KFSAC Debate Rules:
Updated November 1999

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A. Introduction

 The following pages contain updated debate rules for 2001 and information about the debate topic. Schools seriously considering debate are greatly encouraged to:
(1) Contact BBS to sign up for the KDL (Kuwait Debate League). You can contact the KDL through Mr. Fruit (dfruit@hotmail.com) or directly at the KDL homepage:
www.geocities.com/Pentagon/Bunker/1418/teams/debate/kdl.html.
(2) Plan on finding out more information about debate prior to debating. Mr. Fruit can provide plenty of information or it can be downloaded from the site above.

B. Disclaimer

 Any KFSAC team, of course, can enter into the debate event at the KFSAC Forensics Tournament whether they sign up for the KDL or not, and BBS welcomes all schools to enter the debate event. However, past experience indicates that an untried debate team, unless possessing extremely gifted students, will usually not have a lot of success against even average, seasoned debate teams. This can lead to frustration and disappointment for newcomers. Therefore, BBS greatly encourages all schools entering this debate event to also sign up for the KDL so as to "level the playing field."

C. Debate topic:

Resolved: That the Unites States' government should substantially change its foreign policy towards South Asia.
 
 
 
 
 

Debate Background


1. Teams shall be composed of two students who shall be prepared to debate both the affirmative and negative sides of the proposition.
2. Order of speaking and time limits (all schools please note changes in the times from last year)
1st affirmative constructive 8 minutes
Negative questioning of 1st affirm. 3 minutes
1st negative constructive 8 minutes
Affirm. questioning of 1st negative 3 minutes
2nd affirmative constructive 8 minutes
Negative questioning of 2nd affirm. .3 minutes
2nd negative constructive 8 minutes
Affirm. questioning of 2nd neg. 3 minutes
--------- BREAK ---------------
First negative rebuttal 4 minutes
First affirmative rebuttal 4 minutes
Second negative rebuttal 4 minutes
Second affirmative rebuttal 4 minutes
 
The speakers may take either questioning period they wish, but all four debaters MUST both question and be questioned.

Team members will alternate in giving constructive speeches and follow in the same order for rebuttals.

Debater Constructive Responsibilities

First Affirmative Constructive (7 minutes)
1. State the resolution.
2. Define terms.
3. State the affirmative case, generally done by showing:
harms of the current situation,
needs created by those harms,
and significance of the problem.
4. Present the affirmative plan, generally in a quick sketch.

Negative questioning of the 1st affirmative (3 minutes)

First Negative Constructive (7 minutes)
1. Accept or object to affirmative definition of terms if they are unsupported or are twisting the resolution away from topic affirmative, offer alternatives; attack topicality and /or inherency only if either or both are issues.
2. State the negative position (either defending the status quo or presenting a counterplan).
3. Attack specific affirmative contentions from the case.

Affirmative questioning of 1st negative (3 minutes)

Second Affirmative Constructive (7 minutes)
1. Respond to any objections to definition in terms and topicality arguments.
2. Attack the negative philosophy (i.e. either that of defending the status quo or offering a counterplan).
3. Respond to objections to affirmative contentions by providing additional rationale/evidence.
4. Provide further explanation of the affirmative plan, generally including.
issues of workability,
solvency of the case,
funding for the plan.

Negative questioning of the 2nd affirmative (3 minutes)

Second Negative Constructive (7 minutes)
1. Attack the solvency, funding, and workability of the affirmative plan.
2. Present disadvantages of the affirmative plan.
3. Develop any new argumentation on topicality (only if possible).

Affirmative questioning of 2nd negative (3 minutes).

Break for summary preparation (2 minutes).

Rebuttals (all speakers)
1. Clarify positions offered in prior speeches.
2. Summarize the position of the team, especially in regard to the issues of the particular speaker.
3. Respond to attacks of the other team.
4. Re-iterate important criticisms of the other team's position.
5. Offer new evidence (but not new arguments) to respond to attacks from the opposing team.
 
 
 
SOME GENERALLY ACCEPTED RULES OF DEBATE

1. The affirmative has the right to make any reasonable definition of each of the terms of the proposition.
a. The negative may challenge any definition that is not reasonable.
b. Any challenge to definitions must be made in the first negative constructive.
c. Once the negative accepts the affirmative's definitions, no challenge may be issued later.
d. The affirmative must propose action in the form of a plan.

