Debate motion generator
Draw a practice motion, or three for a veto drill, from 300 original motions across twelve topics. Filter by difficulty and motion type, and switch between "This House" wording for BP and World Schools and "Resolved" wording for US formats.
Where can I get random debate motions for practice?
Draw them here. The generator picks one motion, or three for a veto drill, from 300 original practice motions written for this site, filtered by topic, difficulty and motion type, in This House or Resolved wording. It is free, needs no account, and lists every motion by topic further down the page.
300 motions match
Press Draw one motion to get a motion, or Draw three for a veto drill.
Using the generator
- Leave the filters empty to draw from everything, or pick topics, a difficulty and a motion type. You can choose several of each.
- Press Draw one motion for a single round, or Draw three for a motion choice.
- Copy the motion into your round document, or copy its link to send the same motion to your team.
The filters stay in the page address, so a coach can bookmark "novice education policy motions" and reuse it every week.
Reading a motion before you prep
Spend the first minute of prep on the motion itself. Who is the actor, and what are they being asked to do or believe? A policy motion ("This House would make voting compulsory") puts the burden on the Government to show the change is worth its costs. A value motion ("This House believes that inheritance is unfair") is won on principle and comparison, not on a mechanism. A regret motion asks you to imagine the world without the thing, and a prefer motion asks you to compare two worlds, both of which have to be described fairly.
Actor motions are the ones most often misread. "This House, as an environmental group, would use disruptive protests" is not a debate about whether protest is good for society; it is about whether it serves that group's goals. The motion analysis guide walks through more examples.
Drills that use the generator
Motion choice and veto
Draw three motions. Give each team two minutes to rank them privately, then let each side strike one. Debate the motion left over. The drill teaches teams to judge quickly which motions favour them, a skill that matters in any format with a motion choice.
Fifteen-minute impromptu
Filter to novice or intermediate, draw one motion, and start the debate timer on a 15-minute custom prep period, the same preparation time British Parliamentary teams get. Speeches follow straight after.
Same motion, both sides
Draw one advanced motion and have every debater write the best opening for both sides before anyone speaks. If one side feels impossible, you have found the clash: that is where the round will be decided.
Wording swap
Switch a motion to its Resolved form and compare. "This House regrets the rise of dating apps" and "Resolved: The rise of dating apps has done more harm than good" ask almost the same question, but the second makes the harm-benefit weighing explicit. Debaters moving between US and parliamentary formats should practise reading both.
All 300 practice motions by topic
Browse the whole bank instead of drawing at random. Each topic runs from novice motions, which work with no preparation, to advanced ones that reward reading around the subject.
Education (25)
- This House would replace homework with extra reading time at schoolnovice, policy
- This House would let students grade their teachers at the end of every termnovice, policy
- This House believes that school trips teach students as much as classroom lessonsnovice, value
- This House, as a school principal, would let students choose where they sit in every classnovice, actor
- This House regrets the tradition of end-of-year awards ceremonies in schoolsnovice, regret
- This House would make students lock their phones in sealed pouches for the whole school daynovice, policy
- This House would make cooking a required subject in every secondary schoolnovice, policy
- This House prefers a four-day school week with longer days to a five-day week with shorter daysnovice, prefer
- This House would replace letter grades with written feedback for all students under 16intermediate, policy
- This House would require every student to complete a work placement before leaving secondary schoolintermediate, policy
- This House believes that financial literacy matters more than algebra for most studentsintermediate, value
- This House believes that schools should stay neutral on contested political issuesintermediate, value
- This House, as a selective university, would admit students by lottery from among all qualified applicantsintermediate, actor
- This House regrets school apps that show parents every grade the moment it is enteredintermediate, regret
- This House would pay students a small weekly sum for full attendanceintermediate, policy
- This House prefers mixed-ability classes to classes sorted by abilityintermediate, prefer
- This House would replace university tuition fees with a graduate taxintermediate, policy
- This House would require elite universities to reserve half their places for applicants from the lowest-performing schoolsadvanced, policy
