What is Topicality?

Debate is about making good policy, and you can't have a good policy unless you know what the key words of the policy mean.
Topicality deals with arguments about what words mean.
For Example, the affirmative might argue that every hungry child in America should be fed. This may seem like a good idea, but what if the resolution says we ought to make schools better?
Another example is your history teacher asked you to write a paper about the civil war. You, however, decided to write a paper about the Vietnam war. Your history teacher might very well give you a grade of "F" because that wasn't the assignment.
Even affirmative's with cases which don't seem to be about the topic often have a reason why they are topical.
The affirmative has to meet every part of the topic, every part of the contract, in order to win, if the negative can show the affirmative did not fulfill some part of the topic, the contract, they could defeat the affirmative.