History
Academic debate had its origins in intra-collegiate 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 atStyle and delivery
Speed
Policy debaters' speed of delivery will vary from league to league and tournament to tournament. In many tournaments, debaters will speak very quickly - often called spreading - in order to read as much evidence and make as many arguments as possible within the time-constrained speech. Speed reading or spreading is normal at the majority of national circuit policy debate tournaments. Some feel that the rapid-fire delivery makes debate harder to understand for the lay person. Many further claim that the increased speed encourages debaters to make several poor arguments, as opposed to a few high-quality ones. A slower style is preferred by those who want debates to be understandable to lay people and those who claim that the pedagogical purpose of the activity is to train rhetorical skills. In contrast, rapid delivery is encouraged by those who believe that increased quantity and diversity of arguments makes debates more educational. Proponents of the delivery style emphasize that spreading can help increase the quality of debates by enabling more nuanced viewpoints, rather than more general positions. Most debaters will vary their rate of delivery depending upon the judge's preferences.Flowing
Debaters utilize a specialized form of note taking, called ''flowing'', to keep track of the arguments presented during a debate. Conventionally, a debater's flow is divided into separate ''flows'' for each different macro-argument in the debate round ( kritiks, disads, topicalities, case, etc.). There are multiple methods of flowing, but the most common style incorporates columns of arguments made in a given speech. The first constructive speech on a position is flowed from the top of the sheet down in the first column, and the next constructive speech is flowed where the previous constructive left off, except it is written/typed one column to the right rather than directly below it to indicate that it is a new speech. This allows the debater to match the next speaker's responses up with the original arguments. Certain shorthands for commonly used words are used to keep up with the rapid rate of delivery. The abbreviations or stand-in symbols vary between debaters. Flowing on a laptop has become more and more popular among high school and college debaters, despite the reservations of certain members of the community. Some debaters use a basic computer spreadsheet; others use specialized flowing templates, which include embedded shortcut keys for common formatting needs.Speech documents
During the round, debaters make speech documents with cards (pieces of evidence) and analytics (arguments that rely on common sense), which help them organize what they will say. The speaker then emails the document to their judge and opponents, who may follow along as the speech is being read. It is frowned upon in many debate circles for the judge to read the speech document in real time, as it may cause them to be lenient on the level of clarity required of the speaker. Many debaters use Verbatim to create their speech documents, as it allows them to quickly compile evidence from different files a debater may have on their computer.Theory
Although there are many accepted standards in policy debate, there is no written formulation of rules. Sometimes debaters will in fact debate about how policy debate should work. These arguments are known as "theory arguments", and they are most often brought up when one team believes the actions of the other team are unfair and therefore warrant a loss or other intervention by the judge.Burdens of the affirmative
When the Affirmative team presents a plan, they take upon the Burden of the Policy to advocate (Inherency) that their plan should be adopted. They must prove that their plan is an example of the resolution (Topicality), and they must prove that the plan is a good idea (Solvency). The Affirmative traditionally must uphold this burden as preferable to the status quo (Harms).Stock issues
One traditional way to judge policy debate states that the affirmative team must win certain issues, called the stock issues. They are generally known as follows: * Topicality: Does the plan fulfil the resolution? * Inherency of the status quo: Is the plan Inherent in the current system? What is the Status Quo? Is the affirmative's plan happening already, and if not, why? Inherency promotes strength and originality in advocacy. * Significance, or Harms of the status quo: Does the plan warrant change? What is the problem in the status quo to justify adopting the plan? Is the plan important enough to even warrant consideration or make a difference? * Solvency advantages: Does the plan deal with the issues presented adequately? Will the plan solve any problems in the status quo? How much of an impact (positive effect, or Significance) will the plan have? Is the plan an example of the resolution? Is the Affirmative Team's plan in line with the change advocated by the resolution? Are those good reasons to affirm the resolution? The standard "stock issues" presented as planks are Topicality, Inherency, Harms, and Solvency. . Topicality is usually a simple matter to be argued later if the Negative brings up the issue. Affirmative case plans do not preemptively argue Disadvantages in the first speech, focusing on the advantages, uniqueness, significance, and so on of the plan's Solvency. Stock issues are taught extensively to novice debaters to help them understand policy debate in general, but typically stock issues become better understood as debaters move into more sophisticated and less traditional debate outlines. Stock issues are strongly associated with traditional or succinct policy debate, and are typically stressed in advanced debates if the judge is known to be steeped in policy debate.Advantages and disadvantages