- This House believes that the main purpose of education is to make good citizens rather than skilled workersadvanced, value
- This House, as a national education ministry, would fund schools by how much their pupils improve rather than by how many pupils they haveadvanced, actor
- This House regrets the global spread of university rankingsadvanced, regret
- This House believes that parents should be able to withdraw their children from any lesson that conflicts with their valuesadvanced, value
- This House believes that private schools are incompatible with a fair societyadvanced, value
- This House, as a teachers' union, would accept performance-related pay in exchange for higher base salariesadvanced, actor
- This House would scrap high-stakes final exams at 18 in favor of assessment by students' own teachersadvanced, policy
Technology and AI (25)
- This House would require every app to show users how many hours they spent on it each weeknovice, policy
- This House would keep smart speakers out of children's bedroomsnovice, policy
- This House believes that AI chatbots should always tell people they are not humannovice, value
- This House, as a parent, would track their teenager's location through their phonenovice, actor
- This House prefers learning from a human tutor to learning from an AI tutornovice, prefer
- This House would allow delivery robots on city sidewalksnovice, policy
- This House believes that it is wrong to use AI to write a personal message like a birthday cardnovice, value
- This House would require every new phone to be repairable at home with ordinary toolsnovice, policy
- This House would require all AI-generated images to carry a visible labelintermediate, policy
- This House would ban shops from using facial recognition to identify customersintermediate, policy
- This House believes that tech companies should be legally responsible for harm caused by their recommendation algorithmsintermediate, value
- This House, as a leading AI company, would delay every new model until independent safety testers approve itintermediate, actor
- This House regrets the replacement of human customer service staff with chatbotsintermediate, regret
- This House would give people legal ownership of their personal data, including the right to sell itintermediate, policy
- This House prefers an internet where people post under their real names to one where they can stay anonymousintermediate, prefer
- This House would tax companies for every job they replace with automationintermediate, policy
- This House believes that AI should never be used to grade student essaysintermediate, value
- This House would grant advanced AI systems legal personhood for the purposes of liabilityadvanced, policy
- This House believes that end-to-end encryption should be protected even when it shields criminalsadvanced, value
- This House, as a national government, would build its own public AI model rather than rely on private companiesadvanced, actor
- This House regrets the concentration of cutting-edge AI development in a handful of private companiesadvanced, regret
- This House would require AI models trained on publicly available data to be released as open sourceadvanced, policy
- This House believes that humanity should deliberately slow down the development of advanced AIadvanced, value
- This House, as a space agency, would prioritize robotic missions over sending humans to Marsadvanced, actor
- This House prefers AI that only advises human decision-makers to AI that makes high-stakes decisions on its ownadvanced, prefer
Environment (25)
- This House would put a refundable deposit on every drink can and bottlenovice, policy
- This House would close the streets outside schools to cars at drop-off and pick-up timesnovice, policy
- This House believes that grass lawns are a waste of spacenovice, value
- This House, as a city mayor, would turn half of the city's parking spaces into parksnovice, actor
- This House regrets the rise of ultra-cheap clothing sold onlinenovice, regret
- This House would charge households for trash collection by the weight of what they throw awaynovice, policy
- This House believes that keeping pets is bad for the planetnovice, value
- This House prefers buying local food to buying the cheapest food availablenovice, prefer
- This House would tax meat according to its carbon footprintintermediate, policy
- This House would ban flights on routes where the same trip takes under five hours by trainintermediate, policy
- This House believes that nuclear power is essential to fighting climate changeintermediate, value
- This House, as an environmental group, would use disruptive protests such as blocking roadsintermediate, actor
- This House regrets the rise of carbon offsettingintermediate, regret
- This House would let citizens sue their government for missing its own climate targetsintermediate, policy
- This House would require solar panels on every new homeintermediate, policy
- This House believes that pressure on individuals to live green distracts from holding big polluters to accountintermediate, value
- This House would pay farmers to rewild a fifth of their landintermediate, policy
- This House would impose a carbon border tax on imported goodsadvanced, policy
