Ask Jim about Debate
|
Breaking Down Barriers: Ask Jim about Debate |
You can submit questions too, just email Jim at hansonjb@whitman.edu
Contemporary policy debate often is incredibly quick--reaching 300 and 400 words per minute. Is this rapid rate of delivery good or bad for debate?
That's a good question. Obviously, if a debater is speaking too quickly for the judge to understand, that is probably a bad thing. However, if the judge can understand, the issue is a debatable one. Here are some arguments about this:
FAST SPEAKING IS GOOD
1. Prepares you to be an auctioneer
2. Makes you think quickly
3. Can make a debate more engaging for participants who have heard the issues and arguments before.
FAST SPEAKING IS BAD
1. Leaves novices and slower speakers and flowers with little chance to participate in the debate.
2. Discourages many from participating, as it seems incomprehensible and too removed from the speaking most people do in regular life.
3. May increase judge intervention because the judge must read evidence and reconstruct the debate after the debate occurred because the teams spoke too quickly for full comprehension.
Jim
Thanks to Nick Wesselman for asking this question.