About Debate: Matter

Matter is the content of the speech. It can be contrasted with the presentation style of the seech (manner) and the structure of the speech (method).

Matter includes arguments, evidance presenteed to support those arguments, examples and analysis. Matter includes substantive matter, rebuttal and points of information. In deabtes in which points of information are used, both the content of the question and the content of the answer are considered matter.

The elements of matter are:

• logic

An argument is logical if its conclusion follows from the premise. It does not necessarily mean that the premise must be capable of being proved absolutely. While that may be the goal of philosophers, it would certainly bring an early end to the debate. Instead, debaters tend to grapple with issues that are capable in absolute proof and their cases consist of the gradual accumulation of arguments tending towards one conclusion. 

• relevance

An argument is relevance if it is likely to add weight to the overall preposition that the team is trying to prove. The preposition in turn must be relevance to the issues in contention in the debate. Relevance is especially important in debaters given the short period of time available to each speakers - there is no time for irrelevance.