Debate
  Team Policy Debate
  Lincoln Douglas Debate 
  Evidence Standards
  Tournament Rules
  Tabulation
  Orientations
  Timing
  Judge Event Cards
  Resolution Selection Process
  Past Resolutions

Debate

NCFCA has established a program of formal debate with the ultimate goal of training young people to be able to think critically and communicate effectively about all issues in a manner that pleases God.

Two styles of debate are offered in the NCFCA: Team Policy Debate and Lincoln Douglas Value Debate. Team Policy (TP) Debate advocates a change in policy while Lincoln Douglas (LD) Value Debate centers on a proposition of values. There are unique elements to each, such as the fact that Team Policy debate teams are made up of two students and LD debates are one-on-one, but both offer similar benefits with regard to skill-building. All NCFCA debaters learn research skills, respectful argumentation, refutation, organization and most importantly, good communication and speaking skills.

In a debate tournament, each team will take turns advocating and opposing the resolution in a series of different rounds so that competitors thoroughly learn all the issues involved in the debate topic as well as the skills to both advocate for and oppose a proposition without compromising their own beliefs.

NCFCA debate encourages a conversational style of debate and utilizes judges from the community as well as debate coaches and teachers in order to ensure that competitors learn how to communicate to a general audience. To find out more about NCFCA’s philosophy on judging, please click here

Debate resolutions change each year. This season’s Team Policy Resolution deals with a change in the United States Federal Government’s criminal justice system while the LD Value topic concerns due process and discovery of fact in the pursuit of justice. Read more about how NCFCA debate topics are chosen here.

2011-2012 Debate Topics

Team Policy Debate

Resolved: That the United States Federal Government should significantly reform its criminal justice system.

Lincoln Douglas Value Debate

Resolved: In the pursuit of justice, due process ought to be valued above the discovery of fact.

Send a message to the Debate Committee here


 

"Discussion for elucidating truth; strife in argument or reasoning, between persons of different opinions, each endeavoring to prove his own opinion right, and that of his opposer wrong; to discuss or examine different arguments in the mind."

 Webster's 1828 Dictionary