Terms

Like any activity, Debating uses some terms that are not as common outside of the debating world or in some cases are unique to Debating. Do not worry about using these terms because they are not essential, in fact they are sometimes a bad idea (those are noted), but there are included here so that you are not confused if your opponents use them.

This House : Used in parliamentary debate, it just means we or the group voting on the motion

Definition: What the side in favour says that the resolution or motion means.

POI: Point of Information, which is when someone on the side that is not speaking at that moment would like to ask a question of the person who is speaking.They raise their hand or stand, and the person who is speaking can either accept the question or decline it. 

Caseline: Your thesis or a one-line summary of your case. 

Heckle: A brief, often humorous comment made from the audience when someone is speaking. It should be relevant to what they are saying. In most debating formats used now, heckling is not allowed.

RFD: Reason for Decision. This is when the judge/judges give their reason for awarding the debate the way that they did, i.e. why they thought that one side won.

Closed and Open Adjudication: Open adjudication or an Open round means that at the end of the debate the judge/judges will say who won the debate. Closed adjudication means that they will not say who won, although you will find out at the end of the tournament. They may still make comments but will not reveal the result.

Conferral Judging: If there is more than 1 judge, the judges discuss the round with each other before filling in their ballots. The debaters are not present during this discussion. The judges then complete their ballots independently and they do not have to agree on the result.

Consensus judging: The judges discuss the debate and have to agree on the result. There is usually just 1 ballot per room. 

Bracketting: This is when after each round, the pairings are arranged so that teams with same win-loss record debate against each other. For example for the second round, the teams that won their first rounds are paired against each other, and the teams that lost their first rounds are paired against each other. 

Weighing: This is when a debater summarizes the key arguments on each side and explains why on balance their side had the stronger case.

Iron Man: When there is only 1 debater on a team. Not normally allowed but may happen because of illness or other unexpected circumstances.

Swing Team: A team that is not offically in the tournament but is added because there is an uneven number of teams. The swing team cannot win or score, and may have debaters who are not in the normal age range. if they are older, they will try not to minimie any advantage from their age or experience.