Flowing and Line-by-Line

Flowing and Line-by-line

Flowing and line-by-line are key skills required for every debate. Here’s what they are:

Flowing - Writing down opponents arguments effectively, accurately and quickly

Line-by-line - Answering each one of the opponent’s arguments in an organized fashion

The effectiveness of your line-by-line depends on your flowing capabilities - miss arguments on the flow and your LBL (line-by-line) is weaker. Flowing is one of the most important skills in debate, and here’s a guide to get started:

Flowing 101

Flowing is the art of writing down the other side’s arguments. Writing each argument down is essential since each few seconds in a debate can have crucial arguments coming out, especially in high-level debates at fast speeds.

In order to flow, you will need to make a choice between paperless and paper flowing. Here are the pros and cons of each, along with a guide to get set up:

Paperless:

Fastest and gets more detail down
Allows you to write speeches alongside/shadow flow
Doesn’t need physical resources/paper, less tiring on hands
Flows are pre-organized
Needs less space (great if you’re stuck on a desk)
Your flow can lag out/delete if you press the wrong keys/accidentally crash or whatever
Slightly less speaks if you use it in the 2NR/2AR versus paper

Paperless debate usually uses online programs such as Excel or Flexcel in order to flow. You type out what you hear and keep typing as you flow instead of writing. Excel is usually the safest option, but Flexcel is the upgraded, riskier version here: Flexcel. Each sheet on Excel/Flexcel will be a flow, i.e. an advantage or an off case position.

Here is an example of a paperless flow (This is a Topicality debate):

Paper:

Results in higher speaks for many judges
Easy to see where arguments line up and what has been conceded - better visual map
Consistent and well-organized, no risk of failure
Can be faster than paperless if you’re a slower typer/use acronyms and symbols
Much more preferred by older judges
You can look at flows simultaneously
Writing helps you remember arguments better
Harder to write every warrant/argument - less detail on flow
Need large pieces of paper and physical resources
Possibly straining on hands

Paper debate takes a bit more time to get set up - you may need to fold your paper into 8 columns if you are newer to flowing - see to the right on how the columns work.

Line by Line

Flowing is what sets up the most important part of a debate. This is the line-by-line (LBL).

The line by line is when you answer arguments down the flow, in order. For example, with the paper flow above - the blue is the affirmative’s arguments, and the red is the negative’s responses. The second column is the negative responding to the corresponding affirmative argument on the left. The arrows from blue to red and the short blue response in the 3rd column is what the affirmative has said to respond to the negative’s arguments.

Line by line boils down to answering the other team’s arguments clearly and in order. Speeches may have overviews, and then will quickly get to answering each argument on the other side. To the right is an example of how line by line works (everytime the negative says 2AC 1 or 2AC 2, that is the first and second argument in the 2AC on that flow/off case respectively).

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