Building a One-Page Prep Sheet
A prep sheet is the compressed version of everything you know about a bill — built so you can glance at it mid-round instead of flipping through pages. By the end of this lesson you'll be able to build one for any bill in under 20 minutes.
The five zones
A good one-pager has five zones: bill summary (2 sentences), mechanism check (the 4 parts from Unit 1), top 3 aff arguments with tags, top 3 neg arguments with tags, and a sourced-evidence box with 3-4 citations you can cite from memory or a card box.
Tags, not paragraphs
Write argument tags — short labels like 'actually solving the problem: agency lacks capacity' — not full paragraphs. In the heat of a round you need to find the line instantly; a wall of text is useless at 90 seconds before you're recognized.
Leave room for the round
Leave blank space at the bottom for notes taken live during the round — arguments other speakers made that you'll want to refute or build on. A prep sheet finished before the round starts is only half-finished.
Bill: a $2B federal grant program for rural broadband, funded by spectrum auction revenue.
Summary: 'Funds rural broadband via FCC grants, paid for by auctioning unused spectrum.' Mechanism: funding (spectrum auctions — check if revenue is reliable), timeline (3-year rollout), agency (FCC — has relevant experience), penalty (n/a, it's a grant program, not a mandate). Top aff tags: 'Digital equity,' 'Spectrum revenue is real and available,' 'FCC track record.' Top neg tags: 'Spectrum revenue is volatile,' 'Grants get captured by large ISPs, not rural co-ops,' 'Alternative: state block grants solve better.'
1. Why should a prep sheet use tags instead of full paragraphs?
Answer all 1 to check.
A one-pager compresses a bill into five scannable zones you can use mid-round, with room left for live notes.