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Debate

Grapple with Real Issues

Our two debate styles help students learn to support and defend ideas within the bounds of a specified value or policy topic for the season. They learn to listen well, think on their feet, and argue graciously.

How Debate Works

At the beginning of each season, we publish a resolution for each style of debate. The resolution makes a statement that teams are expected to support when they are assigned to the affirmative side in a competition round. They are expected to take a stand against the resolution and/or the affirmative team’s position when they are assigned to the negative side.

Debaters use their own research skills and creativity to decide on the facts, arguments, and positions they will use to fulfill their given role in the round.

Team Policy & Lincoln-Douglas Value Debate

debate Styles

Our debate program is designed to challenge young people to communicate truth with integrity and grace. Each style offers unique educational opportunities that promote organizational skills, logical argumentation, respectful refutation, and effective delivery.

Lincoln-Douglas Value Debate

One debater affirms the resolution while another opposes or negates it. This style of debate, named after the famous debates between Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas, explores a philosophical clash of competing but morally defensible values.

Learn More

Team Policy Debate

A team of two debaters affirms the resolution while another team of two debaters negates the affirmative position. This form of debate simulates argumentation in a legislative body.

Learn More

Hear from our Affiliates

testimonials

We have a welcoming community, and we're ready to help your family succeed with new skills! Read More Testimonials.

  • Impressed Parent

    I was so impressed with the kids presenting that I came back to my wife. I said to her that we are going to do this. Not sure how we're going to do it, but we're going to try to go to every tournament because I'm so impressed with these kids.

  • My Favorite Event!

    I started with Impromptu speaking, and I did not love it. It was difficult for me to effectively manage my time, but I stuck with it. My mom encouraged me to keep going, and I could say confidently by my last year, it was my favorite event.

  • The Power of Feedback

    Students get so much feedback and they learn how to humbly accept it, to appreciate it.

  • Learn Discernment Through Competitive Debate

    I think debate particularly gives them a tremendous amount of discernment, the ability to weigh arguments, and to make quality value assessments about what they're being told. I love that kids are learning to do real research from real worthy sources.

  • Competition is a Catalyst for Learning

    Competition is such a great catalyst to learn to win graciously, to learn to lose graciously, to manage emotions—such an invaluable part of the process.

FAQs

Find answers to commonly asked questions about debate categories in our tournaments.
  • Does NCFCA provide a printable copy of the rules?

    We have transitioned to using our NCFCA.org website as the official means of publishing all competition rules and guidelines. This change allows for improved navigation, organization, and content presentation options, especially for new families.

    However, we realize that some participants also like to prepare using printed documents. We offer a print-button option on all of our rule pages, but the formatting options are limited and can be cumbersome with some browsers, so here are some tips you can use to save paper and ink if you feel like you need to print the rules.

    Make your own printable pages. You can easily copy the rules you want into a Google Doc and the formatting will be maintained nicely. 

    • This step-by-step guide will show you how to start a Google Doc. 
    • Once you have a Google Doc open along with the website rules on a different browser tab, use your cursor to highlight the section of rules you would like to print and then simultaneously press the keys: CTRL/C (PC) or COMMAND/C (Mac). Note: The process works best if you highlight only one set of rules or one set of guidelines at a time (without highlighting over the break between rules and guidelines).
    • Next, place your cursor in the document and simultaneously press the keys: CTRL/V (PC) or COMMAND/V (Mac). This should make the text appear in your document. 
    • This process will work in a similar way with Microsoft Word and other document options.
    • With the text copied into your own document, you can change the font size and margins to your own preferences. 

    Avoid duplicate content for speech rules by printing the guidelines only once for each event category (limited prep, interpretation, and platform). The guidelines for each speech category are replicated on the appropriate event pages. The exceptions to this are that Digital Presentation has an extra “Digital Presentation Protocols” section, Apologetics includes the topics, and Extemporaneous has unique timing protocols.

    Please keep in mind that our website contains the official copy of all rules. We will alert participants through our affiliate communications emails if we make any substantive changes to rules or guidelines, but it is the responsibility of competitors to follow the officially published rules.

  • How many debate rounds will competitors have in each tournament?

    There will be six preliminary rounds of debate for all competitors (except in the event of an odd number of teams which causes some teams to have only five preliminary rounds). Teams with the strongest winning records will advance to elimination rounds. The number of elimination rounds depends on the number of teams entered in each style of debate.

  • How do debaters know if they will be affirmative or negative?

    In preliminary rounds, debaters will have three rounds as the affirmative team and three as the negative team except in the case that they have been assigned a bye for one round. Before each round, the postings will show which teams are debating one another and which team will be affirmative and which team will be negative. Competitors must take care to confirm their side for each round. It is possible they may debate on the same side as the prior round.

  • What is power matching in debate and Moot Court?

    After the first round, teams are matched against another team with the same or similar win/loss record up to that point in the tournament. The details for how power matching works are available in the Tab and Qualifications Guidelines in the Resource Library.

  • Is it okay to quote the Bible in debate rounds?

    For a comprehensive answer to this question, please see our blog post on the use of scripture in debate rounds

  • What is meant by “late arguments” in debate?

    For a comprehensive answer to this question, please see our blog article on new arguments in rebuttal speeches.

  • Why is evidence so important in debate?

    For a comprehensive answer to this question, please read our blog article on why citations matter in debate.