Debate Class: What is Diagonal Engagement?

In the previous part of this article, you have learned six strategies for crafting strong POIs. In this part, you’ll learn about “diagonal engagement” – that is, OG engaging with CO and OO engaging with CG.

One of the challenges of the British Parliamentary debate is that not every team gets to rebut each other. For instance, Opening Opposition never gets a chance to rebut Closing Government! Frustrating, right? Luckily, we have the ability to ask and answer POIs. You should take POIs “on the diagonal” first. This way, you have a chance to engage with a team you otherwise wouldn’t be able to. Ask POIs with high strategic significance, so that you can identify weakness in the response that the other team gave and use it against them later. You can do this by asking a POI, and then in your speech, explain why that question was important and why the opponent’s answer weakened their case. Your next consideration should be taking POIs from the team you are most concerned about beating, to give you a chance to respond to their attacks and to show the judges why you’re coming ahead of them.

So how do you strategically engage with the opening half if you’re in closing half? When you, as a closing team, are addressing a POI to the opening diagonal team, you want to make sure that you allow the opening team a fair chance for engagement so that the judge can truly weigh between your cases. Therefore, if you need anything clarified or want to challenge the set-up, model, or premise of the debate, highlight this in a POI right from the start. If you wait until your speeches, the debate will be quite messy and the judge may decide you addressed the issue too late. However, while diagonal engagement is as important as the bottom half, you should only raise points from your extension to the second speaker of the opposing opening team. If you give away your extension any earlier than this, your opening half team can steal it from you.

Now, what if you’re the opening half – how do you engage with closing through POIs? As an opening team, the main purpose of addressing a POI to the opposite closing team is to ensure that the judge remembers your case and sees why it’s still relevant to the debate and beats the other teams. It’s usually a good strategic move to use POIs to frame your opponents’ case against yours and emphasize why you beat them. Doing so will help the judge compare your cases and it’ll allow you to explain why your case is relevant to the important clashes in the debate. For example, a POI from an opening team might sound like:

Since we proved the government doesn’t have the right to interfere in personal choices, why is your case about people making harmful personal choices still important in the debate?

If possible, you should also use your POI to emphasize why you are beating your own closing team. It sounds strange but it’s true – the POI to the other side is your only chance to respond to your own closing team. Sometimes this can be done by adding a couple of words to the same POI. For example:

As we have first analyzed, the government doesn’t have the right to interfere in personal choices, so why is the clash in the bottom half of the debate about people making harmful personal choices still important in the debate?

Of course, other good teams will use these strategies as well. So, when you receive what seems to be a challenging POI, first – stop and think! Don’t rush into a response that will trap your team into a specific position for the rest of the debate. Take a moment to collect your thoughts, and even take a sip of water. This will allow you a few seconds to craft a better response. Remember that you can always reject the entire premise of a question. For example, if a team tries asking a question that gives you two bad answers such as “Isn't it likely that politicians will eventually become corrupt or exhausted and inefficient?” answering either way would probably be bad for you. Instead, reject the premise of the question, and answer and answer, “No, neither is true or likely. There are in fact many long-term qualified and ethical politicians who are doing a great job.”

There you go! You have learned six strategies for crafting strong POIs: plan, communicate with your team, prioritize issues, adapt, refer back to previous POIs, and explain the question’s impact. You’ve also learned the importance of engaging with the team on your diagonal and how best to do so.

Now, when you’re on the receiving end of a POI and the spotlight falls on you, it may feel like an interrogation, but take a moment to collect your thoughts and you’ll survive! Make your opponents sweat with your hard-hitting POIs, detective.