- This House believes that rich countries should pursue degrowthadvanced, value
- This House, as a developing country, would refuse further emissions cuts until wealthy countries pay climate compensationadvanced, actor
- This House regrets the framing of climate change as an emergencyadvanced, regret
- This House would fund large-scale trials of solar geoengineeringadvanced, policy
- This House believes that the interests of future generations should count as much as those of people alive todayadvanced, value
- This House, as a major oil-producing country, would leave its reserves in the ground in exchange for international paymentsadvanced, actor
- This House prefers protecting a few large wilderness areas to protecting many small green spaces near where people liveadvanced, prefer
Economics (25)
- This House would let children under 16 earn money from part-time jobs only with school approvalnovice, policy
- This House would require supermarkets to give unsold food to charities instead of throwing it awaynovice, policy
- This House believes that children should earn their allowance by doing choresnovice, value
- This House, as a small business owner, would pay all staff the same wage regardless of their rolenovice, actor
- This House prefers a world where people mostly pay with cash to one where people mostly pay by card or phonenovice, prefer
- This House would ban buy-now-pay-later offers for shoppers under 21novice, policy
- This House believes that tipping in restaurants should be replaced by higher wagesnovice, value
- This House regrets the rise of subscriptions for things people used to buy oncenovice, regret
- This House would introduce a four-day working week with no cut in payintermediate, policy
- This House would require app-based delivery and ride companies to treat their drivers as employeesintermediate, policy
- This House believes that inheritance is unfairintermediate, value
- This House, as a city council, would cap rent increases on all private housingintermediate, actor
- This House would tax large online retailers to fund struggling local shopping streetsintermediate, policy
- This House would cap the pay of company bosses at twenty times that of their lowest-paid workerintermediate, policy
- This House prefers a society that taxes wealth to one that taxes incomeintermediate, prefer
- This House would give every citizen a lump sum of money on their 18th birthdayintermediate, policy
- This House believes that billionaires are a sign of a failing economyintermediate, value
- This House would replace property taxes with a tax on the value of land aloneadvanced, policy
- This House would give workers half of the seats on the boards of large companiesadvanced, policy
- This House, as a central bank, would launch a digital currency that citizens hold directly with itadvanced, actor
- This House regrets the independence of central banks from elected governmentsadvanced, regret
- This House believes that economic growth should no longer be the main goal of government policyadvanced, value
- This House, as a developing country, would protect its young industries with high tariffsadvanced, actor
- This House believes that companies should serve all their stakeholders, not just their shareholdersadvanced, value
- This House prefers a jobs guarantee to unconditional cash paymentsadvanced, prefer
Politics and democracy (25)
- This House would let 16-year-olds vote in local elections but not national onesnovice, policy
- This House would make election day a public holidaynovice, policy
- This House believes that politicians should be required to have had a job outside politicsnovice, value
- This House, as a student council, would hold a whole-school vote before every major decisionnovice, actor
- This House regrets the use of attack ads in election campaignsnovice, regret
- This House would let people vote from their phonesnovice, policy
- This House believes that no politician should serve more than two terms in the same officenovice, value
- This House prefers leaders chosen for their experience to leaders chosen for their fresh ideasnovice, prefer
- This House would make voting compulsoryintermediate, policy
- This House would let citizens recall their elected representatives through a petitionintermediate, policy
- This House believes that referendums do more to damage democracy than strengthen itintermediate, value
- This House, as a newly elected mayor, would let residents decide directly how a tenth of the city budget is spentintermediate, actor
- This House regrets the rise of celebrity politiciansintermediate, regret
- This House would ban private donations to political parties and fund them from public moneyintermediate, policy
- This House would set aside seats in parliament for representatives under 30intermediate, policy
- This House believes that politicians should vote according to their conscience rather than what their voters wantintermediate, value
- This House prefers coalition governments to single-party governmentsintermediate, prefer
- This House would replace an elected upper chamber with an assembly of randomly selected citizensadvanced, policy
- This House believes that democracy is best protected by limiting what a simple majority can changeadvanced, value
