DAY 1:

GENERAL INTRODUCTION TO DEBATE:

DEBATE IN GENERAL
1. There are 2 teams debating, each consists of 3 (three) debaters who would be 1st,
2nd, 3rd speakers and the reply speaker of the team.

2. One team shall be the Government/Affirmative side the side agreeing with the
motion, the other team shall be the Opposition/Negative side the side disagreeing with
the motion.

3. Each speaker will deliver a substantial speech of 7 (seven) minutes in duration, with
the affirmative going first. Afterwards, the reply speeches will deliver 5 (five) minutes
speech in duration, with the negative going first.

4. The complete order of speaking during a debate is as follows:

1st Aff 1st Neg 2nd Aff 2nd Neg 3rd Aff 3rd Neg Reply Neg Reply Aff

AFFIRMATIVE TEAM NEGATIVE TEAM

1st speaker 1st speaker
(7.20 min) (7.20 min)

2nd speaker 2nd speaker

(7.20 min) (7.20 min)

3rd speaker 3rd speaker

(7.20 min) (7.20 min)

Reply speaker Reply speaker

(1st/2nd speaker 5.20 min) (1st/2nd speaker
5.20 min)

5. In a substantive speech, members of the opposing team are allowed to give an

interruption, called Points of Information (POI), to the speaker delivering the speech.
POIs may be delivered between the 1st and 7th minute of the 8-minute-speech.

Points Of Information are brief interruptions (preferable in a form of a question)

between the 1st and 6th minute of a speech. The speaker delivering a speech has full
authority to accept or reject a POI. Once accepted, a POI should not exceed 15 seconds
and the speaker must answer that POI right after it is given.

No POIs are allowed in a reply speech.

The speaker has full authority to accept or reject a POI.

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As has been mentioned above, after the 1st minute and before the 7th minute of a
speech, members of the opposing teams are allowed to briefly interrupt the current
speaker. This interruption is called a POI.
In order to offer a POI, a person must stand up, hold out his/her hand and say On that
point, Sir/Ma'am or On that point of information. POI should be offered politely, not
used to hackle the speaker. When offered a POI, the speaker having the floor has full
authority to either reject or accept the POI. If a person is rejected a POI, he/she should sit
down again.

POI should be brief and expressed as a question so that the speaker is required to
provide an answer. Once accepted, the person offering POI has at most 15 seconds to
deliver the POI. The speaker then must answer or respond to that POI right after it is
given and not wait until later in his/her speech. It is advisable that the speaker does not
answer a POI more than 30 seconds as it would make him/her lose track of his/her
speech.
POI should be offered regularly and through out the course of the debate. Offering POI
shows that they understand the issues being discussed during the debate.

It is advisable to accept around 2 POI in a speech, and accept them between points of
arguments/rebuttals. Not accepting POI at all (especially when they are often offered)
would be bad strategy as the speaker is not involving the other team in his/her speech.
But accepting too much POI would risk the speaker of losing control of his/her speech.

6. A time keeper shall signal the time. There will be one knock at the end of the 1st and
6th minutes, to signal the starting and ending times for POI. And two knocks at the 7th
minute to signal that delivery time for the speech has ended. Any debater speaking
before 6 minutes shall be considered under-time and his/her points could be reduced.
Any debater speaking after 7.40 minute shall be considered overtime and his/her points
could be reduced as well.

7. For reply speeches, there will be one knock at the 4th minute, to signal that delivery
time is almost over, and two knocks at the 5th minute.

8. Every team is given 30 minutes preparation time after the motion is released and
before the debate begins.

MOTION
Motions, also known as topics, are full propositional statements that determine what a
debate shall be about. In the debate, the Government/Affirmative team must argue
to defend the motion while the Opposition/Negative team must argue to
oppose it.
There are some types of motion that mostly use in debating. There are open and closed
motions, philosophical and proposal motion There are some examples of motions used in
various international and national debate tournaments:

- This House Believes That (THBT) religious lesson should not be taught in school
- This House Believes That (THBT) gambling of all forms should be made illegal
- This house would (THW) legalize abortion
- This house (TH) regrets Lisbon treaty
- This House Believes That (THBT) politicians should only be allowed to serve in office for
a limited period of time

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As you can see, motions in a debating competition cover various areas: politics,
economy and social issues.

