Speak like a Debater: Learning Debate Lingo

If you’re new to debating and I told you that all debaters hate squirrels, you’d probably wonder what was wrong with all of them, that they could hate something so cuddly and adorable. And if I said knifing is a common practice in debating, I won’t blame you for wondering how an intellectual sport can get so violent. Thankfully, debaters are neither cold-blooded nor violent (mostly); squirrels and knifing just mean something completely different in debating lingo than they do in everyday conversations and if you really wanna find out, just keep reading. In debating, like in any other sport, the terminology is the first thing to master before you can engage with the sport further. Take physical sports for example-if you don’t know what a sixer is when you’re watching a cricket match, or what a dive in football is, or even what a strike is in a baseball match, trust me, you are going to be sitting there clueless and confused. That’s the same with debate lingo such as breaks and bubbles. Knowing the terminology can go a long way in helping you be confident about what you’re doing and therefore help you perform well. Luckily for you, we have compiled a short list of debate terminologies that will help you speak like a debater in no time at all.

1. Actor Motion: When the motion is set from a point of view of a specific actor (this may be an individual, an organization, a country, etc.), it is an actor motion. Debaters are supposed to argue from the perspective of what is in the best interests of this actor. E.g. TH, as the USA, would bomb Iran.

2. Assertion: When you make a statement in a debate without really explaining why it’s true, that’s called an assertion. E.g. Cats are better pets than dogs and since our policy helps you get more cats, we win. (To actually win you need to explain this assertion and give several reasons to prove why cats are better pets.)

3. Backtabbing: When you try to figure out the number of points your opponents in a debate round have, after a silent round. E.g. If I am in round 6 currently, and round 5 was a silent round (i.e. the decision of the round was not announced), I will try to figure out my opponents total team points by checking their total number of points after round 4. So if I see that my opponents were on 5 points after round 4, the maximum points they could have after round 5 is 8 points (if they ranked 1st) while the minimum they could be on is 5 points (if they ranked 4th).

4. Ballots: This is just the form in which judges of a debate enter the rankings of teams and the speaker points given to all the speakers in that particular round.

5. Bin room: This is a demeaning term for a room of low ranked teams in the last round(s) of a debate tournament. There is no scope for any team to break to outrounds from this room. A bin room is sometimes also referred to as a ‘Dead room’.

6. Bottom half: This is exclusive to British Parliamentary format and refers to the two closing teams in the round i.e. Closing Government and Closing Opposition teams.

7. Break: The break is the threshold for a team to qualify for the outrounds of the tournament i.e. quarterfinals, semifinals, etc. E.g. If the break is to quarterfinals, the top 16 teams with the best scores will qualify for the break.

8. Break room/Bubble room: In the last round of a tournament, the room in which it is possible for at least one team to qualify for outrounds is called a break room or a bubble room. (So, no, we are not referring to an actual room filled with bubbles, although that would be quite nice)

9. Burdens: Claims that a team is required to prove in a debate for them to be able to win. E.g. If the motion is, THBT social media has more harms than good, Government teams have the burden to prove that on net social media has more harms, while opposition teams have the burden to prove the opposite.

10. CA: stands for Chief Adjudicator- these are the people in charge of selecting the judges, designing the motions and overall ensuring a tournament runs smoothly.

11. Call (noun): The rankings of teams as decided by the judges after a round of debating is the ‘call‘.

12. Carry: When one partner puts in disproportionately higher amounts of effort to make sure the team does well and ensures that the team is qualified, that’s when you can say this teammate carried the team. It usually signifies that the other teammates were close to useless and much weaker as compared to the person carrying the team.

13. Casefile: This is information you carry with you to the debate to help with preparing cases. Sometimes also referred to as “Matter file”.

14. Circuit: Loosely defined as the community of debaters who might belong to the same geographical area and/or might attend many of the same debate tournaments. E.g. The Philippines Circuit, the Malaysian circuit, etc.

15. Clash, clash with someone, to clash out: As a debater, to clash someone means that you would be uncomfortable being judged by that person, or if you’re a judge clashing a debater, that means you wouldn’t be uncomfortable judging them. There are several grounds for clashing individuals at tournaments, a few of them being- you have teamed up with that person several times, have engaged or are engaged in a romantic relationship with that person, had equity clashes with the person in the past, etc. Clashes account for both positive and negative biases.

16. Clash, The Clash: This refers to arguments from opposing sides contradicting and engaging with each other. E.g. Government says, smoking should be banned and the opposition says, smoking shouldn’t be banned- that’s a clash in the debate.

17. Closed round/Silent round: A round where no post debate oral feedback is provided is called a closed round. The decision for this round is usually released after the break announcements and the final round in the tournament is usually a closed/silent round.

18. Comparative: Comparison between the different situations offered by the sides of the debate. When your explanation of an issue takes into account aspects put forward by both sides of the debate and shows why you fare comparatively better, it is considered to be a comparative. It is generally good for your analysis to be comparative.

19. Concession/Tactical concession: When a team accepts that something another team has said is true. Can be used to move the debate onto more useful territory. E.g. We concede there will be short term harms to this but think the long term benefits will outweigh them. OR We concede democracy is a contingent good, but believe that in this case it is beneficial.

