What is the job of an extension?
An extension marks the contributions made by closing – it is meant to be a unique addition to the debate that markedly improves government’s or opp’s case. The most important thing about extensions is that they are something new.
What can an extension be?
The World Uni Debating Competition Handbook (the rulebook for all BP debates) gives a long list of things that can be extensions:
- new arguments which have not yet been made in the debate
- new rebuttals to material raised by the other side
- new examples or case studies
- new characterisations
- new framing
- new analysis or explanation of existing arguments (including, but not limited to: new mechanisms, new characterisations etc)
- new applications of existing argumentation (e.g., if the Member points out that one of their opening half’s arguments is able to defeat a new argument from the other side), and
- new criteria for judging
An extension cannot contradict its opening – that is called knifing, and it’s not allowed in BP. You have to agree with what your opening says and simply do a better job than they do.
That list shows that coming up with new extensions doesn’t have to be hard! What is (only slightly) harder is coming up with extensions that win debates. An extension wins a debate when its contribution is more significant than what is given at opening. That can look like:
- Closing extension is being better proven.
- Closing extension dealing with opposition’s case better
- Closing extension providing the most significant benefits/harms
- Closing extension providing the best framing.
In short, it has to do something better than your opening. But how do you come up with that? Broadly, there are 3 ways.
Extending in
This refers to any extension that is building on what your opening has already said. The goal of extending in is to do what your opening did but do it even better. That might mean:
- proving any claims they failed to prove
- weighing their impacts
- explaining the connection of principles or‘activating’ it with the right framing.
When you’re listening to your opening, always ask the following questions:
- Have they proven every claim they’re making?
- Have they weighed their material?
- What could they do to improve that claim?
- What is missing from their argument?
The main thing to focus on when extending in is to define how your contribution is new and unique. Tell the adjudicator directly what opening hasn’t done. E.g.
“Our opening gave you an incredibly long list of harms that this policy creates. However, they don’t weigh these claims against opp. My first extensive contribution will be to explain why these claims beat our opposition.”
“Our opening responded to opposition’s claim about the principle in this debate. But at the end of opening bench, the principle still stood in a number of situations. Our contribution will be extending in on this rebuttal and explaining why it applies universally.”
Extending out
Extending out refers to offering entirely new contributions. That may be unheard responses, new stakeholders, new framing, etc. It’s not sufficient to simply give something new; to win by extending, you need to explain why that contribution is more important than your opening.
Eg, “Opening failed to address how this debate affects people in regional areas. These people are the most vulnerable in this debate, because regional areas are already struggling with issues like affordability, healthcare access etc… because our extension touches on the most vulnerable people on this debate, it clearly weighs higher than their material on metropolitan areas.”
Putting it all together: The how-to.
This section outlines how to put it all together and ensure you can fulfil your job as closing. I call it the closing checklist. Here’s how it works:
- In prep, write as many arguments as you can possibly think of in a big list.
- Leave a bit of space between each argument – and include a dot point for ‘mechanised’ and ‘weighed’
- Choose a few arguments that you think won’t be brought up by your opening and flesh them out.
- During the debate, when opening introduces an argument, cross it out. But pay attention to how they run the argument – if they fail to mechanise or weigh a claim, that is your opportunity to step in and fix their material.
- Also, during the debate, listen out for your opposition’s claims and track how your opening responds. If they fail to address a significant point or give a response that’s lacklustre, also write that down in your extension.
- Before your speech, find the best combination of extending in and extending out to use for your extensions. But remember, 1-2 strong extensions are way more than enough and 1 good extension is better than 4 bad extensions stuck together.
