Even if you are in an office job, debate skills are vital elements to climbing up any job market (corporate, medical, or educational). Some people are better debaters than others. Consequently, they go into fields such as law or sales. Still, debating points is integral to improving your professional situation. You will need to know how to debate a point to increase your salary, you will need to debate a point to get the best position you deserve, the best desk, the best hours, the best clients, and so on. Even if your work takes you to places that argumentative skills are extraneous, they will always help you in your job pursuits. Perhaps you will need to debate a point just to get the job. You must convince an employer that you are the best candidate for the job in order to secure it and move up in the corporation (or school or hospital).
Follow these few steps to create a strong "point" or argument. From this point on, we will refer to a "point" as an argument or a theme.
- Research all information around "the point."
- Pick a side to debate. There are always two (or more) ideas to a debate or points to argue. You must select one viewpoint and follow it through. If you are a little iffy on your argument, it will appear in your debate. You do not even have to agree with your argument, you just must commit to it in order to create a strong debate.
- Once you have researched both sides to a point, you must begin creating your debate.
- Like an essay, a debate point is a formulaic. It has an introduction, evidence, and a conclusion. The main difference is that most debates are oral. You speak in public, sometimes extemporaneously.
- Your point must have an introduction, but not a flowery introduction. Usually, you just jump to the point. You can open with a general thought or anecdote, but do not veer too far from the subject matter or else people will start fidgeting. They will not listen to your debate.
- Gather at least three pieces of evidence. Have them prepared ahead of time. You may not use them all while speaking. However, you will always have more the enough information to fall back on if there is an uncomfortable silence.
- Conclude your debate by disproving the opponent's point. You will then reaffirm the certitude of your point by repeating your thesis statement aloud.
While debates are usually oral, here are a few tips to follow in order to appear calm and collected and prepared. Confidence is vital in debate. Your presentation, speech, and appearance matter almost as much as your delivery and your content.
- Dress appropriately
- Have notes prepared. You do not want your debate to be an oral presentation of a written essay.
- Practice speaking aloud in front of a mirror and then in front of other people
- Understand both sides of the debate so that you are prepared to contradict the other side.
- Be ready to concede small points. It does not matter if you lose many little battles, so long as you win the war.
Remember, debates are just like essays. There is a thesis (central argument), several pieces of evidence, and a conclusion. The main difference in a debate is the presentation. You are not reading aloud a written essay. You are presenting a theme, an argument, a point orally. You must convince the opponent that you are correct and he or she is incorrect. You do this by appearing confident, disproving the opponent's point, and overpowering your points. It is vital to understand all sides of an issue so that you can disprove your opponent's point. This difference is where debating a point differs the most from writing an essay.