Most affirmative teams today generally frame their case around advantages, which are good effects of their plan. The negative team will often present disadvantages which contend that the affirmative plan causes undesirable consequences. In an attempt to make sure that their advantages/disadvantages outweigh those of the other team, debaters often present extreme scenarios such as the extinction of the human race or a global nuclear war.Negation tactic
Negation Tactic, also known as Negation Theory, contends that the negative need only negate the affirmative instead of having to negate the resolution. The acceptance of all-inclusive negation, as opposed piecemeal, allows Negative teams to run full argumentation outlines such as topical counterplans with better Solvency that affirms the resolution but still negate the Affirmative's plan.Negative strategy
After the affirmative presents its case, the negative can attack the case with many different arguments, which include: * Topicality: The Negative will attempt to argue that the Affirmative team does not fall under the rubric of the resolution and should be rejected immediately regardless of the merits or advantages of the plan. This is a type of "meta-debate" argument, as both sides then spend time defining various words or phrases in the resolution, laying down standards for why their definition(s) or interpretation(s) is superior. Most yearly topics have at least one or two commonly run Affirmative cases that are only arguably topical, so Topicality is often justified as a check or deterrent on and against such plans, which usually have quite strategic components. If run correctly, they are the strongest arguments against case. * Disadvantages: The negative can claim that there are disadvantages, or adverse effects of the plan, which outweigh any advantages claimed. In order to outweigh any positive effects of the affirmative case, impacts must be arguably "larger" than those of the opposing team. The negative must say what is good now, and how the affirmative's plan causes the impact of their disadvantage. * Counterplans: The negative can present a counter solution to the affirmative case's problem which does not have to affirm the resolution (The negative does not have to be topical in making a counterplan). This is generally accompanied by on-case arguments that the affirmative's plan does not solve, as well as disadvantages that link to the affirmative case but not the counterplan. Counterplans narrow down the on-case arguments to: advantages the counterplan can not borrow, the inherency, and the solvency. Upon the negative running a counterplan, most debates boil down to the solvency of the affirmative case, and the disadvantages. Counterplans must be competitive with the plan. This means that the counterplan must either be mutually exclusive with the affirmative (for example, one cannot both increase oil production (a hypothetical plan) and decrease oil production (a hypothetical counterplan) or be undesirable in conjunction with the plan (the negative must win that the inclusion of the plan would cause some form of harm that the counterplan alone would avoid). * Kritiks: The negative can claim that the affirmative is guilty of a certain mindset or assumption that should be grounds for rejection or a different mutually exclusive alternative to the Affirmatives plan. Kritiks are sometimes a reason to reject the entire affirmative advocacy without evaluating its policy; other times, kritiks can be evaluated within the same framework for evaluation as the affirmative case. Examples of some areas of literature for kritiks include biopower,Evidence
Evidence in debates is organized into units called ''cards'' (because such evidence was originally printed on note cards, though the practice has long been out of favor). Cards are designed to condense an author's argument so that debaters have an easy way to access the information. A card is composed of three parts: the argument or evidence summary, the evidence that supports the argument, and the citation. The argument part, sometimes called the ''tag'', is the debater's summary of the argument presented in the body. A tag is usually only one or two sentences. The ''citation'' contains all relevant reference citation information (that is, the author, date of publication, journal, title, etc.). Although every card should contain a complete citation, only the author's name and date of publication are typically spoken aloud in a speech. Some teams will also read the author's qualifications if they wish to emphasize this information. The ''body'' is a fragment of the author's original text. The length of a body can vary greatly—cards can be as short as a few sentences and as long as two or more pages. Most cards are between one and five paragraphs in length. The body of a card is often underlined or highlighted in order to eliminate unnecessary or redundant sentences when the card is read in a round. In a round, the tag is read first, followed by the cite and the body. As pieces of evidence accumulate use, multiple colors of highlighting and different thicknesses of underlining often