20. Contingent: One thing being dependent on another thing. If proving argument 1 effectively requires you to first prove argument 2, then argument 1 is contingent on argument 2. E.g. If your argument is that people will act in beneficial ways once they get more freedom, it is contingent on proving how exactly do people get more freedom to begin with.

21. Counter-prop: When the opposition bench in a debate decides to not merely argue that the Proposition's idea is a bad one, but that they have a better idea which should be implemented, it’s called a counter-prop.

22. Counterfactual: As evident in the word itself, a counterfactual is opposite to what is factual i.e. it is the explanation of an alternate world that has not actually taken place. E.g. If I were to explain what this world would have looked like without cats, I am giving a counterfactual. Counterfactuals are a must in ‘This House Regrets’ debates, where you necessarily have to show what the world would have looked like without the thing you regret in the motion.

23. Cut from tab: To be deleted/cut from the tab means that you can no longer take part in the competition or in the first round if you don’t show up on time. If your team doesn’t check in on time on the day of the competition, you may be cut from the tab.

24. Definition: This is a major part of the role of a Prime Minister/ First Proposition speaker in any debate. The definition is the PM's interpretation of the specific terms in the motion, delivered at the start of their speech as part of the model. It should aim to resolve any ambiguities in the wording of motion and clarify for all teams exactly what the debate will be about.

25. Deputy Chief Adjudicator (DCA): Assists the chief adjudicator with setting motions and organizing the tournament.

26. Dinosaur: Debaters that continue to debate at competitions when they really should know better i.e. debaters that are too experienced at the game and have too many accomplishments to their name. These are the people whose workshops you watch and then go on to face them in a debate tournament, wondering why the heck are they even here.

27. Dirty Case: Proposition that successfully takes a lower burden than the motion demanded it to or wins by defining the proposition as a truism

28. Draw (noun): Room and judging allocations for a round.

29. EFL: The English as a Foreign Language category. The eligible speakers must have not received education in the English language for more than 6 months and not lived in an English-speaking country for more than 18 months.

30. Engagement: The level of engagement between teams is determined by the extent to which the case or particular arguments made by a team engage with the arguments or framework for the debate established by the other teams.

31. Equity Policy: In order to make debate tournaments a safe space for everyone, there are certain rules and regulations that all participants must adhere to. This set of rules and regulations is the equity policy. It ensures that no participants face participation barriers or are discriminated against on the basis of race, gender, ethnicity, linguistic ability, sexual orientation etc. It may also prohibit general rudeness or aggression.

32. Extension: The fifth and sixth speeches in a BP debate (the first one from the Closing Government team and Closing opposition team). The extension speech is expected to bring some new angle or aspect to the debate and have at least one materially different point than the speeches before it. ‘Extension’ also refers to the main argument that the extension speaker made.

33. Feedback: The rankings of the round along with the justification for those rankings provided by the chair judge after the round is done is called feedback. This may include advice on how teams or individual speakers may improve in the future.

34. Impact: The impact of your argument is the change you created for your stakeholders. For e.g. in THW ban smoking, if my argument is banning smoking leads to smokers having to give up smoking and therefore be healthier, the impact there is that smokers are now healthier than before.

35. Info- slide: A slide containing information relevant to the upcoming round.

36. In-round: All qualifying rounds before the breaks are called in-rounds

37. Ironman: When a teammate of yours is unable to speak in a round due to any reason whatsoever, and you have to give two speeches, that is called an ironman.

38. Knifing: When a speaker contradicts something their teammate said or something another speaker on their side said, that counts as knifing. (e.g. Government whip/Member of Government says something contradictory to what PM/DPM have said) It should normally be avoided, but at times is necessary if the previous team has said something unsupportable.

39. Long diagonal: The Opening government team and the Closing opposition team together constitute the long diagonal. They are so called because they are diagonally facing each other and speak a long time apart.

40. Matter prep: Learning information specifically for the purposes of using it in debates is called a matter prep.

41. Mechanism: A mechanism is simply the way in which a certain outcome will be achieved, as explained by a team. For e.g. if a team argues that they change people’s behavior using financial incentives, the ‘use of financial incentives’ is a mechanism to achieve the impact of ‘changed behavior of people’.

42. Model: The definition and the mechanism are referred to collectively as "the model".

43. Narrative: A narrative can be understood as the perception people have about a particular thing. E.g. ‘Soldiers are heroes’ is a narrative about soldiers. ‘Going to college is a must for a good life’ is also a narrative about college.

44. Open round: As opposed to a closed/silent round, an open round has oral feedback provided right afterwards.

45. Opp heavy: When a motion is unbalanced in a way that it has better, more obvious/intuitive arguments from the opposition side, it is called as an opp heavy motion. E.g. THW allow incest- clearly the opposition teams has much better arguments here than the government team.

46. Org Comm: The Organizing Committee of a debating tournament.

47. Out-round: Rounds after the break / any round which isn't an inround; e.g. Quarter-Finals, Finals, Novice-Finals, etc.

