This guide is intended to help teachers use "The Advocates In Brief," a television series of 20 public affairs debates. The award-winning series, "The Advocates," previously broadcast on the Public Broadcasting Service, was condensed into a series of 20, thirty-minute debates for use in junior high, high school, junior college, and continuing education classes. The purpose of the series is to promote the democratic process of open and rational discourse to help citizens determine priorities and make reasoned decisions. Each debate is applicable to social studies, current affairs, civics, and media curricula. Debate coaches and teachers of business, language arts, and study skills will also find the program valuable. The topics of the debates are many and varied and include: runaways, the CIA, journalists' sources, competency testing, OPEC, nuclear power, legalizing marijuana, seabed mining, kids' TV, trucking deregulation, South Africa, a balanced budget, national service, death sentences, Puerto Rico, federal medical care, preferential treatment, veterans' preference, Palestinian self-determination, and public broadcasting funds. For each of the 20 debates the guides include an introduction to the debators, identifies their area of expertise, and gives a summary of each debate. The guide provides teachers with charts, cartoons, and other graphic material to expand students' familiarity with the subject and specific activities to stimulate classroom participation. (Author/RM)