In policy debate, Lincoln-Douglas debate, and

public forum debate Public Forum debate is a widespread form of middle and high school competitive debate which centers on current events and relies on both logic and evidence to construct arguments. Invented in the US, Public Forum is one of the most prominent Americ ...

, the flow (flowing in verb form) is the name given to a specialized form of

shorthand Shorthand is an abbreviated symbolic writing method that increases speed and brevity of writing as compared to longhand, a more common method of writing a language. The process of writing in shorthand is called stenography, from the Greek ''st ...

which debaters use to keep track of all of the arguments in the round. It incorporates specialized and individualized abbreviations, notations, and symbols that allow debaters to keep up with the rapid speed of delivery in most speeches while making a record of as much as possible. Some examples of these abbreviations used on a flow are "DA" for a

disadvantage In policy debate, a disadvantage (abbreviated as DA, and sometimes referred to as: Disad) is an argument that a team brings up against a policy action that is being considered. A disadvantage is also used in the Lincoln-Douglas debate format. ...

,"K" for a kritik (critique), "CP" for a

counterplan A counterplan is a component of debate theory commonly employed in the activity of parliamentary and policy debate. While some conceptions of debate theory require the negative position in a debate to defend the status quo against an affirmative ...

, or "T" for topicality.

Utilization and restrictions

Flowing can be done on paper or on a laptop using a generic spreadsheet program such as

Microsoft Excel Microsoft Excel is a spreadsheet developed by Microsoft for Windows, macOS, Android and iOS. It features calculation or computation capabilities, graphing tools, pivot tables, and a macro programming language called Visual Basic for App ...

. Debaters have utilized more specialized software or integrative programs that work in tandem with

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. These programs have been usually designed by debaters and former debaters for flowing. In collegiate debate, computers may be used in any round, however some high school tournaments and organizations do not allow their use. Those tournaments that follow the

National Forensic League The National Speech and Debate Association is an American student debating society. It was established in 1925 as the National Forensic League; the name was changed in 2014. It is one of four major national organizations that direct high schoo ...

regulations may or may not allow laptops depending on the district. Debaters often prefer to use legal paper to be able to capture the numerous arguments read on each position. Numerous sheets of paper (or tabs in a spreadsheet) are used each round as debaters normally use one sheet for each different type of argument read. Debaters often save flows from previous rounds to keep records of both affirmative cases and strategies used by opponents.

Flow-filling

After the 1NC and 2AC, the second negative speaker and the first affirmative speaker will fill in missing flow, or do a "backflow", of their partner who has just given a speech. This can often be accomplished during the cross-examination or the prep time preceding the next speech. The 1NC requires flow filling because they need to flow what issues they are going to argue ('take') in the 1NR and the 2AC needs flow filling because they need a flow of these arguments so that they can carry the argument to the end of the round ('extend') during the 2AR. The 1AC is not backflowed because most affirmative debaters are presumably already familiar with the arguments or they have flowed the arguments before or during the speech. The negative block is not flow filled because the 1NR is prepping during the 2NC and the 1NR has no further speeches. The rest of the rebuttals are not backflowed for the same reason.

References

{{Reflist *Cheshire, David. (2000)
25 Tips for Keeping a Better Flow Sheet
''Rostrum''. Retrieved December 31, 2005. Policy debate

Utilization and restrictions

Flow-filling

See also

References