Parliamentary debate works like this: all of the competitors get a “resolution” (a topic to debate about), and have 20 minutes to prepare for the debate.
Public debate works like this: the competitors get 3 resolutions and each team “strikes” a resolution, leaving one topic to debate. No preparation time.
Both formats have the following times: 7 minute affirmative constructive, 8 minute negative constructive, 8 minute affirmative constructive, 8 minute negative constructive, 4 minute negative rebuttal, 5 minute negative rebuttal.
The ODI works like this: We teach current events in the morning. In the early afternoon we teach “debate theory” – concise formats used to pattern arguments. Between 3:00PM and 7:00PM we have “lab”, when we do practice debates. We also teach research techniques; the participants of the institute will work together to produce a large file of debate evidence for the 2010-2011 school year. We teach you the skills to format your arguments on the fly – you win debate rounds.
Check out our schedule, the comments and photos from last year, and the staff profiles. The ODI has proven success in producing debate champions – you could be the next.