occur, sometimes making it difficult to determine which portion of the evidence was read. If debaters stop before finishing the underlined or highlighted portion of a card, it is considered good form to "mark" the card to show where one stopped reading. To otherwise misrepresent how much of a card was read—either by stopping early or by skipping underlined or highlighted sections—is known as "cross-reading" or "clipping" which is generally considered cheating. Although many judges overtly condemn the practice on their paradigms, it is hard to enforce, especially if judges permit debaters to be excessively unclear. Opponents will generally stand behind a debater whom they believe to be cross-reading or clipping, as if waiting to take a card (see below), and silently read along with them in an attempt to get their opponent to stop or the judge to notice. Often, especially on the national circuit, a debater will share any cards they plan to read with their opponents and the judge immediately before their speech. If cards are not shared before the speech, it is common for an opponent to collect and examine evidence even while a speech is still going on. This practice originated in part because cards are read at a rate faster than conversational speed. Taking the cards during the speech allows the opponent to question the author's qualifications, the original context of the evidence, etc. in cross-examination. It is generally accepted whichever team is using preparation time has priority to read evidence read previously during a round by both teams. As a result, large amounts of evidence may change hands after the use of preparation time but before a speech. Most judges will not deduct from a team's preparation time for time spent finding evidence which the other team has misplaced. After a round, judges often "call for cards" to examine evidence whose merit was contested during the round or whose weight was emphasized during rebuttals so that they can read the evidence for themselves. Although widespread, this practice is explicitly banned at some tournaments, most notablyJudging
A judge is an individual responsible for deciding the winner and loser of a policy round as well as assessing the merits of the speakers. Judges merit a good debate round and, ideally, avoid inserting their own personal beliefs that might cloud impartiality. Judges are also coaches who help debate teams improve. Some circuits see ''lay'' or inexperienced judges recruited from the community as an important part of the activity of a debate club. Debaters in these circuits should be able to adapt their presentations to individuals with no debate experience at all, as well as maintaining high standards of debate for judges who have themselves been debaters. This use of lay judges significantly alters delivery and argumentation, as the rapid-fire style and complex debate-theory arguments are frequently new to lay judges. For this reason, other circuits restrict policy debate judging to qualified judges, generally ex-debaters.Speaker points
The judge is charged not only with selecting a winner, but also must allot points to each debater. "Speaker points" are numeric merit scores that the judge awards the debaters on their speaking skills. Speaker point schemes vary throughout local state and regional organizations particularly at the high school level. However, the method accepted by most national organizations such as the National Forensic League, Tournament of Champions, National Catholic Forensic League, Cross-Examination Debate Association, and National Debate Tournament, use values ranging from 1 to 30. In practice, within these organizations the standard variation is 26‑29, where 26's are given to extremely poor speakers, where a perfect score is considered incredibly rare and warranted only by an outstanding performance. Most tournaments accept half-point gradations, for example 28.5s, or even by tenths. Generally, speaker points are seen as secondary in importance to wins and losses, yet often correlate with a team's win/loss rate. In other words, the judge usually awards the winning team cumulatively higher speaker points than the losing team. If the judge does not, the decision is considered a "low-point win". Low-point wins simply mean that the team with better argumentation did not speak as well as their competitors, which is rare, because judges will vote for teams that speak better overall and award higher speaker points to teams who deliver a better debate. The difference can be stated as so, "the low-point winning team are better debaters, and the high-point losing team provided a better debate round". In some smaller jurisdictions, the judge ranks the speakers 1‑4 instead of awarding them speaker points. Either speaker-point calculation may be used to break ties among teams with like records. Some areas also use speaker rankings in addition to speaker points in order to differentiate between speakers awarded the same number of points. At a majority of tournaments, debaters also receive "speaker awards", which are awarded to the debaters who received the greatest number of speaker points. Many tournaments also drop the highest and lowest score received by each debater, in order to ensure that the speaker award calculations are fair and consistent, despite the preferences of different judges. The number of speaker awards given out varies based on the number of debaters competing at any given tournament. For instance, a small local tournament might only award trophies or plaques to the top