The ability to debate, communicate, write, and construct logical arguments is really important.
Rhetoric is one of the most relevant studies today, especially with diverse opinions reverberating from television, internet, and news, and with political, religious, and social issues that complicate moral action. We are constantly bombarded by images: billboards line our highways, civil injustice runs rampant in our history textbooks, and insipid messages populate social media sites. Important questions arise: how do we make our voices heard? How do we develop arguments, which acknowledge nuanced complications that may simultaneously bolster and undermine their strength?
At a middle school or high school age, how can you prepare best for debate teams, debate tournaments, or the exhilaration that comes with participating in a debate round?
Here are three great drills that I can come up with for you to become really good at debating and communicating at an early age.
First, try what we call the “pen-in-the-mouth” drill. There are many vocal coaches who teach you how to maximize the precision of each word you deliver, using enunciation and pronunciation drills.
Take a look at this video
And this video
My favorite drill is the pen in the mouth drill, which teaches you to speak very loudly for several minutes with a pen in your mouth. This will force you to start enunciating your words much better, becoming much better at delivering your speeches more finely and precisely. This requires continuous practice, so one or two times a week should be a good start.
Second, watch sample debate rounds and take notes on what each side is saying and how they are responding to the opposite side. Once you finish the debate, you should do several things:
1) Note down what strategies each debater took to respond to the other
2) Pretend that you are a judge and write a paragraph on why you think who you think won
3) Pretend that you are one of the debaters (either the one who you think won or the one you think lost) and give their rebuttal speech using only your own notes and talking points
This whole activity may take several hours, but it is really useful and very fun for deconstructing different arguments and making your own really valid points.
Here’s a great example of a high school debate.
Third, try analyzing the claim/warrant/impact of every argument that you read or hear. This becomes a really good habit once you get accustomed to it. Every single time somebody says something, they are making an argument. They are internally saying three things about what they’re saying –
1) there’s what they are saying
2) there’s why they’re saying it
3) there’s the reason why it matters.
These three attributes are what we call a claim, warrant, and an impact. Often, parents might ignore the “warrant” when they tell you to do something – like telling you to do the dishes because “I said so”.
But in really good arguments, somebody will articulate all three – for example, guns are bad for society because they promote neoliberal values, and rugged neoliberal values adversely impact our economy and our culture because it discourages collaboration. This argument had a claim, warrant, and an impact, so it could be a good argument to be made. Try doing this with any argument you encounter, and you’ll find that your logic skills will become much better.
That’s it for now. These three drills will teach you speech, debate, and logic. All three of them are super useful and have been super useful to me, so I hope you try them and see what you think. As always, let us know if you have any questions.
Stay safe!
Naman
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