The Constructive Speech

How to research, make a team, and build a case

By Theodore Ganea, Gail Fair, Clement Dupuy, Elizabeth Raab
How to Argue
● Claim
○ The main point of the argument; what the debater seeks to prove true
○ A statement the debater makes about the world
● Warrant
○ Evidence: the facts
○ Logic: your underlying logic linking the evidence to the claim
● Impact
○ The importance / relevance of your argument to the real world
○ Usually links to saving lives, health, quality of life, economy
○ Facts & logic
Let’s Talk about Logic - Logical Fallacies
● Straw Man: creating a false or made up argument out of your opponent’s
argument and attacking that instead
○ Ex.
■ Opponent: “Red Cross is ineffective, we should decrease funding to it”
■ Debater: “My opponent claims that the children in Africa are unimportant”
● Statistics of Small Numbers: Using a small sample size to create a conclusion
○ Ex. “0% of people are dying from coronavirus”
■ Sample Size: this class
● Post hoc, ergo propter hoc: “it happened after X, so it was caused by …”
Correlation is not causation.
○ If I sneeze and a car explodes, did I make the car explode?
● Call fallacies out, explain to the judge, then move on!
Let’s Talk about Evidence - Sourcing
● Sources are the only way the judge knows your facts are valid
● Debaters need sources for:
● Statistics
○ Over 100,000 have died from coronavirus in the US
● Background
○ Historically, online schooling replaces in-person school
● Cause-effect relationships
○ Online education creates a “monologue and not a dialogue,” preventing teachers from tailoring classes
to their students. As a result, online school harms the quality of education.
■ https://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/20/opinion/the-trouble-with-online-education.html
Good Sources Have ...
● Accuracy
○ Check information against common knowledge
○ Check information against other trustworthy sources
● Little bias / prejudice
● Authority
○ Trustworthy author
■ Look up the author
○ Trustworthy publisher
■ Look at the publisher’s “About Us”
■ Look up the publisher
● Recency (is it current?)
Finding Sources
● Google
○ All articles
○ Use “OR” to broaden your search
○ Avoid Bing like your life depends on it! :)
● Google Scholar
○ scholar.google.com
○ Reputable, scholarly articles and studies ONLY
○ No patents
○ No citations
○ Date range
● Skim the title and intro
● When in doubt, save it!
Cutting Cards
● Card: a piece of evidence
● The tagline
○ A few sentences that summarize what your evidence says
○ Source citation - author, publisher, date, URL
○ What you read in a round
● The quote
○ The evidence itself
○ Bold relevant parts
● Example:
○ According to Mark Edmundson for the New York Times in 2012, online school creates a “monologue
and not a dialogue,” preventing teachers from tailoring classes to their students. In turn, online school
lowers the quality of education. <- tagline
○ “Online education is a one-size-fits-all endeavor. It tends to be a monologue and not a real dialogue. The Internet teacher, even one who
responds to students via e-mail, can never have the immediacy of contact that the teacher on the scene can, with his sensitivity to unspoken moods and enthusiasms. This is
particularly true of online courses for which the lectures are already filmed and in the can. It doesn’t matter who is sitting out there on the Internet watching; the course is what it
is. Not long ago I watched a pre-filmed online course from Yale about the New Testament. It was a very good course. The instructor was hyper-intelligent, learned and splendidly
articulate. But the course wasn’t great and could never have been. There were Yale students on hand for the filming, but the class seemed addressed to no
one in particular. It had an anonymous quality. In fact there was nothing you could get from that course that you couldn’t get from a good book on the subject.”
Recap
● Argument Model:
○ Claim
○ Warrant
■ Facts
■ Logic
○ Impact
■ Facts
■ Logic
● Avoid logical fallacies - no matter how pretty it sounds, it must be real
● Find credible sources
○ Accuracy
○ Authority
○ Little bias / prejudice
○ Is it recent?
 EAT,
MEET,
DEBATE,
REPEAT!
Speaking Times
Speaker 1, Team A Constructive 4 min

