A similar form is shown in the brief on inter-and intra-high-school contests in refuting the experience of Shortridge High School.

In all refutation, keep close to the fundamental principles of the question.  Do not be led astray into minute details upon which you differ.  Never tire of recalling attention to the issues of the question.  Show why those are the issues, and you will see that the strongest refutation almost always consists in pointing out wherein you have proved these issues, while your opponents have failed to do so.

In order to be fully prepared, however, it is a good plan to put upon cards all the points that your opponents may use and that you have not answered in your constructive argument.  Adopt a method similar to this: 

Shortridge argument

  I. Will not apply for: 
   (1) Not this plan.
   (2) Conditions differ, for: 
     a) School Review, October, 1911.

Then if your opponents advance arguments that are not met in your speech, merely lay out these cards while they speak, and use them as references in your refutation.

The closing rebuttal speech is always a critical one.  Here the speaker should again point out every mistake which his opponents have made.  If their interpretation of the question has been wrong, he should, while avoiding details, emphasize the chief flaws in their arguments.  On the other hand, he should summarize the argument of his own side from beginning to end; he should make the support of each of the issues stand clearly before the judges in its complete, logical form.

In these closing speeches, as in the opening of the debate, much may be gained by an attitude which will win the favor of the hearers toward the speaker and his ideas.  An attitude of petty criticism, of narrowness of view, is undesirable at any stage of the debate.  The debater who is inclined to belittle his opponents will only belittle himself.  To the judges it will appear that the speaker who has time to ridicule his adversaries must be a little short of arguments.  Insinuations of dishonesty and attempts to be sarcastic should be carefully avoided.  These weapons are sharp but they are two-edged and are more likely to injure the speaker than his opponent.

The right attitude for a debater is always one of fairness.  Give your opponents all possible credit.  When you have then refuted their arguments, your own contentions seem of double strength.  It is said that Lincoln used this method with splendid effect:  He would often restate the argument of his opponent with great force and clearness; he would make it seem irrefutable.  Then, when he began his attack and caused his opponent’s argument to collapse, its fall seemed to be utter and complete, while his arguments, which had proved themselves capable of effecting this destruction, appeared all the more powerful.