Parliamentary debate is an exciting debate event that features a variety of topics, emphasizes logic and reasoning, and teaches valuable argumentation, critical thinking, and public speaking skills to competitors. The debate event features two competitors per team debating two other competitors from a different school with a different resolution each round.

National Online Forensics is proud to start sponsoring NOF Parli starting this year. We wanted to inform coaches & competitors of the unique rules of NOF Parli which may differ from other forms of parliamentary debate sponsored by other organizations. We also wanted to encourage other tournaments to offer NOF Parli to encourage participation in this excellent debate format.

You can read our full event description in our bylaws. Here are the three most important characteristics of the event that students should be aware of:

1) Topic Striking

In many debate formats (such as IPDA and World Schools) competitors are afforded the opportunity to strike topics they do not wish to debate. We feel this is an important form of agency for debaters to eliminate topics they would rather not debate. As such, NOF Parli will offer three topics for each debate. The opposition (negative/con) team should strike first, followed by the Government (affirmative/pro) team. The remaining topic will then be debated during the round.

As such, competitors in NOF Parli should be in the live video competition room with their judge at the designated start time for the round. The judge will facilitate topic strikes and the 15 minute preparation time will then begin.

2) No group preparation

In a departure from other forms of parliamentary debate, debaters should only work with their partner during preparation time – no team or coach preparation is allowed. NOF Parli seeks to stress that debaters should create arguments and cases during preparation time. We feel strongly that the practice of coaches giving arguments and strategies to debaters during preparation time is one reason why parliamentary debate has lost interest for many competitors and programs over the past ten years.

Instead, we want students to develop the skills of creating persuasive debate cases with their partner during preparation time. While some may argue this can reduce the quality of the cases we see this as a valuable benefit for students to improve their own ability to construct quality persuasive cases.

3) No citing published sources

Another departure from other forms of parliamentary debate, we have adopted the rule from the National Parliamentary Debate League (NPDL) that debaters should not cite published sources during the debate. As our bylaws state:

Debaters should primarily rely on logic and general knowledge to support their case. Debaters should not cite published sources during the round. Judges should enforce this rule by giving a claim supported by a citation the same weight as they would give a claim supported by strong reasoning and logic.

This rule is an effort to provide distinct debate events for competitors at NOF tournaments. Many other events (such as NFA-LD, IPDA, LD, Public Forum, Policy, etc) allow for citing published sources. We are not against the use of sources in debate rounds – our aim is to provide a different event that relies more heavily on strong reasoning and logic. We offer many different forms of debate to encourage students to try different formats and learn different skills in each event. Much like how oral interpretation and platform speaking events teach different skill sets, different debate formats can and should emphasize different skills.

If you feel this rule is bad for debating – that’s OK – choose a different format of debate from the many offered that allow for citing published sources during the debate. We know that there are many competitors and students who wish to compete in a debate event that focuses on logic and reasoning; not the use of prepared cases and evidence citations. Rather than immediately researching the topic on google, competitors are encouraged to critically think about the topic and generate persuasive arguments using their own understanding of the topic.

Note that judges are specifically asked to not give special weight or emphasis to competitors who do cite sources in the debate and instead evaluate arguments based on the reasoning and logic.

4) No use of pre-written materials

During the debate, debaters may only access notes that were written down during the preparation time. As before, there are many events (such as NFA-LD, LD, Policy) which include debate cases prepared prior to the start of the tournament. NOF Parli seeks to be different and encourage extemporaneous case construction and delivery. As noted in the rules:

During the debate, a debater may access notes that were handwritten on paper by the debater or their partner after the resolution was announced. The debater may also access notes that were handwritten on paper and given to them by the opposing team after the resolution was announced. Debaters may access and refer to a printed copy of these rules. Other than that, the debater may not access any pre-written material during the debate.

While this rule may be difficult to enforce in an online tournament setting, we hope that coaches and competitors will understand the spirit of the event and rule and encourage students not to access pre-prepared material once the debate starts.

5) Points of Information

Finally, to encourage interaction during the debate, students may rise to ask a point of information from their opponent. There will be no flex time in between speeches and instead debaters are encouraged to ask questions or make statements in the moment of the speech.

The speaker is protected from interruption during the first and last minute of their speech. So, for the opening 7 minute constructive, the middle five minutes are available to ask and answer points of information. Judges should indicate to the debaters once the first minute has passed and once the last minute has been reached by a short oral notice (“POI are now allowed” / “POI are no longer allowed” or by hitting the desk). Since taking a point of information is at the discretion of the speaker, the timer does not stop during the question or statement. Debaters are encouraged to limit points to 15 seconds and if a point is going especially long (more than 20-30 seconds), judges are encouraged to ask the debater to wrap up their point.

This interaction is a fun, dynamic, and highly educational aspect of NOF Parli that we are encouraging debaters and coaches to incorporate into their debates. The ability to respond, in the immediate moment, is a tremendously valuable skill for competitors to learn by competing in parliamentary debate.

Bottom Line

National Online Forensics has many different events focusing on different areas of communication for students to practice and improve. Our goal with sponsoring NOF Parli is to afford students yet one more way to improve their debating skills. We hope you will register for the event and enjoy it this season. Please review the full event description in our bylaws.

New Parliamentary Debate Event - NOF Parli