Suitable Expressions for a Formal Debate

→ Put these 12 words in the gaps below:

address, afraid, claims, firmly, hold, maintain, moreover, position, raise, recap, stress, support

Greeting, introduction, and opening:

Good morning! My name is [first and surname], and my teammate are Name Surname. We affirm the resolution that…and we’re
going to try to convince you that…
Good afternoon, students and professor(s). I’m [first and surname], and this is Name Surname. We disagree with the idea that…

Presenting your position:

We / I __________ the resolution/motion that ….
My/Our position is the following…
To begin with, I would like to state that…
We __________ believe that…
We maintain that…
I / We (firmly) contend that…
We / I __________ the opinion that…
We are of the opinion that…

Clarifying and emphasizing certain arguments:

Let me (just) restate my position.
To be clear, what I meant was…
Let me clarify.
We wish to __________/emphasize, that…
I would like to point out that…
The main point I want to __________ is…

Sequencing:
I’m going to deal with two points. The first is…
The first point I would like to make is…
Here’s the main point I want to raise…
Firstly…, secondly…, our third point is that…
The first reason to… is that…; Next…; What’s more…; __________…
To begin with, we contend that…; In addition,…; Last but not least,…

Rebutting:
Let me respond to your first argument.
Let me __________ your last point.
My/Our reply to your argument is based on…
Our opponents have not addressed the question we raised regarding…
The other side has failed to answer our point about…
There are two issues our opponents have failed to dispute, namely…
I’d like to focus on two points that the other team has failed to address.
Your data/observation is not quite correct.
I’m __________ there is a flaw in your argument.

Disagreeing:
The affirming/opposing team __________ that…., but on the contrary, …
Our opponents contend that….but/however…
I have to take issue with what you just said. Summarizing and concluding:
I see your point, but I __________ that… To __________ the main points…
That’s all very interesting, but the problem is that… Let’s sum up where we stand in this debate.
I’m afraid we can’t agree with your point. In conclusion, we want to point out that…
I beg to differ with my opponent’s point of view. Let me summarize our __________ in this debate.
In summary,…
To wrap up, I’d like to…