- This House, as an opposition party, would cooperate with the government on major national issues rather than oppose itadvanced, actor
- This House regrets the rise of single-issue political movementsadvanced, regret
- This House would give parents an extra vote for each child below voting ageadvanced, policy
- This House believes that the state should actively promote a shared national identityadvanced, value
- This House, as a regional government seeking independence, would hold a referendum without the national government's consentadvanced, actor
- This House would let independent experts, not elected ministers, set national budget targetsadvanced, policy
Health (25)
- This House would ban energy drinks for anyone under 16novice, policy
- This House would start the school day no earlier than 9:30 to let teenagers sleepnovice, policy
- This House believes that fitness trackers do more to stress people than to help themnovice, value
- This House, as a school cafeteria, would serve only vegetarian meals one week in every monthnovice, actor
- This House prefers team sports to individual exercise as the main part of school PEnovice, prefer
- This House would put warning labels on sugary snacks like those on cigarettesnovice, policy
- This House would give every student a mental health day off each termnovice, policy
- This House believes that influencers who give diet advice should be held to the same standards as qualified nutritionistsnovice, value
- This House would make organ donation opt-out rather than opt-inintermediate, policy
- This House would ban advertising of junk food anywhere children are likely to see itintermediate, policy
- This House believes that people who choose unhealthy lifestyles should pay more for their healthcareintermediate, value
- This House, as a large employer, would offer staff cash rewards for meeting health goalsintermediate, actor
- This House regrets the use of AI symptom checkers in place of a first visit to a doctorintermediate, regret
- This House would raise the legal age for buying tobacco by one year every yearintermediate, policy
- This House prefers spending health budgets on prevention to spending them on treatmentintermediate, prefer
- This House would let pharmacists prescribe common medicines without a doctor's appointmentintermediate, policy
- This House believes that wellness culture does more harm than good to young peopleintermediate, value
- This House would let governments override drug patents during public health emergenciesadvanced, policy
- This House would pay people to donate a kidney through a regulated public schemeadvanced, policy
- This House, as a public health system, would ration expensive treatments using cost-per-year-of-life thresholdsadvanced, actor
- This House regrets the medicalization of ordinary sadnessadvanced, regret
- This House believes that individual liberty should give way to public health in a pandemicadvanced, value
- This House believes that doctors should be free to refuse treatments that conflict with their personal beliefsadvanced, value
- This House, as a pharmaceutical company, would price medicines according to each country's wealthadvanced, actor
- This House prefers a single public health system to a system of competing private insurersadvanced, prefer
Sport (25)
- This House would stop keeping score in sports matches for children under 10novice, policy
- This House would let girls and boys play on the same school sports teamsnovice, policy
- This House believes that esports should count as real sportsnovice, value
- This House, as a youth sports coach, would give every player equal playing timenovice, actor
- This House regrets the use of video replay to review referee decisionsnovice, regret
- This House would ban parents from shouting at youth sports gamesnovice, policy
- This House believes that winning matters too much in school sportnovice, value
- This House prefers watching sport in person to watching it on screennovice, prefer
- This House would cap the amount any club can spend on player wagesintermediate, policy
- This House would ban heading the ball in youth soccerintermediate, policy
- This House believes that athletes have a duty to speak out on social issuesintermediate, value
- This House, as a professional sports club, would hand majority ownership to its fansintermediate, actor
- This House regrets the rise of sports betting advertisingintermediate, regret
- This House would require professional leagues to share television money equally between all their clubsintermediate, policy
- This House would require that major sporting events be shown on free-to-air televisionintermediate, policy
- This House believes that governments should not spend public money on stadiums for professional teamsintermediate, value
- This House prefers sports leagues with promotion and relegation to closed leagues with fixed membersintermediate, prefer
- This House would allow performance-enhancing drugs in professional sport under medical supervisionadvanced, policy
- This House believes that it is legitimate for athletes to switch national teams for better opportunitiesadvanced, value
- This House, as the International Olympic Committee, would hold every Summer Games in one permanent host cityadvanced, actor
