Monday, March 8, 2010
Sabbatical Week Day 1 Reflection

This blog post will be concerning my sabbatical, Basic Skills in Debating.

Essence of Today's sabbatical

-What is debating
Debating is a formal arguement which follows a logical flow of ideas.

-Applications of debating in our life
Debating is applicable in many jobs and situations in our life e.g. lawyers and politicians

-Familiarising ourselves with debating jargons e.g. Point of Information (POI)
Debating jargons and terms are important and we must know them in order to proceed in the sabbatical

-Role of each speaker
Speaker 1: Provides an introduction about the topic, Explains their stand on the motion, telling what the rest of the speakers will be talking on
Speaker 2: Analysis on at least 2 point of the debate, Rebutting/destroying the speech of opposition speaker 1
Speaker 3: Summarising the team's points and rebutting the speech of opposition speaker 2.

-Struture of a debate
1. Introduction
2. Analysis
3. Rebuttals
4. Summary/Conclusion

-Dealing with the motion(topic) of the debate
->Debate motion will have a criteria. The team is suppose to choose 2 aspects of the criteria to elaborate on. The points will be mentioned in the speaker 1's speech.
->The 2 points must be independent in proving the criteria. This means that the logic of the 1st point must not affect the 2nd point.

Example:
This house believes that sushi is better then hamburgers.
The criteria is "better".
1st aspect: Sushi is tastier and thus better then hamburgers. (taste)
2nd aspect: Sushi cost less then hamburgers. (economy)
In this case, the 2 independent aspects do not affect each other.

Defining the motion:
1. Look at the key words in the motion e.g. better
2. Look at the entire motion and explain the meaning it conveys

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Reflection
In the beginning, before the sabbatical I thought that the sabbatical would be held in a lecture theatre and we will take down notes as the instructors present. However, the real sabbatical was not like this. We were first given a thick stack of booklet containing alot of information.

Next, the instructors presented alot of power points presentations and we took down notes along the way. However, I feel that there was lack of interaction and the students will feel very bored. Most of the information were also found in the booklet and people might tend to not pay attention. I myself almost dozed off in the middle of the presentation. I saw a few other people struggling to keep awake also.

Nevertheless, it was a good sabbatical and I absorbed alot during the presentation. I look forward to becoming more proficient in debating in the next few days.
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"Debate is masculine, conversation is feminine.”
Amos Bronson (American reformer, Philosopher and Teacher, 1799-1888)