Blue Valley HIGH Debate 

At BVHS debate counts as one Fine Arts Credit towards graduation even though the class is one semester. In BVHS debate you can learn not only the art of argument but important skills for presenting, speaking and getting your point across. Debate is not about arguing over randomized and disorganized topics, there is usually one topic called the 'resolve' that normally includes the phrases 'should' as part of it. There are also two sides to a debate, negative and affirmative. The affirmative takes the stance of enacting what is called a 'plan' to follow the resolution, however, there is never only one plan. There are multiple plans that have different advantages to them and have better evidence proving that the plan will work called 'solvency'. The composition of a plan, advantages, and solvency is called an affirmative case. The negative side in policy debate is almost the exact opposite of the affirmative. The negative must use their evidence to give reasons why the affirmative plan is wrong and why the judge or judges in the round should vote negative. The negative has a counter to most pieces of evidence, to counter the affirmatives advantages the negative has disadvantages. Disadvantages are pieces of evidence that state unwanted things will occur as a side effect of the affirmative plan. The negative also has counters to solvency arguments as well. In a typical debate round, there will be either one judge or multiple judges called a 'panel' that will ultimately decide who wins the round. There are eight speeches in a debate round., four for the affirmative and four for the negative. The first two speeches are called constructive and are eight minutes long each ending with a three-minute cross-examination, each side gets a constructive after the other has spoken and the affirmative always speaks first in a round. The final two speeches are called rebuttals, this is where new evidence should generally not be brought into the argument and the debate shifts to a mode of expressing verification of evidence. A typical rebuttal is 5 minutes and should use existing evidence to prove why your arguments beat the other team's affirmative or negative.