- This House regrets the use of data analytics to make decisions in professional sportadvanced, regret
- This House would allow athletes with prosthetic or technological enhancements to compete against everyone elseadvanced, policy
- This House believes that hosting a major sporting event is rarely worth the cost to a countryadvanced, value
- This House, as a national sports body, would fund only sports where the country can win medalsadvanced, actor
- This House would require sports governing bodies to be overseen by an independent public regulatoradvanced, policy
Culture and media (25)
- This House would make museums free for everyonenovice, policy
- This House would require radio stations to play a set share of music by local artistsnovice, policy
- This House believes that film adaptations should stay faithful to the books they are based onnovice, value
- This House, as a film studio, would stop making sequels and remakes for five yearsnovice, actor
- This House prefers music played by live musicians to music made with computersnovice, prefer
- This House would let street artists paint legally on chosen public wallsnovice, policy
- This House believes that video games are a form of artnovice, value
- This House regrets the rise of short-form videonovice, regret
- This House would return cultural artifacts in museums to the countries they were taken fromintermediate, policy
- This House would ban AI-generated art from art competitionsintermediate, policy
- This House believes that an artist's personal conduct should not affect how their work is judgedintermediate, value
- This House, as a streaming service, would show fewer recommendations and let users browse moreintermediate, actor
- This House would ban children from appearing in money-making family vlogsintermediate, policy
- This House would publicly fund artists with a basic monthly wageintermediate, policy
- This House prefers a culture of owning books, music, and films to one of streaming themintermediate, prefer
- This House would edit old children's books to remove outdated languageintermediate, policy
- This House believes that celebrities should keep their opinions on politics to themselvesintermediate, value
- This House would shorten copyright so that creative works enter the public domain ten years after releaseadvanced, policy
- This House believes that cultural appropriation is a meaningful harmadvanced, value
- This House, as a minority-language community, would require its children to be schooled only in that language until age 11advanced, actor
- This House regrets the dominance of English as the global language of cultureadvanced, regret
- This House would let AI companies train on copyrighted works only with the creators' permissionadvanced, policy
- This House believes that state funding for the arts should favor popular work over critically acclaimed workadvanced, value
- This House, as a national broadcaster, would stop chasing ratings and make only programs commercial channels will notadvanced, actor
- This House prefers a world where heritage buildings can be freely redeveloped to one where they are strictly preservedadvanced, prefer
Ethics (25)
- This House would always tell a friend the truth about their bad haircutnovice, policy
- This House would ban posting photos of strangers online without their permissionnovice, policy
- This House believes that it is sometimes right to break a promisenovice, value
- This House, as a student who sees a friend cheating on a test, would report it to the teachernovice, actor
- This House regrets the culture of posting every good deed onlinenovice, regret
- This House would require everyone to do a year of community service after leaving schoolnovice, policy
- This House believes that zoos do more good than harm for animalsnovice, value
- This House prefers being liked to being respectednovice, prefer
- This House would make it a legal duty to help a stranger in danger when it is safe to do sointermediate, policy
- This House would ban the breeding of animals purely for their looksintermediate, policy
- This House believes that people have a moral duty to give a tenth of their income to effective charitiesintermediate, value
- This House, as a whistleblower at a tech company, would leak evidence of wrongdoing to the press rather than report it internallyintermediate, actor
- This House regrets the rise of public shaming on the internetintermediate, regret
- This House would let parents choose the genes of their children to prevent serious diseaseintermediate, policy
- This House would ban products made using animal testingintermediate, policy
- This House believes that a good intention can excuse a bad outcomeintermediate, value
- This House prefers a society that rewards effort to one that rewards resultsintermediate, prefer
- This House would give legal rights to rivers, forests, and other natural featuresadvanced, policy
- This House believes that we have stronger moral duties to people near us than to strangers far awayadvanced, value
- This House, as a self-driving car maker, would program cars to protect pedestrians over passengersadvanced, actor
