World Schools Style debating
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World Schools Style debating (or WSS) is a combination of the British Parliamentary and Australia-Asian debating formats, designed to meet the needs of the World Schools Debating Championships tournament. Each debate comprises eight speeches delivered by two teams of three members, representing the Proposition and Opposition sides. The first six speeches are eight minutes in duration, with each team then finishing up by giving a four-minute concluding Reply Speech.
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[edit] Speaking order
- First speaker of the Proposition
- First speaker of the Opposition
- Second speaker of the Proposition
- Second speaker of the Opposition
- Third speaker of the Proposition
- Third speaker of the Opposition
- Reply speaker of the Opposition
- Reply speaker of the Proposition
[edit] Reply speeches
World Schools Style debates include an additional speech from each team, called the reply speech (sometimes known as the "right of reply"). This is a short, four-minute speech given by either the first or second speaker from the team, and presented in the opposite speaking order to the rest of the debate (i.e. the Opposition deliver the first reply speech, followed by the Proposition). The roles of the reply speech are to:
- Outline one or more points of contention that the debate has centred around;
- Evaluate the course of the debate;
- Declare the reasoning of their team's victory.
The reply speech is sometimes referred to as being a "biased adjudication" of the debate, because its format is similar to that of an adjudicator's oral feedback on the debate, but with the purpose of convincing the audience that the speaker's team was victorious.
[edit] Points of Information
During any speech except the reply speeches, members of the opposing team may offer Points of Information to briefly interject a point that the speaker must immediately respond to. The speaker holding the Floor is not obliged to accept all the Points of Information offered to them, but is likely to be marked down by adjudicators if they do not accept any. Speakers delivering Points of Information are expected to keep them to 15 seconds or less.
The first and last minute of each main speech, as well as the entire duration of reply speeches, are "protected time", meaning that no Points of Information may be offered.
[edit] Variations
The World Schools Style of debating is used not only at the World Schools Debating Championships, but also at a number of national and regional high school-level debating competitions around the world. At some of these tournaments, the format is varied slightly. For example at some competitions, the length of speeches is reduced to five or six minutes for main speeches and three minutes for reply speeches. Some tournaments intended for novice-level debaters also do not allow Points of Information.
In the early years of the World Schools Debating Championships, a there was two-minute break between the main speeches and the reply speeches to allow the team members to confer, though this is no longer the case. However some national or regional World Schools Style tournaments still have this two-minute break, and in some cases members of the team's squad for the competition who do not speak in the debate are allow to come out of the audience to confer with the speakers during these two minutes.
