The Debate as a Learning Tool

• To provide a significant training ground for the development of students communicative abilities.

• To provide opportunities for students to practice and share their skill development.

• To create learning situations in which students develop proficiencies based on sound educational and communication theories.

• To provide judges who will make judgements based on educational objectives and offer a critique which will help students achieve them.

• Skills
  A. To understand and communicate various forms of argument effectively in a variety of contexts.
  B. To develop the ability to analyze controversies, select and evaluate evidence, construct and refute arguments.

Academic Vocabulary

• What's a debate?

  • A debate is a verbal contest in which two opposing teams make speeches to support their arguments and "knock down" the opposing team's argument

  • The team that makes the "best case" for its side wins

• Resolution - The opinion about which two teams argue

  • The opinion has to be one that can have a valid disagreement on.

  • Debaters are assigned to a team that either argues "for" or "against" the resolution, regardless of what they personally believe

• Affirmative Team - The team that agrees with the resolution.

• Negative Team - The team that disagrees with the resolution

• Rebuttal - Explanation of why one team disagrees with the other.

• Judge - The person/people who decide on the winner

• Reasons - arguments debaters make in support of their position

  • Debaters always want to make the strongest reasons/arguments

Debate Structure 

• You will be placed into teams of 4.

  • Each person will be responsible for one part of the debate, but will work as a team to support each other.

• Two teams will debate each other about a Resolute (an opinion)

  • One team will take the Affirmative (support the opinion)

  • One team will take the Negative (oppose the opinion)

• The Process - 14 minutes

  • The Affirmative Team will go first

    • 2 minute Opening Speech - One person will introduce the topic and state the affirmative team's argument

  • The Negative Team will then speak

    • 2 minute Opening Speech - One person will state the negative team's argument

  • 1 minute break

  • Negative  Team's 1st Rebuttal

    • 1 minute - One person will rebute (argue against) the Affirmative team's Opening Speech

  • Affirmative Team's 1st Rebuttal

    • 1 minute - One person will rebut (argue against ) the Negative team's Opening Speech

  • 1 minute break

  • Affirmative Team's Final Rebuttal

    • ​1 minute - One person will have a last chance to rebut any of the Negative team's reasons

  • ​Negative Teams’ Final Rebuttal

    • 1 minute - ​One person will have a last chance to rebut any of the Affirmative team's reasons

  • ​1 minute break

  • Affirmative Closing Argument

    • ​1 minute - One person will give the Affirmative team's closing argument

  • ​Negative Closing Argument

    • ​1 minute - One person will give the Negative team's closing argument

  • ​Judging - 1 minute

    • 1 minute - ​The rest of the class will judge the teams and determine who won the debate

      • ​Teams will be judged on:

        • ​Quality of reasons

        • Performance

        • Rebuttal of Reasons

HOW TO DEBATE

What is Debating?

A debate is a structured argument.  Two sides speak alternately for and against a particular contention usually based on a topical issue.  Unlike the arguments you might have with your family or friends however, each person is allocated a time they are allowed to speak for and any interjections are carefully controlled.  The subject of the dispute is often prearranged so you may find yourself having to support opinions with which you do not normally agree.  You also have to argue as part of a team, being careful not to contradict what others on your side have said.

Why debate?

It is an excellent way of improving speaking skills and is particularly helpful in providing experience in developing a convincing argument. Those of you who are forced to argue against your natural point of view realize that arguments, like coins, always have at least two sides.

The Basic Debating Skills

Style

Style is the manner in which you communicate your arguments.  This is the most basic part of debating to master.  Content and strategy are worth little unless you deliver your material in a confident and persuasive way.

Speed

It is vital to talk at a pace which is fast enough to sound intelligent and allow you time to say what you want, but slow enough to be easily understood. 

Tone

Varying tone is what makes you sound interesting.  Listening to one tone for an entire presentation is boring.

Volume

Speaking quite loudly is sometimes a necessity, but it is by no means necessary to shout through every debate regardless of context.  There is absolutely no need to speak any more loudly than the volume at which everyone in the room can comfortably hear you.  Shouting does not win debates.  Speaking too quietly is clearly disastrous since no one will be able to hear you.

Clarity

The ability to concisely and clearly express complex issues is what debating is all about. The main reason people begin to sound unclear is usually because they lose the “stream of thought” which is keeping them going. It is also important to keep it simple. While long words may make you sound clever, they may also make you incomprehensible.

Use of notes and eye contact

Notes are essential, but they must be brief and well organized to be effective.  There is absolutely no point in trying to speak without notes. Of course, notes should never become obtrusive and damage your contact with the audience, nor should they ever be read from verbatim.  Most people sketch out the main headings of their speech, with brief notes under each. 

When writing notes for rebuttal during the debate, it is usually better to use a separate sheet of paper so you can take down the details of what the other speakers have said and then transfer a rough outline onto the notes you will actually be using. 

Eye contact with the audience is very important, but keep shifting your gaze. No one likes to be stared at. 

Content

Content is what you actually say in the debate. The arguments used to develop your own side’s case and rebut the opposite side’s. The information on content provided below is a general overview of what will be expected when you debate. The final logistics of how long you will be debating, how many people will be in your group, and how the debate will unfold (i.e. which team speaks first etc.), will all be decided by your tutorial leader.

