Aborn Institute

Public Form Debate：Public Forum Debate (PF, POFO, PuFo) is a team event that affirms or rejects a resolution presented every month. This form of debate requires doing research and is primarily focused on evidence, but not driven by it. There are two speakers on each team. First speakers present and develop arguments, while the second speaker has no written out speech, but works on refuting the opponents case, and strengthening your own. Doing Public Forum helps you develop communication skills, including clarity, enunciation, and tonality which help to effectively persuade the judges to agree with your side of the resolution using well-written arguments, clear explanations, and proper delivery.

Lincoln Douglas Debate：Lincoln-Douglas debate (LD debate) is a one-on-one debate event that focuses on ethical issues. The resolutions are moral statements whose truth values are debated by the affirmative, who argues that the resolution is true, and the negative, who argues that the resolution is false . Examples of recent resolutions include: "A government has the obligation to lessen the economic gap between its rich and poor citizens", "Individuals have a moral obligation to assist people in need", and "States ought not possess nuclear weapons". Unlike other forms of debate, LD relies heavily on philosophy (especially moral and political philosophy), good empirical data, and logical analysis. Debates will often involve a clash between two competing philosophical or political positions.