48. Panelist: A judge on a panel who is not the chair.

49. Parliamentary language: Acceptable way of speaking in a debate. Generally defined negatively, E.g. swearing is not considered parliamentary language.

50. Place-setting: Setting the motion in a specific country or region. Sometimes this is included in the motion (e.g. The German government should legalize Holocaust denial) or it can be a useful tactical move from Opening Government.

51. Point of Clarification: A special kind of POI that should ONLY be used to inquire about the mechanism or definition, and only when there is an obvious ambiguity or lapse in it. For example, on the motion, "THW criminalize adultery," if the PM does not tell you what the punishment for adultery will be, you may wish to offer a point of clarification to ask this. They should generally only be offered in the first few minutes of unprotected time in the PM's speech, and due to their nature they are nearly always accepted. You should probably use the word 'clarification' when offering one, to make it clear that you are not making a general POI. They should NOT be used for anything else, and attempts to smuggle in POIs under the guise of points of clarification may result in the judges punishing you, and rightly so.

52. Point of Information (POI): A point of information can be a statement or a question that you wish to ask the speaker to engage with and it is offered in the middle of a speaker’s speech during the unprotected time. A speaker can decide whether to accept your POI or not based on their discretion.

53. Protected time: Time, generally the first and last minute of each speech, in which points of information may not be offered.

54. Rhetoric: Anything which isn't an argument but which adds value to your speech in terms of persuasiveness. Usage of emotive language, figures of speech, etc. in order to make your speech more persuasive is all part of rhetoric.

55. Rolling (a chair): When a chair judge is rolled, that means that the panelists have a decision that's different from the chair’s decision and since the chair is in minority, the panelists’ decision stands. One of the panelists then delivers the feedback, instead of the chair.

56. Runners: At Larger/better organized competitions they will often have people assigned to ensure that all debate rooms start on time and function smoothly. Normally junior members of the host institution are runners.

57. Shallow debate: A debate in which very few arguments are made, or all arguments are relatively superficially made becomes a shallow debate. Sometimes it’s a result of a shallow motion, sometimes a result of teams that aren’t that good.

58. Shallow motion: A motion that has very few arguments that can be effectively run, or where the points of clash are all quite superficial, and do not have scope for extended analysis. Closing teams usually have to scramble to find extensions in shallow motions, because opening teams end up taking all the relevant arguments.

59. Short Diagonal: As opposed to a long diagonal, a short diagonal consists of the teams in Opening opposition and Closing Government. It’s called a ‘short’ diagonal because there isn’t a lot of gap between those two teams.

60. Slippery Slope: A slippery slope argument is an argument in which a team asserts that a relatively small first step leads to a chain of related events culminating in some significant effect. E.g. If we legalize marijuana, we will then be forced to legalize much more harmful drugs like cocaine and heroin and it will be a disaster.

61. Speaker Points/Speaks: Marks awarded to individual speeches in in-rounds. The range for speaker points is 50-100, with 75 as the average, for WUDC (World Universities Debating Championship), while smaller tournaments use 67-83/69-81.

62. Split: When the judging panel does not unanimously decide on the call, a vote is held. Such a decision is a "split decision," e.g. "On a 5:2 split decision, the win went to OG." The judges that vote against the majority team are, "the split".

63. Squirrel: Defining a motion in a strange, unexpected or narrow way, such that it could not have been reasonably expected by the other teams and damages the debate is called a squirrel/squirreling. E.g. If the motion is, “TH, as NATO, would attack North Korea.”, the government cannot define ‘NATO’ as a music band. They are expected to defend the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) attacking North Korea and any other definition of NATO would be squirreling.

64. Status Quo: The way things are at the present moment in time in the place a debate is set. Generally, a debate should be proposing a change from the status quo and it comprises the state of affairs that the proposition is contrasted with. E.g. Under SQ, children are given grades for their exams, but our policy changes that.

65. Straw man: When you straw man an argument, you attack an argument that your opponent didn’t make or you attack an unreasonably distorted version of their argument. This tactic is usually used when you don’t know how to meaningfully take down their actual argument, but it’s heavily frowned upon.

66. Swing Team: A team that is not eligible to break, but has instead been inserted into the competition to ensure that the total number of teams is divisible by four.

67. Tab: The tab refers to the results of debates, and the corresponding ranking of teams and speakers. It is usually displayed on a website such as tabbycat or tabbr. Alternatively, the tab can also mean the tabbing software.

68. Tabbing software: A computer program typically designed specifically for the task of running a debating competition. It calculates results, allocates teams to rooms and assigns judges automatically if run properly by the tabmaster, the person in charge of making sure the software runs properly for the specific tournament.

69. Time setting: Setting the motion in a specific time period, rather than present day as is normally assumed. Generally this should only be done when specified by the motion e.g. “This House, as a member of the Nazi party would assassinate Hitler” or when the motion includes something like regret/endorse/etc. you can talk about the information available at the time vs. hindsight.

70. Top Half: The Opening Government and Opening Opposition teams are together referred to as the Top Half/ Opening Half.

71. Wing (Judge): Another term for a panelist, a judge on the panel other than the chair.