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Like all professional fields (law, medicine, psychology, etc.), Lincoln-Douglas debate has
its own terminology. There are many different words, phrases and sentences that are
either unique to LD debate or borrowed from another field for a specific purpose (though
oftentimes the latter purpose is accomplished through oversimplification and distortion to
appeal to often inexperienced judges in a narrow time slot).
To the uninitiated, it is easy to be overwhelmed by LD debate phraseology. The purpose
of this lecture is to prevent this, to demystify LD debate jargon.
Two important things to keep in mind:
o 1. This lecture is NOT comprehensive. I will be introducing and explaining many
odd terms, but there are much more obscure terms that I may or may not be aware
of whose usage in a debate round is so miniscule that spending a significant
amount of time analyzing it in this lecture would probably be a waste of your
time.
o 2. PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE AVOID USING THESE TERMS
EXCESSIVELY IN AN ACTUAL DEBATE ROUND. You may be tempted to
use some of the terms you’ll learn here in a particular round to avoid saying a
longer, “dumbed down” version of the phrase. But, chances are, the judge won’t
be able to follow you if you always emphasize the “dropped link turn” you
“placed against” sub-point C of their second contention. Know these words so
that, if your opponent uses them, you can understand them, and so that, when
doing research and writing cases, you can easily mentally categorize arguments
and pieces of evidence.
So, let’s begin:
o Value/Value Premise/Paramount Value
o Value Criterion/Criterion/Standard
o Thesis
o Contention
o Sub-point
o Overview—an argument or set of arguments that do not respond to the opponent’s
specific arguments, but rather make general responses to his/her case and/or
general observations about the debate round. According to a Policy Debate
website, an overview is “[a] summary of the debate (or of an individual position)
presented at the top of the flow. An overview is an attempt to provide a concise
version of the important arguments on an issue, almost like a thesis statement in
an essay.” As the phrase “over” suggests, an “overview” appears at the top of the
flow, i.e., at the beginning of a rebuttal speech or as the first of a series of
responses to an opponent’s case.
o Underview—rarely used in debate, virtually never used in local debate
tournaments. As “under” suggests, it appears at the bottom of the flow. An
underview in the 1AC usually include a variety of pre-empts to common Negative
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arguments that have not relevance to the Affirmative’s actual positions but can
become functional if the Negative makes arguments to which the Underview
applies.
Grouping
Empirical versus analytical evidence
Cards
Spreading
Claim/Warrant/Impact model
Offense/Defense
Link Turn
Impact Turn (often counterintuitive, I recommend not using this tactic)
Impact Defense
Non-unique—an argument/impact/result that occurs in the both the Affirmative
and Negative worlds.
Voting Issues/Voters
Crystallization
Framework
Substance
Flow—the “flow” consists of the paper on which debaters take notes of their
arguments and opponent’s arguments (this is called “flow paper”). An argument
“on the flow” is an argument that, literally, is written down on those pieces of
paper.
Lay vs. Circuit/Flow
Status quo—the existing state of things; the present system
Extensions
Interpretation
Burden
Observation
Drop
Link/linking
Weighing
Cross-apply
Philosophical vs. pragmatic
Extending through Ink
Double-bind
Deontological vs. teleological