General Definition: Arguments decreasing the impact of an opponent’s argument, preventing them from scoring points or adding weight to their side. Also known as “Defense“, mitigation is often framed as reasons the judge shouldn’t vote for an opponent. Mitigatory arguments are generally weaker than “Offensive Arguments“, although they can play …
General Definition: The topic or subject offered to debate. Motions are written as statements that create clear affirmative and negative ground, or positions. See also “Resolution“. Public Forum: see general definition. World Schools Debate: see general definition. British Parliamentary: see general definition. Canadian National Debate Format: see general definition.
General Definition: The side opposing the resolution in a debate. Public Forum: Commonly used, also known as the “Con“. World Schools Debate: Negative is not a common phrase in WSD, where “Opposition” is used instead British Parliamentary: Negative is not a common phrase in BP, where “Opposition” is used instead …
General Definition: Any action, attitude, or behavior that is used to relay a message to an audience, including gestures, facial expressions, voice quality, eye contact, posture, and other body language. Public Forum: see general definition. World Schools Debate: see general definition. British Parliamentary: see general definition. Canadian National Debate Format: …
General Definition: Arguments reversing or “stealing” the impact of an opponent’s argument, showing how an argument actually benefits the other team. Also known as a “Turn“, offense is often framed as reasons the judge should vote for your team. Offensive arguments are generally stronger and more strategic than “Defensive Arguments”, …
General Definition: A strategic argument delivered at the top of a speech that frames the debate in terms of certain points of clash or impacts. May also refer to evidence overviews that explain what an author means or where it fits into a certain argument. See also “Underview“. Public Forum: …
General Definition: A judge’s educational philosophy; a perspective that guides a judge’s decision. All judges have assumptions about the relative importance of substance, style, technical argumentation, and even format, and while judges are instructed not to allow their personal bias to influence their decision, debaters should do their best to …
General Definition: Appeals to emotion; rheoric designed to persuade an audience with emotionally impactful stories or examples. Public Forum: see general definition. World Schools Debate: see general definition. British Parliamentary: see general definition. Canadian National Debate Format: see general definition.
General Definition: Time alloted for debaters to prepare upcoming speeches. Public Forum: In PF, debaters have 4 minutes of prep time over the course of the entire debate to use as needed. Typically, debaters will keep track of how much time they have used, although the judge may time debaters …
General Definition: The side supporting the resolution in a debate, also known as the “Affirmative“. Public Forum: see general definition. World Schools Debate: Pro is not a common phrase in WSD, where “Proposition” is used instead. British Parliamentary: Pro is not a common phrase in BP, where “Government” is used …
General Definition: A form of impact weighing that analyzes the likelihood of an impact to occur. See also “Likelihood“. Public Forum: In PF, probability is developed through both the specificity of examples or analysis, as well as statistical analysis drawn from expert research. World Schools Debate: Though not a common …
General Definition: A method for demonstrating why a claim might be true, including examples, logic, data, and expert opinion. Public Forum: see general definition. World Schools Debate: see general definition. British Parliamentary: see general definition. Canadian National Debate Format: see general definition.