British Parliamentary Style
British Parliamentary Style (BPS ) is a format that is a distinct body of rules, of Debating. This format is on international tournaments such as the World and European Championships, and the most common in the debating societies of many countries. In Germany it is next to the Open Parliamentary Debate (OPD ) is the most important format. The format of the German Debating alternates annually between BPD and OPD. A debate in the BPS requires eight speakers that operate in four teams of two. Two teams form the government faction, the other two the opposition. The preparation time after the announcement of the theme is 15 minutes talk time per speaker seven minutes.
Expiration of a BPS debate
Speakers and judges
In a BPS debate argue four teams of two speakers for the win, two on each side. The two teams with one side not argue though, and the closing team is allowed to be opened from your page also generally not contradict ( stab ), the teams compete fraction internally but another as well as with the teams of the other faction. One can think of them as coalition partners, each want to develop a profile to. While you pull together, but possible more than their colleagues. Which of the four teams who will occupy the four positions - as in every format of the Debating - a draw. The jury (English ( adjudication ) panel), which decides neutral between victory and defeat should consist of at least three judges. In the regular operation of the club, however, often comes only one juror used in the finals large tournaments, however, up to nine. A head judge acts as president of the debate. He has during the debate the function of an arbitrator and moderated by the debate, the decision-making.
Topic and preparation
At the beginning of the debate is the issue ( engl. motion), which is often chosen in the operation of the club by the participants, but is determined and announced at tournaments of the chief judges. The traditional formulation of the topic follows the pattern "This house ... ", eg "This house would introduce the minimum wage ." Topics may be very open and thus the issuing government much room can (eg " This house would be the prodigal son sent away again " ), but are usually quite well defined ( eg " This house would the parents of truants cut child benefit " ). After the election and announcement of the theme, the four teams have 15 minutes to prepare separately and without electronic aids to the debate.
The debate
Each speaker has seven minutes of speaking time. The four speakers of the opposing faction may by standing between short questions (English points of information) offer between the first and the last minute, of which the speaker to answer at least one take and. Compliance with the speaking time watching the President acting as head judge of the debate.
The first speaker of the issuing government, Prime Minister called, constitutes a practical application in accordance with the binding issue. This means that he proposes or a location specified by Topic thesis represents a certain measure as precisely as possible (English policy). This application is now the subject of debate, the representatives of the government and opposition in favor or reject in their speeches. All the speakers bring to this end their own arguments in the debate and grappled with the arguments of the opposite side. This also applies to the respective first speaker at the closing teams, while the final two speakers (English whips ) summarize without fundamentally new arguments, the debate from their perspective.
Evaluation criteria and feedback
After the debate, the judges put under the direction of head judge in a non-public discussion, a ranking of the teams of one to four fixed and assigned ( in the operation of the club not necessarily) also individual speaker points. The approach to the comparison of the four teams is a holistic and based on the rules defined by the tasks of the team. Here, although the content is ( engl. matter) the talking in the foreground, but it is assumed that this content is not independent of its strategic use in the debate (English method) and the rhetorical form (English manner ) can be assessed. An argument is only as good as it is developed and explained in the context of the team and comes to bear. The individual speaker points awarded by the judges on a scale of 50 to 100, with 75 points are considered to be average and get the vast majority of speeches between 70 and 80 points in the rule.
If a result has been found, this will be communicated and explained to the speakers in the debate. This should, if possible be combined with constructive directions for improvement.
Tournament mode
In competitions in British Parliamentary Style are initially fought between three and nine preliminary rounds, in which all teams participate in the tournament. After each preliminary round debate, the teams will receive according to their rankings three, two, one or zero team points. The sum of the team points decides on the ranking of the teams in the Team tab. The after team - Tab best teams reach the discharged in the knockout finals system ( engl. break rounds ) In addition to the Team tab also a speaker tab is performed, ie a ranking of all individual speakers. The sum of the individual speaker points a team is in a tie for team points as a tie-breaker.
Which teams will meet in the first preliminary round, it is randomly decided. In round two then enters the power- pairing in force, so it meet teams with the same team score. This procedure ensures that tends to equal teams debate against each other. The tabbing software that optimizes the translation of the debates, also ensures that all teams must deny equal as often as possible all four positions.