The Affirmative Case

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The Affirmative Case
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Responsibilities of the First Affirmativein a
Policy Debate

• Tasks of Your Constructive Speech
• Lay a Solid Foundation
• State the Resolution
• Define Key Terms
• Summarize the Affirmative's Case
• Explain Affirmative's Procedure
• Establish the Need for Change
• End with an Appeal

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Lay a Solid Foundation

• As first affirmative debater you introduce the
  issues. In your constructive speech, you tell the
  audience and judges where your side is going, and
  you begin building the affirmative's case in
  support of the proposition. Your case, which your
  team prepares before a policy debate, should
  consist of three stock issues need for the
  change stated in the resolution, plan for
  effecting the change, and benefits of making the
  change. In turn, each issue requires specific
  arguments backed by evidence.

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State the Resolution

• Start by reminding the audience about the issue.
  By stating the proposition, you set the context
  of the key terms that you will define. Then, show
  the purpose and importance of the debate. Why
  debate the issue? What will the debate
  accomplish? It may seem obvious why the issue is
  important to your listeners, but you need to
  articulate their concern. Then, give a brief
  history. Just key events, decisions, and policies
  leading to the current situation. And, outline
  the general issues. What main questions are to be
  addressed in the debate? All this in a few
  critical sentences.

5
Define Key Terms

• To argue intelligently your team and the negative
  team should talk the same language. The
  proposition should mean approximately the same to
  both sides. Or, if you disagree about meanings of
  key terms and those meanings are critical for
  your cases, then the two sides must defend their
  respective definitions as an overriding issue.
  Such definitional debates are sometimes
  unavoidable. However, you usually offer neutral
  and conventional definitions, the negative
  concurs, and the debate proceeds. You define only
  those terms that the audience may not know well
  or that the opposition may differ on the meaning.

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For example

• In "Resolved That capital punishment should be
  replaced by life imprisonment," for example, you
  would define "capital punishment" and "life
  imprisonment" which are used commonly but need
  more precise definitions for your debate. Also,
  you define key terms, such as legal phrases, that
  are not in the proposition but that your team
  intends to use. For example, if you intend to use
  "cruel and unusual punishments" from the U.S.
  Constitution later in a capital punishment
  debate, then you interpret the phrase at the
  beginning, with help by the Supreme Court.

7
Summarize the Affirmative's Case

• Before entering the labyrinth of the debate, your
  listeners and judges need to know where your team
  is going -- the old technique of "tell 'em what
  you're going to tell 'em, then tell 'em, then
  tell 'em what you told 'em." Without a map, your
  listeners may hear a slew of contentions and
  facts, and still not understand your main
  arguments. So, begin the debate, as you will end
  it, with a summary of issues.

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For example,

• "My partner and I will show you the need,
  practicality, and benefits of euthanasia. We will
  show that thousands of comatose and dying
  patients need this humane solution, their
  families need relief, and our society needs to
  reduce consumption medical services. We will show
  that euthanasia can be implemented easily by
  obtaining informed decisions by patients and
  their families, and by changing our laws to
  protect doctors from prosecution and law suits.
  And, we will show that euthanasia will save
  immeasurable suffering and measurable billions of
  dollars."

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Explain Affirmative's Procedure

• Once having told what you will tell them, then
  tell your listeners who will tell them. Tell them
  that you will handle the need issue and that your
  partner will handle the practicality (plan) and
  benefits issues. As with your summary, this
  preview helps your listeners know your position,
  for only by knowing it can they adopt it.

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Establish the Need for Change

• Preliminaries over, you enter into the main body
  of your case which your partner will continue in
  his or her constructive speech. Begin the first
  plank of your case, which is the need issue. Give
  contentions and evidence that support the need
  issue. A contention is a causal statement backed
  by a line of reasoning.

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For example,

• For example, "We contend that many thousands of
  patients with incurable disease can end their
  anguish and torment only by euthanasia. This is
  because medical science has not found ways of
  alleviating their pain, even with massive and
  addictive pain-killers. Similarly, many thousands
  of the families of these patients, and patients
  who are comatose, can end their distress only by
  euthanasia. This is because they would do
  anything to relieve the suffering of their loved
  ones, yet the law does not allow such relief."
  You reinforce your contentions with facts and
  vivid examples, personalizing any statistics that
  you use. You authenticate your information by
  giving its sources. And, you can dramatize the
  situation with a personal experience, but do not
  your story telling kill your time allotment.

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• In presenting your case, specifically this need
  section, give at least three different arguments
  for changing the status quo. Why three? The
  answer was discovered by Ancient Greeks and given
  by Aristotle structures with at least three
  columns of support are strongest. If your case
  rests on a single reason for change, it can be
  toppled easily by an attack on that reason. Two
  different reasons make your case stronger but are
  more vulnerable than three. However, those
  reasons must be significant and different.

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For example,

• The three reasons might be different types
  political, economical, and psychological. So, why
  stop at three reasons? Time. After doing your
  preliminary tasks, you scarcely have time to
  develop and substantiate three arguments for
  change. If you try more, you will only talk too
  fast and impress your listeners with the
  shallowness of your arguments. Moreover, they
  will not remember them. So, focus on three
  important reasons why the policy needs to change.
  

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• As you frame your arguments and select your
  evidence, keep in mind that you are required to
  show that the need for change is significant.
  Moreover, you must show that it is significant
  with solid evidence, not just give your opinion
  that it is significant. And, cite the sources of
  your evidence otherwise, it will sound
  fabricated. Later in the debate, your partner
  will present a plan and defend its practicality,
  particularly its cost. That cost will likely be
  weighed against the significance of the problem.
  Unless you have shown that the need's
  significance outweighs the cost, then the plan
  will not sell, however cleverly devised.

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End with an Appeal

• Your constructive speech is the first of segment
  in a policy debate, so that the dramatic ending
  of a regular Toastmasters speech would be
  anticlimactic in a policy debate. Yet, your
  speech requires a proper ending. Its most
  effective ending is to quote or paraphrase the
  resolution, and appeal quietly to your listeners
  to adopt it. In their minds, your appeal
  reinforces your case and also circles to your
  opening for perfect closure.