Contradiction

Teams must not contradict themselves or their partners. Besides being unpersuasive, inconsistency is unfair, since a debater cannot reasonably answer two contradicting lines of argument.

• A contradiction is: explicitly taking a position opposite to one your side already made, or advancing claims mutually exclusive with those of your partner or earlier in your own speech.
• It is not: a clearly pre-argumentative or mistaken statement. A clear mis-speak that is corrected does not discount the rest of the speech.
• Effect: a team is credited only for the first claim. Later contradicting claims are not credited, though judges may consider how the contradiction weakened the first claim. Judges do not credit the opposition unless they point out the contradiction.
• Responding: opponents should engage with the first claim as the team's line of argument, and may use the later claim to weaken it.
• Between Opening and Closing (BP): see Knifing.