Learning the Speaker Positions with Sam and Ciera

Leader of Opposition in Opening Opposition: 


I find this speech one of the most challenging because you have to introduce the opposition argument, refute the Prime Minister, and challenge any irregularities in the model…whew!
Structurally, the Leader of Opposition (LO) is similar to the PM’s speech (many teams will have the same member give both speeches.)
Often you will agree with the general idea proposed by the government but disagree with the mechanism. For example, if the resolution was
“This house would subsidize all education”
The sentiment is to support increasing access to education. On opposition, you can agree with that sentiment, but disagree with the mechanism that for instances the government will provide a voucher program to accomplish that aim.
Ensure that you directly rebut the information from the PM.
Tips for good rebuttal:
·        Destructive material to discredit material brought by the other side
·        Attack the evidence used to support the claims (sometimes a poor strategy b/c the team can provide more evidence or attack yours...that equals a stalemate in the debate)
·        Attack the argument at the analysis level – more difficult but highly effective. Excellent technique b/c you damage the credibility of the other team.
·        Attack the idea! – the concept brought to the debate by the other team is flawed and is not true in the context of the debate…this is very challenge to do BUT is a FATAL blow to the other team.

Examples for initiating rebuttal arguments:

  • The argument is flawed
  •  There is not enough warrants to support the claim of the argument
  • The argument is insufficient compared to …. (more weighty arguments)
  • The argument lacks sufficient logic
  • The argument is factually incorrect
  • While we concede that …. Costs a lot of money, the benefits of …. Are worth it. 

Deputy Leader of the Opposition in Opening Opposition:

This position is very similar to the DPM speech. Do the same thing rebuild your partners arguments, rebut the Government arguments, and make new arguments. 
Tips for good rebuttal:
·        Destructive material to discredit material brought by the other side
·        Attack the evidence used to support the claims (sometimes a poor strategy b/c the team can provide more evidence or attack yours...that equals a stalemate in the debate)
·        Attack the argument at the analysis level – more difficult but highly effective. Excellent technique b/c you damage the credibility of the other team.
·        Attack the idea! – the concept brought to the debate by the other team is flawed and is not true in the context of the debate…this is very challenge to do BUT is a FATAL blow to the other team.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Why American Education Fails?

Despite previous initiatives to improve the American educational system, including No Child Left behind, Race to the Top, and Every Student Succeeds Act, the American education system is broken. Forbes proposes that the main reason for this degradation of the U.S. education system is because teachers are not treated like professionals. Background:  Many individuals would argue that there are certain characteristics that make good teachers --> a passion for their subject, deep knowledge on that subject, a willingness to listen to their students' needs, and a vision of what a properly education class will look like at the end of the academic year.  The largest problem with the American educational system is that it prioritizes standardized test scores above anything else. Test performance is tied to state funding and the evaluation of teachers and students.  While there is no empirical evidence to assert that standardized testing is the best indicator of knowledg...
Read more

The Basics of Queer Theory

What does it mean to be Queer? How should the LGBTQ community define themselves? All these questions answered and more! Queer theory’s origin is hard to clearly define, since it came from multiple critical and cultural contexts, including feminism, post-structuralist theory, radical movements of people of color, the gay and lesbian movements, AIDS activism, many sexual subcultural practices such as sadomasochism, and postcolonialism. Although queer theory had its beginnings in the educational sphere, the cultural events surrounding its origin also had a huge impact. Activist groups pushed back in the 1980's against the lack of government intervention after the outbreak of the AIDS epidemic. Gay activist groups like ACT-UP and Queer Nation took the lead to force attention to both the AIDS epidemic and the gay and lesbian community as a whole. These groups helped define the field with the work they did by highlighting a non-normative option to the more traditional identity politi...
Read more

Learning Speaker Positions with Ciera

Deputy Leader of Government in Opening Government: I think that hardest position to learn is Opening Government. The Deputy Leader plays an important role in the round. Your job is to help your partner prep the model and prep their points. You should prep PM's speech before you start preparing your own.  The DPM has four obligations in the round. First, defend and rebuild the case started by the PM.  Second, destroy the opposition case. Third, add new arguments to the round. Fourth, respond to the back half team.  First, the Deputy Prime Minister defends the case presented by the Prime Minister by engaging any refutation presented against the case by the Leader of the Opposition. The Deputy should take up the Prime Minister’s argument one by one and defend each argument against any refutation by the Leader of the Opposition. Thus, at the end of this section of the Deputy’s speech, the audience should see that the case originally presented by the Prime Minister still...
Read more