Debate Assignment

On October 31 2007 14:13 Hot_Bid wrote:
Sorry to have to close your thread, you framed the question right but it's still a HW thread =(

A good point to remember if you're unfamiliar with speaking publicly is that long pauses to you may seem really awkward and unnatural, but it's not to the audience. Take a second before you speak, most people have a problem of speaking way too fast.

On October 31 2007 14:15 Kennigit wrote:
Ok heres some steps you should take.

- First of all, prep the shit out of this if you want to do well...you should know the opposing teams possible views as good or better than your own so that you are prepared to counter them immediately.

- When they are presenting, assuming you are standing up, look directly at them the entire time. Whenever you hear one of their main points let a little smirk creep across your face and slowly look down at you page and write some imaginary scribble. you and you partner can plan this as you like - dont look super keen. Look smooth and cool and the audience will actually start to focus on you because they are expecting you now to be better and loosing focus on the other team.

- If you are confident in your material you will sound confident. You know yourself whether you are able to bullshit confidence and if not, you may have to rely on just thinking/knowing that you have a stronger case. You could literally stand there and win by saying that Muhammad liked bananas and convince your audience if you body language and phrasing is good enough.

- Case & point, just stating the facts is boring and wont get you too far. Being smoother than your opponent and having more spunk in your presentation - formal or not will get you closer with your audience for the ggnore.