Sterling Debate & Forensics Lincoln Douglas Debate (LD)

One person policy debate which examines the benefits versus the harms of a proposed government action. NFA LD was created in 1991 and is closer to high school policy debate and college CETA/NDT debate than to either high school LD or Parliamentary Debate. The primary differences, besides a one vs one person format, are a more conversational speaking style, shorter and fewer speeches, and a lower volume of evidence.

The commonly accepted common time structure is as follows:

  • Affirmative Constructive (AC) - 6 minutes
  • Cross-examination of Affirmative speaker by the Negative - 3 minutes
  • Negative Constructive and 1st Negative Rebuttal (NC and 1NR) - 7 minutes
  • Cross-examination of Negative speaker by the Affirmative - 3 minutes
  • 1st Affirmative Rebuttal (1AR) - 4 minutes
  • 2nd Negative Rebuttal (2NR) - 6 minutes
  • 2nd Affirmative Rebuttal (2AR) - 3 minutes
Note that the total time for speeches is divided equally between the debaters, but unevenly among the speeches in order to compensate for one side having the first and last word.