POLICY DEBATE Cross-Examination (CX)

POLICY DEBATE  Purpose of policy debate is to compare policies and decide which is best  Affirmative: Supports the resolution  Negative: Supports the status quo

AFF & NEG Responsibilities  AFF: Defends resolution by giving a plan- specific proposal that fits within framework of resolution; case with reasons why the plan should be enacted (advantages over the status quo)  NEG: Explains why AFF plan is not good  May make problem worse or cause more problems than it solves  Can agree that there is a problem with status quo, but that there is a better way to solve it than AFF’s plan  Can argue AFF plan does not fit within framework of resolution

CX Debate Format  8 minutes each constructive speech  3 minutes cross-examination after each constructive  5 minutes each rebuttal  8 minutes prep. time per team

More on CX format  The CX is done by the person not doing the next constructive  AFF speaks first and last; to balance this out, NEG gets Negative block

Five Stock Issues  Topicality- AFF must meet each term in resolution; plan has to fit within framework  Harms- AFF shows status quo as bad  Inherency- cause of problem cited by AFF (why status quo can’t solve); barrier that prevents present policies from reducing harms  Solvency- AFF plan resolves significant part of harm  Advantages- AFF has to produce advantages to solve harms; NEG argues adoption of AFF plan creates more problems that outweigh any advantage it offers

Counterplan Basics  Compete against AFF policy  Parts:  Text- explanation of what it does; just like AFF plan  Competition- explanation of why counterplan should be preferred over the plan  Solvency- explanation of how the counterplan fixes the affirmative problem  Net benefits- reasons why the counterplan is better than the plan