Debate is a process that involves formal discussion on ◈ Rebuttal Speech – rebuilds arguments after

a particular topic. In a debate, opposing arguments are attacks, refutes arguments of the opposing team, and
put forward to argue for opposing viewpoints. Debate summarizes the debate
occurs in public meetings, academic institutions, and ◈ Voting Issues – the key points in a debate that
legislative assemblies. It is a formal type of discussion, are crucial to the outcome, reasons why the judge
should give the decision to a team
often with a moderator and an audience, in addition to
the debate participants. ◈
HIGH SCHOOL FORMATS
Team Policy Debate
Logical consistency, factual accuracy and some degree
of emotional appeal to the audience are elements in Lincoln – Douglas Debate
debating, where one side often prevails over the other
party by presenting a superior “context” or framework of COLLEGE FORMATS
the issue. In a formal debating contest, there are rules
NDT Debate
for participants to discuss and decide on differences,
CEDA Debate
within a framework defining how they will do it.
Parliamentary Debate

Informal and forum debate is relatively common, shown Team policy debate is the oldest, and still probably
by TV. The outcome of a contest may be decided by the the most popular format of debate practiced in some
audience vote, by judges, or by some combination of high schools. The proposition side is called the
the two. Affirmative and the opposition is called the Negative.
Each side is composed of two debaters, so that there
are four people practicing in the debate, excluding the
judge and the audience.
2 SIDES OF A DEBATE: Format A round of team policy debate consists of
eight speeches. The first four speeches are called
◈ constructive speeches, because the teams are
adoption of the resolution perceived as laying out their most important
arguments during these speeches. The last four
◈ speeches are called rebuttals, because of the teams
resolution are expected to extend and apply arguments that
have already been made, rather than make new
The resolution can take many forms, depending on the arguments.
format. But in most cases, the resolution is simply a statement Usually, there is a 3-minute cross-examination period
of policy or a statement of value. Some examples include: after each of the first four speeches. The person who
“Be it resolved, that the Federal Government of the United does the cross-examining is the person who will not
States should legalize marijuana…” be giving the next speech for his side. When team
“Be it resolved, that when in conflict, the right to a fair trial policy debate is done without cross-examination
ought to take precedence over freedom of speech…” periods, the speech times are often extended to 10
minutes for constructives and 5 minutes for rebuttals.

STYLE
◈
◈ Team policy debate is focused on evidence gathering and
interpretation and limits of the resolution organizational ability. Persuasiveness is not considered
◈ important – or at least, not as important as covering ground
resolution in spirit literally and reading plenty of evidence. The best teams have huge
fileboxes packed to the gills with evidence on their own
◈ affirmative case and all the possible cases they might have to
system oppose. There is very little discussion of values such as
◈ freedom, justice, equality, etc. usually, the ultimate criterion
on any issue is how many dead bodies will result from taking
◈ or not taking particular action. This form of debate can be
◈ fun, it encourages good research and organizational skills,
judgement and it is good for getting novice debaters used to speaking in
front of people.
◈ Criterion – standards, rules, or tests on which a
decision or judgement is based LINCOLN-DOUGLAS DEBATE
◈ Constructive speech – the first speech given by
each debater in a round Lincoln – Douglas debate began as a reaction to the excesses
of team policy debate in high school. The idea was to have a
◈ Contention – a debate case is organized into debate focused on discussing the merits o competing ethical
contentions – claims made for or against the values in persuasive manner. The famed debates between
resolution senatorial candidates Abraham Lincoln and Stephen A.
◈ Cross-Examination – questioning period Douglass in the 1850s inspired the name and format for this
style of debate. Lincoln – Douglas debate is a one-on-one
◈ Refutation – directly attacking the opposing debate, and as in team policy debate, the proposition and
debater’s arguments
opposition teams are called the Affirmative and the Negative,
respectively.
Parliamentary debate is yet another form of debate that arose
as a reaction against the excess of NDT and team policy
debate. The emphasis in this form of debate is on
FORMAT
persuasiveness, logic and wit. Unlike in another forms of
◈ debate, where the resolution is established well in advance of
speeches and two cross-examination periods. a tournament and is the same for every round in the
tournament, in Parliamentary debate the resolution is usually
◈ Resolutions in Lincoln – Douglas debate are
not established until 10 minutes before the debate round
usually stated as propositions of value. Although the
begins, and there is a new resolution for every round of
propositions are sometimes related to issues of
debate.
policy, this is not always the case. Typical resolutions
include: “The spirit of the law ought to take
precedence over the letter of the law to enhance
This form of debate is called “parliamentary” because of its
justice…”
vague resemblance to the debates that take place in the
◈ “Cooperation is superior to British parliament. The proposition is called the
competition…”RESOLUTIONS “Government” and the opposition team is called the
“Opposition”. The Government team consists of two
◈ “Violent revolution is a just response to
debaters, the Prime Minister and the Member of the
oppression…”
Government. The opposition team also consists of two
◈ Unlike in team debate, the debaters are expected debaters, the Leader of the Opposition and the Members of
to debate the resolution as a whole, not just a the Opposition.
particular example.
◈ Evidence was considered important, but it was FORMAT
not the be-all-and-end-all that it is in team policy
debate. The emphasis was on speaking clearly,
◈
logically and fluently. However, some habits of team
four constructive speeches and two rebuttal speeches.
policy debate have crept into Lincoln – Douglas
Several things are notable about this structure. First,
debate, and that high-speed reading of large
as in team policy and NDT debate, the proposition
quantities of evidence is now the norm on some
team both begins and ends the debate. Second, again
debate circuits.
as in team policy and NDT debate, the opposition
◈ team has a block of two speeches in a row. Third,
In two or three columns unlike in team policy and NDT, there are only two
rebuttals instead of four. Consequently, two people in
Yellow the debate have two speeches each, while the other
two have only one speech each.
Is the color of gold, butter and ripe lemons. In the spectrum
of visible light, yellow is found between green and orange. ◈
debate. But there are various motions on which the
Blue debaters can rise during other’s speeches. These
Is the colour of the clear sky and the deep sea. It is located points are:
between violet and green on the optical spectrum. ◈
Red Point of Information

