The use of language in university debating hasn't been studied a lot so far. Miriam Kohn from the University of Rochester did some research - in this interview, she tells us about her results and thoughts on the use of "hedging". Edited for length & clarity with entire thesis and speech transcriptions available here. ...

[caption id="attachment_31316" align="alignright" width="400"] Winners of LSESU Open: Joe Mayes (left), Steven Rajavinothan (right) - © Seah Ying Ying[/caption] The team Young, Scrappy and Hungry (Joe Mayes, Steven Rajavinothan) has won the Open final of the LSESU Open 2017 from Opening Government on the motion "This house believes that history curriculums should portray in an overwhelmingly negative light all celebrated historical figures responsible for racially motivated violence. E.g. Winston Churchill, Oliver Cromwell, Charles De Gaulle." They defeated the teams ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ (Joe Roussos, Tim Mooney) in Opening Opposition, Almodovar Film Club (Annie Williamson, Toby Tricks) in Closing Government and Rake unknown ...