Streamliner
Give your debate files an efficiency boost.
Streamliner is a state-of-the-art tool for debaters that cuts wasted speech time by automatically replacing inefficient words and phrases. With our database of hundreds of inefficient words commonly used by debaters, you’d be surprised how much speech time you save!
**This app in currently in beta, which means right now it is completely free! For the rest of the summer, if you’re going to camp or just doing debate work, we’d love for you to try it out (as many times as you’d like). Give it a go below!**
Securely upload your .docx document and Streamliner will do the rest! Our app will "line down" your evidence. And rest assured, we don't store your prep.
Streamliner FAQ
Why did we create this app?
In every debate case, without fail, there are probably 30 seconds or more of wasted speech time, all due to inefficient word choice. That’s speech time you’re not using to add arguments or saving to refute key points, which could ultimately make or break a debate round.
In our experience, it is nearly always possible to cut out this wasted speech time, while still making the exact same points you were before, by substituting in more efficient words and phrases, which is why top debaters make this a part of their pre-tournament preparation. But this process is slow and tedious. Armed with a dictionary of hundreds of efficient replacements, Streamliner automates this process and does it better and faster.
In the long term, efficiency is a good debate practice, and we hope this tool will help you be more conscious of word choice in both your case writing and in your speeches, even when speaking extemporaneously. That means you’ll have become a better debater!
What kind of words are in the Streamliner dictionary?
Our dictionary of inefficient words and efficient replacements includes common abbreviations, transition words, debate-specific jargon, contraction, verb and noun synonyms, and more. Some examples of words and replacements include:
“United States” —> “US”
“therefore” —> “thus”
“affirmative” —> “aff”
How does Streamliner recognize and treat evidence (cards)?
If a paragraph has underlined text, Streamliner treats it as a card, and “lines down” (i.e. reformats the word) rather than replaces it, so as to not alter the evidence’s original text. For this reason, Streamliner may treat your citations as normal, replaceable text, so we recommend underlining your citations to avoid this.
How does Streamliner calculate time saved?
The calculated time savings shown assume an average rate of delivery – approx. 250 syllables per minute or 0.24 seconds per syllable. If you consider yourself a fast debater, you can recalculate your time savings using a rate of delivery that is 2-3x faster, depending on your reading speed.
See Robb, Michael P., Margaret A. Maclagan, and Yang Chen. "Speaking Rates Of American And New Zealand Varieties Of English". Clinical Linguistics & Phonetics 18.1 (2004): 1-15.
How should I use Streamliner?
We strongly recommend you incorporate Streamliner into your pre-tournament preparation routine. Once you have your final cases/files, it takes just a few seconds to feed them through the app, and your speech time savings could be invaluable during the tournament. Of course, due to the complexity of the English language, Streamliner sometimes makes mistakes, so we recommend always reading through your cases once more to make sure you are satisfied with the edits made. That’s why we created the “Highlight changes?” feature – to make spotting edits easier! And regardless, you should practice reading through your cases once more, to make sure you are fluent with the changes made.
What’s next for Streamliner?
We are continually updating the app, so as to remove bugs and improve its performance. This includes expanding and refining Streamliner’s dictionary even further.
We’d love for you to be a part of this project: Please give us feedback! If you like the app, notice a bug, or have questions or comments, we always appreciate hearing from you, and your feedback will go a long way.