The Motion

Every debate has a motion; this is the issue for discussion. A good motion has clear arguments in favor of it and against it. The motion is expressed “This House…”: this is a convention and “The House” is all the people present at the debate.
Each team is told whether they will propose or oppose the motion. The teams are allocated whether they will speak first or second on their side of the motion. You must not contradict the other team on your side, but you are competing against them: you must show the judges that you can debate more persuasively than the teams on the other side and the other team on your own side. You should therefore not discuss with the other team on your side what you are going to say or help them in any way. Indeed, you must not talk to anyone other than your partner during the preparation period: coaching during this time by teachers, or anyone else is strictly prohibited. 

Roles of the Teams & Speakers

In order for a round to be able to develop properly, the teams participating in the round must fulfill certain criteria. When they succeed they will have fulfilled their role and they will be developing the debate. If they fail then the debate will suffer in quality because of it, and this will absolutely be considered in the adjudication.

Point of Information

Points of information should be offered in unprotected time (i.e. in the time
between the two-time signals).

·       they should be offered by members of the opposite side only.

• You offer a point of information by standing and saying, “point of information”.
• Speakers may accept or decline the point of information in any way they like; the

simplest is by saying “yes please”, or “no thank you”.
You should aim to accept two points of information during your speech.
Points of Information should be quick and to the point (no more than about
fifteen seconds). They should offer a new piece of information to explain why
what the speaker is saying at the time is wrong.

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Roles of the Teams (Overview)