Frequently Asked Questions

 

PARLIAMENTARY DEBATE VS. LINCOLN DOUGLAS DEBATE

At IHS Debate, we offer our members two different types of debate: Parliamentary (Parli) and Lincoln Douglas (LD). There are a couple of key differences between the two styles.

Parli debate is a newer debate format with a strong focus on impromptu speaking. It is also the more popular format at our club. Topics and sides are announced twenty minutes before the round starts, and this prep time is when debaters on both sides write and research their cases. A regular Parli team has two debaters on each side, one giving the first and third speech while the other gives the second speech. The round in total usually lasts about an hour and topics generally are either political themes or quirky general opinions. You can expect to learn a lot about current event and policies, while also learning how to craft argumentation towards broad topics like love.

Lincoln Douglas is a 1 vs. 1 debate event that involves arguing for and against a resolution/topic that changes every two months. Generally, debaters are expected to research and prepare (write arguments) for both sides of the topic in advance.  LD debate places emphasis on morals and topics tend to be related to current events and world issues. This year, research material and cases will be provided to all Irvington debaters and the primary focus during meetings will be to practice and prepare for tournaments. 

 

SESSIONS (times are TENTATIVE for 24-25 debate season)

All Sessions take place after school once a week from 3:30 PM - 5:00 PM

Novice Parliamentary: Every Tuesday | Norse Hall

Open/Varsity Parliamentary: Every Friday | Room 22

Lincoln Douglas: Every Tuesday | Room P-3

We ensure that you will receive personalized help if you can not make it to session due to commitments such as sports or marching band.

Our Captains create a comprehensive curriculum covering numerous topic areas varying from the general structure of a speech to global issues to higher-level arguments used in the Varsity divisions of each style of debate. We will be informing you about what we plan to teach during each session in the posts reminding everyone that a session is coming up soon. Remember, it is crucial that you understand each of these topics completely in order to become the best of the best in the circuit.

Although session attendance is not mandatory, it is imperative to be present at sessions in order to become a successful debater. In an effort to reward those who attend sessions, we will be monitoring session attendance throughout the year. Initially, we will be passing around a laptop or another device for you to write down your name in a spreadsheet in order to indicate that you are “present”. However, as everyone begins to familiarize themselves with the other members, we will simply mark you as present when we see that you have arrived. These records of session attendance will be made public to everyone and will play a role when deciding which teams are selected to compete at tournaments with limited spots.

 

TOURNAMENT SELECTION

One of the primary ways that members of Debate participate in the club is by attending tournaments. Each year we offer 3 tournaments with open attendance, which means that everyone who signs up will be assured a spot to compete. However, the majority of other tournaments do not function in the same way. Depending on the tournament’s own size restrictions and other limitations, only some teams will be able to compete.

The tournament selection process for Parli works in the following way:

• Numerous factors will be taken into account in order to select which teams will attend tournaments:

  • The most important factor is previous records, which will be available for everyone to see on a public spreadsheet that is linked in the Facebook group’s description.

  • Another important aspect will be performance on assignments and practice debates. Captains will be checking for the quality of the work, whether or not it was submitted on time, etc. If a Varsity team does not fulfill their responsibilities and turns in an assignment late, a JV team will be bumped up to take their spot.

    • Note that each team will have one “late pass” per semester that they can use if their case file is late. This pass enables them to turn in the case file three days after the deadline.

  • Session attendance is the final factor that will be considered. This will also be displayed on a spreadsheet that is pinned to the Facebook group description. 

    • It is YOUR responsibility to make sure that you are marked present at each session that you attend.

  • Wildcard entries

    • There will be one wildcard entry for each division for tournaments that we can send seven or more teams to. 

    • This team will be chosen randomly.

  • For more selective tournaments, such as the State Qualifier tournament, the selection process will work differently.

    • There will be bracketed practice rounds to determine which teams will get to attend, and all teams must partake in this process. However, if a team loses they may still be able to compete if spots are available, and this will be determined by looking at their previous records and assignment performance.

    • There will be no wildcard entries even if seven or more teams can compete.

  • Although there is a “rubric” to decide which teams get to compete, the final decision will be made by Caroline and the captains, and outside factors such as visible improvement will be considered as well.

The tournament selection process for LD is simple because the majority of the time, all members who sign up to compete get a spot at tournaments. However, if it is not possible for everyone who is interested to go to a certain tournament, members will be selected based on their previous records, work ethic, and attendance. 

