College Debating
 

I caught some of a Fox Sports show covering the national collegiate debate championships.

I dunno what I expected, maybe Socratic style speaking or something, but what I saw were kids motoring 5 words per second in rapid fire style, while the other team looked rather bored and flipped thru various files.

Why do they speak so quickly? Time limits? Looking to throw off the other team by hoping they miss some of the points?

Some of the words went by and I had no idea what had just been said. Do the judges have the scripts that the kids are reading from?

Re: College Debating
 

Actually, I just had a long conversation about debate with someone on my school's debate team. There's a Prime Minister and his partner and the Leader of Opposition and his partner. The Prime Minister presents a case for 7 minutes, then the Leader of Opposition (who doesn't know what the case will be before hand) has to specify three flaws with the case and then present a point by point argument against it. Then the Prime Minister's partner goes and he tries to tighten the case up and rebut the opposition. Then Opposition partner goes and does the same thing against PM partner. (Partners only get 3 minutes each.) Finally, the Leader of Opposition makes a closing speech and PM closes it out. Again, 7 minutes for this.

They talk fast because they need to rebut a lot of things and/or make it hard for the other team to do the same.

No scripts.

Re: College Debating
 

http://www.obleek.com/stuff/ww2ol/pwned/pwned3.jpg

Re: College Debating
 

You Suck!

Re: College Debating
 

It depends on the debate format. There are a few different types of debates that are done on the collegiate level. There is Parlimentary debate (NPDA), Cross Examination Debate (CEDA), NDT, World Style, and IPDA.

I know it wasn't IPDA, because that isn't a team debate, only one person per side

I was 9th in the nation last year in IPDA. (It is my one big claim I have from college)

IPDA doesn't do the spead talking, which is called spreading in debate lingo, both parli and CEDA do the spread. CEDA is generally much quicker.

One of the reasons the spread is done is to overwhelm the opposing team. I personally hate it. It is worthless in the real world. IPDA doesn't have the spreading due to the lay judges. This style will help people actually learn something applicable in real life, how to actually convince someone.


The judges have no script, if they are experienced (flow judges in the lingo) then they will be able to keep up. Many of these guys have been debating since highschool. The style there includes speed talking.

If they are flipping through files, that is probably CEDA style debate. In parli and IPDA you are not allowed to bring printed material in the room.

In parli the topic is given and each team has 15 minutes to prepare. The government must follow the resolution. If they unjustly define it then Topicality is argued. This is essentially a rule of debate. This does not stop the round, but becomes just an arguement.

In CEDA, there is one topic for the whole year. They usually begin research on this topic around May, and the first tournament is usually in september.
For parli times, macdaddy is wrong

These are the times for that


First Proposition Constructive 7 minutes
First Opposition Constructive 8 minutes
Second Proposition Constructive 8 minutes
Second Opposition Constructive 8 minutes
Opposition Rebuttal 4 minutes
Proposition Rebuttal 5 minutes

But, I believe you were probably watching CEDA.

there are 4 8 minute constructives, and 4 5 minute rebuttals.

If the opposing team would occasionally interupt the team that was speaking with 'points of information' or 'points of order' then that was parli, if not most likely CEDA

Melch (the Master (De)bater)

Re: College Debating
 

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http://www.obleek.com/stuff/ww2ol/pwned/pwned3.jpg

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What? Who got owned? All I saw was a legitimate question and an answer. Weird.

Re: College Debating
 

[ QUOTE ]
One of the reasons the spread is done is to overwhelm the opposing team. I personally hate it. It is worthless in the real world. IPDA doesn't have the spreading due to the lay judges. This style will help people actually learn something applicable in real life, how to actually convince someone.

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Yeah, I was in HS debate for two years and was pretty good at it (went to nationals both years). Thankfully the speed/adv. debate theory arguments weren't that prevalent in the SW MO cross-examination circuit.

Speeding/spreading is really dumb. Like counter-intuitive to the whole point of debating, IMO. Basically judges have to be former debaters to understand what the hell's going on when you get two teams together that like to spread and make theory arguments.

Re: College Debating
 

Why the [censored] were you watching this?

Re: College Debating
 

its a very specialized form of contest that doesnt deal so much with bettering ones oratorical skills so much as it looks to develop research skills and understanding of argumentation theory. I was a huge college debator, as it was pretty much the only reason i went to college. My fastest time was somewhere around 397 words a minutes, although at one point my debate partner claimed i had to be going more than 420.

Fun stuff, but not really meant for the consumption of the general public.

peace

john nickle

Re: College Debating
 

Wow. Nightmares of high school cross-ex debating, complaining about non-flow judges and how stupid the judges were who asked anyone to slow down. I was good at it but didn't enjoy the drive to simply dump more useless info on the other side than they could handle. That's why I switched to Lincoln-Douglas style (1 v. 1) debate the next year. I was so motivated with that that I quit debating all together.