1. Debate
What is Debate?

2. Some of the Basics
As a first year debater you are referred to as a “novice.”
Debates occur at tournaments held at different high schools on the weekend. Most of your tournaments will be all day Saturday.
At the tournaments you will have five debates. The debates are between two schools, Andover and another school. Each team is made up of two people from the same school.
Before the debate starts, I will tell you what side of the debate you are on. Affirmative means you will be for the resolution. Negative means that you are against the resolution. You will have an opportunity to be on both sides at each tournament so you need to be prepared.

3. Speaker order and times
1st Affirmative Constructive (1AC) 8 Minutes
cross-examination of 1AC by 2N 3 Minutes
1st Negative Constructive (1NC) 8 Minutes
cross-examination of 1NC by 1A 3 Minutes
2nd Affirmative Constructive (2AC) 8 Minutes
cross-examination of 2AC by 1N 3 Minutes
2nd Negative Constructive (2NC) 8 Minutes
cross-examination of 2NC by 2A 3 Minutes
1st Negative Rebuttal (1NR) 5 Minutes
1st Affirmative Rebuttal (1AR) 5 Minutes
2nd Negative Rebuttal (2NR) 5 Minutes
2nd Affirmative Rebuttal (2AR) 5 Minutes

4. The Role of Each Team
Affirmative – The affirmative team presents a case (1AC) that offers a policy option known as a plan. The plan is an action that would be taken by the federal government. They will offer reasons why this should be done. In doing this, the aff. must show how they uphold the stock issues.
Negative – The negative team defends the status quo (what is going on right now) or offers a counter plan. To do this, the neg must show the aff. plan causes more problems than it fixes, that the aff. failed to uphold one or more stock issues, or they offer a better option than the aff.

5. Role of Each Speaker 1AC – Presents the affirmative case
1NC – Argues topicality, can attack the case, run disadvantages (DA), run counterplan (CP) and/or run kritiks (K). CP’s and K’s are usually run in the experienced divisions.
2AC – Must answer all attacks made in the 1NC.
2NC/1NR (Neg. block)– The 2NC is the last chance to make new arguments. The arguments that were made in the 1NC should be expanded while responses made by the aff. must be answered.
1AR – Respond to all arg. made in the neg. block.
2NR – Pick arg. that will win and answer aff. arg. against them and clearly explain why you should win.
2AR – Answer all neg. args. and explain why you should win.

6. Stock Issues
For the aff. to win, they must present a case that upholds all the stock issues. The negative can win by proving that the aff. case fails to meet this burden. The neg. should focus attacks on topicality and solvency.

7. Stock Issues (HITS)
Harms – The aff. must show that there are problems in the status quo. These should be clear and significant.
Inherency – The aff. must show that the harms are not being addressed in the status quo.
Topicality – The aff. plan must fall within the limits of the resolution.
Solvency – The aff. must show that their plan would solve the harms.

8. Stock Issues – Bad CX Questions
Prima Facie – The idea that good aff. case should plainly show all the stock issues. Some times in CX you will be asked, “How are you/your case prima facie?” Simply respond by showing how you meet the stock issues, these will be labeled in your case.
Inherent Barrier – Some debaters argue that there should be something preventing your case from happening in the status quo, this is called an inherent barrier. There are three types: 1. Structural – something physically must be changed, this could be a law or organization. 2. Attitudinal – attitudes/minds need to be changed. 3. Existential – Plan is a good idea but it just hasn’t happened yet.

9. Affirmative Cases (1AC)
Most aff. cases are structured using the following:
-Contentions/observations – These establish the facts. This is where harms, inherency and solvency are argued
-Advantages/scenarios – In addition to the stock issues, the aff. will show additional benefits that come from implementing their plan.
-Don’t be surprised if a cases has multiple of each.

10. Basic Negative Arg.
The negative can make several different types of attacks in the debate. Unlike the aff., they do not have an obligation to do any thing.
-Case arguments – these are attacks made by the neg. that address points made in the 1AC. They can use evidence or analytic (non-evidence logic) arguments to do this. Case attacks tend to focus on the stock issues.
-Off case arguments – these arguments include topicality and disadvantages (DA).

