Know More About Types of Debates - A Definitive Guide 2021

The debate is a very beneficial activity for the students. Though debates are adversarial, yet they offer a great opportunity to enhance the speaking and listening skills of students. Generally, in every debate, inside or outside the classroom, one party makes responses to the arguments made by another party. Meanwhile, they have to listen very carefully to the arguments developed by the other parties. For more debate topics ask write my essay for guidance.

Debates in a classroom allows students to present their arguments in a convincing way. The topics in the classroom also range from voting age to animal testing. Debaters in schools are first-time debaters and it is very important to have the know-how of the different types of debates. The key is to present sound evidence to the arguments.

Let’s dig into the four most common forms of debates:

Abbreviated Lincoln-Douglas Debate

These types of debates spin around very philosophical questions. The debate pattern followed in this form of debate is one-on-one. In this format, the students can win or lose based on individual argument rather than on group argument.

The debate lasts for about 15 minutes including the time for claims and transitions. The general process of the debate is:

Introduction by the first affirmative speaker

Restating opponent viewpoint by the first negative speaker

Two minutes to disagree with the second affirmative speaker

Position explanation by the second negative speaker

Two minutes break for Rebuttal Speech preparation

Negative summary

Affirmative summary

Role-Play Debate

This type of debate examines different viewpoints about the question by playing a role. The point of view is shared in the forms of opinions in the role played by the students. Let us understand in a simple way, in a role-play, participants can take the role of a parent or a teacher or an essay writer and they can share their opinions. The participants can disagree or present counter-arguments. 

In this type of debate, students may have to identify all the stakeholders and then play the role of those stakeholders. Every person playing a role can have three different opinions and they present their opinions with the evidence. Whoever presents the strongest argument can win the debate.

Tag-Team Debate

This is another common debate format used by the students in school. In this debate, every student gets the opportunity to take part. Two teams of no more than 5 students are prepared by the teacher to present the two sides of the debatable topic. Each team gets a specific amount of time to present their side of the argument.

The teacher reads the issue or the topic aloud and every team is given the opportunity. Every team member gets one minute to share his or her opinion and they can tag the next person at the end of their time.

No team member can be tagged more than once and after everyone has the opportunity to speak and have presented their opinions, voting is done to find out the best arguments.

Inner Circle-Outer Circle Debate

In this form of debate, the teacher makes two groups or teams of equal members who take different stances on one argument. Every group has the opportunity to listen and discuss other group’s opinions and form a conclusion and hence they can draw their own conclusion. The essay writing service is premium source of essays.

Participants of each team set themselves in a circle facing out and one group sits around the other group in a circle. The issue is then read by the teacher and each team is given time of 10 to 15 minutes to discuss the issue with the team. Both groups listen to the discussion of other groups and prepare their notes accordingly. These notes are then used to present their sides of the argument.