Case (argument) - the whole

Introduction - The case your group is making must be outlined in the introduction.  This involves stating your main arguments and explaining the general thrust of your case.  This must be done briefly since the most important thing is to get on and actually argue it. It is also a good idea to indicate the aspects of the subject to be discussed by each of the team members.

Conclusion - At the end, once everyone has spoken, it is useful to briefly summarize what your group has said and why.

Rebuttal – the whole:

It is very important to have a good perspective of the debate and to identify what the key arguments are.  It isn’t enough to rebut a few random arguments here and there.  Of course the techniques used above are invaluable but they must be used appropriately.  There are a number of things you should do to systematically break down a team’s case: 

1.  Ask yourself how the other sides have approached the case. Is their methodology flawed?

2.  Consider what tasks the other side set themselves (if any) and whether they have in fact addressed these. 

3.  Consider what the general emphasis of the case is and what assumptions it makes. Try to refute these. 

4.  Take the main arguments and do the same thing.  It is not worth repeating a point of rebuttal that has been used by someone else already, but you can refer to it to show that the argument has not stood up.  It is not necessary to correct every example used.  You won’t have time and your aim is to show the other side’s case to be flawed in the key areas.

All you need to have a great classroom debate is an interesting topic -- such as the ones above -- to engage students.

• We don't need money to be happy

• Globalization is bad for our culture

• Marriage is an outdated institution

• Love is the most important thing in the world

• Our education system is amazingly inadequate

• Television is a waste of time

• Sport competitions do more for character building that schools do

• A woman's place is in the kitchen

• Having a large military causes more harm than good

• Learning foreign languages isn't important

• All students should have an after school job.

• Partial birth abortion should be illegal.

• Every student should be required to take a performing arts course.

• Homework should be banned.

• School uniforms should be required.

• Year round education is not a good idea for student learning.

• PE should be required of all students throughout high school

• Is animal testing a justified?

• Is the death penalty appropriate?  Or should it be banned?

• Should cell phones be used during class?

• Should laptops be allowed in classrooms?

• Is global warming an issue?

• Is there good reason for the American war on terror?

• Does school detention do any good in high schools?

• What impact does social networking and social networking sites have on society?

• Is euthanasia justified?

• Are video games containing violence appropriate for children?

• Are single sex schools more effective than co-ed schools?

• Is television an effective tool in building the minds of children?

• Should jobs be subcontracted into developing countries?

• Is cloning animals ethical?

• Is the grading system used in high school effective?

• Do celebrities get away with more crime than non-celebrities?

• Is it justified to develop nuclear energy for commercial use?

• Is it effective to censor parts of the media?

• Are humans to blame for certain animal extinctions?

• Are alternative energy sources effective and justified?

• Do school uniforms make school a more effective place to learn?

• Is drug testing athletes justified?

• Is it appropriate for adolescents to be sentenced to life without parole?

• Should high schools provide daycare services for students who have children?

• Are social networking sites effective, or are they just a sophisticated means for stalking people?

• Is torture justified when used for national security?

• Should cell phones be banned in schools?

• Is peer pressure harmful or beneficial to individuals?

• Should violent video games be banned?

• Should the death penalty be taken away completely?

• Are beauty pageants a way to objectifying women?

• Should cigarettes be banned from society?

• Is it unethical to eat meat?

• Should homework be banned?

• Can people move in together before they are married?

• Do celebrities make for bad role models?

• Are credit cards are more harmful than debit cards?

• Should the concept of zoos should be nullified?

• Should fried foods come with a warning?

• Should sex education be banned in middle schools?

• All schools should make it a requirement to teach arts and music to their students?

• Should juveniles be tried and treated as adults?

• Is human cloning justified, and should it be allowed?

• Has nuclear energy destroyed our society?

• Should parents not purchase war or destruction type toys for their children?

• Should animal dissections be banned in schools?

• Should plastic bags be banned?

• Are humans too dependent on computers?

• Are security cameras an invasion of our privacy?

• Should gay marriages be legalized?

• Is co-education a good idea?

• Does money motivates people more than any other factor in the workplace?

• Is it ethical for companies to market their products to children?

• Is age an important factor in relationships?

• Should school attendance be made voluntary in high school?

• Is the boarding school system beneficial to children?

• Are curfews effective in terms of keeping teens out of trouble?

• Should libraries have a list of books that are banned?

• Can bullying in schools be stopped? How so?

• Who is more complicated gender: men or women?

• Should humans eat to live or live to eat?

• Do video games cause bad behavior in children?

• Should older women be allowed to marry younger men?

• Is it better to be honest and poor or dishonest and rich?

• Do nice girls finish last?

• Do nursery rhymes have secret interior meanings?

• What are the advantages of being a man over a woman?

• Do vampires get AIDS from sucking blood that is affected?

• Which is better: daydreaming or night dreaming?

• Do you think the United States will never have a woman President?

• Did God create the universe or did it just occur naturally?

• Do we have less face-to-face interaction because of Facebook?

• Is there life after death?

• Are we aliens of some sort?

• What are the best dating techniques out there?

• What are the advantages of bottled water vs. regular water?

• Which is the best season of the year?

• Is it better to date someone attractive and popular or intelligent and smart?

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