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Why You Should Debate
What is Parliamentary Debate at Swarthmore?
DebateA debate is a speech contest between two competing sides about a given proposition. The ultimate goal of each side is to convince outside observers that their side is the correct one to support. There are different types of debate, such as Lincoln-Douglas, Cross Examination, Policy, and Parliamentary, each of which has its own unique format, rules, and judging criteria.
Parliamentary Debate
At Swarthmore we participate in Parliamentary debate. A debate round of Parli
consists of two teams of two people each debating for 40 minutes on almost any
debatable topic. The team proposing a resolution—the Government—meets for ten
minutes before the round starts and comes up with a topic to debate along with
several reasons for the side they choose to argue. (Often, preparation begins
far earlier.) The first Government speaker (the Prime Minister) must then speak
for seven minutes about why the resolution they are proposing is a good idea and
ought be adopted. The other team—the Opposition—has no idea what the Government
is going to propose before the round starts; nonetheless, the first Opposition
speaker (Leader of the Opposition) must not only come up with a counter-argument
during the Prime Minister's speech, but should also introduce several new points
as to why the Government's proposal should not be adopted. The debate proceeds
in the following manner:
Prime Minister Constructive - 7 minutesThe only planning time during the entire debate is the 10 minutes the Government has to prepare a case before the beginning of the round; each debater must give a speech as soon as the previous speaker is finished.
Leader of Opposition Constructive - 8 minutes
Member of Government Constructive - 8 minutes
Member of Opposition Constructive - 8 minutes
Leader of Opposition Rebuttal - 4 minutes
Prime Minister Rebuttal - 5 minutes
The time constraints placed on speech preparation time force you to think quickly and creatively as your speech is improvised and no outside research is allowed in the round. In Parliamentary debate, good rhetoric, quick thinking, and a sense of humor are just as important as sound reasoning. The goal of Parliamentary debate is to develop all of these capabilities in the participants.
Parliamentary Debate at Swarthmore
Swarthmore is a member of the American Parliamentary Debate Association (APDA),
a circuit of 58 colleges and universities located mainly on the East Coast. We
always go to at least one tournament each week, though occasionally we'll send
teams to two different tournaments on the same weekend. Each tournament begins
on a Friday afternoon and is usually finished early Saturday evening; it
consists of 5 separate debate rounds, a party, a banquet, and quarter-final,
semi-final, and final rounds. During the 2005-2006 academic year, Swat sent
teams to 19 American tournaments, one Canadian tournament, the U.S National
Championships, the North American Championships, the Oxford University
Intervarsity and the World Universities Debating Championships in Dublin,
Ireland. In addition, we host a novice tournament in the fall and a regular APDA
tournament in the spring every year. We have hosted the U.S. National
Championships three times in the past nine years.
Swarthmore doesn't hold tryouts for new members; anyone is welcome and encouraged to join. You don't even need to have previous experience with debating—in fact, many of our current members never participated in debate before coming to Swat! Thanks to the generous endowment from Amos J. Peaslee '07 (1907, that is), the society is able to pay for all of the expenses of attending a tournament, and we even have our own van to take the team to tournaments each weekend. Although Swarthmore is smaller than most of the other colleges and universities on APDA, we are able to consistently field a large, well-respected, and successful debate team each year. To join the debate team, either come to the demo round we hold in September, or simply come to one of our meetings in Tarble 306, which we hold on Monday and Thursday nights at 8:00.
Why should you debate?
Speaking SkillsIf you don't have speaking skills, you'll develop them—quickly. If you've always been terrified by public speaking, debate is the perfect way to overcome your fear. Your teammates are more than willing to help you improve your speaking style—they too were once novices, and they'll be able to help you with our novice training program. Once you get the hang of talking about topics you know almost nothing about in front of people you've never met before, you'll find that giving public speeches—even in front of people you know—is easy! Developing your rhetorical skills will help you out in the real world, whether you're interviewing for a job or inciting a mob to riot.
Reasoning Skills
Parliamentary debate requires its participants to come up with logical and
creative reasons for their assertions on the spur of the moment; debating in
parli rounds will teach you how to think on your feet. Additionally, it will
also help you learn how to make a clear and concise argument in a given amount
of time, which is a useful skill to have whether you're speaking in a debate
round or writing a paper for class. The entire purpose of debate is to convince
another person that your proposition is a brilliant idea and should be
implemented; debating will help you refine your ability to persuade other people
to see your point of view.
Personal Knowledge
Parliamentary debate topics range from the philosophical to the absurd, and from
current events to ancient history. Unlike other forms of debate, Parli exposes
you to a wide variety of topics and looks at the most important aspects of each
one. If you're asked to debate a topic about which you know very little, by the
end of the round you'll find that you've dramatically expanded your knowledge of
it. If you have to take a position which you are personally diametrically
opposed to, it will require you to thoughtfully consider the other side of what
you once saw as a one-sided issue. These are two of the great things about
Parliamentary debate—in both cases, you're required to analyze something that
you wouldn't have otherwise, thus making you a more knowledgeable and
enlightened person.
It's Fun
Unlike some other schools on APDA, at Swarthmore we're fairly laid back about
debating. Though there are some of us who will go to tournaments every weekend,
we don't demand that our all of our members commit their lives to debate. You're
free to go to as many or as few tournaments as you want, and you can join or
quit the team at any time during the year. Debating gives you a chance to get
away from Swarthmore for the weekend; we usually leave in the early afternoon on
Friday and return to Swat early Saturday evening. During that time, you get to
travel to distant lands, meet strange new people, eat non-Sharples food, attend
great parties, and debate almost any topic you want. Really— people from Swat
have run cases on everything from the merits of mandatory voting to Jerry
Springer and censorship; from war crime tribunals in Sierra Leone to Luke
Skywalker and the Dark Side of the Force; and from whether William Seward should
have bought Alaska to whether Dumbledore should have given the House Cup to
Slytherin.
Debate not only helps you develop your speaking and reasoning skills, it's fun, too!
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