In Between Speeches in LD

In Between Speeches

Most LD rounds are roughly 40 minutes in length. Yet, the length of the five speeches added up is only 26 minutes. The remaining 14 minutes comes from what occurs in between speeches: cross examination and prep time. While speeches are what the judge flows and weighs in their decision, what you do in between these speeches is also very important. Knowing how to most effectively utilize cross examination and prep time to plan your speeches is essential to building a strong narrative and winning over your judge.  

Cross Examination 

In a LD round, the affirmative and the negative each have 3 minutes to ask the other questions about their case, arguments, and overall narrative. After the affirmative constructive, the negative may cross examine the affirmative, and after the negative constructive/1st negative rebuttal, the affirmative may cross examine the negative. 

While judges won’t typically flow or take notes over cross examination, it can still have an impact on their view of the round, as well as the credibility of your opponent. Its main function, however, is to help you preempt and strengthen your speeches, which the judge will flow. 

How to Cross

• Ask strategic questions -  It may be wise to begin with simple, clarifying questions to establish foundational points, then move on to leading questions 

  Example: 

1. Would [something negative] be permissible under [criterion]?  

2. How does your plan fulfill [value]?

3. How do we weigh [criterion] in the round?

4. If achieving [value] leads to [negative consequence], is that truly achieving [value]?

• Utilize time effectively - Oftentimes your opponent will attempt to waste time by giving long answers. Maintain control of cross and push for a true answer if they’re avoiding the question. 

• Retain focus on the judge - When speaking to your opponent, ensure you're still facing the judge when speaking. 

• Expose weakness in evidence, warrants, and general argumentation.   

How to Be Crossed 

• Avoid falling into traps. If something seems like a leading question, avoid super direct questions and refer back to your own case.  

• Stay calm and confident - confidence matters significantly to the judge - fake it ‘till you make it! 

• Know your case - In order to maintain composure and prevent your opponent from gaining leverage during cross you must know both your case and the topic literature well prior to the round.  

• Clarify vague or loaded questions 

You do not have to use the entire 3 minutes allotted to you for cross examining your opponent, and you may choose to end cross examination whenever you’d like. However, it’s wise to use all of your time, as cross examination can be a crucial time to clarify misunderstandings and poke holes in your opponent’s arguments. To learn more about cross examination and how you can utilize it most effectively, check out the video below!

Prep Time 

In a LD round, each debater has 4 minutes of prep time, which you may choose to use at any point in between speeches to examine your opponent’s evidence, clean up your narrative, decide how to manage your time, and plan your next speech. 

One of the things that prep time can be used for is examining your opponent’s evidence. If your opponent does not share their evidence with you before the round and/or their speech, you may ask for or “call for” specific pieces of evidence before you begin prep time. So, when should you call for evidence? Though you may call for whatever evidence you wish to see whenever you wish to see it, it may be an especially good idea to ask to see a piece of evidence if… 

• You are skeptical of a claim that your opponent is making. This is the most obvious/common reason to call for a piece of evidence. 

• The evidence seems to be missing something. If there are weird grammatical shifts or other indications that the evidence may have been miscut, it’s probably a good idea to look at it.  

• You are very prepared on a topic and have never heard the argument before. Key tip: if you are very well-researched on a topic and your opponent brings up an argument that you have never heard before, there’s likely a reason why. It may have a questionable link or some other issue with its credibility. 

Once you’ve called for your opponent’s evidence, you can examine it and see if it is credible. You may want to check the author, publisher, and skim the abstract/conclusion/results sections if you have time. 

Another key function of prep time is deciding how to manage your time. Rounds can get intense, and a lot of arguments may be brought up, making it difficult to determine which ones are most important. Prep time serves as a moment to slow down, think of what your strongest points are, and then plan how much time you are going to spend on each argument accordingly. 

This is especially helpful before quick and dense speeches like the 1AR. But, those 4 minutes of prep time tend to run out pretty fast, and you have to make crucial decisions very quickly. So, how do you know which arguments to prioritize? An argument may be a good one to prioritize if…

• Your opponent has given little or no responses to an argument. This means you can easily extend that argument and explain why it’s important without having to answer any attacks. 

• An argument has an outsized impact. It’s very important to prioritize high-impact arguments that are going to be big voting issues for the judge in the end.  

• An argument has to do with framework. Framework is the defining feature of LD, and losing the framework debate can be detrimental to your position in the round. When choosing which arguments to prioritize, it will often be important to prioritize framing arguments.  

Overall, while it is obviously very important to give good speeches in a LD round, it also matters what you do in between speeches. Both cross examination and prep time are essential to building your narrative, planning your speeches, and ultimately winning a LD round.