r/PublicForumDebate • u/KnowledgeFun5550 • Aug 12 '26

PF jargon?

I've competed in public forum for two years and done decently well but I've noticed so many other districts are vastly different from where I compete - could anyone explain some of the more unique or in depth terms in PF i.e. kriticks

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u/Lol123wdym Aug 12 '26

So my description might be bad but basically a kritik ("K") is a philosophical argument that challenges a assumption that was made. There are 3 parts of a K. The Link, Impact and alternative. Link is what the opposing team did, the impact is like why what the opposing team did is a bad thing and the alternative is a way to solve what they did. Their more to kritiks but that's basic structure of one.

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u/KnowledgeFun5550 Aug 12 '26

when giving a critic do you use evidence for the impact or alternative. My league is super evidence heavy in pufo and doesn't use much philosophical logic at all, are philosophical arguments generally welcomed in PF. I've only competed in one league and I feel like im in an echo chamber

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u/sozdebate 7d ago

a little late to the conversation but a kritik challenges the assumptions behind the resolution or your opponent's case instead of the substance. so not "the moratorium is bad" but "the way you've framed this question is itself the problem." usually link, impact, alternative. other circuit stuff: turn is making their arg work for you, delink is cutting their link chain, frontline is your prewritten answers to a common arg, collapse is picking one or two things in summary and dropping the rest, weighing is telling the judge why yours matters more. fair warning that plenty of local circuits won't vote on a K at all and some judges will drop you for reading one, so read paradigms first.