ELC092

ELC092: BASIC DEBATING SKILLS

Prepared By: Ms Afiqah Aziz

Poll

Are you ready ??

• Yes

• No

• Not sure

What is a Debate?

• •an argument

• not an undisciplined shouting match between parties that passionately believe in a particular point of view.

• has strict rules of conduct and quite sophisticated arguing techniques

  •often be in a position where you will have to argue the opposite of what you believe in. 

What is a Topic?

• •something to argue about

• current issues of public importance ("That should women drive in Saudi Arabia") or about general philosophies or ideas ("That beauty is better than brains").

• two sides; The team that agrees with the topic is called the AFFIRMATIVE/ GOVERNMENT and the team that disagrees with the topic is called the NEGATIVE/ OPPOSITION.

THE DEFINITION

• Deciding and explaining what a topic means is called ‘defining the topic’.

• The job of defining begins with the AFFIRMATIVE. The first speaker of the affirmative must explain in clear terms what they believe the topic means.

• The negative team may agree with or choose to challenge the definition presented. The negative team should be very careful about challenging as it is difficult to continue the debate with two definition.

THE TEAMLINE

• Because debating is a team event it is important that the three speakers work together as a team.

• The TEAM LINE is the basic statement of "why the topic is true" (for the affirmative) and "why the topic is false" (for the negative).

• It should be a short sentence, presented by the first speaker of each team and used by the other two speakers to enforce the idea of teamwork.

• THBT (Team line)