How to Choose a Topic

[Source : teentimes.org]

 

While all topics may be debatable, not all topics are good for debates. So selecting a topic is not as easy as it may sound. This is especially true when someone is trying to come up with a fresh, new topic. In a class or tournament, many topics are needed, so having a broad variety of topics on hand is a good idea. A good topic should be balanced and well-phrased.

 

At a debate tournament, there could be a need for dozens of topics. Take the NSDC (National Schools Debating Championship) tournament for example, where there are usually three prepared round motions?students know the topics in advance?and five impromptu rounds, rounds that usually involve selecting from three topics. Such a tournament needs 18 topics. Impromptu rounds should have a theme, which means that there would be eight categories for these topics. A dozen common themes (with plenty of debate topics) are culture, diplomacy, economy, education, environment, governance, health, media, politics, science, sports, and local topics?the last one relevant only to the region of the event.

 

Picking themes can help narrow topic choices. The next issue of concern is to have a well-balanced debate motion. This means that it needs to be debatable for both sides of the motion. “This House believes that the Sun rotates around the Earth,” is not a fair motion because there is one side that is absolutely right and one that is clearly wrong. Let’s say you have decided to use the theme of the environment from the list. “This House would fix the environment,” certainly leans more in favor of the proposition since the opposition would find it increasingly difficult to argue that we should let the environment collapse. A fairer balance might be, “This House believes that the environment is more important than the economy.” Such a motion pits each side with a clearer mothod idea to counter the other. In truth, both the environment and the economy are important, so arguing which is more important becomes an interesting and fair debate.

 

Finally, we come to phrasing. Poorly worded topics are very problematic. Take the final wording achieved in the previous resolution. If we add “much” so that it reads, “This House believes that the environment is much more important than the economy,” we have created a much higher burden for the proposition and a much lower burden for the opposition. Especially in pre-collegiate debates, motions with absolute terms like “always” and “never” can become high hurdles for students.

 

Exercise:
Select a theme from the list mentioned in the article. Generate three different debate topics for that theme. Make sure each topic is balanced and well-phrased. Repeat with other themes as needed.