Speaker 1, Team B Constructive 4 min

Speaker 1, both teams 1st Crossfire 3 min

Speaker 2, Team A Rebuttal 4 min

Speaker 2, Team B Rebuttal 4 min

Speaker 2, both teams 2nd Crossfire 3 min

Speaker 1, Team A Summary 3 min

Speaker 1, Team B Summary 3 min

All speakers Grand Crossfire 3 min

Speaker 2, Team A Final Focus 2 min

Speaker 2, Team B Final Focus 2 min

Finding a Partner
● Harmony and collaboration
○ Find someone you can work together with
○ Similar goals
○ Can be a friend, but not always!
○ Don’t play the blame game
● 1st speakers should be suave and powerful speakers
● 2nd speakers need to be good at taking down arguments
Constructive Speech
● The constructive (also known as the case) contains
the opening arguments of a given side
● Pre-written by both speakers in the team
● Each team prepares 2 constructive speeches - 1 for
pro and 1 for con
● 1 - 3 contentions (arguments)
● 4 minutes
○ Time your speeches!
● Read by 1st speaker
How a Contention Looks
ARGUMENT CONTENTION

● Claim ● Title & Intro

● Warrant ● Warrant
○ Facts
○ Evidence ○ Logic
○ Logic
● Impact
● Impact ○ Facts
○ Logic

Example Contention
● Claim: Online school saves time
● Warrant
○ Evidence: Students don’t have to go to
school on buses
○ Logic: If you’re spending less time on
buses, you’re saving time
● Impact: Since students have more
time, they will be less stressed
○ Terminalized: Less stress leads to fewer
mental health issues
● The topic is Resolved: Online schooling benefits students.
We are debating on the [pro / con] side.
● (Overview / framework)
● Our First (Only) Contention is Saving Time
● Online schooling saves time for students in x
ways:
● First, by ending the need for buses.
○ Since students won’t have to go to a physical school
building, they can stay at home and won’t need buses.
○ This is good, since the time students spend on buses
is all wasted.
● The impact of online schooling is better mental
health.
○ Students have more time, and they will spend that
time relaxing and enjoying themselves, decreasing
their stress levels.
○ Stress is the single largest cause of mental health
issues; less stress means less depression and less
suicide.
Your Turn!
● Our Only Contention is Summer’s Superiority.
● Summer is better than winter in x ways:
● Warrant (Reason) 1
○ Facts and logic
● Warrant (Reason) 2
○ Facts and logic
● Impact 1
○ Facts and logic
Contention Strategies
● One warrant, one impact
○ Easy to explain
○ Not flexible
○ 2-3 contentions
● Multiple warrants, one impact
○ Flexible & safe
○ Harder to explain
○ 1-2 contentions
● One warrant, multiple impacts
○ Huge impact
○ Harder to explain
○ Not flexible
○ 1-2 contentions
● Multiple warrants, multiple impacts - NO GO
Overviews and Frameworks
● OPTIONAL
● An overview is a way to limit what you’re debating
○ Ex. Judge, the facts show that online schooling replaces classical schooling.
○ Use facts & logic in your overview
○ If the opponents destroy your overview / the judge doesn’t believe it, you’re in trouble
● A framework is a way to limit what the judges vote based on
○ Ex. Judge, access to education is always more important than quality. It doesn’t matter if education’s
quality is great if only a few people gain its fruits. In fact, lower access and higher quality is very bad,
because it leads to a small elite oppressing the uneducated many.
○ Access and quality
○ Use facts & logic in your framework
○ If the opponents destroy your framework / the judge doesn’t believe it, you’re in trouble
● Use these tools at your own risk
Recap
● 1-3 contentions (opening
arguments) read in constructive
● 4 minutes!!
● Structure of a contention
● Contention strategies
● Use overviews & frameworks at
your own risk!
 EAT,
MEET,
DEBATE,
REPEAT!