Speech and Rhetorical Studies Commons^™

Presumption In Parliamentary Debate: Examining Whately's Ideas And Their Application To An Emerging And Evolving Debate Style, Tammy Duvanel Unruh

Proceedings of the National Developmental Conference on Individual Events

Presumption as a part of formal debate is examined in this paper, which discusses Richard Whately's ideas about presumption and burden of proof in argumentation, how these ideas have been applied as paradigms and judging criteria in competitive debate, and how these same ideas fit into the practice of parliamentary debate. General conclusions about broad applications of debate "rules" are drawn, then, from this example, and suggestions are made for future study.

Forensics Fellows: Integrating Faculty Participation Into Intercollegiate Parliamentary Debate Programs, Lewis E. Rutledge

Proceedings of the National Developmental Conference on Individual Events

There are important benefits to integrating non-forensics faculty into assisting with the instruction and training of intercollegiate parliamentary debaters. These benefits may also spill over into individual events in a limited way. Parliamentary debate, if done well, requires that debaters have a broad based education covering many diverse disciplines, especially philosophy, history and political science, and of course a familiarity with current national and international events. Enlisting the aid of non-forensics professors from various departments to provide occasional mini-lectures on diverse topics can help improve this broad-based education. Additionally, there are other unique benefits to encouraging non-forensics faculty members to …

Maintaining The Status Quo: Recommendations For Preserving Public Argument In Parliamentary Debate, Steven L. Johnson

Proceedings of the National Developmental Conference on Individual Events

Accompanied by praise and criticism, the growth of parliamentary debate in recent years has been exponential. As Robert Trapp, current President of the National Parliamentary Debate Association points out in his May 28, 1997 letter to the membership of the NPDA, "(f)rom 1994 to 1997, our Championship Tournament has grown from just over fifty teams to almost four times as many. Measured in numerical terms, the NPDA is a healthy infant." Given this growth, a discussion of the future of parliamentary debate seems appropriate.

Regardless of one's perspective of what parliamentary debate is, much has been written about what parliamentary …