Welcome to Warwick Debating Society!

The plan for today

Short introduction to the British Parliamentary debating format

Split off into groups of eight Have a 3-5 minute speech debate Feedback from judges Casual drinks at the Dirty Duck

Announcements!

NAMDA Novice When? October 31st Who? All the novices!! (it is a novice only

competition) Where? Lancaster How do I sign up? Facebook Group-->Pinned Post--

>Google Form What do we pay? Your reg fee +1/3 of your train

tickets costs When is the deadline? October 21st

WDU Debate

October 22nd7PM MS.01

First…why formal debating?

Speaking practice-builds confidence and presentation skills

Develops on the spot critical thinking Broadens knowledge/makes you aware of issues in the

world you might have not known about Great for planning essays!

Ultimately, IT’S A LOT OF FUN

Common fears

‘I’ve never debated before’ ‘I’m very bad at public speaking’ ‘English is not my first language’ ‘I’m not a fan of confrontation’

Practice makes perfect!

Overview- BP format

Every round/game has a motion which will be debated. An example motion to be debated is: ‘’This House Would Pay Smokers to Quit Smoking”

There are 4 teams involved in each debate. Each team is composed of 2 speakers

All speeches are the same length

Teams

Out of the 4 teams, 2 are on the Government bench and 2 are on the Opposition bench.

On Government bench: Opening Government(OG) Closing Government(CG)

On Opposition bench: Opening Opposition(OO) Closing Opposition(CO)

Despite there being benches, all 4 teams compete against each other!

Opening Government (OG)

Closing Government (CG)

Opening Opposition (OO)

Closing Opposition (CO)

1. Prime Minister

3. Deputy Prime Minister

5. Member of Government (MG)

7. Government Whip (GW)

6. Member of Opposition (MO)

8. Opposition Whip (OW)

2. Leader of Opposition (LO)

4. Deputy Leader of Opposition (DLO)

TOP

HAL

FBO

TTO

M H

ALF

Points of Information(POIs)

Short interruptions in the speech of somebody on the opposing side

Allowed only outside of protected time

Can be accepted(in which case you say the POI) or refused(in which case you have to sit down) by the speaker

1 MIN3 MINUTES1 MIN

Structuring a speech

Don't forget about this bit!

So...what are you going to say?

1. How many substantive points you are going to make

2. What those points are and briefly explain why they are important

3. Explain that you are going to do rebuttal first, and how many points you will have

4. Do rebuttal(you will learn about this soon)

5. Sign-post first substantive point

6. Explain first point

7. Do the same for the rest points

8. With about 15 seconds to go, summarise what you've said