes some of the great argumentation of debate, and the polish of speech, and combines them into a great simulation of real world experience. It makes you have to be able to use the short amount of time you have to speak in the most effective and efficient way possible. In turn, you not only become good at arguing, but you also become an excellent speaker, so as a result, this event is the epitome of both "Speech and Debate." When in the real world, do you need to speak at 450 words per minute? You won't have to get caught about arguing insignificant tiny details that have no barring on the real issue at hand, and instead you'll be arguing the issue holistically, addressing the real issues. In the real world, you'll need to be able to appeal to a variety of people both stylistically and logically, and Congress will teach you to do both, not just one. You'll need both skill sets in the future if you want to convince people why you're correct. All content and no style is as bad as all style and no content. It's a practical event that takes the complicated jargon out and leaves true argumentation. As well as that, you don't get tired of having to do the same topic all year or all month – you get various topics to debate each tournament. And that's great, because you learn about a variety of topics and the amount of knowledge you have increases exponentially as you become familiar with not only various current events, but also political theories. It teaches you how the legislative process works and which issues America is facing in the present day. A great event to do if you're taking APUSH or AP Gov as well. Congress is both extemporaneous and prepared, so you'll learn how to both be able to think on your feat and research effectively. Which means, you'll be able to speak on the spot if you have to later in life. As well at that, it's a perfect stepping stone of getting you ready to take on other events, because it incorporates aspects of many different events. So in summation, Senators, looking at the totality of the issue by virtue of cost-benefit analysis, there are way more benefits of Congress than there are detriments. Therefore, I affirm doing Congress!

An interesting article about Congress:
http://www.forensicsonline.net/forum/content.php?24-Congress-Illegitimate-Child-of-Extemp-or-Unique-Analomy

2012-2013 Bills and Resolutions

SCDL Congress Bills 2011-2012
File Size:	239 kb
File Type:	pdf

Welcome to Congressional Debate!

A Sample Congress Round to Check Out!

Top 5 Reasons to do Congress:

2012-2013 Bills and Resolutions

Congress Handouts

Pictures from your local legislature...

2012-2013 Tournament Results: