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Introduction to Policy Debate

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Do not answer your own affirmative harm claim.  When you are answering the impact to the disadvantage do not take-out your own affirmative harm/impact claims.  For example, if you have an “economy decline causes war” impact in your 1AC, and the negative reads an economy impact, you will not want to argue that economic decline does not cause war.  You certainly don’t want to present an impact turn against your original 1AC impact!

Do not double-turn yourself.  A double-turn occurs when you make both a link turn and an impact turn.  For example, you could argue that you both save the economy and that economic growth is bad.  If you do this, you will essentially presenting a disadvantage against yourself – you are arguing that you strengthen the economy and that that is bad.

You can also double-turn yourself by turning both the internal link and either the link or the impact.  For example, if you argue that the affirmative plan saves money, and that a recession will stop a depression, you are essentially arguing that you stop a recession and a recession is good. Similarly, if you argue that you stop a depression by causing a recession and that a depression is good, you are essentially arguing that you stop a good economic depression. 

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