3.07 page 4 Refutation Process

Step 1: Briefly restate your opponent’s argument

Say something simple like, “In her first contention, my opponent argues that healthcare is a precondition for political participation.”

You don’t want to get into the details of your opponent’s argument, you need only to briefly indicate what the argument is.

Step 2: State your response

Your response can fall into one of the following categories:

• counter-claiming (worst)

• nit-picking (sometimes called "pimping") the argument (bad)

• mitigating the argument (ok)

• taking out the argument (good)

• turning the argument (best)

Step 3: Relate the response to the criterion

After you are finished making responses to your opponent’s argument, you should relate your arguments to the criterion.

When impacting defensive answers, you will always be suggesting that the debater cannot achieve their criterion.

When impacting offensive answers, you will always be suggesting that you achieve their criterion better than they can.

Because the criterion is the tool that debaters use to evaluate an argument’s significance to the debate, you will want to explain how your response connects with the criterion.

Step 4: Repeat the process for each subsequent argument