| A | B |
|---|
| Resolution | The topic that will be debated for the year (sometimes it is called the topic.) |
| Novice Topic Limits | The areas that first year debaters will be debating |
| Affirmative | The team that agrees with the resolution (and the novice topic limits). |
| Negative | The team that disagrees with the resolution (and the novice topic limits). They argue the status quo is best |
| Status Quo | The current situation and the way policies are now. |
| Case | The “case” for the resolution presented in the IAC (the first speech); it includes inherency, harms, plan, and solvency. |
| Contentions | The parts of a case: inherency, harms, plan, and solvency |
| Inherency | The barrier to solve the problems in the status quo. This is the reason why the plan isn't occurring in the status quo. |
| Harms | The problems in the status quo (the problems with the way things are now). |
| Plan | The Affirmative’s proposal to put the resolution into effect; putting this into action will solve harms and inherency. |
| Solvency | The contention showing that the Affirmative plan can solve for the harms and inherency presented earlier in the plan. |
| Disadvantage | An offensive Negative argument that shows the affirmative will cause something bad to happen |
| Card | A short piece of evidence that includes a tag (a short summary) and citations (that tell how the information was found). |
| Topicality | An offensive Negative argument that shows the affirmative is not affirming the resolution, and so not fulfilling their duty in the round. |
| Stock Issues | The standard issues of controversy in policy rounds: inherency, harms, plan, solvency, disadvantage, and topicality |
| Constructive | The first four speech in a round that lay out each of the affirmative and negative arguments. |
| Cross Examination | The three minute question periods after each constructive speech, in which the opposing team questions the last speaker. |
| Refutation | Answering an opponent's arguments |
| Flow | The notes each team member takes during a debate. |
| Advantage | The contention showing the problems that will occur without the plan or the good things that will occur with the plan. |
| Tag | A short summary of the most important point in a piece of evidence. |
| Citation | The information that shows a piece of evidence is reliable, include the author, article title, source, and publishing date. |
