Organizing Your Prep File
Folder structure, block files, and frontlines: how varsity teams keep a topic manageable.
A prep file is an organized system of cases, blocks, frontlines, and evidence, sorted so you can find anything in under 30 seconds before a speech. A pile of PDFs doesn’t count. When novices need an answer they improvise, while varsity teams open the file.
The skeleton
Aff case, Neg case, Aff blocks (attacks on common Neg arguments), Neg blocks (attacks on common Aff arguments), frontlines for your own case, and a general evidence folder sorted by theme (economy, security, morality). Keep one folder per topic, with a subfolder for each contention.
Block files
Blocks are pre-written answers to predictable arguments. When you hear "costs too much" for the fifth time, you shouldn’t be inventing a response. Open your Neg blocks on cost and read the card you cut on Tuesday. After cutting cards, building blocks is the best use of your prep time.
Mini prep file exercise
Before a tournament, you should be able to list from memory your three strongest Pro arguments, your two strongest Con arguments, and the card that supports each one. The assignment has you build this map for nuclear energy using real sources.
Building the file, in order
- 1
Cases first
One Pro case and one Con case, each with numbered contentions. Everything else in the file refers back to these numbers.
- 2
Frontlines for your own case
For each contention you wrote, the three attacks you expect and your answer to each. You will open this file more than any other.
- 3
Blocks against their case
Pre-written answers to the arguments the field actually runs. After two tournaments you will know what those are.
- 4
Evidence sorted by theme
Economy, security, morality, feasibility. Sort by theme rather than by side, because a card that answers their economy argument often supports yours.
- 5
A one-page round sheet
Your three strongest arguments per side and the card behind each. If you can only find one document under pressure, make it this one.
Resolved: The United States federal government should substantially expand domestic nuclear energy production.
Read all three sources and build a mini prep file: list 3 arguments Pro could run (with the source that supports each) and 2 arguments Con could run. Write one sentence per argument. This is an outline, so don’t write a full case.
Assignment
Build a Mini Prep File: Domestic Nuclear Energy
~15 min
Read before you write
- Advantages and Challenges of Nuclear Energy
U.S. Department of Energy · DOE
The government’s pro-nuclear case on emissions and grid reliability.
- 3 Reasons Why Nuclear Is Clean and Sustainable
U.S. Department of Energy · DOE
The clean-energy argument and land-use numbers for Pro.
- U.S. Nuclear Industry
U.S. Energy Information Administration · EIA
Fleet-age and construction-timeline facts Con can use to argue expansion isn’t feasible.