It’s likely you haven’t debated since junior school – and even then, unless you were the class star, it was probably terrifying.
But take away the classroom and the fear of being graded (both by your peers and your teacher), and debating is a fantastic way to stretch your mind, engage with other people’s stories, experiences and points of view, develop your speaking skills, and enhance confidence in yourself.
It’s also brilliant for building your ability to deal with conflict. A debate is a structured argument: not in the destructive, ‘fighting’ sense of the word, but in the constructive, ‘presenting a case’ sense. In practising debating, you will also be practising how you manage your communication style when emotions and convictions are running high.
When most of us think of debating, we imagine a very structured event: a panel, a judge, an auditorium with a large audience. If this is what you crave, then a quick online search of local debating societies will give you some good options. But for those of us who are looking to develop our debating skills more privately, these elements don’t need to exist. In fact, there doesn’t even need to be a winner and a loser. The purpose of this activity, within the context of engaging with other minds, is for you to enjoy the act of researching and learning about your topic, consider something from another person’s point of view, and then flex your communication skills by structuring the way you deliver your argument. The debate could take place between you and a best friend, a partner or a family member, perhaps over a meal or a glass of wine, a video call or a walk in the park.
The key here is genuine enjoyment and intrigue. Choose topics that aren’t going to damage relationships: although politics and religion always provide a meaty list of topics to unpick, your debate could be about something more lighthearted. You could debate:
• The greatest invention in history
• The best artist/musician/ actor
• The relationship between humans and tech (good/ bad?)
• …or some small detail that only you and your opponent understand
Again, it’s all about really researching your topic, understanding both sides of the argument, and making an objective decision about which side (if either) presents the most compelling case.
Once you’ve landed on your topic, and decided who is going to argue what, the following tips will help you get the most out of your debate.
Try to summarize in a couple of sentences what your position is and what you will be arguing. The rest of your presentation is for you to explain why you are arguing this. Try to get this done within a maximum of 2 minutes.
Structure your case into between two and four points: no more, no less. Use logic, worked examples, statistics and quotes to support it. This part should take up 4–7 minutes.
Don’t forget to recap the key points again at the end. Try to sum them up in a few bullet points. Make it punchy: again, maximum 2 minutes.
Don’t interrupt them while they are speaking, save your counterarguments for the rebuttal (see next point). Above all, don’t drift off fantasizing about how intelligent your response is going to be, or you might miss the crux of their argument.
Don’t use this to voice new arguments of your own that you’ve just thought of. Respond directly to your opponent’s case. Do the facts they’ve presented ring true? Is their argument morally or logically flawed? Give each other 3–5 minutes for this otherwise you’ll forget what the main points are.
Unless you have a judge or audience who are voting for one party or the other, find a way to bring the debate to a conclusion. There are two sides to every story (at least). It’s fine if this turns out to be your conclusion.
Before you get going, think about how you would like to present your argument. Will you be humorous, emphatic, courteous, assertive? If you’re planning a series of debates, try a different style each time and see which helps you get your point across most effectively.
REMEMBER.
Keep it simple. While long words may make you sound clever, they may also make you incomprehensible. Also use notes as a prompt, not a script. There’s nothing less conversational than listening to someone read out an essay verbatim.