In competitive debate, most commonly in the World Schools, Karl Popper, and British Parliamentary debate styles, a point of information (POI) is when a member of the team opposing that of the current speaker gets to briefly interrupt the current speaker, offering a POI in the form of a question or a statement.
Furthermore, they allow speakers to demonstrate greater wit and presence of thought than is generally possible in a speech, as they are required to respond instantly to prepared points from their opposition in a logical way.
Taking fewer points may be interpreted as cowardice when plenty were offered, while speakers that accept too many risk losing control of their speech.
Similarly, it is generally frowned upon for speakers to offer excessive POIs in rapid succession, a practice known as badgering or barracking that usually results in the adjudicator calling the debate to order.
Examples of valid offers, that may be combined with any of several common hand gestures, are: Similarly, there is no set way of dealing with a point of information.