DEFINITION
For a debate to proceed, both teams need a clear understanding of what the
motion means. This requires the motion to be defined so that everyone (audience
and judges included) knows what is being debated.

A definition scopes down or gives limitations on the motion to focus the

debate. It clarifies the motion. It prevents the debate from turning into a confusing
exchange of ideas because of different interpretations teams may have about what is
actually being debated. Out of the definition should come a clear understanding of the
issues talked about in the debate. A definition must have a logical link to the motion.

The right to give a definition belongs to the Government/Affirmative team. The

affirmative team must provide a reasonable definition for the motion. Although the
right to define belongs to the Government/Affirmative team, the Opposition/Negative
team has the right to challenge or not accept it if it is unreasonable.

ARGUMENTS
After agreeing with a definition, both the Government/Affirmative and the
Opposition/Negative team should give arguments on why they support or disapprove
with the topic. Arguments explain why a point of view should be accepted. Good
arguments are logical and relevant to the point being proven. They should also
comprise of:

1. Assertion the statement which should be proved

2. Reasoning the reason why that statement is logical
3. Evidence examples/data that support the assertion and reasoning above
4. Link Back the explanation of the relevance of this argument to the motion

Given the duration of the debate, it is best to have 2 to 4 arguments to support your
point of view. These arguments should be divided between the 1st and the 2nd speaker.
So, some arguments are explained by the 1st speaker and the rest are explained by the
2nd speaker. This division is called a team split.

Example:
As the 1st speaker of the government side of the house I have 2 points of argument that
Im going to analyze:
1st point) bla..bla..bla
2nd point) bla..bla..bla

As the 2nd speaker of the government side of the house I have 2 points of argument that
Im going to analyze:
1st point) bla..bla..bla
2nd point) bla..bla..bla
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.etc

Each of these arguments should stand on their own. This means that each of the
arguments should be able to answer the definition with a because statement.

Having more than one argument means that teams should make sure that their
arguments are consistent or do not contradict each other. Contradiction and
inconsistency makes a teams performance seem poor because it shows as if theyre
not agreeing the points among themselves. It is good to have a main idea that connects
or becomes the foundation of the arguments. This is one way of ensuring arguments
dont contradict with one another. This main idea is usually named as a team
line/theme line in a debate.

REBUTTALS
Rebuttals are responses towards the other teams arguments. Rebuttals should
prove that the other teams arguments are not as important as they claim to be. As with
arguments, mere accusations do not equal good rebuttals. It is not enough to say that
the other teams arguments are inferior, good rebuttals should also explain the
reasoning and evidence of why those arguments are inferior.

Given limited time in a debate, it is not necessary for a team to rebut every single point
and fact raised by the other team. Better single out the opposing teams main
arguments and attack those first. Teams should prioritize rebutting strong and important
points first and leave the weak ones for last priority.

AFFIRMATIVE TEAM NEGATIVE TEAM

1st speaker 1st speaker
Argument: a + b Rebuttal: -a + -b
Argument: aa + bb

2nd speaker 2nd speaker

Rebuttal: -aa + -bb Rebuttal: -c + -d
Argument: c + d Argument: cc + dd

3rd speaker 3rd speaker

Rebuttal Rebuttal
Offensive: -aa + -bb + -cc + -dd Offensive: -a + -b + -c
+ -d
Defensive: a + b + c + d Defensive: aa + bb +
cc + dd

Reply Speech
Summarize the whole discussion from the first speaker of affirmative team until the 3rd
speaker of opposition team.

Here is the brief outline of the jobs or roles of each speaker:

1. The first speakers lay the foundation of the debate battlefield and The 1st Opposition
has to lay negations.
2. The second speakers attack the other side while continuing to build the case.
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3. The third speakers main duty is to attack/rebut the opponents case.
4. The reply speakers sum up the debate.