NORTHAMPTON SPEAKERS’ CIRCLE

DEBATING

NOTES

Dec 99
 NORTHAMPTON SPEAKERS’ CIRCLE - DEBATING NOTES

OVERVIEW

Timing of Speeches

 Opening speakers 6 – 7 minutes

 nd
2 speakers 5 minutes
 rd th th
3 , 4 and 5 speakers 4 minutes
 Summing up 4 minutes

Order of Play and Responsibilities

Opening Speaker

 Define the motion

 Briefly introduce his/her team and what they will be talking about
 Outline a small piece about the motion
 Urge to support this motion!

Opposing Speaker

 Attack the opening speaker’s comments

 Introduce their team
 Urge to oppose the motion

2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th Speakers

 Spend half the allotted time attacking the previous speaker and half on your prepared
speech
 Ensure a smooth transition from attack to prepared piece
 Only attack arguments you have heard in the debate

Proposer Summing up

 Sum up for 4 minutes

 Attack the opposing team’s speeches in order of delivery
 You have only 4 minutes, one point will be sufficient for each speaker

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GENERAL PREPARATION

Teams should meet before each debate at least once and preferably two or three times, only in
this way can each member know exactly what he or she is required to say and the team will
flow as a team and not as disjointed individuals.

Appearance

A neat and tidy appearance creates a good initial impact, and can help carry you through the
first important few moments when it is necessary to hold the attention of your audience.

Stance

Do not neglect to work upon the way you stand at the podium. A speaker who stands straight
and tall looks far more imposing and creates a far greater impact than one who slouches. It is
impossible to emphasise points without use of hands, so hold them in a natural position and
wave, point, thump the table as your argument requires. Above all do not put them in your
pockets. Be careful not to move about too much. A step towards the opposition table when
emphasising a point, a step back in horror at something you are abhorring, are good
examples.

Speaking

Remember to speak clearly and with sufficient power to be heard at the back of the room
(this is often where the Judge sits). Use of the voice is possibly the most important area of all,
if you sound disinterested in what you are saying then no one else will be interested. Look
and sound angry if this is what you are purporting to be. Try and have the right expression on
your face, and inflection in your voice to match what you are saying.

Repartee

This is a debate not a public speaking competition. It is imperative that your opponents points
are dealt with.. This can be difficult for the beginner but remember that 60 seconds is all you
really need to put an effective counter argument.

Eye Contact

Use eye contact with your opposer when attacking. Use eye contact with the audience and
every now and again with the Judges. Don’t talk to a point on the floor, ceiling or back wall
unless you need to for effect.

Notes

Use cards with headings. Don’t write it all out and try to memorise it. This leads to reading
and loses point and your natural ability is severely cramped.

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Content

Stick to the area you have been allocated. When putting your argument this will help your
team leader and give a higher team score. Above all be positive. Speaking from your own
experience gives a fresh and original quality which the Judges will appreciate.

Humour

Humour is vitally important but this is not an invitation to tell. jokes. Humorous debates
result in greater audience, Judge and team enjoyment. Be confident, smile and have fun.

SPEAKER ROLES

Speaker 1

The proposing speaker sets the tone for the whole evening and can make or break his team,
remember to define the motion specifically, this makes it easier for your team and far more
difficult for the opposition. Do not leave loopholes for opponents to crawl through. The
opposing speaker should challenge the definition, especially if it contrasts with what his team
are saying.

Both should consider introducing their teams, stating in brief terms what each will say, as this
helps with the overall team mark.

Speaker 2

As the first supporting speaker, quickly reiterate and reinforce your team argument and back
up your first speaker, especially if the other sides first speaker has appeared to be effective in
weakening your argument.

Speakers 3. 4, and 5

The main area to be careful of is the temptation to sum up. This can cut the ground from
under the feet of the first speaker and can ruin the whole effect. Speaker 5 should pay careful
attention to contributing to the argument and will not be penalised for attacking all members
of the opposition.

