Delivery:
Cadence
Cross Examination:
When you are preparing for a debate, start thinking about some possible CX questions before you ever get to the tournament. The first thing to do is to pinpoint your basic points of your plan that you would like your opponent to agree to, such as restating facts from your side and finishing with correct? (“You would agree that ____, as I argued in my last speech, correct?”)
Remember you are asking questions for the benefit of the judge and for your side’s speeches. You are not in an argument with your opponent. If they have answered enough to make your point to the judge, then move on. But there are times to dig in. If they quickly give an answer, ask yourself if they have provided any evidence for that answer and if not, then ask them for evidence to support their answer. Listen carefully to determine when to move on and when to dig in.
- Ask overarching questions to get your opponent to agree to your basic premise of your case. These questions can be very general. For example you could say something like “Can you agree that our gov’t should try to not waste money?” It would be hard for someone not to agree to that. Or you can ask “Can you agree that our government should attempt to make our roads as safe as possible within their ability to do so?” After they agree you can always say something like “I’m glad we can agree on that.”
- Make sure that you understand details to ensure that you are going down the correct path with your next speech.
- If you are struggling with your opponent’s not answering the way you want, you may need to find a way to lead your opponent to the right answer either by getting them to agree to the premises of your final point or by getting them to agree to hypotheticals or examples that show your point.
- Pick a point to make and start with tiny, less obvious questions to get there. If you ask a question in CX, even if there is an actual correct answer, if that answer is immediately obvious your opponent is able to answer in a way that will force you to have to rebut their answer later. But if you ask questions about the premises leading up to the final answer, with questions that have blatantly obvious answers, you can lead them to the answer you want in the final question.
For example:
“Can human rights be justifiably limited?” opponent’s answer, “no”
But when I asked a set of question with obvious answers that established why human rights were limited I was able to lead them to the answer I wanted:
– Can we agree that you have the human right of freedom?
– Should you have the freedom to hit someone who’s not hurting anyone?
– So that’s a justified limit on your human right of freedom, right?
– So human rights can be justifiably limited?
Do’s of questioning:
– Ask relatively short questions. Look for ways to break down longer questions into smaller successive questions.
– allow only definite, brief answers from your opponent, politely but assertively interrupting if they talk too long
– Reference speeches in your questions. This keeps questions focused on relevant material in the debate as well as avoid broad questions that allow your opponents to give vague answers that don’t give you any advantage.
– Make sure you fully understand arguments before moving on. Fully listen to the answers.
– Keep your eyes on the judge.
– If someone is not answering an obvious question, then make an extreme statement like “so you’re saying that you don’t know if the sun is hot?” The judge will get it. But MAKE SURE that it doesn’t sound mocking or demeaning in any way, as this will hurt your credibility.
Don’ts of questioning:
–Don’t ask open-ended questions. I.e. “Tell me why your plan should be passed.”
–don’t ask how they are doing today.
–It’s not necessary to say “great speech.” (If you want to make sure you come across as nice, you can say “I hope you are doing well, today, I just have a few questions for you. Starting with…”)
–No machine gun questions.
–No loaded questions, such as “Why is your plan so bad?”
– Only ask questions, no statements.
The Do’s of Answering
– Keep your answers short and sweet, but don’t make all of your answers just “yes” and “no”. Turn back to your plan.
– Reference authors from the 1AC. Not only will this help you answer questions effectively, but this also shows the judge that you know your speech inside and out, which boosts speaker points and credibility.
The Don’ts of Answering
– Don’t answer irrelevant questions. You can respectfully ask your opponents why a question is relevant before declining to answer. You can also clarify by saying that you can answer it better if you know how it pertains to the round.
– Don’t be afraid to admit you don’t know something. If your opponent asks you something that both you and your partner don’t know, it’s better to admit you don’t know than to lie about it. You can always argue later that it’s not an important element of the debate anyways.
–When you agree, don’t just respond with a yes, but respond with a very confident “absolutely, exactly, for sure, certainly,” instead of “yes” and then add a sentence that explains why that supports your side.
Nuts and bolts
- Powerful taglines that make sense about what you are trying to say. But don’t power tag. Make sure that your tag line accurately communicates the evidence and doesn’t say more.
- Explain evidence in your own words
- Picking partner positions
- Directory pictures
Wrap up and announcements
- Next club meeting is a split meeting.
- Eden will be sending a case list for you to put your case on
- You will want to purchase a file box to be your debate box to hold your affirmative case and all of your negative cases.
- Christmas party- December 17 at the church from 2:00 – 4:00!!