 |
|
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
|
|
|
| ||||||||
Debate is a formalized system of (usually) logical argument. It is a rule-governed contest with two or more sides, presided by an official or moderator. Each side is attempting to win the approval of a designated audience, such as a judge or jury.
Debate is a highly organized activity with sponsors such as the Oxford Union at the local, national, and international level.
Many North American colleges and high schools field teams that participate in competitive debate. Parliamentary debating is also popular in other parts of the world, including Asia, Australia, New Zealand, and United Kingdom.
"Parli" is conducted under rules derived from British National Parliamentary Debate Association (NPDA) is the largest collegiate sponsor; the American Parliamentary Debating Organization is the standards body for the east coast. There is currently no national sponsor for High School Parli debate.
In Canada, the Canadian Universities Society for Intercollegiate Debating (CUSID) is the main umbrella organization for the university-level debating.
Other high school debate events such as Student Congress, Model United Nations, and the American Legion's Boys State and Girls State events are activities which are based on the premise of the contestants acting as representatives in a mock legislative body.
Moot court or "mock court" is expanding across the US as a high school activity.
Lincoln-Douglas Debate, named after the famous series of Senate debates between the two candidates, has two participants who compete against each other. The arguments center around philosophy or abstract values, and thus it is also called a value debate. Lincoln-Douglas debate tends to require less evidence than policy debate, and thus emphasizes logic and reasoning. High school Lincoln-Douglas competitions are typically conducted under the rules of the National Forensic League or the National Catholic Forensic League.
In Policy Debate two teams of two students advocate or oppose a resolution calling for a change in policy by the government. The style of argumentation features extensive use of citations and quotations from news sources and technical material. In the US, high school policy debate is overseen by the NFL and the CFL. Collegate policy debate is overseen by the National Debate Tournament or the Cross Examination Debate Association.
The expansion of Mock Court and Parli have come at the cost of the shrinking of participation in LD and Policy Debate in US High School competition since 1995.
Policy Debate-style competitions are highly popular outside the North American continent, with Australia frequently winning the World Debating Championship.
A Balloon debate is one in which members argue the merits of their chosen subject (normally a person or profession) so as not to get voted out of the balloon.
High school speech tournaments are held every week during the season. Regional tournamnents, often held in high schools, attract other local teams. Major tournaments (such as Harvard's) attract students from the national circuit. The various national championships attract debaters from all over the country as well as from overseas. Many organizations hold national championship tournaments inclduing the NFL national championships, CFL, CDA and NDT. The US national championships include teams from former US territories and protectorates including the Panama Canal Zone, American Samoa and Guam.
Collegiate parlimentary debate tournaments are held weekly during the season (which typically runs from the fall until the early spring). Some leagues (APDA and NEDA for instance) host championship tournaments at the end of the season.
With the increasing popularity and availability of the Internet to people, different opinions arise frequently. This paved the way for more formalized debating websites, typically in the form of online forums or bulletin boards. The debate style is interesting, as research and well thought out points and counterpoints are possible because of the obvious lack of time restraints (although practical time restraints usually are in effect, e.g., no more than 5 days between posts, etc.). Many people use this to strengthen their points, or drop their weaker opinions on things, many times for debate in formalized debates (such as the ones listed above) or for fun arguments with friends. The ease-of-use and friendly environments make new debaters welcome to share their opinions in many communities. Examples of online debating websites are shown in the external links.
Since the 1976 general election, debates between presidential candidates have been a part of U.S. presidential campaigns. Unlike debates sponsored at the high school or collegiate level, the participants, format, and rules are not independently defined. Nevertheless, in a campaign season heavily dominated by television advertisements, talk radio, sound bites, and spin, they still offer a rare opportunity for citizens to see and hear the two major candidates side-by-side.
The presidential debates were initially sponsored by the League of Women Voters, though since 1988 the two major political parties have taken over the process. In 2004, the Citizens' Debate Commission was formed in the hope of establishing an independent sponsor for presidential debates, with a more voter-centric role in the definition of the participants, format, and rules.
|
||||
| View Live Article | This article is from Wikipedia. All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License | |
||
