INTRODUCTION TO DEBATING: SPEAKER ROLES DBAT 101

Debating as a team  Teamwork is important.  Greater consistency reinforces your team message.  Allows for sustained engagement with opposition.  Teamwork requires:  Communication during prep and debate.  Everyone knowing what the issues and objective are.  Building upon what previous teammates have said.  Comparing your teams responses with opposition.  Role fulfilment.

First Speaker: Chef.  Role: To setup the debate and establish your teams position on key issues. Prepare the goods.  Setup and Intro:  Context. Problem. Model. Why are we having this debate? What do we need to do? About 1-2 minutes.  Arguments:  Usually start with a principled reason of why the model is a good idea. Why your process/outcomes is ‘Just’  Better outcomes. As many as possible. Rank by importance.  Conclusion. We love this.

Second Speaker: Waiter.  Role: Characterise the clash between teams. Respond to the opposition. Set the mood.  Characterise the debate.  Try to summarise where both teams stand on issues. What are the contested areas?  Rebuttal is key.  Only have limited time. 3-4 minutes(ish).  Therefore, prioritise. Aim for efficiency and importance.  Arguments:  Have (at least) one. Try to feed into a new issue or direction.

Third Speaker: Dishwasher.  Role: To weigh up both sides and claim issues. Add final debate winning analysis. To clean up the mess.  Provide a framework of evaluating the debate.  Summarise into 3 issues/questions. Try to capture the entire scope of debate and the clash.  Track what speakers have been saying. Put them into the relevant issues/question.  Claim issues. Buck stops here.  Weigh up and explain why your team won that issue.  Add additional analysis/reasons/examples.  Frame issues.  Prioritise issues by importance. Characterise the issues you’ve won as particularly important or central to the debate.