Congressional Debate speeches last up to three minutes. The first speech on each legislation, known as the "authorship", goes to the person who wrote the legislation, or from the same school of the author (However, many tournaments use legislation from the NSDA, in which case anyone can give the authorship). If nobody from the author's school is present, another debater gives a sponsorship speech (sometimes called the first affirmative), which is functionally identical to an authorship. This first speech is followed by a two-minute questioning period. One three-minute speech in opposition (negation) follows it, with another mandatory two minutes of questioning. After these initial speeches, debate alternates in favor and opposition to the legislation with three-minute speeches and one minute of questioning. Within each speech, contestants develop two or three organized, logical arguments supported by credible evidence for why the chamber should vote for or against the given legislation. The general format of a speech is as follows: