British Parliamentary University Debating is a form of
debating which is similar to the
debates in the
British Parliament (hence the name). This form of
debating is very popular in
universities especially
Cambridge and
Oxford. The
Cambridge Union and the
Oxford Union are two very active
debating teams which win a lot of their
debates (though not all the time).
The Basics
You have to teams, the opposition and the proposition. These two teams are then subdivided into two more sections. The first proposition team, the second proposition team, the first opposition team and the second opposition team. Each team is given the motion for the debate at the beginning and then they are allowed 15 minutes to prepare their speeches. After each speech there might be a brief break to allow the teams to gather their thoughts.
The proposition team has to agree to the motion made by the House and must attempt to persuade the audience (and the judges/Chairman) that their position is the better one. The opposition has to do the opposite and refute everything that the proposition says. Motions can be as general as
'This house believes that everyone should speak the same language.'
to
'This House believes that the Church of England should be disestablished.'
The first
proposition should make the
debate specific by announcing their
policy on the matter. Many
debates are bad purely because of the lack of
specifics that the
proposition puts forward. This leads to the
opposition having nothing to oppose of any strength (and the
prop having nothing to argue with). In the
former case, the
proposition could say:
'We believe that everyone should speak English when carrying out international affairs such as business meetings and international conferences. We would do this by......'
This
distinction of what the
proposition means allows the
opposition to attack the
proposition and the
proposition to alter/argue their
case accordingly. This can lead to some very
enlightening and
entertaining debates.
The last two speakers from each side do what's called The Summation. The summation is a summary of what each side has said during the debate but with a spin to make you're side seem the winners. No new points are brought in at this stage since the other team will not have a chance to refute it in full (which just isn't cricket). The summation is seen by some as very difficult because getting the right spin on the arguments to make the opposition seem poor and your side seem good is difficult especially without being rude. It is also compounded by the problem that the other team will make a summation speech as well which should say the same thing as yours but with a different spin on it. Trying to throw this off is difficult (I personally like doing the very first speech, the opening speech for the proposition).
Anyway, each person speaks for about 5 minutes (though this can vary depending on what people want to do). The beginning minute and the end minute are protected time. This protected time are to allow the speech maker to make their introduction and conclusion to their speech without getting interrupted with Points of Information. Though debates can get rather heated you must be polite throughout! No personal insulting of the opposition! If you are not polite the Chairman/judge can (and will) make your team lose by default.
To impress the judges/Chairman you must show a deep understanding of the topic and be able to analyse arguments quickly and efficiently. You also need a good grasp of rhetoric to be able to persuade. The odd joke can't go amiss either as long as you don't spend the whole of your speech making wise cracks and not persuading (jokes must also be polite and not coarse/politically incorrect).
I hope to get around to putting more
info down on the work of the
proposition/
opposition and some points of
style of
speeches but that will have to wait.