cxdebatelg.gif (18874 bytes) Grouping Strategies
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Debate Issues
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Grouping
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Method
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Grouping that's not Grouping
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Dangers in Grouping

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Debate Issues:

Because of the limited amount of time available in the rebuttals, it is impossible to cover every issue brought up in a good round (usually 16-24 issues). Inexperience will force many debaters to either (1) drop one or more issues or (2) barely mention them leaving several issues alive, strong, and dangerous. Either situation will give a strategic advantage to the opponents.

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Grouping:

Grouping is a strategy that takes two or more issues and groups (combines) them into a single rebuttal argument. An experienced team will be able to reduce the number of issues, i.e. 24, into 6 or 7 rebuttal arguments. If a team can do this, they will have 40-50 seconds to deal with each argument compared to 12 seconds without grouping.

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Method:

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Grouping that's Not Grouping:

Some debaters think they are grouping issues when they are only organizing. For example, placing all harms under the label of significance and then addressing each harm individually is not grouping and does not save time.

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Dangers in Grouping:

Not all arguments can be grouped; some individual issues are too dangerous or are not linked to other issues. Inappropriately grouping issues can result in inadequately addressed issues which can result in loss of the round.

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