2. The affirmative has the burden of proof and must advocate everything required by the topic itself.
a. The affirmative may work out the details of its plan as it sees fit. It may take on any additional burdens of proof it desires.
b. The negative may offer a counterplan that is significantly different from the affirmative proposal. Counterplans must be presented in the first negative constructive speech. The negative then assumes an equal burden of proof.
c. If the negative offers a counterplan, it must accept the affirmative's definitions, harms, and needs. In addition, counterplans must be non-topical.

3. Proof.
a. In order to establish an assertion, the team must establish it with enough evidence and/or logic to convince an intelligent but previously uninformed person that is more reasonable to believe the assertion than to disbelieve it.
b. Facts presented during a debate must be accurate.
c. Any restatement of an opponent's argument must be accurate.
d. Visual aids are permissible in debate. Once introduced, they become available for the opponent's use as well.
e. Some items of information are so well-known as to not require proof. For example, if one side states "Clinton is US president," they needn't prove this. Generally, these facts are referred to as "common knowledge."

4. Questioning
a. The questioner may ask any fear, clear question that has a direct bearing on the debate.
b. The questioner controls the time. He may interrupt the witness to request shorter or more direct answers or to indicate the answer is sufficient. Questions about why something is true are complicated, and the questioner cannot expect the rival speaker to answer them briefly.
c. The questioner may not insist on a simple "Yes" or "No" answer unless his questioner is simple, direct, and factual.
d. The questioner must confine him/herself to questions and not make comments or statements.
e. The witness must answer every question unless he/she can show that it would be unfair or unreasonable to expect an answer.
f. The witness may request that the question be repeated or rephrased if unclear.
g. The witness must confine himself/herself to answers and not question the questioner or make comments on other subjects.
h. Each speaker is questioned as soon as he/she concludes his/her constructive speech.
i. The witness must answer the questions without consulting his/her colleague.
j. The questioner should stand next to the witness during the questioning.

5. Refutation and rebuttal.
a. No new arguments may be presented in the rebuttals. However, a debater may respond to a previous attack in a logical answer that refutes it.
b. New evidence may be presented in the summary.
c. Each team is responsible for direct clash with the opposing team. Only the first affirmative speech should be fully prepared in advance of the debate.


6. Demeanor and courtesy. Communication between team members should be dictated by rules of courtesy.
a. speeches delivered from the front of the room, not the debater's seat.
b. When both team members of a team are seated and the other team is speaking, communication should be by notes, so as not to interrupt or distract a speaker. It is generally accepted that team members may quietly discuss during another team's speech. However, a judge may rule this talking as a distraction and take away points.
c. When a speaker is debating, he/she may return to the table for materials, including materials, including notes from his/her partner, but he/she should not speak to the partner. His/her partner must refrain from communicating verbally with the speaker during the speech.

7. Judging: The team doing the better debating is the winner.
a. The decision is given to the affirmative if it succeeds in showing that the proposed plan should be adopted. The decision is given to the negative if the affirmative fails to show that its proposed plan should be adopted and the negative creates reasonable doubts in the judge's mind.
b. The judge must base his/her decision entirely on the material presented, without regard to knowledge he/she may have.
c. The judge is required to accept as true arguments backed by reasonable proof until such arguments are overthrown by the opposing team.
d. The judge must not accept ideas not backed by reasonable proof.
e. The judge tries to avoid mentally debating with the speakers; instead he/she listens for which team debates better.

8. "FIAT"
a. All resolution either directly state or imply the word "should." This means that the affirmative need not prove that the governing body will take the proposing course of action, only that it should. For example, the affirmative may propose "exiling misbehaving students to Cuba." The negative cannot challenge whether the US government would actually do this but whether it "should.". For the purposes of debate, and giving the affirmative plan fair consideration, then, debaters and judge simply assume (by FIAT) that somehow such a plan could pass Congress and survive any veto.
b. The power of "FIAT," however, does not mean that the affirmative can totally ignore all considerations of believability. The affirmative must prove that their plan will work within many constraints beyond that of whether the governing body will adopt it, including physical ones and emotional ones. Sometimes beginning debaters mistakenly use "FIAT" to answer all questions about the problems of their plans; this is an abuse.
 
 
QUICK HINTS FOR JUDGES NEW TO DEBATE

(1) Debate is not a speech event. The winning team is the one that provides the most convincing argument. This is very important as you will sometimes see an extremely good speaker presenting a weak argument. While delivery is a part (usually around 10-20%) of speaker points and allows you to recognize great speakers, the bulk of your effort should be concentrated on following the flow and counterflow of what is said, not how it is said.

