About British Parliamentary Debating

The British Parliamentary Format is frequently used at the university level in many countries around the world. It is usually reserved for tertiary level students as it is considered to be a much more challenging and engaging format of debating, given the shorter preparation times and the presence of 4 teams in the debate, instead of just 2 in the WSDC format. This tournament hopes to introduce the format to debaters at a younger age and to push their debating talents to new heights.

Format of Debate

• A brief overview of the format of the British Parliamentary Debates: 
• In each debate round, there are 4 teams of two debaters
• Speeches made in alternating order i.e. speech by a member from the proposing team followed by a speech by the opposing team
• Teams are then judged and ranked in order from 1st to 4th
• Teams are ranked based on a set criterion which include
• Relevant Argumentative Contribution
• Relevant Substantive contribution
• Role Fulfillment
• Speakers are also given individual scores based on a set criterion - Matter, Manner and Method
• In the preliminary rounds a cumulative point structure will determine progress to the subsequent elimination rounds. 
• Teams ranked 1st in their debates will be given 3 points, 2nd placed teams will gain 2 points, 3rd place teams gain 1 point while 4th placed teams will not be awarded points. 
• The points that each team receives are then accumulated across all preliminary rounds are then compiled with the highest scoring teams progressing into the elimination or “break” rounds.
• Speaker points are also tabulated at the end of the tournament in order to award the “Best Speaker of the Tournament” award.

To understand more about the British Parliamentary form of debate, please see the British Parliamentary Style of Debate Wikipedia Page here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Parliamentary_Style