Written by Jason Stansell

Picture this… your child comes up to you and asks you to listen to their Speech performance or their Debate case, and within the first minute, they’ve thrown out words and terms that, in context, you don’t understand. Or, they come to you for help with ideas on their piece/case, and you’re confused by just the prompt. Welcome! You’ve become a Speech and Debate parent.

There’s no denying that in Speech and Debate, we tend to use terms more at home in scientific research papers and political talking points. Granted, that is because Speech and Debate grew out of such areas of society — and we often use materials from those parts of society as sources of evidence. It can be intimidating as a parent to try to help your student when you don’t have the faintest idea what they are talking about. You’ve already had to translate the latest slang as best you can, and now they’re talking about their “contention on the environmental impact of Consumerism” or mentioning that they got a “bye” in their tournament. 

Well, good news! We’re here to give you simple definitions of 34 of the most common terms that tend to confuse parents, so that you can understand what your Speech and Debate student is talking about. Aside from the first three, these terms will be in alphabetical order. 

• Resolution/Prompt/Topic — Sometimes used interchangeably, these are terms referring to what debaters will be debating or speaking about. Example: “Resolve: The United States government should eliminate all school lunch programs.”

• Pro/Aff/Affirmative — The side arguing for the resolution/prompt/topic for the debate. This can sometimes get confusing if the resolution is about stopping or ending something. If they are arguing “Resolve: The United States government should eliminate all school lunch programs”, the pro/aff/affirmative will be arguing for the elimination, not in favor of the programs.

• Con/Neg/Negative — The side arguing against the resolution or prompt for the debate. This can sometimes get confusing if the resolution is about stopping or ending something. If they are arguing “Resolve: The United States government should eliminate all school lunch programs”, the con/neg/negative will be arguing against the elimination of the programs.

• Analysis — The parts of a contention written in your own words that help connect all the other parts together. Let’s say you’re writing about dogs being better than cats with the contention that dogs are much easier to train. Quoting statistics from the SPCA saying that “dogs are reward and praise oriented”, can only get you so far if you don’t explain what that means.

• Argument — Unlike in traditional usage, in Speech and Debate “argument” is just the main point of your paragraph or sometimes your entire speech. This does not mean that this is your own personal opinion, nor does it mean that you are sitting there butting heads with your opponent.

• Audience/Target Audience — Not in the traditional sense, as there isn’t a huge auditorium of people listening. Rather, “target audience” refers to the audience of your speech in general, as in who the performance would be for. While “audience” refers to the judge(s) and other speakers in the round. For example, if you are performing “Green Eggs and Ham” it’s a piece designed for a “target audience” of children, so you can have fun with it and perform it as if you are performing it for children… However, for your Introduction, you’re not going to treat the judge(s) as if they are toddlers you are trying to put to bed with a story; rather, they are the “audience” to whom you are explaining the significance of your piece.

• Block — A Debate term for a counter-argument you pre-plan when preparing for a debate. For example, in your debate case against “school uniforms,” knowing your opponent will likely be prepared with a “block” against your potential argument of how cost—prohibitive school uniforms can be, you can anticipate this and write your own “block” about how programs designed to “provide used uniforms, that are often stained, worn down, and ill—fitting, to impoverished students” often has more of a stigma in using than wearing non—name brand clothes in a non—uniformed setting; thus creating even more bullying.

• Blocking — Taken from Theatre, “blocking” is the stage directions you create for your performance. For example, in “A Christmas Carol” to express Scrooge’s fear of the ghosts, while inflection and emoting are wonderful, your student could really sell their performance by doing blocking that shows Scrooge cowering.

• Bye — A round in which your student got an automatic win for the round and didn’t have to compete. This is most commonly due to an odd number of teams competing.

• Cards/Cutting Cards — It simply means quotations from sources that you have cut and paste into a list of evidence that you use during rounds. The reason they are called “cards” is because before computers, we would make copies of newspaper articles then literally cut and paste the relevant passages onto index cards. We put them on cards to make them easy to carry, find and access during a tournament. While Cutting Cards is the act of creating the cards.

• Contention — It’s another word for argument, though in debate, it typically refers to a specific argument that supports your position. Example, if the speech is against school uniforms, after explaining that they are against school uniforms in their opening paragraph, they can have three different arguments in support. Each of those are called a “contention”. Typically, they are made up of five parts: Claim sentence, Warrant, Evidence, Impact, Link.

• Constructive — The first prepared speeches in a debate.

• Cross Examination/Cross/Cross Ex/CrossX/CX — In debate, “Cross Examination” is the time between arguments where one side asks the other questions about their advocacy.

• Crossfire — In debate, Crossfire is where both sides ask each other questions about their advocacy and arguments.

