2019 SFU High School Public Forum Tournament

On June 22nd, 2019, Vancouver Debate Academy participated in Simon Fraser University’s annual Public Forum Tournament (2019 SFU High School Public Forum Tournament). Popular in the United States, Public Forum is a styleGeneral Definition: How one delivers speeches, including techniques like tone, pitch, rate, facial expressions, gestures, volume, eye contact, word choice, etc. • Public Forum: Commonly used. In PF, style is typically evaluated as part of a debater's "Speaker Points", although it may influence the judge's perception of their arguments as well. • World Schools Debate: Commonly used. In WSD, this More of debate that emphasizes the use of evidenceGeneral Definition: In debate, a supporting argument for why a claim is true, including examples, logic, studies, data, or expert opinion. Evidence may also refer to research in prepped debates. See also "Justification" and "Warrant". Public Forum: see general definition. World Schools Debate: In WSD, research is not prioritized as much as analysis in "Prepared Motions", and is not allowed at More and favours quick-witted debaters. This styleGeneral Definition: How one delivers speeches, including techniques like tone, pitch, rate, facial expressions, gestures, volume, eye contact, word choice, etc. • Public Forum: Commonly used. In PF, style is typically evaluated as part of a debater's "Speaker Points", although it may influence the judge's perception of their arguments as well. • World Schools Debate: Commonly used. In WSD, this More of debate is fixated around crossfireGeneral Definition: A three-minute questioning period after the first and second speeches where opponents take turns asking each other questions. Traditionally, the person that spoke first may ask the first question. Public Forum: see general definition. World Schools Debate:Not used in WSD, where "Points of Information" are offered instead. British Parliamentary: Not used in BP, where "Points of Information" are offered More, a period of unstructured time where debaters are free to question one another and respond to arguments. Needless to say, VDA students were hard at work months before the tournament preparing their cases and responses to rebuttalGeneral Definition: The second speech in a debate round, used to refute an opponent's arguments and rebuild one's own. Responses to an opponent's arguments are also referred to as "rebuttal" regardless of the speech where they appear. • Public Forum: In PF, rebuttal speeches are four minutes long and should address all arguments presented by the opponents. No new constructive More. Their work paid off when our students took home both the Junior Champion Team ( Chole Zhu & Alex Chen) and Senior Champion Team ( Yuki Zhao & Brian Ji) titles! Additionally, our Junior teams dominated the top 5 team rankings and our Senior teams took home the top 3 slots!

All debaters performed incredibly and we are extremely proud to teach them all. They’ve gained valuable experience in a different styleGeneral Definition: How one delivers speeches, including techniques like tone, pitch, rate, facial expressions, gestures, volume, eye contact, word choice, etc. • Public Forum: Commonly used. In PF, style is typically evaluated as part of a debater's "Speaker Points", although it may influence the judge's perception of their arguments as well. • World Schools Debate: Commonly used. In WSD, this More of debate and we can’t wait to see how they tackle upcoming challenges!