Rebuttals are the hardest parts of a debate - the hardest part to perform, and the hardest to listen to.

Opening and closing statements are basically pre-written, and in them, one talks about what one wants to talk about.

In a rebuttal, you are forced to think on your feet, on the spot, and find a way to knock down the arguments your opponent has just given in his opening statement - which you may have just heard for the first time. The best debaters scour heaven and earth to find everything the opponent's ever said, so as to anticipate the opening statement, and pre-prepare for the rebuttal.

Here's the best way you, the thinking person in the audience, can critically listen to this part.

* First, print my summary of the opening arguments. (See something missing or wrong? Add it, or correct it. Click once on the big image to remove it before printing.)

* Now, as you hear each rebuttal - first Rogers, then Lewis - mark the premises of their opponent's argument which they are either denying (so, asserting to be false) or challenging (so, asserting as unknown or unproven).

* Having done that, try to list their reason(s) for challenging each premise.

If they give convincing reasons to doubt or deny at least one premise in each of their opponents' argument, they've done their job. If they've only repeated their opening arguments, or talked about irrelevant things, they've failed.

How, in your view, do our debaters do here?

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