8 Tips To Help You Win Every Debate Competition

1. Be Confident and Well-Prepared

Prepare well for ‘Debate Topic’. Do research on the topic, write notes for important points. memorise important topics, do counter preparation, and don’t take the stress. If you feel nervousness, then take a mock debate with your friends so that you can overcome the anxiety.

2. Introduction

a) The first affirmative speaker does not have to talk about any arguments from the other team. They can focus on presenting their team’s case in a way that gets attention. The first speaker should have the skills of an actor.

b) The second speaker, on the other hand, should be more of an “arguer”. They should enjoy finding weaknesses in opposing arguments and coming up with strong counter-arguments. The final speakers, or “closers”, should have excellent logical thinking and be able to think of rebuttals (answers to the other team’s arguments) on the spot, as it’s difficult to know beforehand what the opposition will say.

c) The third speaker needs to advance the team’s stance while countering the main points made by the first speaker of the other team. They need to be cool and clear, almost like a teacher.

3. Know Your Audience

You should know that the audience includes a panel of judges, school students, and participating students as well as other teachers. Therefore, you need to maintain your posture, gestures and interaction with your audience.

4. Respect and Self-Control

While you are doing a debate, you will be required to discuss in favour or against the topic, so you need to maintain that you are part of a formal discussion. You must not take anything personally. Just be calm and put forth your points about the debate. If you do not maintain your calm and firmness in front of an audience then you may lose scores from the judges.   

5. Facts and Theory

Even though your own arguments are the most important, far too many debaters discount the importance of referring to evidence, especially that read in the early speeches. Delivering evidence can help you seek the attention of the judges as well as the audience. Also, the data should be authentic so that your opponent can not raise doubts about it. Using theories and numbers can help your win brownie points.

6. Praise Your Opponents

Pay attention to your opponent’s view and theories during the debate. Moreover, whenever they make a good and valid point during the debate then, you should be affirmative about it and should agree with them. Agreeing to their valid points can be affirmative of your view too and judges will appreciate that you have knowledge of the topic.

7. Time Management

Each speaker has a time limit of three minutes. They must find the balance between speaking quickly and expressing points clearly. The best way to manage your time in a debate is to practice a lot. Find out if you’re speaking too slowly or too quickly, and fix it.

8. Remember that Debate is a Team Activity

Even if you are stronger than your partner, you shouldn’t take over their speech or answer all of their questions in cross-examination. Make sure that you and your partner are going over arguments together so that you can teach each other the best arguments to make. 

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