Welcome+to+Debate

// Debate // toc

Debate is a type of speech activity where high school and eventually college students compete against each other at tournaments. At these tournaments the students prepare and give speeches about actions the United States federal government should do and is limited and based off of the debater's interpretation of the resolution. There are three kinds of debate Lincoln-Douglas (LD), Cross Examination (CX), and Public Forum Debate (PFD). This wiki mainly for CX debaters but maybe later there will be later editions for other debate types. There are many different interpretations of what debate is. Some people consider it a game and enjoy the competition, some people are here for the education and some still use it as a resume builder. Regardless, you are obviously here to learn about debate and prepare yourself for any future debates and that's all that matters for now. Debate is more than activity though, it is a team, a community and an idea. Everywhere you go as a debater you are a diplomat of the debate team and our activity as well as a member of our community (which is pretty cool). What's important is that you get out of debate what you put into it and along the way you will learn about stuff you would never learn in high school and meet some pretty awesome people!

=History=

(Taken from the Wikipedia page) Academic debate had its origins in intracollegiate debating societies, in which students would engage in (often public) debates against their classmates. Wake Forest University's debate program claims to have its origins in student literary societies founded on campus in the mid-1830s, which first presented joint "orations" in 1854.Many debating societies that were founded at least as early as the mid-nineteenth century are still active today, though they have generally shifted their focus to intercollegiate competitive debate. In addition to Wake Forest, the debate society at Northwestern University dates to 1855. Boston College's Fulton Debating Society, which was founded in 1868, continues to stage an annual public "Fulton Prize Debate" between teams of its own students after the intercollegiate debate season has ended. Other universities continue similar traditions. Intercollegiate debates have been held since at least as early as the 1890s. Historical records indicate that debates between teams from Wake Forest University and Trinity College (later Duke University) occurred beginning in 1897. Additionally, a debate between students from Boston College and Georgetown Universityoccurred on May 1, 1895, in Boston. Whitman College debated Washington State University, Willamete University, and the University of Idaho in the late 1890s. Southwestern claims that the first debate held on its campus was between Southwestern and Fairmount College (which eventually became Wichita State University ) but that debate could not have occurred prior to 1895, the year Fairmount College began classes. By the mid 1970s, structured rules for lengths of speeches developed. Each side (affirmative and negative) was afforded two opening "constructive" speeches, and two closing rebuttal speeches, for a total of eight speeches per debate. Each speaker was cross-examined by an opponent for a period following his or her constructive speech. Traditionally rebuttals were half the length of constructives, but when a style of faster delivery speed became more standard in the late 1980s this time structure became problematic. Wake Forest University introduced reformed speech times in both its college (9-6 instead of 10-5) and high school (8-5 instead of 8-4) tournaments, which spread rapidly to become the new de facto standards.

=Rules=

There are only a few set in stone rules for debate. One is the speech times and another is the speech order. Everything else in debate is up to the debaters to contest in round. These discussions usually revolve around issues of theory violations or topicality. There are some rules that differ per the league the tournament you are attending adheres to.

For further distinctions see: Debate Leagues Overview

=Summarizing CX=

Structure
Debates are held between two teams, one side called the affirmative (aff) and will be defending the resolution and one called the negative (neg). Each team will have four speeches, two per debater, one constructive and one rebuttal. Before the round each team must decide which debater will have what speaker position. These teams are working to get the judge to vote for their sides.

The aff begins the debate with a prepared speech that is pre-scripted and consists of all carded evidence; this speech is the first affimative constructive and is called the 1AC. The 1AC is usually divided into sections called "advantages" that follow a logical order. More importantly, the 1AC has a component called the "plan text" a one or two line statement of what the affirmative is. In this speech the affirmative traditionally sets the framework and topic for the rest of the debate. From there the negative gives their first negative constructive speech which consists of their reasons why the aff is a bad idea and reasons to prefer the status quo or a different policy option; this is called the 1NC. Now the aff will give their second and last constructive speech to respond to the positions presented in the 1NC. This is the last opportunity for the affirmative to introduce new arguments in the debate and must answer everything the 1NC said. This speech is called the 2AC Now begins the 13mins of speech time the neg will have know as the "negative block" (the block). the negative block is a time to answer all the arguments made by the 2AC and attempt to gain the competitive edge. Typically it is explained that the neg gets two back to back speeches to make up for the advantage the aff has when they speak first and last. The first part of the block is the second and last negative constructive where the negative get to respond the arguments made in the 2AC. This speech is called the 2NC. Immediately following the 2NC the negative gives their first negative rebuttal or the 1NR. This speech consists of the arguments that were divided for the block. After the block the affirmative must give their first rebuttal called the 1AR. This speech does not necessarily answer every argument made in the block but sets up the necessary arguments that the 2AR needs in order to properly argue and win the debate. The last speech the negative makes in the debate is their second negative rebuttal or the 2NR. The 2NR, like all last rebuttals is meant to answer the affs claims and lay out the justifications for why the judge votes for their team. Considering the 2NR is not the last speech in the debate, it is often noted that the negative must also preemptively answer the arguments that the affirmative will make in their last rebuttal. The final affirmative speech and the last speech in the round is the second affirmative rebuttal or the 2AR. This speech, like the 2NR, is meant to both answer the opposing teams arguments but also tell the judge why the aff is the best option in the round.
 * 8:00 Mins
 * Followed by 3:00 Mins Cross-Ex
 * 8:00 Mins
 * Followed by 3:00 Mins Cross-Ex
 * 8:00 Mins
 * Followed by 3:00 Mins Cross-Ex
 * 8:00 Mins
 * Followed by the last 3:00 Mins Cross-Ex
 * 5:00 Mins
 * 5:00 Mins
 * 5:00 Mins
 * 5:00 Mins