- This House regrets the trend of judging historical figures by today's moral standardsadvanced, regret
- This House would grow meat in laboratories and phase out farming animals for foodadvanced, policy
- This House believes that people are morally responsible for the actions of the companies they invest inadvanced, value
- This House, as a charity, would accept large donations from companies with harmful recordsadvanced, actor
- This House would ban AI chatbots that imitate dead loved onesadvanced, policy
International relations (25)
- This House would make learning a second language compulsory from the first year of schoolnovice, policy
- This House would let anyone travel to any country without a visa for holidays of up to 30 daysnovice, policy
- This House believes that international student exchanges should be part of every child's educationnovice, value
- This House, as a popular tourist city, would cap the number of visitors allowed each daynovice, actor
- This House prefers vacations at home to vacations abroadnovice, prefer
- This House would give every country an equal number of places in the Olympic Gamesnovice, policy
- This House believes that rich countries should give more of their wealth to poorer countriesnovice, value
- This House regrets the rise of mass tourismnovice, regret
- This House would cancel the debts that poor countries owe to rich onesintermediate, policy
- This House would require countries to accept a quota of refugees set by their size and wealthintermediate, policy
- This House believes that foreign aid should come with conditions on how it is spentintermediate, value
- This House, as the European Union, would let any country in Europe join a looser outer tier of membershipintermediate, actor
- This House prefers giving aid as direct cash transfers to giving it through development projectsintermediate, prefer
- This House would use economic sanctions only when they target named individuals rather than whole countriesintermediate, policy
- This House would let citizens of any country vote in a global election for the head of the United Nationsintermediate, policy
- This House believes that international sporting bans are an effective way to pressure governmentsintermediate, value
- This House regrets the decline of global trade agreements in favor of regional onesintermediate, regret
- This House would abolish the veto held by permanent members of the UN Security Counciladvanced, policy
- This House believes that the principle of non-interference in other countries' affairs has outlived its usefulnessadvanced, value
- This House, as the African Union, would create a single currency for its member statesadvanced, actor
- This House would create an international court with power to try companies for environmental destructionadvanced, policy
- This House believes that global institutions should give more voting weight to countries with larger populationsadvanced, value
- This House would let countries sell citizenship to wealthy investorsadvanced, policy
- This House, as a low-income country, would accept large infrastructure loans from foreign powersadvanced, actor
- This House prefers a world with several competing great powers to one with a single dominant poweradvanced, prefer
Justice and law (25)
- This House would let young offenders meet their victims instead of going to court for minor crimesnovice, policy
- This House would require police officers to wear body cameras at all times on dutynovice, policy
- This House believes that prisons should focus on helping prisoners change rather than on punishmentnovice, value
- This House, as a school, would let students sit on the panel that decides punishments for breaking school rulesnovice, actor
- This House regrets the popularity of true crime entertainmentnovice, regret
- This House would make fines for traffic offenses depend on how much the driver earnsnovice, policy
- This House believes that community service is a better punishment than a short prison sentencenovice, value
- This House prefers more police officers on the street to more security camerasnovice, prefer
- This House would ban police from using prediction software to decide where to patrolintermediate, policy
- This House would let people convicted of crimes vote while in prisonintermediate, policy
- This House believes that the media should not name people accused of crimes until they are convictedintermediate, value
- This House, as a city police chief, would stop arresting people for possessing small amounts of drugsintermediate, actor
- This House regrets the use of plea bargainsintermediate, regret
- This House would replace juries with panels of trained judgesintermediate, policy
- This House would wipe the criminal records of people who committed minor offenses as teenagersintermediate, policy
- This House believes that victims' families should have a say in the sentences given to offendersintermediate, value
- This House would let private companies run prisons only if they are paid by how few of their prisoners reoffendintermediate, policy
- This House would use AI to recommend sentences to judgesadvanced, policy
- This House believes that it is better for ten guilty people to go free than for one innocent person to be convictedadvanced, value
