Debating : an introduction

Seminar on Debate
Central Sulawesi
October, 19 2010
 Getting to know debating
• Debating is a clash of argumentations among
the Government team and Opposition team
• Everything starts from the word “motion”
• Competitive debating aims to simulate a
living, breathing parliamentary debate
• The soul of debating is to argue on policies, or
propositions of thought; good or bad,
effective or not effective, useful or useless
• Who shouts the loudest does not win!
 Competitive Debating 101
• Situated in tournaments; competition of
supremacy among teams
• The many formats; British Parliamentary,
World Schools, Asian Parliamentary,
Australasian Parliamentary -> the generally
used formats
• Winners of a debate is determined by a or a
team of adjudicator(s)
 Competitive Debating 102
• Motion release; prepared and impromptu
• Liason Officers; chairperson and timekeepers
• Casebuilding time; a 30 minute preparation
time for team members only! Printed
materials are the only source of reference
allowed, no electronics.
• Government team casebuilds inside the room,
Opposition team casebuilds outside the room.
 Competitive Debating 103
• Except for British Parliamentary, a team
comprises of 3 (three) debaters who would play
the role of 1st, 2nd, and 3rd speakers
• A reply speaker closes the case for each team;
this role can only be assumed by either the 1st
and/or 2nd speaker
• Each substantive speaker (1st to 3rd) is allowed the
same duration of floor time, some formats with
POI times (cont’d in slide 15)
• A reply speaker is usually given between 3 to 4
minutes to conclude the team’s case
Competitive Debating 104 :
The map of chronologies
What it looks like
Keywords nice to take note of by now..
• Motion
• Casebuilding
• Speaker roles
• Government/Positive/Proposition team
• Opposition/Negative/Refuting team
• Tournament format
• Adjudicators
 World Style System
• It is a system applied in WSDC thus implemented also in
NSDC
• World Style debate put emphasis on the philosophical
argumentation instead of the practical one.
• The job of affirmative team is to propose that there is a
(or some) significant underlying principle(s) to support
the motion reflected through the team stance
• Meanwhile the opposition’s job is to provide negation to
the particular stance. The main job of negative is to
simply proof that affirmative team is wrong. It is not
imperative for negative to provide a solution.
 Depth of Debating 101
MOTION
• Is the topic, a full propositional statement that states
what the debate is/shall be about
• Usually proposes a policy, against the status quo, or
affirming the virtue (goodness) of a state or condition
• A Government team must defend the motion, and the
opposition team must negate the motion -> in a
nutshell what competitive debating is about
EXAMPLE : This house would oblige Developed Nations to
grant development aids to the Developing Countries.
 Depth of Debating 102.1
Definition
• Is a need to clarify what the debate is specifically
about, per keyword of motion if necessary. But it is
not a dictionary explanation of per word meaning. But
what room of debate the words formulate.
• Scopes down a motion; to achieve a mutual
agreement among both teams on the interpretation
of the motion thus the entry point for a debate ->
“room of debate”
• A Government team holds the right to determine and
offer the definition of a debate, while the opposition
can accept, broaden or challenge the provided
definition
 Depth of Debating 102.2
A definition is ideal if :
• Provides interpretation of a motion that is logical
and acceptable by common sense
• It is simply aimed to clarify the debate from the
motion wording
• In setting a definition there should be room for
opposition to negate the debate
• Examples of reasonable vs unreasonable
definition.
 Depth of Debating 103.1
ARGUMENTS
Are points of view that supports the team
stance (support/refute)
• It must be logical and make sense
• Structure (the AREL theory)
1. Assertion
2. Reasoning
3. Evidence/Example
4. Link Back
 Depth of Debating 103.2
Argument Management
• Pool of arguments should be evenly and
strategically spread between the 1st and 2nd
speakers.
• Arguments should be consistent within the
team’s main stance (theme/team line).
• The workload of each speaker is distributed
and is called team split.
 Depth of Debating 104
REBUTTALS
• Are responses on your opponent’s arguments
• It’s not as simple as “accusing” things
• Simply saying your opposition’s arguments are
inferior does not constitute a good rebuttal
• Rebuttals must logically explain and analyze the
weaknesses of an argument
 Depth of Debating 105
Points of Information (POI)
• Allowance to briefly interrupt a standing speaker
• Stand up, raise hand, and offer your POI
• Standing speaker has absolute right to
accept/deny your POI
• If given permission to POI, the maximum time is
15 seconds, so be concise!
• POI barging is a bad strategy for a team to do and
can be penalized!
 Depth of Debating 106
CASE of a team
• All of the above from 101-105 is the anatomy
of the “case” of a team, which is practically
the body of what the team is proposing in the
debate
• The exciting part is that teams have mostly 30
minutes to do all of that, except for prepared
motions! 
Questions?
 Role of Speakers
• 1st : Lays out the basic fundaments of the team’s
case, including elementary argumentations
• 2nd : Continues the case by responding, rebuild
the case and provide continuity analysis of
argumentations
• 3rd : Reviews the overall case of opponent and
provide a more thorough ballistics of response to
argument. No new matter!
• Reply : Provide an overview of the debate and
why their team deserves the debate
Strategy that must not be named!!
DEFINITIONAL CHALLENGE
• Highly not encouraged, it ends up in non-dynamic
debates
• Only when the given definition is unfair and
undebatable! -> Truistic, Squirelling, Tautological,
Time Place setting
• But when a challenge is needed, it becomes
compulsory for the opposition team to execute!
Questions?