Introduction to the aff

1. Introduction to the aff Casey Parsons

2. Review • The aff defends a plan text, which must be topical – in other words, it has to fall under the resolution • The aff gives reasons why the world where the plan happens is better than the world where the plan doesn’t • The aff has fiat – we assume that the actor at least attempts to implement the plan

3. Stock Issues • The aff has to win five arguments to win the round • If the aff loses any of these arguments then they automatically lose the round • These are called stock issues, which are: • Inherency • Harms • Significance • Solvency • Topicality

4. Inherency • Something is preventing the plan from happening in the status quo • Essentially barriers to the passage of the plan • Possible Examples: • Political opposition • A lack of funding • A lack of interest • There’s also advantage inherency – this is what prevents your harms from being solved in the status quo

5. Harms • These are the problems with the status quo that justify doing the plan • Possible Examples: • The economy doing poorly now • Inefficient trade • Global Warming

6. Significance • This is a little more tricky – it’s essentially why we care about the problems with the status quo. Most policy debaters call this the “impact” • Possible examples: • Economic decline • Local conflicts escalating • Nuclear War • Extinction

7. Solvency • There are two accepted “kinds” of solvency • Plan solvency, which says that the plan would be successful and is possible • Advantage solvency, which says that doing the plan resolves the harms that you isolated

8. Topicality • We already discussed this a little bit – topicality is essentially arguing that defending the plan is the same as defending the resolution • The aff doesn’t usually explicitly say this in the first affirmative constructive speech – Topicality is not an issue unless the negative makes it one

9. Structuring an aff case • An aff case is usually composed of: • An inherency contention where the aff isolates why the plan won’t happen in the squo • A solvency contention where the aff isolates that the plan will work • 2-3 advantages that make the aff a good idea. The harms, significance, and advantage solvency are embedded within the advantages

10. Structuring an advantage • The advantage tells us a story of what happens when we don’t do the plan. Let’s consider the highway example used previously. One possible advantage could be the economy: • Harms: The economy is in decline now • Impact: Continued economic decline leads to global conflict • Solvency: Investing in highways boosts trade efficiency and reverses economic decline • This is incredibly simplified, but you get the idea

11. Example Case Outline • Plan text: The USFG should invest $100 billion into a modernized highway system in the United States • Contention One: Inherency • Contention Two: Solvency • Contention Three: Advantages • Advantage One: The Economy • Advantage Two: The Environment