Advanced Debating Coaching Tips for Senior Canterbury Debaters

Advanced Debating Coaching Tips for Senior Canterbury Debaters and Coaches

Overview of the Evening Points of Information The Debating Tree First Principles Thematic Rebuttal Common mistakes being made i. “Meta-debating” ii. Practicalities Impromptu Debating

Points of Information Each speaker needs to offer at least 2 POI during each of the opposing teams speechesideally aim for 5. Write down your POIs that way if you’re not accepted you can pass it to another speakerremember debating is a team ‘sport’ The best POI are phrased as a question. The use of POI makes the debate more interesting for you the debaters, the adjudicator and the audience

For the rest of the evening all questions must be offered in the form of a Point of Information

The Debating Tree Leaves: Examples Branches: Analysis Trunk: Main Arguments Roots: Underlying Principle ie Big government v Little Government

To win the debate chop down the tree Aim for the roots and the trunk: Attack the Principles and the Arguments Time spent attacking examples is just pruning the tree of its leaves

First Principles The roots of the Debating Tree Don’t be overwhelmed by the number of issues, organisations, nations and topics there are to debate, there are only really a few – They just have different actors. The issues stay the same. Censoring the Internet, Media and Hate Speech are separate debates but the issue is still the role of government regulation and the merits of censorship. For Kosovo, Kurds, Basques, and Tamil Tigers the debate is about granting independence to ethnic minorities.

Don't be daunted and frightened by a motion on a specific topic you know little or nothing about. EVERY debate will have an underlining principle at its heart and the rest is packaging. Look at the general principles expressed in the original motion. What is the basic argument here and ask yourself: What is this Debate really about? What is usually required to win this debate?

Have a go identifying the underlying principle for the following topics

This house supports domestic content quotas in broadcasting This house would bail out failing industries. This house would privatise ACC Basic Principle: Role of the government regulation & spending public money

This house believes that civil liberties must be restricted in the interests of security This house would force feed anorexics We would legalise marijuana Basic Principle: Rights of the individual versus responsibility of state/society

This house believes that the west should treat state sponsored sexism as apartheid That we should tie development aid to democracy Basic Principle: Western culture versus other cultures. “Western Imperialism”

This house believes that making Yassar Arrafat a partner in peace was a mistake We would lift sanctions on Hamas Basic Principle: Democracy and Negotiating with terrorists.

Thematic Rebuttal Generally all speakers need more rebuttal. It’s easy if you approach it in chunks rather than point by point

Thematic Rebuttal Should be no new material at 3 rds so what should they do? Well lots and lots of rebuttal!! Best way to do this is to organise your rebuttal under the major issues/themes of the debate. REMEMBER TO ATTACK THE ARGUMENTS Say what the opposing team said and then why that is wrong or unimportant to the debate and why what your team has said should win the debate.

I find it good to have piece of paper with a line drawn down the middle. At the top I write the issue (which are usually clear by the end of the 1 st neg/2 nd aff) On one side I write what the opposing team has said and then I draw a line to why it’s wrong and what we have said to contradict the statements and arguments I do the same for the 2 -4 issues that the debate has focused on Everybody has their own system so find out what works best for you

Common Mistakes • Meta-debating • Focusing on practicalities

Common Mistakes: Meta-debating These are things like pointing out that opposition team set up the debate as a ‘model’ when it is clearly a judgement debate. An adjudicator will notice things like this and doesn’t want you to waste time on attacking it. Focus on the real arguments and issues in the debate. The ‘Model’ and ‘Judgement’ concepts are merely a way in which you should approach the debate in hand- you will not win or lose a debate on these alone

Common Mistakes: Practalities Common for debates to focus on the details of the model set up by the affirmative. This is usually done by the negative asking lots of questions of the model This distracts from the real debate at hand Better to ask: I. Is there a problem that needs solving in the first place? II. Will this model solve the problem? III. What harms will result from this model?

Think back to first principles and what the debate is really about The model is merely a vehicle to debate the issues

Impromptu Debating

The Basics 2 teams of 2 speakers A coin is tossed. The winners choose side or topic. Whichever team is allocated topic is given a piece of paper with 2 topics on it. They have 1 minute to decide what topic to debate. At the end of the minute they read their chosen topic out aloud. The other team then has 1 minute to decide whether they want to be aff or neg. At the end of the minute they are asked what side they want to be.

Basics continued The teams then have 5 minutes to prepare At the end of 5 minutes the 1 st aff is welcomed to the floor and the debate begins followed by 1 st neg, 2 nd aff, 2 nd neg. Speeches will be 4 -5 minutes with no POIs After the 2 nd neg the 1 st neg gives their leaders reply followed by the aff reply. Reply speeches will be 2 -3 minutes

5 Minute Press Tournament Impromptu Debating tournament Sunday 10 th August Villa Maria College Trophy gifted by the UC Deb. Soc At this stage 2 teams per school but please indicate if you would like to send more and we will assess the numbers once the entries are all in. Registration forms will be sent out next week and registration closes Monday 28 th July.

Next Senior Round: Limited Preparation Wednesday 23 rd July If you can host this please email me