Resolved: Odysseus and Penelope are eternal heroes relevant even in modern times.
The Affirmative team will argue in favor of the resolution. The Negative team will argue for the opposing view, that Odysseus's and Penelope's virtues are particular to Greek culture of Homeric times, and not applicable to contemporary culture.
Both teams debating must break up the topic to make sure that you are not repeating the same argument using the same evidence, and that all parts of your argument are covered.
Format:
1) Opening comments by the Affirmative and Negative team members who are not doing cross examinations or rebuttals. (6 minutes per team)*
2) Short break for teams to prepare cross examinations and for the judges to confer.
(3 minutes)
3) Cross examiners for each team will ask questions of the opposing team. This means questions are concise, not disguised as arguments. Any member of the opposing team may answer. Cross examiner may only ask questions and should not engage in rebuttal, but should seek to remain in control of the round, not allowing the opposing team to engage in filibustering or getting off the topic. Responding team must not engage in obfuscation but must answer the questions that are asked (not the questions they would like to answer) and answer them accurately. (4 minutes per team)
4) Short break for the teams to prepare rebuttals and for the judges to confer in the hallway. (5 minutes)
5) Rebuttalists respond to opposing teams' arguments and cross examinations. Rebuttals cannot be prepared in advance, but should respond to specific points brought up during the debate. They should not introduce new arguments or seem like just another opening statement. (3 minutes per team)
6) Conference and decision of the judges.
Before the debate, teams must meet and determine how they are going to divide the topic and plan strategy.
*Note if there are four members to a team, two will share the opening statement and one each will conduct the examination and the rebuttal. All team members participate in responding to the opposing team's cross examination questions. If there are five members of the team, three will share the opening statement for a total of 7 minutes, and one each will fulfill the other roles.
Judges: Only the judges will be writing papers. All essays must present a persuasive argument and contain evidence to support it. Do not write in the first person or even refer to the debate – you are writing a formal essay, a position paper, and not notes. Once you have written your position paper as a judge, you need not write another paper for the other debates. Half of the judges should argue for the affirmative, half for the negative.
Paper details:
500-750 words (about two or three pages).
The essay should include concrete supporting evidence from the Odyssey.
Although you are assigned to take a position on one side, you should not ignore significant facts that seem to contradict your position. Rather, try to reconcile them. See PWG #4c for more on this.
See paper mechanics for other guidelines.
Look at other pages on the Writing History section of my web site, especially the Paper-Writing Guide.
Judging: The judges should be prepared to listen carefully to the debate, pay attention to each presentation, and make fair and unbiased assessments and work collaboratively as a group to determine a winner. One of the judges will serve as time keeper. All the judges will be asked to take notes or keep score as they listen.
One final recommendation. Make a strong argument without sacrificing your intellectual honesty. See the definition of intellectual honesty on the Terms for Thinking Historically page of this website.