LD is short for Lincoln-Douglas, and you don’t ever really need to know who they are. But if you’re curious, the event is named after Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas, and their famous debates about the expansion of slavery. It’s nowhere near that old, however. The competitive debate event was started in the 1980s.

This page will give you a high-level overview about LD, starting from the most general features of LD as a competitive speech and debate event, moving on to what it means to be a debate event, and then finally telling you some of the specifics about LD particularly.

Don’t worry: this is just to get you familiar with the topic, we’ll teach you how to do it in a bit.

LD is an event in competitive speech and debate

Speech and debate leagues hold tournaments.

There are winners in competitive speech and debate.

Speech and debate is structured more like a sport than most academic extracurriculars.

LD is a type of debate.

Topics known in advance.

Debaters argue for both sides.

Speeches are timed.

Judged by a third party who decides the winner.

Winner decided by the arguments made in round, not what arguments the judge thinks are true.

LD is value debate.

LD tends to be about moral questions.

LD is one-on-one.

LD topics typically last for two months.

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