Drop (policy debate)
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| Part of the series Policy Debate |
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| Organization | |
| Policy debate competitions |
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| Format | |
| Structure of policy debate · Resolution |
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| Participants | |
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Affirmative · Negative · Judge |
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| Types of Arguments | |
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Stock Issues · Case· Disadvantage |
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| Argumentative Concepts | |
In policy debate, a drop refers to an argument which was not answered by the opposing team. Normally, a "dropped" or conceded argument is considered "true" for the purposes of evaluating a debate.
"Silence is consent." Debaters tend to use this as a general rule while evaluating a debate round. If you say nothing against an argument, then because silence is consent, they must agree to whatever the argument was.
An argument is normally considered dropped if it is not answered in the speech in which the opposing team has the first opportunity to answer it.
Many debaters refer to dropped arguments as "conceded" or "unanswered."
Some judges will not evaluate some arguments, even when they are dropped, such as arguments labeled "voting issues" but which are unsupported by warrants. For example, "the sky is blue, vote affirmative" is an argument that most judges would believe does not need to be answered.
