L Introduction to Debate

College Debates
r National Debate Tournament (NDT)
National Debate Tournament (NDT) debate is the oldest and the most popular
form of college level debate. NDT debates are extremely similar to Team Policy
Debates. The format is the same, with the exception that in college NDT debates
the constructive speeches last for 9 minutes. Again, this form of debate deals
almost exclusively with claims based on policy and emphasizes research over
. persuasion.

r Cross Examination Debate Association (CEDA)

r Parliamentary Debate
This is the format we will be working with. The focus of Parliamentary Debate
is on persuasiveness, logic, and humor.

5 - Parliamentary Debate
Parliamentary Debate involves two teams o f either 2 or 3 spcakers each. The affirmative team i s
referred to as the Government and the negative team is called the Opposition. The first speakers
are the Prime Minister (PM) and the Leader o f the Opposition (LO). The second speaker for
the Government i s the Deputy Prime Minister (DPM) or Member of Governmcnt (MG). The
Opposition's second speaker i s the Deputy Leader o f the Opposition (DLO) or simply as
Member o f the Opposition (MO). When there are three team members they are referred to as the
Government and Opposition Whips (GW and OW).

During a Parliamentary debate, team members deliver 6 speeches. The chart below indicates the
order and timing o f those speeches.

I Speech I Prime Leader of the Member of Member of the Leader of the Prime
Minister Opposition Government Opposition Opposition Minister
Substantive Substantive Substantive Substantive Reply Reply
I T'me 1 7 or 8 rnin. 8 rnin. 8 min. 8 min. 4 min. 4 or 5 min.

In American Parliamentary debates, the Prime Minister speaks for 7 minutes during his
substantive speech and 5 minutes during the Reply speech. In English language debate in Asia
(ELDA), all of the substantive speeches are 8 minutes and both Reply speeches are 4 minutes.
Also, in ELDA, the Whips each deliver 8-minute substantive speeches. A Parliamentary debate
does not have the 3-minute cross examination after the substantive speeches.
motions
The Motions or Resolutions (both referring to the "assertion" or the "statement") in a
i Parliamentary debate include all three types of claim.

Introductory statements ('preambles') to Motions include:

: Here the term "House" refers to the House of Parliament or Congress, as represented
; by the adjudicators (a person who settles conflicts) and audience. For example, "This
House believes that high school education should be made mandatory for all citizens" or
"This House Believes that all foreigners married to a Korean citizen should automatically
; receive full Korean citizenship with no restrictions."

There are 2 types of Motions that may be brought to the floor; Straight and Linkable
Straight
They are to be debated exactly as they are written. Many of these Motions are drawn from
current events. For example, "This House would withdraw its troops from Iraq." Other
Motions are of the value type. "This House Believes That all foreigners married to a
Korean citizen should automatically receive full Korean citizenship with no restrictions."
Linkable
They are not meant to be debated "literally" (following the words of the original exactly).
Instead, they may be linked to a policy issue. Often these Motions are taken fiom famous
quotes or proverbs. Here, the Opposition team does not know fully what the main issue
is until the Prime Minister has begun his substantive speech. As an example, "Be It
Resolved That patriotism is the willingness to kill and be killed for trivial reasons." The
Government team may decide to link this popular saying to a situation where the U.S.
must decide on pulling its troops out of Iraq.

In both cases, the Government must "define" the Motion, meaning that they can interpret
the Motion and limit the scope of the debate. They can do so simply by defining some of
the terns used in the Motion or by defining the Motion as a whole. The example above,
"patriotism is the willingness ..." is a good example of defining the motion as a whole.
Using the Motion, "THBT high school education should be mandatory for all citizens,"
the Government team could decide to define "good," as "generally beneficial" or as
"comfortable." If they use " g o o d as meaning "generally beneficial," the Government
has defined the motion very broadly leaving many areas that can be debated. With this
definition, the teams could argue the many possible benefits of mandatory high school
education, including:
More opportunities for citizens to get good jobs
Minimizing the gap between the "educated" and the "uneducated."
i To save "out of school" teens from getting into troubles

i However, if they define "good" as "comfortable," the Government wilI be limiting the
: scope of the debate to only the physical or psychological comfort.
L Introduction to Debate

c r s t Speakers

i In a Parliamentary debate, the first speaker for the proposition or government side is
called the Prime Minister. The first speaker for the opposition side is called the Leader of
; the Opposition.

