An Activity I Love

Love is in the air; but, whilst some people have been staring at each other over candelabrums I’ve been doing the things I love. One of these activities is debating. I spend two or more hours on this activity every week and sometimes I end up dedicating my entire Saturday to this cultural. And yet, there aren’t that many people who actually know what debating is. So I think it’s about time you learnt. BTW the following information is handy to possess for general knowledge discussions, quizzes and the moments when you REALLY want to win an argument.

First of all:

A SACCEE debate consists of two teams each with three members on it. The structure of a debate (without floor[1]) goes like this:

The Proposition Team is the team that is arguing for the motion (topic) e.g. if the motion is: THW (stands for THIS HOUSE WOULD)  hold both developing and developed countries equally responsible for fighting climate change – then the Proposition Team would need to prove that both developing and developed countries have contributed to the greenhouse gasses affect and that all countries are able to fight climate change.

The Opposition Team is the team that disagrees with the Proposition team and thus argues against them. If the topic above was the motion that was to be debated then the Opposition team might argue that developing countries contribute more greenhouse  gasses than developed countries thus developing countries should be the most responsible for combatting climate change (this is just an example it may or may not be 100% true in 2015).

Speaker Roles:

Proposition 1:

This speaker should:

1.  Begin with an introduction and contextualisation (explain the situation that is happening wherein the motion is necessary for example if we had to debate the topic I’ve already mentioned the first speaker would explain that we are experiencing climate change and thus there is an increase in natural disasters)
2.  Burden of Proof (this is when you explain what Opposition needs to prove if they are going to win the debate).
3.  Define the important words in the topic.
4.   Give a case split (explain what your team members are going to be talking about during the debate).
5. Explain your policy (here you answer the questions who, what, where, why and how you are going to change the current situation).
6.  Now you introduce your positive matter (explain the pillars that you have identified that will prove why you will win the debate).
7. Conclusion

Opposition 1:

This speaker will basically do exactly the same as the Proposition 1 speaker however, instead of defining the key terms this speaker does rebuttal (this is when the speaker mentions what they disagree with so far in the debate and the speaker explains why they do not agree with these points) before they introduce their counter-policy (if a counter-policy is necessary, if it isn’t then the rebuttal is before the positive matter).

Proposition 2 and Opposition 2:

1.      Introduction

2.      Case Split (the speaker explains what he or she will be speaking about)

3.      Rebuttal

4.      Positive matter (the speaker brings up more points grouped in pillars that explain why his or her side of the debate should win)

5.      Conclusion

Proposition 3 and Opposition 3:

This speaker’s responsibility is to prove that their team has won the debate and whilst doing this he or she must also prove why their opponents have lost. Basically he or she just deals with rebuttal. No positive matter is added in this speech except in special circumstances.

REPLY:

The speakers who do reply are supposed to summarize the debate by showing how their team won the main clashes.

This is a BRIEF summary of debating if you have any further questions feel free to ask me J

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[1] Floor is the session during a debate wherein the people who are watching the debate argue for the team that they are supporting. They can bring up new points or simply argue against the other team, however, all their points need to be addressed through the chair, i.e. they have to begin by saying “Through you Madam/Master Chair”. The Floor takes place after Opposition Speaker 2 and before Proposition Speaker 3