Analogies

I wrote a Disadvantage last week. I know, I was surprised too. I like that disad. One of my favorite parts is the analogy I included. I can't tell you what it is, because it's a good one and I might have made it up and then you might steal it. I probably didn't come up with it, but still. It never hurts to be paranoid. 

As you know, we like to use analogies in debate. For us, using an analogy is like explaining what we mean without using a lot of words or time in familiar, easily understood terms. Wait, I can do better than that. For a judge, when a debater uses an analogy, it's like a teacher giving her student the answers to a test: it's simple, easy, and doesn't require much thinking. See what I mean?

Before I did debate, I had a particular fondness for analogies. Probably one of first I heard in-round was in a Lincoln-Douglas round last year. I don't quite remember what was being described, only that it involved ice cream that needed to be eaten with a spoon or else the debater would risk looking ridiculous. Which is true. He would look ridiculous. Another was the classic "The four Stock Issues are like the four legs of a table: take one out and the whole table falls." (Some people try to get creative and substitute "cow" for the table, and I totally get why they do that, because cows are obviously 5742x funnier than tables.) When I first heard the table analogy, I didn't even know what Stock Issues were, but the analogy stuck. They always do.

So be creative. Be fun. Be... analogous. 

You're homeschooled, which is like doing school at home.

Wait, no.

You're homeschooled, which is like winning the lottery: both are awesome, rewarding and allow for a lot of great opportunities and blog posts.