(2) The status quo, which means the current system, is assumed to be working as well as possible (unless the affirmative proves otherwise). If the affirmative shows no problems in the status quo, then the negative wins even if they make no defense or mention of the status quo. The burden of proof, then, is on the affirmative to demonstrate a problem.

(3) The affirmative MUST attack the status quo. Not only that, they must present a plan that results in a system that demonstrably works better than the status quo.

(4) It is possible for an affirmative to win with a very poor plan. This happens when the negative spends all of its time attacking the affirmative's plan but makes no defense whatsoever of the status quo. This happens sometimes. In this situation, if the affirmative has shown serious weaknesses of the status quo, without answer, you should give the debate to the affirmative even with a lousy plan.

(5) If both sides pretty much do their jobs, i.e. the affirmative attacks the status quo, the negative defends, the affirmative asserts a plan, the negative attacks it, the winning team is simply the one who better attacks and defends. The judge mainly needs to record the flow of argumentation.

(6) It is the debaters' job, not the judges, to attack weak evidence and logic. Judges will sometimes note poor logic or evidence in their comments, but if the other side fails to attack the weaknesses in statements, the statements have to stand. This is why you'll often hear experienced debaters in rebuttals remark: "They never attacked our statement that....therefore we have to assume that it stands."

(7) The affirmative does not have to prove that their plan WILL be adopted, only that it SHOULD be adopted. This is referred to as "Fiat" power. For example, if the negative says "The Senate is now Republican. It would never vote to raise taxes," the affirmative response should be "We don't have to prove that the Senate WILL vote for this. By Fiat, we need only prove that it should."

(8) All evidence should have sources and dates. Both sides can attack evidence as well as logic.

(9) Write lots of comments. Students like to hear where they went wrong and your train of thought even if it looks messy.

(10) Some statements are "common knowledge." No one need evidence, for example, that Nixon was president. However, if debaters assert he was the "best president," they would need evidence.

(11) Enjoy the debates! It has been my experience that common sense and knowledge of the rules make for superior judging. Ironically enough, the worst judges over the years have often been highly educated individuals, including a number of lawyers, who came in simply assuming that they already knew how to judge, not those anxious to learn.
  
 

A Sample Ballot

Debate Ballot: Al-Bayan Bilingual School
Affirmative Team Number or Name:______________Negative Team Number or Name:__________
Judge:__________________________________________ Room:_______ Round:__________
Topic:__________________________________________
Scoring: 5=Excellent, 4=Very good, 3=good, 2=fair; 1=poor
There are 35 possible points per speaking. The winning team should have the higher score
Speaker:__________ Speaker: __________ Speaker:___________ Speaker:________
1st Affirmative 2nd Affirmative 1st Negative 2nd Negative
analysis_____ analysis______ analysis_____ analysis_____
reasoning___ reasoning_____ reasoning____ reasoning____
evidence_____ evidence______ evidence_____ evidence_____
organization__ organization___ organization__ organization___
refutation____ refutation_____ refutation____ refutation_____
delivery_____ delivery______ delivery_____ delivery_______
cross x _____ cross x ______ cross x ______ cross x ________
TOTAL ____ TOTAL _____ TOTAL _____ TOTAL _______
In my opinion, the better debating was done by Team _______, representing the _____________
side.
Reasons for the decision:
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ 
DEBATE COMMENTS

(Please attach any additional sheets on which you make comments).

First Affirmative________________________________First Negative _______________________________{___________________________________________________________________________{___________________________________________________________________________{___________________________________________________________________________{___________________________________________________________________________{___________________________________________________________________________{___________________________________________________________________________{___________________________________________________________________________{___________________________________________________________________________{___________________________________________________________________________{___________________________________________________________________________{___________________________________________________________________________{___________________________________________________________________________{___________________________________________________________________________{___________________________________________________________________________{___________________________________________________________________________{_______________________________________ 
 

Second Affirmative_______________________________Second Negative
____________________________________{___________________________________________________________________________{___________________________________________________________________________{___________________________________________________________________________{___________________________________________________________________________{___________________________________________________________________________{___________________________________________________________________________{___________________________________________________________________________{___________________________________________________________________________{___________________________________________________________________________{___________________________________________________________________________{___________________________________________________________________________{___________________________________________________________________________{___________________________________________________________________________{___________________________________________________________________________{_______________________________________
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