11. How We Play the Game
When we debate, we pretend that we are congress making a law and that if the judge votes aff. then the case happens.
Fiat – this is the concept that what ever the aff. plan needs to make it reality will happen. Its like a magic wand for the aff.
Should/would – this means the aff only has to show that the plan should be done, not that it would be. This is because its impossible to prove the plan would happen in the status quo, this is the whole point of inherency

12. What to do When Negative -Topicality
Every time you are negative you need to challenge the aff team on topicality. This should be the first argument you make in the 1nc.
Topicality challenges the idea that the aff is within the limit of the topic. In essence, you are claiming they are out of bounds.
The root of topicality is the issue of fairness and ground. The neg is claiming that its not fair to play the game if the affirmative is allowed to expand their ground by taking it from the negative.
This is a good argument for the negative, because if they win it, they should win the debate. If the aff proves they are topical, it doesn’t hurt the neg, it only means they have to win a different argument.

13. What to do When Negative - Topicality
Topicality must be run in the following structure:
Definition – the negative must identify a word or phrase in the resolution that they believe the aff does not meet.
Violation – Explanation of how the aff fails to meet the definition of the selected word.
Standards – The negative uses standards to justify why their definition should be used as the accepted definition of the word. There should be three or more standards.
Voters – The negative should justify why topicality should decide the debate. There should be multiple reasons.

14. What to do When Negative - Topicality
Standards – there are several different standards that can be used for a definition. The key is to find the ones that work best for the definition.
Common Standards:
-Bright line – Definition has a clear line between what is and is not topical.
-Field Contextual – Definition comes from an expert in the field.
-Dictionary definitions are best – we use dictionaries to find the meaning of words, we should use them for debate.
-Legal definitions best – we play a game of law, we should use definitions that come from the courts
-Government definitions best – we pretend to make policy for the government so we should be bound by their definitions.

15. What to do When Negative - Topicality
-Contextual – neg definition is used in context. This gives us a better understanding what the word means. -Framers intent – the people who wrote the topic intended it to be interpreted this way. -Ground – the neg definition allows for both teams to have significant ground. -Fair Limits – The negative definition fairly limits the topic for both teams. -Predictability – the neg definition is a predictable interpretation of the resolution. This allows both teams to prepare for the tournaments.

16. What to do When Negative - Topicality
Voters – The negative uses these claims to show why they should win the debate.
Fairness – Topicality keeps the debate fair for both teams. Without it the neg. couldn’t win.
Education – debate is an educational activity, without topicality we will have poor debates and not learn anything from them.
Rule of the game – Topicality is a rule of the game and the aff should be punished for breaking them.
Jurisdiction – The judge only has the jurisdiction to vote for a topical case.

17. What to do When Negative - Topicality
Extra topicality – this comes up when part of the affirmative plan is within the topic and the rest of the plan is not. The neg should force the aff to sever the non-topical part of the plan.
-This should be put in the standards.
-If the aff chooses not to sever their plan from the non-topical parts then they should be rejected.
Effects topicality – this comes up when the aff plan is topical through its effects. In other words, if there are several steps that have to be taken before they do something topical then the plan is not topical.
- This should also be listed as a standard and is an independent reason to reject the affirmative.

18. How to Answer Topicality When Aff
We meet def.– come up with 2-3 reasons why you meet the neg definition.
Counter Definition – provide a def. of the word argued by the neg. Your plan should fit this def.
We meet counter def – show how you meet counter def.
Counter standards – identify standards for the def. you provided. Do not use the same ones as the neg. If any of those apply, cross apply them.
Answer voters –Explain why topicality doesn’t matter. You can also use reasonability.

19. What to do When Negative – Disadvantages (DA)
DA’s may be run in either the 1NC or 2NC. Beware that in the advanced divisions, particularly varsity, it is expected that these are all run in the 1NC.
The general idea behind a DA is that the negative is showing something bad that will happen if the judge votes for the affirmative.
The impact of the DA should out weigh (be more significant) than the advantages of the case.

20. What to do When Negative – Disadvantages (DA)
Parts of a DA:
-uniqueness: this shows us what is going on in the status quo. It needs to establish that if things stay the same the DA won’t happen on its own.
-link: The DA should show how the plan changes the status quo and triggers the DA.
-impact: This is the bad thing that is caused by the aff. This should be significant, usually some form of extinction.
-internal link: This arg. connects the other parts of the DA together.

21. How to Answer a DA When Aff.
When answering a DA, the aff should make four or more different types of attacks.
Most DA answers can by analytic arguments.
Types of DA answers:
- Non Unique – the status quo conditions are different than the ones claimed in the DA shell.
Thumper – something similar that has occurred recently should have triggered the DA.
No link – the aff case won’t trigger the DA.
No impact – the DA impact is not bad/won’t happen.
No brink – we are so far away from the impact in the status quo that the plan won’t push us to the impact.

