Debatability Roundtables - Topic Selection Meeting

Debatability Roundtables are relatively new to the process at the NFHS Policy Debate Topic Selection Meeting, debuting in 2024. This process is designed to give attendees time to ask authors questions about their topics.  These questions should be constructive and focused on the paper-writing criteria published in the 2025 Policy Debate Topic Selection Handbook.

General Info:

Attendees will divide into groups and move to several meeting rooms.

Topic authors will rotate between these rooms every 10 minutes. This will include 8 minutes of roundtable conversation and 2 minutes of transition/buffer time.

Attendees can use this time to ask the authors questions in a constructive manner based on the criteria.

Attendees will have the ability to talk to authors about ALL papers.

At the end of each group, everyone will return to the general session room and then break out again with the goal of finding a different mix of attendees for the next group.

Roundtable Schedule

Roundtable Schedule (Review Papers Here)

Group #1 (9:50am – 10:40am)

  • Latin America

  • North Africa

  • Foreign Aid

  • Presidential War Powers

  • Western Balkans

Group #2 (10:45am – 11:25am)

  • China

  • West Africa ​

  • South America

  • Southeast Asia

Group #3 (11:30am – 12:10pm)

  • Nuclear Arms Control

  • Military Presence

  • Space Exploration

  • South Asia


Question Guide

Here is a general guide for the types of questions that you should be asking the authors during your 8-10 minutes with them.

Please remember that these sessions are meant to be constructive and helpful to the authors.

Questions to Evaluate the Appropriateness of an Area for High School Debate

Resolutions:

  • Does this topic have an appropriate number of potential resolutions that can be debated?

  • Do you think some of the resolutions are too broad or too narrow?

Scope:

  • Does this topic address an issue that is significant in all areas of the country?

  • Do you think a wide majority of states would be able to debate this topic?

  • Are there any groups of people who would not be allowed to debate this topic?

Timeliness:

  • Do you think this will be a timely topic when this could appear during a school year?

  • What evidence do you have that this topic will still appear in the media in 2 years?

  • Is there any chance that this topic will be rendered meaningless by the time the debates occur?

  • Will this topic have new issues that arise as the topic is debated?

Range:

  • Will this topic challenge advanced debaters?

  • Can this topic be understood and debated by novice debaters?

Quality:

  • Do we want the nations high school students to be researching and debating this topic?

  • Will this topic provide value to high school students (exposure to divergent points of view, analyzes significant current issues/problems, opportunity to develop analytical and problem-solving skills)?

  • Can this topic be debated for an entire year without producing repetitive debates?

Material:

  • Is there enough material available on this topic?

  • Is the material available accessible to all audiences?

Interest:

  • Will this topic interest high school debaters, judges, and community members?

  • Could there be a barrier to someone being interested in this topic?

Balance:

  • Are there issues and arguments supporting both sides of the topic?

  • Does either side have a significant advantage over the other side?

  • Do both balanced affirmed and negative ground exist?

Things to NOT Do or Say

  • Personally attack the author

  • Give your personal opinion on how you would have authored the paper differently

  • Compare someone else’s paper to the topic being discussed

  • Go on a long rant/monologue

  • Make the roundtable about yourself instead of the topic