 

TOURNAMENT REGISTRATION

Tournament registration is a multi-step process. First, officers will release information about a tournament through a Facebook post as well as on this website for members. Tournament registration will now take place on this website; the sign-up section contains sections to fill out your information, judge names, etc. Note that if you are in Parli, only one of your partners needs to register for the both of you, the other partner will simply have to accept the tournament partner request that will be sent to their email inbox.

The week before the tournament, the officers will post a spreadsheet with all the people competing in the tournament and the judges’ information as well. This final spreadsheet is usually released relatively close to the tournament date itself. Although this can be a hassle for members, it is impossible for us to post it any earlier because the tournament informs us how many spots are available for us to fill up very close to the tournament date, preventing us from releasing the competitors sooner.

 

INDEPENDENT ENTRIES

Some tournaments that we will be competing at permit independent entries. These are individuals who compete at a tournament without any affiliation with a school. We DO NOT permit our members from going independent at any time during the year. This is because the school administration and the school district have warned us in the past that if we go independent, there will be legal issues regarding the competitors. For this reason, they have threatened to SHUT DOWN debate club if anyone goes independent without the school and district’s advance permission (for extremely special and rare circumstances). Please DO NOT try to go independent because the last time someone did try to do this was seven years ago, and that year, debate was shut down by the administration. Let’s keep our club active for everyone to enjoy! :)

 

ADVANCING LEVELS (PARLI)

Novice to JV: At the beginning of the year there will be two divisions: Novice and JV. Novice will be comprised of freshmen and new debaters. JV will be comprised of returning debaters who were in the club last year and went to at least one tournament. After varsity applications (see paragraph below), those not selected will be in the JV class. After SCU, any teams that wish to be moved into JV can approach the Novice Parli Captain, who can choose to send tournament records and attendance to the JV Parli Captain.

JV to Varsity: The Varsity fall/winter application is comprised of a sample case file, a list of your team’s tournament records, and a contract detailing basic rules of respect/responsibility needed to represent IHS Debate. This application is evaluated primarily by the Varsity Parli Captain. We will also hold bracketed practice debates for prospective Varsity members when the school year starts to aid, but not ultimately make, our decisions.  If you are not selected for Varsity at the beginning of the school year or if you believe that your recent tournament records warrant being in Varsity, speak with the Novice Parli Captain. They will be able to recommend you into Varsity and discuss the details of a mid-year application. 

 

ADVANCING LEVELS (LD)

There will be two main divisions for LD: novice/JV and varsity. New debaters will automatically begin in novice/JV. Since transitioning to LD is not hard, debaters who have previous debate experience in a different debate format will begin in novice/JV, but will be allowed to move up to varsity after attending 2+ tournaments in the novice/JV division based on their records, work ethic, and commitment.

Novice/JV to Varsity: Moving up divisions and going varsity at tournaments will be highly encouraged and will be application-based. Debaters who break at a tournament or consistently do well (winning records) in the novice/JV divisions will be recommended to apply for varsity. These applications will take place before the second semester, and you will be judged on case-building skills, commitment, and conceptual knowledge. Even if you are doing poorly or average in the novice/JV divisions, you will be allowed to compete at the varsity level in at least one tournament throughout the year if you would like to. Debaters in varsity who are clearly uninterested, do not show enough commitment, and/or perform exceptionally poorly at tournaments may be forced to move back to novice/JV. 

 

TOURNAMENT STRUCTURE

There are two main types of tournaments that we attend: league tournaments and invitations. 

• League tournaments are Parli/LD 1, 2, 3, State Qualifiers, and States. These tournaments are one day long (except for State Qualifiers and States which are longer), and are offline, so that means that you cannot use the internet during prep time. 

• All other tournaments are invitationals. These tournaments are 2-3 days long and allow internet usage during prep (with some exceptions such as MLK).

All tournaments, whether they are league or invitationals, work in almost the same way. 

• There are 3-6 preliminary rounds. 

  • These rounds are either single flighted or double flighted.

    • Single flighted means that everyone will be debating and prepping at the same time.

    • Double flighted means that the debaters will be divided into two groups, A and B. A will prep first and go to their rooms to debate. After A is done prepping, B will start prepping and will then debate. The topics for flights A and B are different.

  • You find out what side you are on, who your opponents are, who your judge is, and what room you are in by checking postings. Postings are either put on a piece of paper that is taped on a wall in the prep area, or they can be found on Tabroom, which is a website that will be explained more in the next section.

  • During prep time you have 20 minutes to research and write down all the information that you need to use for the round on the paper that you brought or what you were provided with by the tournament. During “offline” tournaments you cannot use a search engine, but in “online” ones, you can. 

    • You are usually not allowed to talk with other teams during prep time, but there are some tournaments that allow you to prep in groups (we will inform you if this is allowed).

• After these initial rounds, most tournaments (almost all of them except for the league ones) will have “break” rounds, which consist of the top 16-32 teams in the tournament. 

  • The teams that break are the ones with the best records (most amount of wins) and the highest speaker points from the preliminary rounds. 

• These teams are then matched and given pairings to debate, however, if a team loses their debate, they are eliminated and do not continue debating. 

• The elimination rounds function differently than the prelim rounds because the side that you will be debating on is determined by a coin toss in the prep room; if you win the coin toss, you will be able to choose whether you want to be Aff or Neg, but you will not know the topic yet. 

• After the sides are decided, one of two things will happen: 1) there will be one predetermined topic that everyone will debate and prep time will start as usual, or 2) teams will go into their respective rooms and do topic strikes. 

  • When there are topic strikes, the teams are shown a paper with three topic options. The Neg team has a minute to decide which topic they DO NOT want to debate and strike it off. The Aff team then has one minute to choose which one they DO NOT want to debate. The remaining topic is the one that the debate will happen on, and prep time will start as usual.

Tournaments usually last the whole day, starting around 7:30-9 AM and ending anywhere from 6-10 PM. Judges have to stay the entire time if they are signed up to judge for a particular day, and cannot leave without confirming with the President or one of the VPs. When you arrive, you must check in with the secretaries and go to the designated prep area for Parli competitors. In addition, before you leave, you must check out with the secretaries as well.

Materials that are required for all tournaments include:

• Fully charged laptop and charger (for students and judges)

• Downloaded articles about current events + offline Wikipedia (offline tournaments only)

• Printer paper for flowing (at least 30-40 sheets per person)

  • This does not apply for all tournaments. All league tournaments and some invitationals give colored paper to all competitors and you must write everything on there.

• Pens to flow with (typically two different colors so you can have one for each side)

• Water, food, and money

  • Lunch is usually available for purchase nearby, but you may not have time to go buy something

• Folder/clipboard to keep all your papers in one place and write on

• Typically, access to the campus map

  • Officers will usually send this out when the tournament is approaching, however they’re unnecessary given social-distancing procedures

Most tournaments that we will be attending will be expecting formal wear. 

• This means that girls can wear flats/formal shoes with dresses (semi-formal or formal) or dress pants with a formal or semi-formal shirt/blouse. Blazers are optional but highly recommended.

• Boys should wear a dress shirt with formal pants or khakis, along with dress shoes. Please wear black socks with black shoes. Blazers and ties are optional but highly recommended.

• Tournaments without formal dress allow casual clothing. Please remember that you need to look respectful, so keep that in mind when you are choosing what to wear.

Feedback/Concerns

If you ever have any concerns that you wish to discuss, please feel free to refer to the anonymous feedback forms that we have posted on the Facebook group description, as well as the IHS Debate website. This form will be checked on a regular basis by the officers, and your concerns will be addressed appropriately.

Additionally, if you have any ethical or logistical concerns about anything during the course of the year, please feel free to reach out to the Presidents or VPs at any time! The officer team is here to make this the best experience possible for you, and we want to resolve any issues as soon as they arise.

 

MENTORSHIP

This year, mentorship will be the bridge of communication between the mentorship director and novice members, and will primarily focus on practicing key concepts.

Needless to say, the mentorship system requires a more streamlined effort on all fronts which is why it’s crucial for aspiring mentors to understand the significance of being a mentor. These are the requirements that you will be expected to uphold, but of course, you are more than welcome to go above and beyond these listed guidelines:

• Meet with novices once a week during synchronous mentorship meetings and at least once a week during independent and asynchronous meetings 

• Contribute to the Mentor Handbook at least once per month. For starters, you will be assigned a topic and then every month after, you will independently choose a topic that will be approved and reviewed by Tejal

• Regularly update the Mentorship Google Calendar (will be shared with each Mentor later on) with all scheduled asynchronous meetings

As a mentor, the club will recognize your efforts to our expansion, so mentors receive increased flexibility tournament attendance and JV/Varsity selection. However, mismanagement of responsibilities will lead to punitive action through the two-strike system: (1) an official warning (2) a sit-down meeting with the Varsity/Novice Captains.

If you have any more specific questions on mentorship, contact us on [email protected] or message any of the Varsity or Novice Captains on Messenger.