My preferences for a debate include:

1. To win you need to tell me why your points are stronger than your opponents and why your oppents points are either dropped or flow to your side in the debate.
2. You need to respect your opponents and me. At any point, if you disrespect either your opponents or me I will dock speaker points.
3. Speaking fast is okay as long as you are coherent and you put emphasis on the main points and signpost throughout the debate.
4. If you are reading or answering a question once the time is up, you may finish your sentence.
5. I am a current debater so you use debate terms with me.
6. Make use of your prep time. Use it before crossfire if you need to think of questions, use it before your speech even if you feel it is well-written use it to organize your speech.
7. Your arguments won't be weighed as heavily if you do not use sources to back up your claim.
8. If you don't attack one of your opponent's contentions it will hold a lot of weight especially if your opinion backs it up throughout the whole debate as you tacitly agreed to the argument.
9. You and your partner need to work together. If one of you talks solely on one topic and the other talks on another topic your points won't flow as well as they could because Public Forum is a team effort.
10. Just a reminder do not bring in new arguments in Final Focus as they won't be weighed.
11. Finally, be confident!

Good Luck!