The Art of Debate

275 Pages·2017·17.95 MB·English

by  Dr. Jarrod Atchison

Topic Subtopic
Professional Communication Skills
The Art of Debate
Course Guidebook
Professor Jarrod Atchison
Wake Forest University
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J
arrod
a ,
tchison
P .d.
h
Associate Professor of Communication
and Director of Debate
Wake Forest University
Jarrod Atchison is an Associate Professor of Communication at Wake Forest
University, where he has taught since 2010. He is also the Director of Debate
for the Wake Forest University Debate Team, which dates back to 1835 and
has won multiple national championships. As an undergraduate at Wake
Forest University, Dr. Atchison was a Presidential Scholar in debate who
was ranked the third overall individual speaker at the 2001 National Debate
Tournament, at which the team ranked second overall in the nation.
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After graduating from Wake Forest University, he was an assistant debate
coach and Ph.D. student at the University of Georgia, where he helped coach
the winners of the 2007 Rex Copeland Award, which is given to the top-ranked
debate team in the nation headed into the National Debate Tournament.
After receiving his Ph.D. in Communication, Dr. Atchison helped revive the
debate program at Trinity University before being offered the Director of
Debate position at his alma mater.
Dr. Atchison has published extensively on the study of argumentation and
rhetoric and is the author of a forthcoming book on the rhetorical leadership
of Jefferson Davis. He researches 19th-century American public address, with
an emphasis on the American Civil War. Additionally, Dr. Atchison researches
public argument, including the best practices for intercollegiate debate.
Dr. Atchison has been nominated twice for the Reid-Doyle Prize for Excellence
in Teaching at Wake Forest University. He teaches such courses as Debate
and Advocacy, Argumentation Theory, Conspiracy Discourse in American
Public Address, Rhetorical Theory and Criticism, the Rhetoric of the South,
and Pivotal Speeches of the American Civil War. In the summer, Dr. Atchison
works with high school students on the art of debate and was consistently
voted the top-ranked lecturer at the University of Michigan summer
debate workshop. •
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T C
able of onTenTs
Jarrod atchison, Ph.d. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . i
course scoPe. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Lecture 1
The Hidden Value of Debate ..................................................................5
Lecture 2
When and How to Use Debate .............................................................15
Lecture 3
The Proposition: Choosing What to Debate ........................................25
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The arT of DebaTe
Lecture 4
The Structure of Argument .................................................................35
Lecture 5
Using Evidence in Debate ....................................................................45
Lecture 6
Fallacies in Your Opponent’s Research ................................................57
Lecture 7
Fallacies in Your Opponent’s Arguments .............................................69
Lecture 8
Elements of a Good Case ......................................................................79
Lecture 9
Arguing for the Affirmative .................................................................89
Lecture 10
Building Affirmative Cases ..................................................................99
Lecture 11
Arguing for the Negative ...................................................................109
Lecture 12
Building Negative Cases ....................................................................119
Lecture 13
The Crucible of Cross-Examination ..................................................129
Lecture 14
Asking and Answering Leading Questions ........................................139
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Table of ConTenTs
Lecture 15
Open-Ended Questions: Setting Traps ..............................................149
Lecture 16
Essentials of a Persuasive Rebuttal .....................................................159
Lecture 17
Dealing with the Unexpected in Debate ............................................173
Lecture 18
“Even If” Arguments: The Essential Weapon ....................................183
Lecture 19
Debate Jujitsu: Flipping the Warrant .................................................193
Lecture 20
The Power of Concessions ..................................................................203
Lecture 21
Conditional Argumentation ..............................................................213
Lecture 22
Line-by-Line Refutation ....................................................................225
Lecture 23
Judging Debates: The Art of the Decision ..........................................235
Lecture 24
Winning the Cocktail Party ..............................................................245
BiBLiograPhy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 255
image credits. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 265
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C s
ourse Cope
Debate involves an incredibly important set of skills not limited to high school
or intercollegiate debate tournaments. Anyone who has met or interacted
with a debater knows that debating can help build confidence, train people to
think quickly on their feet, and become strong advocates for what they believe.
The goal of this course is to introduce you to the art of debate, but the idea is not
to make you a nationally ranked debater. Rather, our focus is on how to apply
the concepts of debate to your personal and professional lives.
We begin by exploring what debate is and what makes it different from an
informal argument. We learn that debate is the formalized enactment of
argument and that it has several components: structure, agreement before
disagreement, and the resolution to be debated. All the participants must agree
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The arT of DebaTe
to the format of the debate, including the organization of speeches and the
amount of time to be allotted for everyone to speak. Beyond the format all the
participants must agree to the stakes, the topic, and a neutral third party who
will serve as the judge.
How do you make your really big decisions? Do you act on your gut? Do you
use a pro and con list? In this course, we will explore how debate can be a
powerful method of decision making. Debate can distill the messy, complex,
and sometimes emotional disadvantages of informal argumentation into the
benefits of comparing ideas through the rigor of intellectual contestation.
To maximize the benefits of learning the art of debate, we must establish
proficiency in the core concepts of building proposals, rigorously testing
arguments, and preparing to argue against a well-prepared opponent.
The course explores the obligations associated with proposing change along with
how to build and attack affirmative and negative cases. In addition to learning
how to determine the strengths and weaknesses of an argument, we explore how
to conduct a cross-examination to reveal those strengths and weaknesses for
the judge. We learn how to use open-ended and leading questions to reveal the
holes in an opponent’s case.
To learn more advanced argumentation techniques, we explore what to do
when someone presents an unexpected argument, how to “flip the warrant” to
use our opponents’ evidence against them, and how to use “even if” statements
and conditional logic to add a degree of nuance and rigor to our arguments.
We examine the power of a strategic concession to refocus the debate to the
strength of our positions. In short, we explore the techniques that transform a
decent debater to a great debater. Those techniques are not limited to formal
debate and can play a crucial role in decision making in any organization.
The last section of the course focuses on using debate to help with assessment
in the context of rebuttal speeches to transition from merely summarizing
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