Intro to Public Forum Debate
Don’t Know What To Choose Your Event for Speech and Debate? Take A Peek at Public Forum Debate
Public Forum Debate, one of the newest forms of academic debate was created to enable debaters to discuss current issues in an obtainable, and conversational format. Public Forum Debate features 4 high school students in teams of two debating an opportune issue in highly structured speech times.
Debaters will use reasoning, and evidence from third-party experts to support and authenticate their arguments. If you want to compete in Public Forum Debate, you need to know the structures of a high-quality Public Forum Debate.
First, the Resolution. The Resolution is the topic that the students are debating about. Resolutions are intended to be “ripping from the headlines” and to reflect prevailing issues about which most well-read individuals would be informed.
There’s a key word that appears at the beginning of each Resolution, which is “Resolved”, because it sets up the basic clash of every Public Forum Round: the pro team, or the “aff team”, try to prove the resolution true, while the con team, or “neg team” attempts to prove it false.
The debate itself is broken down into a series of speeches based on the speaking order selected during the coin toss.
The Public Forum Debate includes four types of speeches: the constructive, the rebuttal, the summary, and the final focus. It also includes three questioning periods, called “crossfires”.
The order of Public Forum Debate goes as listed:
Constructive Speech, which is the teams’ first opportunity to deliver and establish their prepared arguments, is also called a “case”.
Following the two constructive speeches, the first speakers from both teams engage in their 1st crossfire , during which either speaker may ask or answer questions.
After the 1st crossfire, the second speakers on each team deliver rebuttal speeches; this is the first opportunity for each team to disprove, or, answer, the arguments made by their opponents.
After the rebuttal speeches, the second speakers from each team take part in the second crossfire period, which follows the form and style of the first.
Following the second crossfire, the first speakers on each team deliver their summary speeches. These speakers will try to summarize the crucial issues in the debate and continue to persuasively advocate for their position.
The summary speeches are followed by the Grand Crossfire. The grand crossfire is similar to the other crossfires, except that all four debaters participate.
The last speech of the debate is the final focus, which is delivered by the second speaker. No new arguments may be made in the final focus; instead, the speaker concentrates on analyzing the arguments that have been made previously and detailing the judge why, on the merit of those arguments, his/her team should win the debate, for two minutes for each of the speakers.
THE FORMAT FOR PUBLIC FORUM DEBATE
AFF CONSTRUCTIVE 4 MINS
NEG CONSTRUCTIVE 4 MINS
CROSSFIRE (3 MIN) – THE 1ST SPEAKERS (PEOPLE WHO GAVE THE SPEECH) ASK AND ANSWER QUESTIONSAFF REBUTTAL 4 MINS
NEG REBUTTAL 4 MINS
CROSSFIRE (3 MIN) – THE 2ND SPEAKERS (PEOPLE WHO GAVE THE SPEECH) ASK AND ANSWER QUESTIONSAFF SUMMARY 3 MINS
NEG SUMMARY 3 MINS
GRAND CROSSFIRE (3 MIN)AFF FINAL FOCUS 2 MINS
NEG FINAL FOCUS 2 MINS
In addition to eight speeches and three crossfires, each team has two minutes to prepare for their speech, usually called “prep”. Debaters may choose to use prep time at any point of the debate, but only between speeches or crossfires; debaters may not take prep time in the middle of a speech. During prep time, debaters may consult with their partners over potential arguments to take or questions to raise upon upcoming speeches or crossfires. The prep time is cumulative for the debate, so, the participants must use the time wisely.
Thank you for reading,
Joyce Lee
