How To Start A Debate

Debate is a process that involve a formal discussion on a particular matter in a public meeting or legislative assembly, in which opposing arguments are put forward and which usually ends with a vote.

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Steps to start a debate:

Opening the debate:

• [a nice opening is using a quote]
• Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to this debate.
• Welcome from this side of the house…
• The motion for debate today is: … defining the motion:
• Now we as today’s proposition/opposition strongly believe that this is true/not true.
• let us first define some important terms in this debate.
• We believe that what is meant by … is… / that … are …
• When we say … should … we mean that …

Presenting the team-line

• We as today’s proposition/opposition have structured our case as follows:
• I, as the first speaker, will be talking about …
• Our second speaker, …, will elaborate on the fact that …
• And our third speaker, …, will do the rebuttal.

Rebutting arguments, rebuilding your case

• But before I come to my own arguments, let us first have a look at what … has said.
• I will continue our case in a minute, but before that…
• There are some things about the… speech that need to be addressed.
• The first prop/opposition speaker has told us …; on the contrary …
• He/She also said that …; but in fact..
• He/She was claiming that …; but as my first speaker already told you, …

Introducing arguments

• Let me come to my first/second/…/next argument: [concise label of argument]
• My first/… argument is:
• The first/… reason why we’re prop/opposing this motion is: explaining arguments:
• [rather abstract explanation on how the argument should work] giving examples:
• There are many examples for this/for …, for instance.
• In fact, you can find many examples for this in real life. Just think of…
• And there are similar cases, such as…, …
• So in this simple example we can clearly see the effect of …
• So as we have seen [argument label], and therefore [motion].
• Now because of this …, we have to support this motion.

Summarising & ending your speech

• So Ladies and Gentlemen, what have I told you today? Firstly …, Secondly..
• [some nice closing words]
• And for all of these reasons, the motion must stand/fall.

Thank you!