PREPARATION FOR DEBATING

What is Debate?
"Debate (American English) or debating (British English) is a formal method of interactive and position representational argument. Debate is a broader form of argument than logical argument, which only examine the consistency from axiom, and factual argument, which only examine what is or isn't the case. Though logical consistency, factual accuracy as well as some emotional appeal to audience are important elements of the art of persuasion, in debating, one side often prevail over the other side by presenting superior "context" and/or framework of the issue.

In formal debating contest, there are rules enabling people to discuss and decide on differences, within a framework defining how they will interact. Informal debate is a common occurrence, but the quality and depth of a debate improves with knowledge and skill of its participants as debaters." --Introductory portion of the discussion on DEBATE at WIKIPEDIA.COM


Preparation for Debating

DOWNLOAD and WATCH INSTRUCTIONAL VIDEO #7 (seven) at http://debate.uvm.edu/critadv.html.

IMPORTANT...Your computer must have Realplayer or Quicktime to be able to watch the video. Install Realplayer or Quicktime from the web.

GUIDE QUESTIONS re. Instructional Video 7. Your answer per question should not be more than four sentences.
(IV-Galileo and IV-Aristotle)

1. What is topic analysis?
2. What are the four modes of interpretation of topic in debating? Explain each mode.
3. What is the conventional mode of interpretation. How is it done?
4. How debaters re-contextualize a concept?
5. What is keyword identification?
6. What are the three kinds of proposition? Give your own example per kind.
7. What determines the kind of proposition that faces debaters?
8. What are the advantages of researching prior to actual debating?
9. What is the best way of preparing based on the lecture of the second speaker?
10. How do you define pragmatics?

(IV-Rizal and IV-Bonifacio)

1. How do you use the library in researching your topic?
2. What is New Media? What are examples of New Media?
3. What should you do after the actual debating? Why?
4. What is the final tip given by the second speaker? Why is it the hardest to do?
5. Give strategies in researching for debate.
6. Why is understanding the proposition or resolution very important in researching for debate?
7. How do you evaluate resources?
8. How do you use search engines in researching your debate topic?
9. Why is recording sources important?
10. What is briefing? How is it done and what are the two general structures of briefs?

NOTE: Though you will only be asked to answer 10 questions, it is highly recommended that you should know the answers to all 20 questions for purposes of tests or exams.