Move one: say where you are
"On their first contention, the electricity-price argument." The judge is taking notes in columns and needs to know which row you are on. Skipping this step is the most common reason a good response never makes it onto the judge's flow, which means it never happened.
Move two: make a response that does damage
There are only a few kinds of response, and it helps to know which one you are making:
- The evidence does not say that. The strongest response when it is true. Read the part of their source they left out.
- The link is broken. Their argument requires a chain of events. Name the step that does not follow.
- The impact is overstated. Their harm is real but smaller, less likely, or slower than they claimed.
- It cuts our way. A turn: their own argument supports your side. "Data centers fund the grid upgrades the Pro says we need."
- Even if true, it does not matter. Under the framework or weighing you have established, the argument is irrelevant.
A response that is merely a counter-assertion ("that is not true") does nothing. A response that names the flaw in their reasoning or evidence does damage the other side has to repair.
Move three: say what it means
"So the price increase they describe has no evidence behind it in any state that actually has data centers." Judges do not draw conclusions for you. After every response, one sentence: what has happened to their argument now that you have answered it?
Move four: weigh, if anything survives
Often your response will not fully eliminate an argument. It will weaken it. The last move is to compare what is left of their argument to your own: "Even if some of their price impact survives, it is smaller and slower than the competitiveness harm we have shown, and nothing they said touches that." Weighing is what turns a partially answered argument into a won one.
Putting it together
"On their first contention, the price argument. Their evidence projects prices in 2035 using a model, not observed data. Their own source admits the projection assumes no new generation is built, which is not what is happening. So the impact is speculative. And even if you grant some of it, a slow, correctable price change does not outweigh the certain loss of computing capacity we described in our first contention."
Four moves, about eighty words, and the argument is in serious trouble. Do that on every argument that matters and skip the ones that do not. Rebuttal time is short; spend it where the round will be decided.
Format-specific guides: Lincoln-Douglas rebuttal strategy and Summary and final focus in Public Forum.
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