November 19, 2007
Debates
I was graduated in the third quarter (aka first below the middle) of my high school class.* So you’ll perhaps see why I always admired my classmates who made the debate team. For one thing, I was so completely mystified by whatever debate was that I didn’t even bother to find out or why anybody would want to do it. Matter of fact, I still don’t know, but debates are so in the news that I turned to Google and found that…
There are several different formats for debate practiced in high school and college debate leagues. Most of these formats share some general features. Specifically, any debate will have two sides: a proposition side, and an opposition side. The job of the proposition side is to advocate the adoption of the resolution, while the job of the opposition side is to refute the resolution.
The resolution can take many forms, depending on the format. But in most cases, the resolution is simply a statement of policy or a statement of value. Some examples include, “Be it resolved, that the federal government of the United States should legalize marijuana.” “Be it resolved, that when in conflict, the right to a fair trial ought to take precedence over freedom of speech,” “Be it resolved, that men should wear boxers rather than briefs.” etc. In many debate formats, there is a requirement that a policy resolution (a resolution regarding the policies followed by some organization or government) represent a change from current policy, so that the opposition team will be defending the status quo.
Google concludes with, Usually, there is also a judge present in the debate whose job is to decide the winner.
Thanks to Google, I’ll stop having such high expectations of whatever it is the presidential wannabes are lining up and doing of a night on CNN now that I know what is a debate.
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*I flunked algebra and took it again and then eleven years later minored in math on my MA.
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