In my experience &quot;formal debate&quot; (in the vein of forensics competitions, etc) is essentially heavy &quot;research&quot; in which you cherry pick any study or paper or blog you can find that supports your position and then spit out all those citiations as quickly as possible in an 8 minute &#x27;speech&#x27; -- there&#x27;s very little debating or discussion going on, just a war of citations which quickly shows all the participants that citations mean nothing  -- no matter your view you can find plenty of &quot;evidence&quot; for it, it&#x27;s an even playing field whether you&#x27;re affirmative or negative after all.<p>So all in all like the real debate we see on television I suppose.