LD Debate
LD is an acronym for Lincoln Douglas debate. LD debaters compete in the high school division throughout the United States. It is patterned after the early debate between Abraham Lincoln & Stephen Douglas. Unlike high school policy debate , the stress in LD is less on evidence and plans, and focuses instead on the general conflicting values. A debate put simply is a series of speeches, one after another. LD debate is one on one and the two opponents take turns giving speeches in the below structure(these periods of time may seem like a life time, but they are not):
Affirmative Constructive (1AC) 6 minutes
Cross Examination (CX) 3 minutes
Negative Constructive/First Negative Rebuttal (1NC/1NR) 7 minutes
Cross Examination (CX) 3 minutes
First Affirmative Rebuttal (1AR) 4 minutes
Second Negative Rebuttal (2NR) 6 minutes
Second Affirmative Rebuttal (2AR) 3 minutes
More info @ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lincoln-Douglas_debate
PF Debate
Public Forum Debate can be compared to a nationally-televised debate, such as Crossfire in which the debators argue a topic of national importance in terms that a common person would understand. Similar to Policy Debate, the debate in Public Forum Debate is conducted by teams of two people, alternating speeches for their side. Unlike Policy Debate it is far more dependent on the speaking presentation of the debater rather than the research skills of the speaker. In fact, a good team can win with very little evidence, solely depending on speaking ability.
A Public Forum debate follows this timing schedule:
Team A: First Speaker: Constructive Speech 4 minutes
Team B: First Speaker: Constructive Speech 4 minutes
Crossfire (between first speakers) 3 minutes
Team A: Second Speaker: Rebuttal 4 minutes
Team B: Second Speaker: Rebuttal 4 minutes
Crossfire (between second speakers) 3 minutes
Team A: First Speaker: Summary 2 minutes
Team B: First Speaker: Summary 2 minutes
Grand Crossfire (All speakers) 3 minutes
Team A: Second Speaker: Final Focus/Last Shot 1 minute
Team B: Second Speaker: Final Focus/Last Shot 1 minute
More info @: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_Forum_Debate