three debaters, whereas a widely attended "national circuit" tournament might give out awards to the top ten or fifteen speakers. Some judges eschew the tournament atmosphere for a few rounds in favor of debate as a speech activity for amateurs rather than for individual competitors. For example, a low-win team relies on teamwork, work ethic, and good coaching to deliver their speech debate as a cohesive, strategic whole to win tournaments as debaters rather than as speakers. One of the brilliance of this style of participation is speeches are delivered as if written and is as elegant on paper as they are in speech, focusing on persuasion as a goal rather than cleverness or complexity of performative tactics. The style is plain and is sometimes described as classical. Other judges also eschew the competitive tournament atmosphere for a few rounds to challenge teams in speech skills and delivery. For example, the judge will give higher speaker points to the speaker who best lobs in a Monty Python joke, or who resolves the ethical component of the policy topic similar to Lincoln-Douglas debate. Speakers who give logical directionality to the debate round with a good save on a decisive argument, or makes a compelling shift in argumentation, or who has clarity of purpose, or whose style of delivery stands out as the most comprehensive among four speakers, deserve high speaker points.Paradigms
Most debate judges (who were usually debaters in high school and/or college) generally carry a mindset that favors certain arguments and styles over others. Depending on what mindset, or paradigm, the judge uses, the debate can be drastically different. Because there is no one view of debate agreed upon by everyone, many debaters question a judge about their paradigm and/or their feelings on specific arguments before the round. Not every judge fits perfectly into one paradigm or another. A judge may say that they are "tabula rasa" or tab for short, or willing to listen to anything, but draw the line at arguments they consider to be offensive (such as arguments in favor of racism). Or, a judge might be a "policymaker", but still look at the debate in an offense/defense framework like a games-playing judge. Examples of paradigms include: * Stock issues: In order for the affirmative team to win, their plan must retain all of theCompetition
Tournaments
Most high school debaters debate in local tournaments in their city, state or nearby states. Thousands of tournaments are held each year at high schools and certain colleges throughout the US. A small subset of high school debaters, mostly from elite public and private schools, travel around the country to tournaments in what is called the 'national circuit.' The championship of the national circuit is usually considered to be the Tournament of Champions, also called the TOC, at theUrban debate
Urban debate leagues give students in urban school districts an opportunity to participate in policy debate. There are currently urban debate leagues in 24 of the largest cities in the United States. In total, more than 500 high schools participate in the league and more than 40,000 students have competed in urban debate.Rural debate
The Rural Debate Initiative ("RuDI") expands access to debate to secondary school students residing in rural America. RuDI partners with top college programs to provide weekly coaching sessions, internal debate tournaments and summer debate camps to rural students in a virtual format at no cost. RuDI also provides supplemental programs such as leadership development initiatives and career development workshops to champion and leverage the assets unique to rural communities and rural individuals, such as their pride of place, close-knittedness, and diverse set of practical skills.Championships
High school
There is some dispute over what constitutes the "national championship" in the United States per se, but two tournaments generally compete for the title: The Tournament of Champions held at theTexas Forensic Association Debate
In Texas, most debate occurs inCollege
There is no single unified national championship in college debate; though the National Debate Tournament (NDT), theInstitutes and camps
While once attended by only highly competitive policy debaters, many high school students now attend debate institutes, which are typically held at colleges in the summer. Most institutes range from about two to seven weeks, with four weeks being the most common. Many institutes divide students into work groups, or "labs", based on skill level and experience. Many even offer specialized "advanced" or "scholars" workshops, to which acceptance is highly limited. These camps often set the tone for the upcoming season and produce much of the evidence used by debaters at the beginning of the year.Resolutions
A resolution or topic is a statement which the affirmative team affirms and the negative team negates. Resolutions are selected annually by affiliated schools. Most resolutions from the 1920s to 2005 have begun "Resolved: that The United States federal government should" although some variations from this structure have been apparent both before the NDT-CEDA merger and with the 2006–2007 college policy debate topic, which limited the affirmative agent to theEvent structure
The times and speech order are generally as follows: In addition to speeches, policy debates may allow for a certain amount of preparation time, or "See also
*References
Bibliography
* Cheshier, David. (2002)External links
;High school debate associations