Lesson 2-2: Identifying and structuring rebuttal

Stop and listen. | Practical considerations for rebuttal | Exercises

I know how to rebut theoretically now. But how do I do it during my speech?

The biggest struggle novices have with refutation is just not listening and/or understanding what their opponent is saying. If you can understand, then you can refute!

Step 1: Listen. Stop writing your speech. You can’t refute if you don’t know what your opponent said!
Step 2: Translate your opponent’s argument into linear flow. Immediately, you will notice if their mechanism is missing, or if their impact is not very strong. Or perhaps they had multiple tiers of analysis and you need multiple responses. These are important insights that will determine how you respond.
Step 3: Determine how you want to refute their argument. Mitigation or classic refutation? Can you flip it?
Step 4: Refute

Not all things are worth refuting, so how do I determine if it is worth spending precious time in my speech?

Sometimes, you don’t think your opponent is relevant at all. You should still respect their argument, because what is important is often at the judge’s discretion. Therefore, you should explain your reason for not refuting something briefly in your speech. If you think the argument is not relevant to the debate: “They said X. I’m not going to spend too much time on this argument since X is not relevant because ABC.”

On the other hand, if an argument is complex and you aren’t sure you can refute all of it, or you don’t know what parts to refute, then… do your best! As Ashish Kumar said in this popular seminar: if you don’t try to refute it you will never get better.

What if they don’t make sense and I don’t know how to respond?

If you don’t understand an argument:

ALWAYS pretend to be confident that you do know what the opponent said when giving your speech. We talk more about how confidence sells in this article (read it after this one).
Do your best: Debaters are not that much smarter than one another. If your opponent can come up with that argument, then you probably can too. So, try to distill or elaborate on what you think their argument is based on what you know. What words did you catch? What did your partner catch?
Do not ignore. Ignoring potentially important arguments is often disasterous. Like I said before: you should explain your reason for not refuting something briefly in your speech, or you should try your best to refute it.

Go easy on yourself.

Everyone in debate is yelling and speaking quickly and saying complicated things. It is ridiculous to assume you will be able to understand everyone. It took me literally years to finally start understanding other peoples’ arguments completely. Luckily, watching Youtube videos and practicing linear flow will expose you to a variety of speaking styles and the experience of translating them into a paradigm that you are comfortable with. It might take a few weeks or months, but you WILL begin to understand. Keep up the good work.

Practical considerations for structuring rebuttal:

Sometimes, a novice gives excellent rebuttal, but because they are a novice and the judge is not paying perfect attention, the judge does not find it persuasive. Simple structure for rebuttal will help judges consistently track your rebuttal. The structure:

State what your opponent said briefly. Don’t just say “I’m going to refute their argument about [animal rights] [political backlash] [the economy]. You should be sufficiently detailed without being too long-winded. The perfect amount in my opinion is one large sentence and it should explain the claim, the mechanism and the impact.
- For example: Our opponent said that we should [ban zoos] because they [hurt the health of animals] by [trapping them in small enclosed environments].

Give your refutation. Here are some ways you can say it:
- However,
  - they take for granted…
  - they fail to consider…
  - they incorrectly assume…
  - they are incorrect because…
  - they are relatively unimportant because…
  - their impact is small because…

Lastly, and most importantly, explain the implication of your analysis to the judge. This is the thing novices don’t do, and it hurts their performance.
- Hold the judges hand. Make sure they don’t miss why your rebuttal is beating your opponent.
- Here are some ways you can say it:
  - This rebuttal is effective because…
  - This rebuttal shows…
  - Therefore, our opponent’s argument is insufficient because…
  - This should be persuasive to a panel because…

Whatever you do, just make sure that you know what your rebuttal is doing!

Exercises

Remember all those nice arguments you spent hours writing in the previous lesson? Time to prove them wrong!

Exercise 1: Refute yourself

Open up your notes for one of the motions you practiced in Lesson 1.
Take 15 minutes to prepare an LO speech refuting your arguments, as if you were on the other side of the debate.
Watch the LO (first opp) in the debate you practiced. Write down parts that you missed, or parts that were different. Reflect upon missing parts in your arguments and consider how you would fill them in your own words.
Give the LO speech again with your improved material.
This exercise will take you approximately 30 minutes

Exercise 2: My favourite drill reversed

Open up a new debate video. Here is a playlist of Gwen Stearn’s and I’s recommendations.
Prep the OO case for 15 minutes.
Watch the PM in the video again, and give your LO speech.
Watch the LO in the video, write down parts that you missed, or parts that were different. Reflect upon missing parts in your arguments and consider how you would fill them in your own words.
Give the LO speech again with your improved material.
This exercise will take you approximately 50 minutes.

Remember this about practicing:

Do not rush. You should do one exercise a day max. I recommend doing each exercise twice in one week, once every other day.
Do these exercises for 2 weeks. Do not rush to the next lesson.
If you are brand new or struggling, take all the time you need to build a reasonable argument. Don’t feel constrained by time yet. Your goal is to get comfortable with the concepts.
On the other hand, if you are more experienced, feel free to make the time constraint harsher. Instead of 15 minute preps, do 12 minute or 10 minute preps.

Good luck!

In the next lesson we will introduce being comparative — one of the most important, fundamental skills in debating.

Next Lesson: Lesson 2-3: Comparative refutation

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