Everything You Need to Know About W.S.D.C Debate Format

0:00 Hello, today I want to make a very simple video about the format of World Schools debating. If you really want to try an exciting version of debates that sometimes has prepared debates and impromptu debates where you can work as a team, World Schools debating is debating style for you. And it is the style that is the most adopted in the high school level all around the world. And so, World Schools debating is highly applicable to anyone who is a middle schooler or a high schooler who really wants to reach the pinnacle or the top of debating and the competitiveness of debating around the world. So, World Schools debates or otherwise known as WSDC style debating is the most commonly known and used style of debate in the world. And there is a championship that is held every year in July in different countries called WSDC, which is World Schools debating championships, where all of the national teams in WSDC or world style debate go and see who is the best team or country in the world that year.

1:15 But, what is the style? What's the format and how does it work? In this video, I'm going to start by explaining the format and how a debate functions in world [music] style debate. So, in world style debate, there are always two teams. And each team can have a maximum of five team members that are all able to prepare together and come up with a strategy >> [music] >> in the debate. However, in the debate itself, they're only allowed to have three speakers from that team of five who can speak in the round. So, five debaters can prep together and three debaters can speak. So, this means that in every World Schools debate, there are six individuals, six speakers in the debate. The two teams in every world's school debate is proposition and opposition. And proposition is also sometimes called government. Proposition will always agree with the topic that is given, and opposition will always disagree with the topic. Which brings me to the idea of topics in [music] debate.

2:20 In world style debates, all topics are called motions. So, a topic in debate is a motion. And all world's schools topics or motions start with the words this house. So, it could be this house would ban smoking. Or this house believes that AI is not good for education. [music] Of course, motions and the way that they are worded and the keywords that there are are always different, but every motion in debates in [music] world's schools debate will always start with this house. So, what is the format like in a real debate? As I already said, there's three speakers on each side. But in a world style debate, there's always eight speeches. [music] There is the first proposition speech, or otherwise known as Prime Minister.

3:09 There is the first opposition speech, otherwise known as Leader of Opposition. The second proposition speech, otherwise known as Deputy Prime Minister. The second opposition speech, which is otherwise known as Deputy Leader of Opposition. The third proposition speech, which is known as Proposition Whip, or Government [music] Whip. And the third opposition speaker, who is known as the Opposition Whip. And then, for the last two speeches of the debate, the order is flipped. So, the opposition reply speaker will speak, and then the proposition reply speaker will speak.

3:51 So, in a world style debates, the format flows this way. From the first proposition speaker to the first opposition speaker to the second proposition speaker to the second opposition speaker and from the third proposition speaker to the third opposition speaker and then [music] lastly from the opposition reply speaker and then the proposition reply speaker. So, in every world-style debate, proposition will make the first speech and they will also make the last speech.

4:23 Which means that opposition makes two speeches in a row, the third opposition speaker and the opposition reply speaker. The rules for world-style can change [music] depending on the tournament and depending on the age of the debaters who are participating, but the official rules for world-style [music] debate is 8-minute speeches for all constructive speeches. So, [music] this means the first six speeches of the debates, the first prop, first opp, second prop, second opp, third prop, third opp are all 8-minute speeches. And usually, almost always, judges will give an extra [music] 15 seconds on top of the 8 minutes to finish your speech. But after 8 minutes and [music] 15 seconds in constructive speeches, judges will not write down or [music] credit any of the material you say afterwards. The reply speeches are shorter, though. The reply [music] speeches are always 4 minutes long. So, 4 minutes for the opposition reply and 4 minutes for [music] the government reply, but also each of the reply speeches will have 15 seconds of extra time from the judge for speakers [music] to be able to finish their speeches. So, if you exclude all of the breaks between the speakers and [music] the extra 15 seconds that all the speeches get. Uh World style debate will be around 56 minutes long. But most rounds usually take an hour and 15 minutes [music] or an hour and 30 minutes.

5:59 And after the ground is complete, the judge will deliberate and then will give the verdict afterwards unless [music] it is a silent round. In World style debate, you are also allowed to ask [music] something called POIs, which are questions or statements that you can ask the opposing team during their speech. So for example, while the proposition speaker is speaking, [music] an opposition speaker can ask a POI against side proposition. However, POIs can only be asked against the first [music] six speeches of the debate and not against reply speakers.