Summing Up

One point about each speaker is probably enough as the most difficult area is to keep within
the time limit. Remember not to introduce any new material and don’t get too carried away
with your attack. Leave sufficient time to summarise your team’s arguments.

Timings

If you finish before the first light appears, keep talking until it does. Conversely, if the final
light goes Stop immediately. Debates are often won or lost on penalty points and your extra
efforts in this area can make all the difference.

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Benefits

To say that debating does not appeal to everyone as a fun way to spend their leisure time
would be an understatement. There are those who go weak at the knees at the thought! Yet
those who do take part often get so hooked that they debate for years.

Debating is time consuming, requiring whole evenings and weekends. It is expensive,

requiring journeys the length and breadth of the country (including one from Northampton to
Peterhead and back in a day!). It is nerve wracking, however experienced you are the nerves
don’t go away.

So why do people become so obsessive about it? Perhaps it is because debating,

 increases confidence enormously

 helps you to cope with stressful situations
 develops listening skills
 develops the ability to see all sides of an issue
 creates lifetime friendships
 encourages you to travel to places you might not otherwise go to
 enables you to meet people you might otherwise never meet
 and believe it or not, it really is fun! Try it and see.

Team balance

As far as possible create a team with a balance of

 speaking styles
 background experience.

The successful Northampton teams included speakers who said very little but said it very
confidently with great humour alongside those who developed very much more profound
arguments that required the audience to listen more carefully. We had speakers who were
described as having an agitated speaking style, loud, dismissive, brash even, alongside much
gentler speakers who didn’t need to rant and rave to hold the audience’s attention.

We also had a balance in terms of experience covering financial services, accountancy,

education, engineering and law. Consequently we had a range of perspectives when it came
to developing our arguments.

By having a balance of speaking styles and perspectives you stand more chance of appealing
to the audience and judges than by having four very similar speakers. But do make sure that
styles and arguments complement each other!

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Appearance

Debating is a formal exercise requiring you to wear normal business clothes. As a general
rule men should fasten their jackets before starting to speak. Make sure that your tie is
straight, your shirt tucked in and jacket pockets emptied to avoid unsightly bulges. Avoid
putting hands in pockets or playing with a pen or your notes while speaking. Stand still but
use gesture to emphasise some of your more important points.

Use of notes

Most debaters rely upon notes to help them but excessive use of notes can cost up to 10
points or 10% of your individual marks. To use them effectively rather excessively remember
to,

 have your notes on small cards

 keep them out of the sight of the audience and judges
 have notes rather than a full prepared speech
 try to keep your notes on a single card
 don’t wave them about.

Conducting the debate

In order for a debate to be conducted efficiently and professionally each one requires the host
chamber to provide,

 a suitable venue
 a chairperson
 a lighting and timing system
 a timekeeper
 a lectern
 marking sheets
 a room for the judges to confer in
 an audience.

To omit any of these conditions is to reduce the quality of the occasion to the frustration of
those who have worked hard to prepare an entertaining debate.

The chairperson must be well prepared knowing the names of the team members and judges
as well as understanding the format, the lighting system and the timings. He or she should
introduce the judges at the beginning of the session, saying something about their experience,
ensure they receive refreshment during the marking break and thank everyone at the end.

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Judging

Debates arc judged by a team of three people normally past debaters. They work to a mark
sheet listing the points to look for. These include,

 argument; quality, relevance, treatment of opponent’s points

 delivery; clarity, inflection, fluency, gestures, stance, timing
 impact; use of language, humour, self projection, charisma
 team co-ordination, balance of speaking style.

It is important that the judges have credibility and Chiltern Region have established a
directory of experienced past debaters who are prepared to give up their time and to travel
sometimes considerable distances to judge. There is nothing more frustrating than for an
experienced debater, perhaps a national champion from a previous year, to find him or herself
being marked by someone whose only experience of debating was watching today in
parliament so choose your judges with care and treat them with respect. Make sure they have
adequate notice of the debate, adequate directions to the venue, and someone to meet them on
arrival!

