World schools debate format is the debate format that is videly used all around the world for young debaters in High school. Because this format is used at the WSDC (Worlds Schools Debating Championships) it is used in regular debating all around the world and also in some countries they use different debate formats, but for the team that is preparing to compete on the WSDC, they will learn the format and then compete on the tournament.
The format is one of the most interesting formats, that is being used for High school debate, and this is why it is gaining more and more popularity around the world. With the long speaches (7 minutes), three constructive speaches for every team and a closing speach, all this makes the format very interesting. The long and noumerous constructive speaches make the debaters able to develop their arguments much more than in some of the other debate formats, that require the third speaker to present clashes. This is done in the fourth speech in WSD format, an this allows the speaker to dig deeper in their arguments.
Of course all this makes the format a bit harder for students, because if you need to make and accept POI’s, you need to think on your feet and be able to ask good questions and answer on questions in a second. And even more, you need to be able to prepare deep arguments, that will have not only a couple of sentances of explanation, but you need to go deep and prepare a lot of material in the argument explanation and prepare examples that will support your argument.
This makes to format harder to learn, but is makes for better debates, and this is something that we all want. Try the format and tell us, how it works for your debate club. And maybe I will see you on WSDC!
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