Spartan Ram Fall Classic

2023 — Katy, TX/US

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Varsity Cross Examination

Event Description:

Policy Debate
Policy Debate is a team event that focuses on a proposition of policy, where students use research to either affirm or negate the topic. Through this contest, students are encouraged to learn the following skills: research, policy analysis, case building, refutation, questioning, organization, team building, and communication.

1. Resolution: The official national high school Policy Debate topic shall be used.

2. Order of Speeches: Each debater must give one and only one constructive speech, one period of questioning, one period of answering, and one rebuttal speech, in the following order:

Affirmative Constructive Speech 8 minutes
Negative Cross Examines Affirmative 3 minutes
Negative Constructive Speech 8 minutes
Affirmative Cross Examines Negative 3 minutes
Affirmative Constructive Speech 8 minutes
Negative Cross Examines Affirmative 3 minutes
Negative Constructive Speech 8 minutes
Affirmative Cross Examines Negative 3 minutes
Negative Rebuttal 5 minutes
Affirmative Rebuttal 5 minutes
Negative Rebuttal 5 minutes
Affirmative Rebuttal 5 minutes
Prep Time 8 minutes per team

3. Time: No grace time is allowed beyond completion of a sentence. The judge may penalize for overtime through reduction in speaker points. Each team shall be allowed a total of eight minutes of preparation time per round.

4. Prompting Philosophy: Only the specific speaker, witness or questioner should audibly participate in the cross-examination, constructive, or rebuttal phase of the round. Assistance in the form of oral comments from a partner or team member during a speech (other than time signals in numbers) or written comments other than pre-prepared material (i.e., evidence or briefs) shall be discouraged. Judges shall be instructed to respond with a remedy which is appropriate according to their own standards.

5. Team: A team shall consist of two competitors from the same school.