• Cut/Cutting — This is one of the most common terms you’re likely to hear. Contrary to the term of “trimming” below, a cutting is a piece they’ve selected, say from a play or a book. Even if your child could somehow perform all 20+ characters uniquely, they cannot squeeze the entire performance of “Christmas Carol” for a Dramatic Interpretation piece into the 10—minute time frame. So, a cutting is the scene they picked, or the individual scenes they’ve pieced together to make their piece.

• Enunciate/Enunciation — One of the biggest problems for competitors is that the faster they speak, the less they actually speak clearly. It’s not a negative against the student, it’s just what happens when speeding up unless you’re specifically conscious of it while practicing. So, often, students will be told to work on their enunciation.

• Evidence — Information from trusted news sources, educational institutions, government agencies, and similar. You must always be careful of said evidence and strive to make certain it is accurate. For example, let’s say you’re talking about crime statistics. A news source known for editorializing is not a good source for evidence, as they could say that one party, religion, skin tone, gender, etc. are all criminals. Also be careful of some politicians’ quotes as one could say, “Almost all criminals went to Kindergarten, so we must eliminate Kindergarten to stop turning children into criminals.” That said, a non-profit that has international respect may be a good source of evidence. Try to stick with websites that end in .org, .edu, .gov if possible. Other countries’ government sites may also be trusted for evidence; though, keep in mind, they’re likely to only be focused on their country and/or region, so be careful if you use them.

• Fillers/Filler Words — In writing, “filler words” are the crutches we fall back on. Excessive “ands”, “like”, “really” are all examples. However, in Speech and Debate, while we have to keep an eye on those as well, the most common “fillers” are not written but spoken while performing. Typically, “um”, “uh”, and  “you know” are the most common.

• Final Focus — The last speeches given in a Public Forum Debate.

• Flow — The notes you take during the debate. Everyone has their own unique way of not taking, but generally, your notes are going to follow the flow of your opponent’s speech.

• Forensics — At first you may think “forensic science”, but “Forensics” with an “s” is just another term for Speech and Debate.

• Format — The way something is structured. Most Speech events have their own structure, though not typically as different from each other as the various Debate events.

• Gestures — Hand movements. Used as part of “blocking”, gestures can sometimes be far more effective than big movements. The “Ghost of Christmas Future” from “A Christmas Carol” can say all it needs to with a slow, simple point or subtle shake of the head.

• Grace Period — The amount of time one is “allowed” but not recommended to go over the time limit in a given event, usually 30 seconds. 

• Impact — The part of your Contention in which you explain the “impact” to your audience. If you use evidence showing that “dogs are far more trainable than cats”, the impact could be that this makes dogs a far better choice to be assistance animals for the blind, be search and rescue animals, detect blood sugar drops in diabetics, etc.

• Inflection/Emoting — The changes in pitch and tone that show the emotions coming through your words.

• Link — The part of a contention where you explain how your claim supports the resolution

• Maverick — “Going maverick” is when a Public Forum debater debates without a partner, usually because their partner canceled at the last minute. Sometimes tournaments don’t allow this, and if your partner doesn’t show up, you’re disqualified from the tournament instead.

• Pivot — While answering a question, changing the subject to avoid answering said question.

• Pop/Snap/Morph — The physical showing of switching between characters in an interpretation-type event, while your feet remain planted in the same place. Typically, students will turn to a different angle to help differentiate between the characters.

• Signpost — Phrases that help guide judges through the content of your speech. Example, “Three points that support this contention are…”

• Source — A “source” is where the information they are talking about is coming from. “Common knowledge” is not “common” if not backed up by fact. If they’re speaking about specific research, just quoting a news article saying, “According to NPR” is not enough. Unless it is research NPR did themselves, they are not the “source”, or at least not the “full source.” Quoting where the information is coming from and when it came out is critical. Examples:
  “NPR’s Allison Aubrey published an article September 17, 2025 titled ‘Vitamin B3 can help protect against skin cancer. Here’s who may benefit,’ that summarizes the findings of ‘Nicotinamide for Skin Cancer Chemoprevention,’ a research paper by Kimberly F. Breglio, MD, DPhil1,2; Katlyn M. Knox, BA3; Jonathan Hwang, BS. …In that article…”
  OR
  “In a report on the CDC’s website titled, ‘Clinical Guidance for Scarlet Fever,’ written by various Health Care Providers published on Aug 5, 2025, it states…”

• Trimming — You’re most likely to understand this one already, though it often gets confused with “cutting” above. Trimming, much like with hair, is trimming bits of your performance or speech to better fit either within the time limit or to better apply scenes or concepts together. 

• Warrant — Part of a Contention; the reason and evidence as to why your claim sentence is true.

If you’d like to learn more, take a look at our full glossary here!