- This House, as a defense lawyer who privately believes their client is guilty, would still argue for an acquittaladvanced, actor
- This House regrets the growing use of courts to settle political questionsadvanced, regret
- This House would let judges be elected by the publicadvanced, policy
- This House believes that punishment should be based on the harm a crime caused rather than on what the offender intendedadvanced, value
- This House, as a country emerging from conflict, would offer amnesty to former fighters in exchange for full confessionsadvanced, actor
- This House prefers fixed sentences for each crime to letting judges choose sentences freelyadvanced, prefer
Society (25)
- This House would ban children under 14 from having social media accountsnovice, policy
- This House would give every teenager a free bus passnovice, policy
- This House believes that it is better to grow up in a big city than in the countrysidenovice, value
- This House, as a parent, would let their child decide when they get their first phonenovice, actor
- This House prefers having a few close friends to having many casual friendsnovice, prefer
- This House would make every neighborhood have a free youth centernovice, policy
- This House believes that teenagers today have it harder than their parents didnovice, value
- This House regrets the rise of group chats as the main way friends talknovice, regret
- This House would require social media platforms to switch off infinite scrolling by defaultintermediate, policy
- This House would require large housing developments to include homes for older and younger people side by sideintermediate, policy
- This House believes that loneliness should be treated as a public health crisisintermediate, value
- This House, as a social media company, would hide like counts on all postsintermediate, actor
- This House prefers living with extended family to living as a nuclear familyintermediate, prefer
- This House would give equal paid leave to both parents after the birth of a childintermediate, policy
- This House would turn empty office buildings into social housingintermediate, policy
- This House believes that working from home has been good for societyintermediate, value
- This House regrets the rise of dating appsintermediate, regret
- This House would require all new neighborhoods to mix homes of different prices on the same streetsadvanced, policy
- This House believes that meritocracy is a myth that harms those who do not succeedadvanced, value
- This House, as a feminist movement, would campaign for men's issues such as boys falling behind in schooladvanced, actor
- This House would let communities vote to keep chain stores out of their town centersadvanced, policy
- This House believes that identity-based activism does more to divide society than unite itadvanced, value
- This House, as a city with an aging population, would pay young families to move thereadvanced, actor
- This House would give every adult a fixed number of hours of paid leave to care for older relativesadvanced, policy
- This House prefers a society with strong shared traditions to one that encourages individual self-expressionadvanced, prefer
Frequently asked questions
Where do these motions come from?
All 300 were written for this page as practice material. None is copied from a tournament motion archive, so you can use them in class or club without wondering whether your students have seen the round before.
What is the difference between THW, THBT and THR?
This House would (THW) proposes a policy and the Government must show it should happen. This House believes that (THBT) asks whether a statement is true or right. This House regrets (THR) compares the world with something to the world without it. Actor motions ("This House, as a city mayor, would") ask what is best for that actor, not for the world.
Can I get the motions in Resolved form for US formats?
Yes. Switch the wording to "Resolved" and every motion you draw shows a resolution such as "Resolved: Students should be required to lock their phones in sealed pouches for the whole school day." Each resolution was written by hand rather than converted word by word.
How does the three-motion draw work?
Draw three draws three different motions from your filters. Use it for a veto drill: each side strikes one motion and you debate the one left, the way some tournaments let teams choose. Drawing again avoids the motions you just saw while enough others remain.
Can I share a motion with my team?
Every drawn motion has a Copy link button. The link opens this page with that motion on screen, and with the same wording, so a whole squad can prepare the same round from one message.
Are the motions suitable for school students?
They were written for school and university debaters: no motion asks anyone to defend something cruel, and none targets a religion, ethnicity or living person. Novice motions need no research; advanced ones assume some knowledge of economics, law or politics.
Related guides
- Debate topics for students explains how to pick topics for a class.
- How to write a debate case picks up once you have a motion.
- The speech time calculator checks that your first draft fits the speech slot.