Each team will consist of three team members and a sponsor. The team members need to be full-time undergraduate students in the College of Agriculture. Club teams are welcomed and the sponsor can be the club advisor. If a club team wins, the prize money will go to the club. If a team of three individuals win, they can divide the money three ways. First place will receive $750, second place will receive $500 and the best speaker will receive $100. First place will have their team name added to the Townsend plaque that hangs in the Agricultural Administration Building. The second place team and best speaker will receive a plaque.

The sponsor: can be a faculty, staff or graduate student. Their job will be to help assist and guide the team with direction and research (see rules for more details).

Lincoln-Douglas Debate is relatively close to the debating style that will be used for the Townsend Debate Competition. Except instead of one or two people debating back and forth, there will teams of three.

Lincoln-Douglas Debate is a one-person, persuasive, policy debate on traditional stock issues. It is a communication event, by which we mean the philosophy of the activity is consistent with that which governs other individual events. Competitors in NFA Lincoln-Douglas will be evaluated on their analysis, use of evidence, and ability to effectively and persuasively organize, deliver, and refute arguments. Rapid-fire delivery, commonly called "spread delivery," is considered antithetical to the purpose and intent of this event. http://cedadebate.org/

There are two sides to a policy debate, the negative and the affirmative.

• Affirmative is in support of the issue. The Affirmative advocates a change in the status-quo (current system) by proposing a plan of action. The Affirmative has the burden of proof.
• Presumption lies with the Negative - that is, it is assumed the status quo is preferred over change. The Negative’s job is to defend the status quo. The Negative can defend the status quo in a variety of ways such as: providing proof that the present system works fine or arguing that considerable disadvantages would arise from the adoption of the Affirmative’s proposal (i.e., make thing worse than they already are).

It is up to your teams to decide which angle to debate from such as environmental, economics, local communities, agriculture, etc… You will need to prepare to argue either negative or affirmative. You will not know until the day of the debate which side (affirmative or negative) you will be debating. Research will be very important and understanding all sides of the issue is a must.

Definitions

Academic Debate: a school activity where students engage in debate by forming two opposing sides. The students on each side try to persuade a judge or a panel of judges to support their side of the issue.

Affirmative: The speaker or team that undertakes to secure audience acceptance of the truth of the debate proposition.

Argumentation: The process of reason-giving by people seeking to justify positions.

Assumption: An unstated premise of an argument; what an argument presumes to be true to make its conclusion valid; warrant.

Burden of Proof: The obligation of the debaters to support each of their assertions with some form of proof.

Constructive: During a constructive speech, the speaker constructs or “builds” new arguments that supports his/her position.

Cross-Examination: The questioning period in a debate. After each speaker finishes his or her constructive speech, that speaker responds to questions by one of his or her opponents during cross-examination.

Evidence: The support for an argument, usually a quotation from a published article or book; the reason why an argument is valid.

Negative: The speaker of a team which undertakes to prevent the affirmative side from securing acceptance of the debate proposition.

Primary Research: Research directly from books, magazines, newspapers or documents, but not handbooks, for evidence and information on the resolution.

Rebuttal: Process of defending arguments against attack. Following the constructive speeches, the speaker may attack the opponent’s arguments in addition to defense, but may not introduce any new constructive arguments.

Secondary Source: A source of a quotation who is not directly involved in the issue that quotation addresses.

Definitions provided by Jim Hanson, NTC’s Dictionary of Debate, 1994.

Official Debate Outline=

The numbers to side are the total number of minutes that each speaker is allotted during that part of the debate.

1st Affirmative Constructive (5)
1st Negative Cross Exam (2)
1st Negative Constructive (5)
1st Affirmative Cross Exam (2)

2nd Affirmative Constructive (5)
2nd Negative Cross Exam (2)
2nd Negative Constructive (5)
2nd Affirmative Cross Exam (2)

3rd Affirmative Rebuttal and Closing (3)
3rd Negative Rebuttal and Closing (3)

Total time: 34 minutes

Each team has 4 minutes of prep time they can use between speeches. When a team wants to use its time, one participant will raise his/her hand and the room coordinator will ask how much of their 4 minutes the team would like to use. The participant responds and the room coordinator starts the stopwatch. The debate can last a total of 34 minutes plus 8 minutes in prep time.

History

The debate is named in honor of its generous donor Wayne Townsend (BS; 1951) who served as a Trustee for Purdue University (1989-2004). He has been the recipient of numerous honors such as the Distinguished Agricultural Alumnus Award.

Natalie Federer, academic advisor for the Agricultural Communication program in the Department of Youth Development and Agricultural Education, is the debate coordinator. Students and staff can contact her with questions or concerns at nfederer@purdue.edu or 494-8406.