I attended the development weekend by WADL (Western Australian Debating League) on Saturday the 29th of March for the Novice rank where they gave us an introduction into debating, how to effectively debate with the 3 main attributes in debating (matter, manner, and method) and some tips that makes us more ahead than those who didn’t attend this resourceful weekend. When I went to the weekend I knew the basic things about debating which was like what the roles of 3 debaters on both team were and where they everyone sat in the room from our small introduction last year when I was in Year 7, but there were new and interesting terms that I hadn’t know before.

Firstly when they taught us about the matter section, I learnt on how our topics were built from principals (what we’re mainly fighting about) and under those principals were rights such as the right to freedom, freedom of speech or bodily autonomy etc. There were also 2 main times where the government could step in which was when our choices hurt others or when we can’t make proper choices for ourselves, it can also be both times but generally it’s only one. With principals I also learnt that in our matter (which is what we say in our debates) we have to break it down, state it then and then explain it. The main structure you can build your debate from is the PREP structure (Point, Reasons, Evidence and Proof). There were also different types of topics like the normative, imperative and the acting.

Secondly with manner, each debater can have their own style of  presenting their debate and what’s important is finding what works for you! But the basics you want is to speak in an audible, clear, non-stuttering, confident (but not arrogant) way and try not to use filler words. With your focus with your eyes they recommended that you look at a person for about 5-6 secs as to not make then feel too uncomfortable because you want to get your point through to everyone.

Thirdly (to the most fun part in my view) the rebuttal. This is the part where you can’t prepare for beforehand but also the part where you get to destroy the opposing teams points. We learnt that we first need to figure out the other team’s principal, shot term and long term point/s, and their main premise (key idea). From there you could rebut in 3 main ways, you could disprove them and say that what they state is not true, it doesn’t lead to the conclusion that they promise (for e.g. their solution or problem) or you could present a new idea of what makes their new argument which is usually idea + idea = conclusion. You could even make an even stronger rebuttal by going for more than one of their premises. Of course if they make a sound argument, you can mitigate their argument by 1. they only affect a small stakeholder, 2. their stakeholder that they place emphasis on is not as important as this other stakeholder, 3. their problem/conclusion has a low risk of occurring or 4. you could compare their argument with ours.

For method, this section applies to manner and rebuttal. I think method pretty much means presenting your argument and rebuttal in a logical manner that makes sense, is easy to follow along and keeps within your time limit. This is also the part that I need to work on the most such as keeping within the time limit and rebutting the other team in a logical manner rather than just rebutting in the order of the points that I made of the other team (which is what I usually do, I’ve realised this myself when I rebut other people).

So in conclusion, this weekend what a very exciting and informative time and for the year 7 & 8s (this is the novice division) I recommend that you take this opportunity to learn from this experience.