THEORY 101: The Stock Issues of Debate

1. THEORY 101: The Stock Issuesof Debate

2. Quick Review • Every year there is a resolution. This year’s is ______? (do you remember it exactly?) • Every round has two teams of two debaters • The Affirmative Team (AFF) : has a plan which supports the resolution • The Negative Team (NEG): must prove the AFF’s plan is a bad idea [Arguments are (hopefully) partially scripted, and supporting EVIDENCE is prepared in advance]

3. Review pt. 2 • Every debate follows the same format • There are 2 types of speeches in policy debate. • Constructives • 8 minutes long • Each team ‘builds’ their case • Followed by a 3 minute CX • Rebuttals • 5 minutes long • The evidence is weighed, but no new evidence can be considered.

4. Review pt 3 • Debate is a yes/no question of the AFF plan* • The 1stAff. Constructive (1AC) • A scripted, 8 minute speech in which the AFF • States an existing problem in the Status Quo (SQ) • Proposes a plan of action for addressing this problem • Demonstrates significant advantages to adopting their plan

5. The Stock Issues (finally) • The role of the negative team is to tear apart the AFF however they can. Traditionally, there are 5* types of arguments used in policy debate: • The ‘burdens of the affirmative,’ which are: Topicality, Harms, Inherency, Solvency • Disadvantages

6. Topicality • THE FIRST QUESTION OF EVERY DEBATE: • Is the AFF talking about the resolution? • Why do you think this might be an important question to ask? Does it really matter? • Topicality is considered an apriori issue in a debate round (What does that mean?)

7. 2010 Resolution • Questions for thinking about ‘T’ • Have you ever had an argument about what a word means? • Are there any words in the resolution that people might disagree about? • Any words you have an opinion on? Anything in there you just don’t understand? • Resolved: The United States Federal Government should substantially reduce its military and/or police presence in one or more of the following: South Korea, Japan, Afghanistan, Kuwait, Iraq, Turkey

8. Inherency: What is going on now, and how is that different from plan? • Has the AFF team presented a plan that is significantly different from the SQ? • Is the problem already being addressed? Would doing the AFF even make a difference? • What prevents the AFF plan from already being part of the SQ? • (“INHERENT BARRIER”)

9. Harms • “Harms” are the bad things that are happening in the SQ • What might be bad about US military presence around the world? • What kinds of things do you think the NEG might say about these harms?

10. Solvency • Does the AFF solve their stated harms and associated advantages? • Three types of solvency argument • The AFF does NOT solve • Advantage Turn (link)- The AFF actually makes the problem worse • Advantage Turn (impact)- The ‘Advantage’ of the AFF is undesirable.

11. Disadvantages • Doing the AFF plan might result in BAD THINGS! • Spending, econ, education gap, lowering healthcare quality, economy, TYRANNY, PROLIFERATION, WAR, NUCLEAR HOLOCAUST, EXTINCTION OF ALL LIFE ON THIS AND ANY OTHER PLANETS, ETC.