To make sure the judges are correctly introduced ask each of them for a short written
introduction to themselves for the chairperson to use,

Opening proposition speaker

The opening speaker of the whole debate has an enormous responsibility to set the tone and
standard of all that follows. The role requires someone with a great deal of experience, skill
and confidence. The main tasks of the opener for the proposition are,

 to define the motion

 to introduce the team
 to outline briefly what each team member will say
 to begin the argument for the proposition.

Defining the motion needs care. Some people define every word including “the” and “a”
while others offer a general definition rather than focussing upon the meanings of individual
words. As a general rule it is safer to assume that people know what the definite and
indefinite articles mean and not to insult their intelligence by defining thent You must leave
no-one in any doubt about what you think the debate is about.

Although debating is about spontaneity the definition should be thoroughly thought through
and familiar to all your team. On one occasion I remember the opening speaker coming out
with a definition that left his own team wondering what side he was on because as he stood to
speak he suddenly had an idea that struck him as far better than the agreed one. His team
didn’t think so!

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Opening opposition speaker

If you have done your preparation well the definition should not come as a surprise because
you will have considered all the possible alternatives in your pre-debate meetings and your
likely response to each. Your job therefore is to listen carefully to the opening speaker and to
argue against what is actually said rather than against what you think should have been said.
In a young farmers debate once the opening speaker proposing that young farmers do it in
wellies produced a map of the Rocky Mountains and pointed out Upper and Lower Welly,
two ski resorts frequented by young farmers showing that they did indeed do it, i.e. ski, in
Wellies. The opener for the opposition was so dumbfounded by this unexpected definition
that he merely fumbled his way through a poorly prepared speech which did nothing to
address the issue at all! Debate the motion as defined.

Introduce your team and the areas they will cover in their speeches. However as you don’t
know until the debate starts how the motion will be defined you cannot technically have
prepared your responses in detail So in introducing your team indicate areas that they might
focus on rather than being too definite about the content of their contributions. For instance
we used to get away with saying that one of us would consider the financial, another the
educational and another the social implications of the issue before the house leaving plenty of
scope for creativity! We had one speaker in the team which won the 1989 national final who
rarely knew himself what he was going to say before he stood up so he was introduced as
“Mr who will add his contribution in his own inimitable style”!

Supporting speakers

Your task as a supporting speaker is to further your team’s cause. You should begin by
attacking the preceding opponent’s argument and attacking it with some vigour. Given a 4
minute slot in a debate you can devote a minute and a half to the attack. Too often speakers
come out with a cursory sentence about what has just been said and launch into a prepared
speech. Ensure you listen to what the preceding speaker said rather than focussing entirely
upon your own forthcoming arguments or nerves! To be effective you should,

 begin formally with “Mr/Madam chairman, ladies and gentlemen”

 avoid addressing the judges directly
 begin by attacking the preceding speaker
 say what your opening speaker said you would say
 ensure your speech supports your team’s argument
 avoid summing up what earlier speakers have said
 use all your time; don’t panic when the first light appears.

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Summing up

The opening speaker on each team has the task of closing their team’s efforts by summing up
the debate. The opposition sum up first leaving the opening proposition speaker to have the
last word. As you have such a short time to sum up, 8 speeches in 4 minutes in four person
debating, you must make every second count. To be effective you should,

 make notes on each speaker throughout the debate

 speak systematically about each speaker in turn
 deal with your opponents first
 avoid introducing any new arguments or material
 finish with a summary of your own team’s points.

Avoid being too general or vague in your summing up. Stick to what has been said and not to
what you wish had been said going speaker by speaker through your opponents then through
your team. In this way you leave the judges with your team’s arguments fresh in their minds.