22. How to Answer the DA When Aff.
- No time frame – no clear idea when the impact will happen.
Case out weighs – the case impact is larger the DA impact.
No scenario – it’s not clear how the impact will happen. It’s one thing to say you cause a nuclear war, but who is actually fighting?
No specific link – neg only has a generic link.
Impact analysis – Timeframe, magnitude and probability

23. How to Answer the DA When Aff
The most powerful DA is the turn. This flips the DA from something bad to something good.
There are two types of turns, link and impact. You can run multiple turns as long as they are the same type. NEVER run both a link and impact turn at the same time.
Link turn – the aff case does the opposite of what the DA link claims. This means that the aff would prevent the DA instead of cause it. It works best with a non-unique.
Impact turn – the impact is actually something good. This is much more difficult to make than a link turn.

24. What is a Counter Plan (CP)?
Counter Plan: This is a plan that is offered by the negative team that “competes” with the affirmative plan.
Competitiveness: The negative has limits to what it can propose. This means their CP must compete with the aff. To do this, it should solve for the harms presented by the aff. and offer additional advantages (net benefits)
Net Benefits – these are benefits the CP gets that the aff. doesn’t. Usually, these take the form of a DA that applies to the aff., but not the CP.

25. Counter Plans Counter plans should be run in the 1NC.
Counter plans are an off case argument so they should be flowed on a new sheet of paper.
Only run one counter plan during the debate.
You can run your other arguments along with the CP. You should think about whether or not any DA’s you want to run link to the CP. You can still run them if they do, but you will need to decide if you want to go for them or the CP at the end of the debate.

26. Counter Plans
When your opponents run a CP, you need to determine the status of it.
-Conditional – this means the negative team can abandon the CP when ever they want.
-Dispositional – If the aff challenges the competitiveness of the CP, the neg can choose to grant this and kick out of the CP. This is useful if the aff successfully runs DA’s against it.
-Unconditional – the neg will not abandon the CP.

27. Counter Plans
Topical? – Counter plans can be topical or nontopical. Don’t be surprised if some teams argue that the CP must be nontopical. This stems from the belief that a topical CP affirms the resolution and therefore justifies a ballot for the aff. Our belief is that the neg only needs to offer an alternative policy and that the debate is to determine which one is better.
Some net benefits are not DA’s, they exist as pure advantages for the CP. It is important to determine what, if any these are. If the CP goes away, so do these.

28. Answering the CP
Permutation – Neg CP must be competitive for them to be legitimate. The way that this is tested is through a permutation, usually referred to as a perm. A perm is a combination of all of the aff and part of or all of the CP. If the perm is better than or equal to the CP then the CP is not valid and should be thrown out of consideration by the judge.
The most common perm is, “perm, do both the cp and the plan.” However, the aff should make multiple perms in the debate since they are just a test, it’s not a problem to have several of them.
The trick to winning the perm is to be able to show how it avoids all the DA links and solves for the case.
You can also read a DA to the CP, as long as it doesn’t link to the aff and attack solvency.

29. Kritiks
Kritik – When a team makes an argument, they assume somethings to be true. The kritik attacks these assumptions as bad.
Real world – At this point a kritik might seem like a DA, and in many ways it is. One of the biggest differences though, comes from the real world impact most kritiks claim. Their claim is that debate is a game, but certain parts are real and because of this kritiks are the most significant thing in the debate.

30. Kritik
Kritiks should be run in the 1NC, however you can run a critical aff case or run a kritik against a neg team if they do something to trigger the link.
Parts of a kritik:
-link – the kritik must link to something that the opposing team assumes/does in the debate.
-impact/implication – Like DA’s, kritiks have an impact or implication. These have a much larger variety than the DA’s. Often they are things like violence or dehumanization.
-alternative – For a kritik to work, they have to offer another way to do things, this is known as the alternative or alt. With this, the kritik is similar to a counter plan.

31. How to Answer Kritiks
No Link – The first thing to do is always attack the link. Most of the time, the kritik will have a very vague link. Push the team to prove that you actually trigger the link.
No impact – sometimes the impacts on the kritiks are very vague. Push them to prove how bad they would actually be.
Perm – like a counter plan, you can perm a kritik by combining the plan and the kritik. For this to be successful, you should be able to show how the perm captures the benefits of the alt and solves the case.
Solvency – the alt must solve
Framework – this is a way to telling the judge how to decide the debate. When debating against a kritik, it is important frame the debate in a way that excludes the argument.