Intro to Rebuttals

How to Give a Rebuttal in PF'

Debate is all about clashing with your opponent’s arguments, and rebuttal is the best speech to do so– which is why giving good rebuttals is key to doing well in Public Forum. This guide will teach you how to give a rebuttal, as well as some tips+tricks!

Recap: Case

In your opponent’s constructive (as well in your own), they should’ve given a couple of 

contentions with the following structure: 

1. Uniqueness (what’s going on with the world right now)

2. Link (what changes if you affirm)

3. Internal links (steps that bring you from the Link→Impact)

4. Impact 

Your job in rebuttal is to take out each of their contentions by attacking the links they make to support them. In other words, disprove steps 1-4. 

 1st Rebuttal

Going into first rebuttal, the round currently consists of:

1. Your case

2. Your opponent’s case

3. Some random crossfire stuff, which can mostly be ignored

In the first rebuttal you have one goal: to attack your opponent’s case. You do this by reading as many responses as possible (but still fleshing them out). 

• Try to read at least  ~2 responses/minute. 

Types of Responses

• Delink (DL)

  • The simplest and most common response

  • Disproves a single part of their link chain (thus meaning that they don’t link into the impact)

• Nonunique (NQ/NU)

  • Proving that your opponent’s impact will happen regardless of how the judge votes

• Turn (T)

  • Saying that a part of your opponent’s link/internal link/impact is actually a good thing 

  • Best response, but usually harder to find

• Mitigate

  • Doesn’t fully counter the opponent’s link chain, but asserts that their impact is exaggerated 

  • Usually, this means that the opponents can only link into a fraction of their original impact 

The Second Rebuttal

Going into the second rebuttal, the round currently consists of:

1. Your case

2. Your opponent’s case

3. Some random crossfire stuff, which can mostly be ignored

4. +Your opponent’s attack on your case

In the second rebuttal, your goal is to attack your opponent’s case, as well as defend your own case. 

• The tricky part is that you don’t get more time, even though you have more to do. In order to give a good 2nd rebuttal, you need to be efficient and (optional) collapse

Frontlining (defending your case) 

Why it’s important: 

• In order to win a round, you need to prove that voting for you solves the impact(s) you bring up. You can’t do this if they have reponses on your case.

How to do it

• Go response by response, countering every single one. Every response must be defended 

• Some tips: 

  • Know your case well 

  • Do practice rounds 

Efficiency (tips)

• The judge knows your case- use this to your advantage! By referencing evidence you’ve already brought up, you don’t have to do as much warranting and can still get your point across

• Minimize signposting- it’s important that the judge knows what response you’re countering, BUT this shouldn’t take more than a couple words to explain

Collapsing 

• In order to save time, you can “focus” on only SOME contentions (usually just 1) 

  • Thus, you don’t have to defend all your contentions, rendering a portion of your opponent’s rebuttal useless

• There’s rarely a “right contention” to collapse on, but here are some factors to consider 

  • Weighing: which contention will be easiest to weigh (and win)

  • Responses: it’s easier to collapse on contentions with less responses against them

  • Turns: you can’t drop turns (because they are an independent reason to vote against you)!! This means it might be easier to collapse on a contention with a lot of turns against it

• Lays (unexperienced judges)

  • Don’t make it look like you’re losing a contention

  • Use language like “we’re going to focus on our most important contention” or something similar

Time Management/Sequencing 

First Rebuttal

• ONLY counter their case- there’s almost never a reason you have to reference your own case. Let the summary handle defense!

• Counter each contention in the order they were read (makes it easy for the judge to follow along) 

• Try to split your time evenly per contention 

Second Rebuttal

• START by defending your case. This should take 1:30-2 minutes. 

• THEN move onto their case

  • Follow all steps from first rebuttal (but with less time)