Is the color of blood, and because of this it has historically ◈

been associated with sacrifice, danger and courage. Point of Order
◈
NDT DEBATE Point of Personal Privilege

◈
oldest, and probably most popular form of debate at RESOLUTIONS
the college level. NDT is just like the team policy
debate of high school, except more so. The format is ◈
exactly the same as in the team policy debate (4 form of a quotation or proverb provided to the
constructive speeches, 4 rebuttals, 4 cross- debaters shortly before the round. Theoretically, the
examination periods, etc.) and the style is also government team supposed to come up with a
similar: huge quantities of evidence read at high specific case that is an example of resolution.
velocity, with little pretense of persuasion. STYLE

CEDA DEBATE ◈
◈ preserve its emphasis on persuasion, logic and
This is a newer-form of college-level debate than humor. This success is most likely a result of
NDT, and it was born as reaction to NDT in the same eschewing excessive preparation and evidence. The
way that Lincoln-Douglas debate was born as a spontaneity and openness of the format makes
reaction to team policy debate. CEDA is a two-on- parliamentary debate free-wheeling and exciting,
two debate, with a structure very similar to that of whereas other styles of debate can become boring
NDT and team policy debate. The difference is in the because every debate round at a tournament revolves
style of resolution: while NDT resolutions are policy- around the same topic.
oriented, this is not always the case in CEDA. In VARIATIONS
addition, CEDA was intended to be a values-driven ◈
debate. phenomenon, but the rules differ greatly from
PARLIAMENTARY DEBATE country to country. In Canada, for instance, the
 format is just as in United States, with the following
exceptions: the speeches are all one minute shorter;
the two back-to-back opposition speeches are
combined into one long speech. In the United
Kingdom, there are actually four teams in every
debate round – two proposition teams and two
opposition teams – and each person speaks for only
five minutes.
EXAMPLES OF PARLIAMENTARY DEBATE

ASIAN AND BRITISH PARLIAMENTARY DEBATE

ASIAN PARLIAMENTARY DEBATE

◈
teams: the government team and the opposition team.
Sometimes, it is referred to them as the Affirmative
and the Negative team. The Government team will
always support the topic and the Opposition team
must oppose the topic. Each team will have three
speakers. Three in Government and three in
Opposition and they will speak in alternating order.
Each speaker will speak for 7 minutes. An entire
debate will take 42 minutes but at the end of those 42
minutes, both the teams will get to make an extra
speech.
BRITISH PARLIAMENTARY DEBATE

This Parliamentary debate is very widespread. Speeches are

usually between 5 to 7 minutes in duration. The debate
consists of four teams of two speakers, sometimes called
fractions, with two teams on either side of the case. The two
sides are the Government and Opposition, while the
speakers take their titles from those of parliamentary
equivalents. Furthermore, since this style is based on
parliamentary debate, each fraction is considered to be one
of two parties in a coalition. They must therefore
differentiate themselves from the other team on their side of
the case in order to succeed in their own right.

At the end of each debate, the teams will be ranked from

first place to fourth place. Each ranking has a point value
associated with it. The common point values used are as
follows:
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◈
◈
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