The Prime Minister's job is to control the direction of the debate. After introducing
himself and his team, the PM must state the motion verbatim. He then defines the motion.
: In other words, the PM will clarify the Government's understanding of the motion and
offer definitions of terms used in the motion which may not be clear. This part of the PM's
job is very important because it sets the direction o f the debate. For example, the motion,
"THW ban hate speech on canlpus," can bc defined either very broadly or quite narrowly.
i' If the PM simply gives a dictionary definition of "ban" and "hate speech," then he has left
the range of possible a r g o n ~ e n tvery
~ hroad. On the other hand, if the PM says. "We of
j the Government interpret this motion as meaning that we must prevent anyone on campus
from spreading speech that is intended to hurt feelings of a particular group of people,"
then the PM has narrowed the focus ofthe debate to just the subject of racism on campus.
! Next, the PM might choose to offer a "model" for the Motion. That is, he may set down
: the criteria or circun~stancesunder which the Government would support the Motion.
I E.g. in a debate where the Motion is, "THW give citizenship to all foreigners married
I to a Korean citizen," the Govcrnmcnt might want to state that it supports this Motion
only if all potential citizens get a clear criminal check. The PM must define the Motion
i reasonably in order to allow room for debate.

; The Leader of the Opposition sets up the case in opposition to the Motion. In case the PM
i has defined the Motion unacceptably, to the point that there can be no reasonable debate,
the LO may offer an alternative defin~tion.The LO must challenge the definition within
j the first minute of his substantive speech and must tell the exact reason for thc challenge.

E.g. if the Motion is, "TIIBT parents with a history of drug addiction should receive
constant counseling," and the Government decides to define the motion as meaning that.
"anyone with a history of drug abuse should not be allowed to have children ," clearly
there can be no debate on that issue. In that case, the L O can simply polnt out that the
Government has overly narrowed the definition to the point of being a trulsm and offer a
definition which leaves room on both sides for debate. In this way. the Opposition team
has the advantage o f wording the definition so that it fits the arguments that team has
prepared and researched. 'The LO then states his tcarn line and tells the tcam split. After
he has finished his introduction, he rehuts the arguments made by the PM and then begins
his aubstaritive arguments.
 Unit 01 A

cond Speakers
The job of the second speaker is to rebut the arguments made by the first speaker and to
continue the momentum created by the first speaker's speech. During the first speaker's
speech the second speaker needs to take careful notes of all of the arguments that were
made and prepare for possible rebuttals. These should include both offensive (arguments
that attack the opponent's speech) and defensive (arguments that support one's own
team's arguments) rebuttals. After rebuttals, the second speaker needs to pick up where
the first speaker left off, keeping up the momentum of his team's case.

hird Speakers
When a debate includes three speakers, it is the job of the Whips to rebut arguments made
by the previous speaker, to make his own substantive arguments and, most importantly, to
give a complete and convincing summary of his team's arguments. Only the Government
team may raise new matter in the third substantive speech, and only if the Prime Minister
stated in his introduction that new matter would be raised. Opposition third speaker may
not raise new matter since the Government would not have an opportunity to rebut that
matter.

R e p l y Speech
When a debate includes three speakers, the reply speech takes on a more global sense. It
is used to revieu. the clashes that occurred in the debate and to explain that i t was your
side that won those clashes and thus also won the debate. When there are only two
debaters per team: the reply speech takes on the responsibilities mentioned above in the
third speaker's part. Before ending with the global observations and pronouncement of
victory, the Reply Speaker must rebut any new arguments made by the previous speaker
and then give an organized, clear summary of all of his team's arguments. Only after he
has brought order to the chaos of all of the assorted arguments can he launch into a review
of all of the clashes and his explanation of his team's ultimate victory.

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