Building a Yearlong Topic File
A complete topic file is the single most valuable asset a BQ debater builds over a season, consolidating research, cases, and responses in one place. You will be able to outline the sections a strong topic file should contain.
Core Sections of a Topic File
A strong topic file contains: your Affirmative case (with all contentions, evidence, and pre-emptions), your Negative case or negation strategy, a 'blocks' section of pre-written responses to the most common arguments you face from each side, a glossary of key terms with plain-language definitions, and a running log of new arguments encountered each tournament with your best answer to each.
Keeping It Alive, Not Static
Revisit and revise the topic file after every tournament, adding new blocks for arguments you had not prepared for and cutting or upgrading evidence that has been effectively beaten in-round; a topic file from September should look noticeably different, and stronger, by February.
After a tournament, a debater lost a round to an unfamiliar Negative argument about neuroscience and libertarian free will.
That evening, the debater adds a new entry to their 'blocks' section titled 'Neg: neuroscience disproves libertarian free will,' researches Robert Kane's work on indeterminist agent causation as a response, drafts a full four-step refutation, and files it under the relevant contention so it is ready before the next tournament rather than being encountered cold again.
1. Which of these should NOT typically be a section of a BQ topic file?
Answer all 1 to check.
Build a topic file with your case, negation strategy, pre-written blocks, a glossary, and a running argument log — and keep revising it all season.