The First Affirmative Rebuttal (1AR) is the first rebuttal speech given by the affirmative, the sixth speech in the round.
The 1AR must respond to the entirety of the negative block. The ratio of negative block time to 1AR time is 13:5 in high school and 5:2 in college. A 1AR may make strategic concessions or undercover certain positions to gain a time trade off to compensate for this apparent inequity. The 1AR is also in many ways a shadow speech for the 2AR and the community consensus between what constitutes shadow coverage and what leaves legitimate room for 2AR extrapolation is still contested.
Almost all judges will allow the 1AR to read new pieces of evidence and make new arguments, especially in response to new arguments during the negative block.
Read more about this topic: Structure Of Policy Debate