A debate motion is the statement a round argues about, phrased so that both sides can win. A good motion is specific enough to produce a clear clash and open enough that a judge would be happy to be assigned either side. Motions are written as This House would… in British Parliamentary and World Schools, and as Resolved:… in Lincoln-Douglas, Public Forum and Policy.
Showing 1–10 of 60 motions
Write debate motions balanced enough that either side could win.
A motion is a piece of design. It sets what both teams will argue about, and a badly built one produces a bad round no matter how good the debaters are — usually a definitional fight, or a walkover where one side had nothing to defend.
| Quality | What it means | It fails when |
|---|---|---|
| Balanced | Either side could win in front of a fair judge | One side has to defend the indefensible |
| Debatable | The clash is obvious before prep starts | Both teams end up arguing the same thing |
| Tight | No room for a definition fight | Teams spend half the round on what a word means |
| Specific | Names an actor and an action | "This House supports freedom" — nobody opposes it |
| Fresh | Not a motion everyone has already prepped | Pre-written cases beat thinking on the day |
The hardest of the five is balance, and the usual failure is invisible to the person writing it: you tend to write motions where your own side's case is the one you can see.
| Format | Stem | Example |
|---|---|---|
| British Parliamentary | This House would… | This House would ban political advertising on social media |
| World Schools | This House believes that… | This House believes that developing nations should prioritise industrialisation over environmental protection |
| Lincoln-Douglas | Resolved:… (value-based) | Resolved: Civil disobedience in a democracy is morally justified |
| Public Forum | Resolved:… (policy or fact) | Resolved: The United States should adopt a four-day work week |
| Policy | Resolved: The United States federal government should… | Resolved: The United States federal government should substantially increase its investment in public transit infrastructure |
This House would proposes an action. This House believes that proposes a position. The difference matters: a would motion puts the burden of a workable policy on proposition, while a believes that motion is a clash of principle and needs no plan.
Start from a topic, not a motion. Pick an area you want to debate, then find the disagreement inside it.
Write the clash before the wording. Say in one sentence what each side would argue. If you can only see one side's case, the motion isn't balanced yet.
Phrase it for your format. Use the stem your format expects, and name an actor and an action.
Check it against the bank. If it already exists, either sharpen it into something new or practise on the original.
Motions written in the drill can be submitted to the public bank. Approved motions appear here with your name on them and become available in every other drill's motion picker.
This is how the bank grows and how it stays current — motions written by people actually competing this season beat any static list. Every submission is reviewed before it goes live.
Every drill can be submitted to a coach from the marketplace for a flat 5 credits. You get scores against four criteria and written feedback on each one — not a grade, but the specific thing to change next time. Coaches set their own rates for live sessions; drill evaluations are the same price from everyone.
Find a debate coachThe statement a debate round argues about, phrased so both sides can win. It is also called a resolution or a topic depending on format. A good motion produces a clear disagreement without forcing either side to defend something indefensible.
The same thing under different names. British Parliamentary and World Schools say "motion" and phrase it This House would…. Lincoln-Douglas, Public Forum and Policy say "resolution" and phrase it Resolved:…. The function is identical.
Write the clash before the wording. Sketch the strongest case for each side in one sentence. If you can only see how one side wins, the motion is not balanced yet — narrow it, or move the line it draws.
Usually that one side has to defend something no reasonable person would, or that the wording hides a definitional trap. "This House supports freedom" is unfair in the other direction: nobody opposes it, so there is nothing to debate.
A policy motion proposes an action and puts the burden of a workable plan on proposition — This House would…. A value motion proposes a principle and needs no plan — This House believes that…. Lincoln-Douglas is typically value-based; Policy is always policy-based.
Use Resolved: followed by a value claim rather than a plan — for example, Resolved: Civil disobedience in a democracy is morally justified. LD rounds argue about principles and competing values, so the motion should name a principle, not an action.
Use This House would for an action or This House believes that for a principle. BP motions usually name an actor and a specific action, and avoid anything requiring specialist knowledge, since teams get only fifteen minutes of prep.
The motion bank on this page, filterable by topic and format. Every motion includes a sketch of both sides' strongest case, so you can see the clash before you start. You can also generate your own with the Motion Generation Drill.
Yes. Motions written in the drill can be submitted to the public bank. Approved ones appear here credited to you by name and become available in every other drill's motion picker. All submissions are reviewed first.
60 motions across 20 topics and five competitive formats, written by debaters and reviewed before publication. The bank grows every week as new motions are submitted and approved.