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What makes a great debater?

Debating is a match of ideas. It gives the audience the chance to hear the ideas

of one team and the counter arguments of the other team. Being on a debate team can

be a great experience. Moreover, learning how to debate is a great skill to have.

Apparently, for many professions such as being a lawyer, a person needs to be able to

debate an argument in order to succeed. The knowledge about what a person is talking

about and the ability to express these ideas make a great debater.

A great debater is very much knowledgeable of what he is talking about. Initially,

one should spend time in researching, seeking and reviewing his assigned topics.

Furthermore, one needs to study the historical background of the topic and why it is a

matter of current interest. One should be familiarized not only with his argument, but

also his opponents arguments. In this way, one will already know what his opponent will

say and by this, one can be ready by analyzing the opponents points in order to get

strong counter-arguments to those points and catch his opponent off guard. One should

make sure that his facts are right for the reason that inaccurate data and information

can grant an opening to the opponent. A great debater should come to a debate with

the confidence that he is arguing with the right and accurate facts.

People love to hear great stories and they admire good storytellers. Get a great

story related to your point of view and deliver it well. Whenever one encounters a really

clever opponent, do not panic. Ones reaction to the opponents points can make or

break the likelihood of winning. Make use of concise and humorous phrases to tone

down the effect and erase the impact of the opponents approach. Let the audience and

judges feel your passion for the topic. Ones ability to catch the attention of the audience

will pay in the end.

A debate is a dialogue with a lot of construction. Incomplete sentences are equal

to deficient ideas. These deficient ideas can weaken a strong argument. A debater

cannot afford to be sloppy in a debate. The articulation, pitch, diction and enunciation

are significant. The strongest and powerful points of a debater must be argued with

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clarity and conviction. It is through a debaters delivery that the points about the

argument are comprehended.

A great debater is someone who is very much familiar with his piece. He must

get to know every side of his argument for him to be able to answer all the questions

competitively and throw witty and clever questions back to his opponent. A great

debater must be a good speaker. He must be able to convey his arguments precisely

and effectively all the time. For a good debater knows how to say the things he know in

a way that all people will understand.

Najarro, Violeta Jr. M

BSLM IA

The Last Debate

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Civil disobedience is a moral weapon in the fight for justice. This is the

argument stated by James Farmer Jr. What is civil disobedience? It is the refusal to

obey certain laws and commands of the government. How can disobedience ever be

moral?. James Farmer Jr. related a story about the rule of Gen. Reginald Dyer, where

ten thousand people protested about the British rule. Gen. Dyer trapped them in a

courtyard and ordered his troops to fire into them. Three hundred seventy nine were

killed including men, women and children. Dyer said that he taught him a moral

lesson. He then compared it with Mahatma Gandhis response with no violence and

compared the definition of moral to Dyers victory or Gandhis victory.

The next speaker was their opponent from Harvard. He said that civil

disobedience is not moral because it is nonviolent. He added that fighting for the

country can be deeply moral, demanding the greatest sacrifice of all. Nonviolence is the

mask civil disobedience wears to conceal its true face: anarchy.

Samantha Booke then said, Gandhi believes one must always act with love and

respect for ones opponents. Law breakers must accept the legal consequences for

their actions. According to her, civil obedience is not something for us to fear.

The debater from Harvard quoted Henry David Thoreau with Any man more

right than his neighbours constitutes a majority of one. He said that the beauty of and

the burden of democracy is that no idea prevails without the support of the majority. The

people decide the moral issues of the day, not a majority of one.

Samantha answered that majorities do not decide what is wrong right or wrong

but the conscience does. She said that we must never kneel down before the tyranny of

a majority.

The debater from Harvard said that a person cannot decide which laws to obeyand to ignore. Nothing that erodes the rule of law can be moral no matter what name is

given to it.

James Farmer Jr. quoted, An unjust law is no law at all according to Saint

Augustine.