World Schools Debate Format - Rules

General:
- There are two teams of three speakers each, arguing either for or against the motion.
These are team proposition and team opposition (also known as prop and opp).
- Normally, the speeches are 8 minutes long each, the reply speeches are 4 minutes
long each. Our format is 6-minute “normal” speeches and 4-minute reply speeches.
- The speaking order is as follows:
Proposition: Opposition:

First speaker (6 minutes)

First speaker (6 minutes)

Second speaker (6 minutes)

Second speaker (6 minutes)

Third speaker (6 minutes)

Third speaker (6 minutes)

Reply speaker (protected time, 3 minutes)

Reply speaker (protected time, 3 minutes)

- Between each speech, the side that is about to speak has 30 seconds to a minute to
get their affairs in order before speaking.
- The reply speaker has to be one of the three previous speakers (the team is three
people, not four!)
- You get marked down for going both below and above the time format. Prepare your
speech in a way that speaking calmly and measurely will last you slightly below the
required time format.

Points of information:
- You can (and you should!) raise points of information when your opponent is
speaking and the time isn’t protected. You can do so by standing up and saying
“point of information” (or otherwise make it known that you’re about to speak).
- Protected time means that no points of information can be raised. Protected time is:
- First and last minute of the “normal” speeches
- All of the reply speech
- A point of information is a very brief question (no longer than 15 seconds) to the
speaker, which they can either accept (answer the question) or decline (“no thanks”).
- Declining too many points of information will impact your mark negatively, so try to
only decline if:
- You have no idea what to say (and you think you’ll make it worse for yourself,
which really shouldn’t happen as you should know the topic inside out)
- You’ve accepted several before and you’re running out of time
- Whenever you feel that the opposing team has made a weak point, you ought to very
quickly and quietly consult with your teammates and raise a point of information.
 Remember, it is a question: you should only ask about what they said just now, you
should not introduce any new points yourself, and you have to keep it brief.
- If the quality of your responses to points of information contrasts sharply with the
quality of your speech (you stutter, you get lost, you make no sense), you can get
marked down.

Speaker roles:
- First speakers:
- Greet the opposing team and judges (thus showing that you’re in an actual
debate and not in a speech-reading competition)
- Define the motion to avoid any confusion (and make it easier for you to argue
your side)
- Say what your teammates will talk about - this shows teamwork and that you
adhere to the format
- In a policy debate (e.g. “this house believes that stricter measures of
surveillance ought to be implemented for the sake of public security”), it’s
worth spending a little time describing the current status quo.
- Second speakers:
- Provide rebuttals to the opposing team’s first speaker points
- Continue making your points
- Third speakers:
- Rebut the rebuttals given by the second speakers
- Continue talking about why the other team is wrong
- A new point can be raised but it shouldn’t get in the way of interacting with the
other team’s argument
- Reply speakers:
- Give a “biassed evaluation” of the debate:
- Outline what the debate focused on
- Evaluate how the debate went
- Explain why you just won (“their rebuttals were bad”, “our arguments
were better”, etc)
- Make sure to look at the adjudicators when you’re convincing them why
you’re better than the other team

Types of debate:
- Prepared (the motion and the side is known in advance)
- Semi-prepared (the motion is known in advance but not the side)
- Unprepared (the motion and the side are revealed only 30 minutes before the
debate)

What to do:
- Remember that it’s a debate, you get marked based on how well you interact with the
other team, not only based on how strong your points are. You could be as eloquent
as Cicero but if you fail to engage with points of information or opposing arguments,
you will lose.
- You’re also judged on how well you interact with your own team - each speech
should feature a reference to your own teammates’ points as well.
- Raise points of information
 - Prepare yourself for impromptu action - learn to improvise
- Familiarise yourself with what logical fallacies are, and become good at identifying
them (and avoiding them yourself).

What not to do:

- Read off a sheet
- Reading a speech without adjusting to what’s being said by others (your team or the
opposing team)
- Turn down too many points of information

Additional resources (strongly advised to make yourself familiar with these):

http://www.esu.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/Introduction-to-World-Schools-format-guide.
pdf - format guide
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Schools_Style_debate - Wikipedia page