Debate is all about arguing between

affirmative/government team and

negative/opposition team upon a motion.

• Affirmative support the motion

• Negative  deny the motion
MOTION
MOTION is the topic to be debated. It
should be debatable and impartial.
(THBT=This House Believes That…)

TH would legalize gambling

TH would support euthanasia
THBT we should be free from terrorists
THE ORDER OF SPEAKERS
 The first affirmative  7 minutes
 The first negative  7 minutes
 The second affirmative  7 minutes
 The second negative  7 minutes
 The third affirmative  7 minutes
 The third negative  7 minutes
 The negative reply  5 minutes
 The affirmative reply  5 minutes
ROLE OF SPEAKERS
1st speaker of affirmative  background,
definition, theme line, team split, argument, sum-up.
1st speaker of negative  Accept or refuse the
affirmative’s definition, background, TL, TS, rebuttal,
argument, sum-up.
2nd speaker of affirmative
Rebut, rebuild, bulk of
2nd speaker of negative case, sum-up

3rd speaker of affirmative

3rd speaker of negative Rebut, rebuild, sum-up
FLOW OF SPEAKERS
AFFIRMATIVE NEGATIVE
1 Speaker
st 1st Speaker
2nd Speaker 2nd Speaker
3rd Speaker 3rd Speaker
Reply Speaker Reply Speaker
FURTHER EXPLANATION
BACKGROUND  to establish framework.

DEFINITION
straight motion  to be debated literally, current
issue. TH
Would Enhance GM Crops.
linkable motion  not to be debated literally.
That militaristic flavor is needed to promote
stability.
THEME LINE
Theme line is the underlying reason which
answers the big question “WHY” one
side of the house supports or opposes a
motion. Theme line is what a team
needs to prove, or the so-called burden
of proof. It is also the main reason why a
team attacks the opponent’s case.
TEAM SPLIT
A set of arguments is called a case. It is
very impossible to deliver the whole
arguments by only a speaker, thus,
those arguments should be distributed
fairly to the first and second speaker.
This is aimed to avoid overlapping job of
carrying out particular arguments. It is
more preferable to state the team split
explicitly.
 ARGUMENT / SPLIT
 Argument is the fragment of thought to support the theme
line. They are usually abbreviated as AREL.
 ASSERTION  Assertion is a statement which shows
one’s stance.
 REASONING  Reasoning is the way of explaining and
elaborating assertion to be comprehensible and logical.
 EXAMPLES  People will not that easily believe in
something unless there is fact or data prove it. Therefore,
proof, evidence, example and data are very significance in
upholding an argument.
 LINK BACK  An argument sometimes can go nowhere
if it is not known what its relevance with the theme line is.
Link back to theme line can bridge the long way from
argument and theme line itself.
 REBUTTAL
 To win a debate, debaters not only need to build a
strong case but they also have to attack their
opponent’s arguments and provide strong defense
from any attacks.
 Global Rebuttal: It is an attack against the main
core of the opponent’s case, the theme line.
 Detailed Rebuttal: It is an attack towards each
argument or example. It will not deteriorate the
whole case, but at least mess up the opponent’s
image.
 A case is a forest, it is more effective to focus on
the forest as a whole rather than the trees. To be
remembered, the trees, however, are the elements
of the forest.
 Rebuild own’s case
 Case Enhancement  is the part of reply
speech showing how important the
proposal is. For negative, it can show
how essential the denial is. Enhancing
the case means talking about our own
case but in a different way. It can be in
the form of a story, analogy or joke. The
aim is to give a clearer description to the
audience.
 Comparison  In showing how good
one’s case is and how bad the opposition
may have can be accomplished by
comparing both cases.
Definitional Challenge (DC)
Definitional Challenge is done unless the
affirmative provides a definition which violates
the principle of defining, that is avoiding truism,
tautology, squirreling, and time and place
setting.
 Reject the affirmative’s definition.
 Provide a new definition and a set of
new case.
 Rebut with even-if rebuttals.
 Repetition of definition.
 SPEAKER STYLE
 Language.
Fluency and clarity in speaking help debater
transferring what he believes to his audience.
It is not as simple as what it looks like
because there are many things to consider,
such as how to make our speech
comprehensible. (spontaneity, loudness, etc)
 Eye Contact
 Gesture / Paralanguage
 Stance
 Humor
The nature of debate – changing and dynamic – a
debater should up date himself by accessing any
kinds of information.

www.debate.uvm.eduwww.debatabase.org
http://www.geocities.com/nyuparli/novice_ed
www.debating.net
 THW ban homework.