Public speaking and debating go hand in hand. One of the most difficult and frightening skills to master, public speaking is essential for success in the
work place, in one's career. Debate (debating) is an art form necessary for many professions, such as the law, media commentary, etc. Both activities
entail critical thinking too. In this intensive course, you will develop your public speaking and debating ability in parallel with your critical thinking
acumen.
Also referred to as forensics, public speaking often places an emphasis on the dramatic. It is performance after all, a type of theater. An experienced
public speaker is a person, who engages his audience, establishing an emotional connection either to a large crowd or a small group. While the mechanics or
'platform skills' of forensic activities can be taught, the most proficient public speakers possess charisma, a kind of animal magnetism that binds them to
their audiences. Julius Caesar, Napoleon Bonaparte, & Adolf Hitler, to mention a few, all had this charisma, which added value to their leadership skill.
When one 'speaks' to many people or to a small circle of acquaintances, if the speaker wants to be truly effective and resonate with the
audience, he is compelled to take on the role of an actor on a stage. Forensics, then, is a preliminary training in the dramatic arts. It involves a
persuasive use of language. Thus, a public speaker ought to be familiar with the craft of acting, on the one hand, and rhetoric, or an eloquent use of
of speech (parole), on the other.
In contrast to public speaking as an entertaining, dramatic performance, debating is verbal combat akin to judo, a martial art, which 'works' by means of
argument and by the selective use of emotion (passion, affect). Debating is a type of 'street fighting' in which the weapon of choice is the clever
combination of fiery words, provocative claims, and speedy thinking. Fortunately, no one is hurt in a debate; no one ends up dead; the only injuries incurred
are bruised egos. There are no bleeding brains and broken bones from bats, bricks, and stones. Everyone goes home to 'die another day'.
Like oratory, the best debates under the sun possess pathos (or poignancy) such as the very popular public performances conducted by the Oxford Union
Society in Oxford, England. There, the debaters, an affirmative versus a negative speaker, adopt opposite positions on controversial resolutions such as:
'Is Islam a militaristic religion?'; 'Is the Middle East suitable or unsuitable for Western democracies?'; 'Does socialism work as a political system?'
The rules and regulations in this type of debate are minimal. The standing room only audiences are captivated by each speakers ability to develop
historically-sophisticated arguments, balancing rational claims against emotional crescendos. The most successful presentations possess a verbal
musicality bordering on poetic utterance.
There are a variety of debating formats: impromtu; parliamentary; public forum; Oxford-Oregon; Lincoln-Douglas; congressional; public policy, rebuttal,
etc. In some of these formats, the team element is primary. The parliamentary form is court-like in nature, whereas the Lincoln-Douglas format makes
robust demands on the speakers to display eloquence, humor, sophistication, and subtlety. This STRATEGIC DEBATE course 'foregrounds' the
rebuttal format because it facilitates a spectrum of speaking tasks as well as research, critical thinking, and strategic skills.
Erving Goffman, a Canadian-American sociologist, wrote a famous book about the phenomenon of performance entitled The Presentation of Self in Everyday
Life, written in 1956. He talked at length about the nature of human presentation, also termed 'persona'. A persona is a kind of 'mask' necessary in
'role playing'. Debate entails adopting the proper mask to decimate one's adversary.
As we have seen, dramatics, or 'being in character' is the common denominator in both debating and public speaking. The dramatic element is a form
of entertainment necessary to keep audiences engaged in a speech or a debate. Audiences require - even demand - pleasure so all public speakers are
compelled to be entertainers, even when the subjects of debates or speeches are quite serious, even tragic.
A robotic type of speaking (in a monotone voice), or a dead-pan style, dulls the minds of audience members, nine times out of ten. The success of any
spoken event critically depends upon audience members feeling satisfied by speakers' styles of delivery. If, or when, a speaker reads from notes in a
soft or non-projecting voice, in a rational manner, that speaker will lose his audience. Notes and disengagement are a death sentence for a speaker.
This is true whether the individual is an Oxford Union debater or a commencement speaker. To communicate effectively, to argue persuasively, to
captivate an audience, a speaker has to be energetic, engaged, and focused upon his audience's predilections; otherwise, he will fail at
his task. As William Shakespeare noted, all the world's a stage, after all, and men are merely players. Debate is a particular role one plays in front
of a group from time to time.
In this course, even though most of the written content deals with debating, many of the exercises are concerned with the pragmatics of making
speeches.