6:36 Reply speakers are protected from POIs. [music] Furthermore, the first minute of every speech and the last minute of every speech is protected time as well, and so POIs [music] cannot be raised and cannot be asked during those times. And it is highly recommended in all constructive speeches for [music] every speaker to accept at least one POI during their speech. Okay, let's break down each of the speeches a little bit. So generally, the first speakers of the proposition and opposition [music] teams will set up the debate and tell the judges and the other team [music] what they believe and what they are trying to prove and what the model or definitions or stakeholder [music] looks like. So they will set up the debate and what actually looks like. And then they will forward their strongest arguments, either one or two. Possibly three, but that's not recommended.

7:33 And then the second speakers. The second speakers will often do a lot of attacking. So they will rebut a lot of the points brought up by the first speakers of the debate and they will reconstruct a lot of the points that have been attacked [music] on their side. And lastly, they can either extend on the argument given by the first speaker [music] or present a fully new argument as the second speaker. The third speakers are the speakers that begin to summarize and compare the two sides of the debate. Third speakers are not really recommended to bring new material or new arguments into the debate. Some judges are more permissible about that. However, it is not [music and clears throat] recommended to bring in new ideas and new arguments, but you can bring new refutations. Also, you can start to compare and weigh both sides of the debate to show that your side is stronger and your arguments are more important than the arguments of the other side.

8:34 >> [music] >> The reply speaker of the debate is almost like a biased adjudication where the reply speaker is telling the judge the ways in which they won the debate over the other side. And reply speeches are really strategic. They [music] are uh sort of organizing and summarizing the debate, but also noticing the flaws of the other team and rebuilding and re-emphasizing the benefits and the arguments [music] of their team. So, the first speaker will set up the debate.

9:04 The second speaker will attack and they will reconstruct and bring up their arguments again. The third speaker will start to compare and explain the ways in which they won. And then the fourth speaker, like a biased judge, will explain how the debate went and why they are the side that deserves to win the debate. Of course, all of these speaker roles are a little bit more flexible and there is a lot of nuance to how each of these speaker [music] roles might go.

9:30 For example, first proposition is very different than first opposition because proposition gets to set a lot more of the terms of the debate and possibly do some modeling or defining which opposition can contest [music] and they can create their own framing, but again, these two roles are quite different. And also, second speakers can possibly weigh, but also second speakers can start [music] to compare as well. But just in terms of how most debates go, the first speaker sets up, second speaker attacks and rebuilds, third speaker will start to compare and the fourth speaker [music] will begin to summarize. So, how do debates happen before the debate begins in world style debate?

10:13 In World Schools Style Debate, there are both prepared motions and impromptu motions. Prepared motions are released much earlier and the teams that are participating in the tournament [music] can prepare for weeks on end before they have the tournament itself. So, they can prepare by researching on the internet, [music] by reading, and by creating their arguments and their strategy ahead of time. And so, for prepared rounds, you actually will not get a lot of time to prepare before the debate during the tournament because you had so much time beforehand to be able to organize and research. In impromptu debates, most WSDC style debates these days usually only have 30 minutes of preparation. But the official rules for WSDC for the World Schools Debating Championships [music] is 1 hour preparation. So, the motion is delivered to the two teams 1 hour before the debate starts and they will prepare as a team for that hour together and then [music] they will enter the debate. However, as most debate tournaments have moved online, a lot of the World Schools Style tournaments only do 30 minutes of preparation.

11:25 So, after the preparation is done and after the debate has finished, [music] then the judge will deliberate and think about all of the ways in which one team might have won over the other team. A lot of the adjudication [music] of World Schools debate is on the logic and the consistency and on the [music] strength of arguments and how they are compared. So, most of it is not on rhetoric and on style, even though rhetoric and style does help quite a bit. Most of it is on how your logic contended with the other team's logic.

11:57 And so, in World Schools debate, because a lot of the debate uh impromptu, most debaters don't rely on statistics and they don't rely on things such as personal experiences or on very hard facts, but on logical reasoning [music] and being able to explain why certain actions or certain phenomena are likely to occur and why [music] a certain action or an idea or a policy is a good idea or a bad idea. That is, in summary, the rules of World Schools debate. There is a ton of complexity to how this works. And it is one of the most difficult formats of debate, but it's also quite accessible because of the fact that this structure is quite clear and because of the fact that this is a team sport where people can enjoy working in a bigger team, sometimes up to five members in a team. So, I would highly recommend for you to [music] try World Style debate because of the fact that it is so engaging, it is quite fun, it relies on teamwork, [music] and at the highest level, it is very competitive because of the fact that it is so internationally recognized.