I haven’t posted in a little while, but I am back! And I am here to continue my mini-series on all of the debating basics you will need to start being a debater yourself. This time, I’ll be talking about how you should prepare for a upcoming debate.
1. Know the topic
Whether you’re debating casually or competitively, it always helps to know your topic. I’ll be focusing on the ADSA competition side of things. Many debates, and some of the most important ones are all done in a certain format; a couple of rounds of prepared debate and one or two rounds of impromptu. Impromptu debate is a little more complicated and hard to do, so I’ll be talking about it in a later blog. For the prepared rounds however, make sure you know what the topic is. Now, when I say “know” the topic, I don’t mean just knowing the words that make up the topic; I mean actually understanding the topic. Know what each of the words mean separately, know what they mean together and know what they imply. Exploring the topic before you begin research will help your research to be much more focused and in-depth.
2. Know the arguments
Another thing you will want to do before beginning your information gathering is the main arguments for both sides of the debate. Take the time with your partner, or other members of your club to list down some possible pillars for proposition and opposition. By doing this, your research will be geared specifically towards the major arguments for each side.
3. Create your arguments
After brainstorming some general ideas, get your partner and decide on your specific pillars. Take ideas from the group discussion, but also make sure that your pillars are unique, you don’t want everyone to be able to easily destroy your case because it is the exact same as the one talked about in the club. Lead of with your strongest pillar and point, and make sure your pillars are catchy and easy to understand.
4. Research
Once you have your arguments, it’s finally time to do your research. Make sure that while your research will be focused towards your pillars, to also pay attention to possible points which may be used against you. Use trusted sites, so no Wikipedia. You DO NOT want your case to be discredited due to faulty or unproven statistics. Make sure the research you do compliments each other and that there are no contradictions within your own case. Cross-edit with your partner as well.
5. Write your speech
Once all of your research is done, you can begin to construct a speech. I’ll also be talking about speeches later, but be sure to make it interesting and colorful.
6. Practice makes perfect
While this is one of the most cliched sayings, it holds true for debate. By the time you are ready to go to the debate, the speech papers should serve only as an ornament. You should have the majority of the speech memorized. Now, this isn’t to say that you can recite it word-by-word, but what it does mean is that should someone take away your script at any given time, you should be able to continue your speech and still present you general idea and themes.
7. Rest
And lastly, make sure you get a good nights sleep, have a good breakfast/lunch/dinner if they don’t serve food at the tournament, and that you’re energized and ready to go.