Thinking like a Policy Debater Casey Parsons

How arguments interact Debaters think in a paradigm of weighing offense versus defense Offensive arguments are arguments that have impacts attached to them – they’re the most important to the round Defensive arguments are arguments that answer offensive arguments

Offensive Arguments The affs best form of offense is its advantages – they’re reasons why the world of the aff is preferable to the world of the neg The negs best form of offense is its disadvantages – they’re reasons why the world of the neg is preferable to the world of the aff Offensive arguments win debate rounds – always try to answer arguments offensively

Defensive Arguments Defensive arguments are a little more generic For the neg, the “on-case” arguments that we talked about earlier are all defensive arguments Additional defensive arguments include: No link arguments – reasons why the story the other team is wrong Impact Defense – reasons why the other team being right isn’t a big deal. An example could include “regional conflicts don’t escalate,” which takes away the reason we cared about regional conflicts