As per tradition (and team policy) shake hands with your opponents after the round.

For quick reference visit the speech times page.

The Topic
The topic for policy debate changes every year and remains the same throughout that year. Mostly referenced to as the resolution; the topic area requires that the United States federal government take a certain action and this is how the affirmative team determines what they will claim the USfg does. This year's policy topic is: "The United States federal government should substantially increase its exploration and/or development of space beyond Earth's mesosphere."

Take a look here at some past resolutions: Resolution List

Tournaments
A tournament is hosted by a school and is the time and place where students can actually compete with other students from other schools in their respective events. All tournaments have guaranteed preliminary rounds where the students will debate each other. These "pre-lims" are at first random and then are "power-matched" based the record of wins/loses from the previous rounds. After the prelimaries are done a list of people who have enough wins and possibly meet speaker point minimums and will advance to elimination rounds. These elimination rounds are paired differently but essentially comes down to pairing debaters based on skill and pits them against each other. These rounds are called elimination because a lose means you are eliminated from the tournament.

For more in depth explanations of different styles of tournaments see also Round Robins and NFL's.

To see our schedule for travel and competition go to: The Westwood Travel and Tournament Schedule or Visit the Westood Debate and Speech Booster Club website.

Evidence
All debate types use evidence (referred to as "cards" in CX debate) to supplement speeches. Cards are used to sum up the argument or position presented by the author and to relate it to the debate. Cards are a tool to make an argument and give it credibility by providing evidence that backs it up. Evidence is "cut" from sources like books, scholarly articles and the internet that are written by people who work in the fields of study that might be pertinent to the topic.

Cards have three main components. The tag, the cite and the actual text from the source. Debaters will read all three of these parts in a debate round. The tag is read first and is the debaters interpretation of the author's arguments. In other words, a tag is a summing up of the actual text and is the main idea that the debate wishes to convey. As debate progressed and teams desired to get faster and more efficient at debate so did their taglines. Taglines are also important to flowing, which is how the judges and the debaters keep track of the debate. After the tag comes the citation or "cite". The cite is where the qualifications of the author of the evidence and the source of the evidence is listed. in modern CX debate however all the debaters actually have to read in the speech is the authors last name and year of the evidence. The purpose of the site is to accredit the evidence to the proper parties and thus all evidence must contain a cite. This doesn't apply to analytics (Arguments made without evidence but we will get to that later). The last part of the card is the actual text of the evidence. This comes from the source and is directly copied and pasted into the file. Debaters can then chose to strategically underline and highlight cards so that they only read the most pertinent parts of the text.

Evidence comes in two forms, paper and paperless. More than likely you will encounter both types when debating as paperless is a fairly new phenomenon in debate. In either instance you will be required to show all evidence read in the round to the opposing team and the judge if he/she calls for it.

Winning
To win a debate, a team of debaters must simply convince the judge (or critic) to vote for them. The judge must pick between the affirmative or the negative and then write out and explain their decision on the ballot and in their "reason for decision" or RFD. There are a variety of ways to achieve this, including these listed on the argument types page. The judge must also provide ranks for judging the best speaker in the round. This is done through a system of points called "speaker points" and the 1-4 numbering of speakers in the round.

=Leagues=

Debate is a nationally, state-wide and local activity and thus there are many different organizations that associate and regulate debate. Most adhere to one preset topic but may differ in traditions and policy for how debates go.

The Texas Forensic Association (TFA)

The University Interscholastic League (UIL)

The National Forensics League (NFL)