I finally figured out what to write about for Cacophony! Following the advice of my colleagues at the Bernard L. Schwartz Communication Institute, the best way to approach this was to write about something I am familiar with in the context of my work. As a professor myself, I set specific guidelines and objectives when giving assignments to my students in order to avoid writer’s block because of the openness of possibilities. I don’t want to curtail, however: Cacophony’s open posting policy makes it versatile and unique.
I hope this post gives some basic guidelines for anyone out there interested in organizing debates as a classroom assignment. The topics of the debates I am coaching are in the 12th Edition of the Management and Society textbook issued by the Department of Management at Baruch College. But you can device your own and have students do a little research to defend their positions.
The first step is to assign students to groups and divide the groups into PRO and CON sides of a given topic. Then, provide precise instructions about the format of the debate. For example, one format consist of a ten minute opening presentation, followed by a five minute period for rebuttal, and three minutes for conclusions, going back and forth between the PRO and CON side. Ten minutes for the PRO, Ten for the CON; five minutes for the PRO, five for the CON; and three minutes for the PRO, and three for the CON. You can make them longer depending on the number of participants and the time available.
Make sure students understand that the objective is to persuade the audience that their point of view (in the debate) is the most valid: they need to make arguments.
In the beginning, they should introduce themselves, the issue, the point they are defending and any terms that might be unfamiliar or that might take a particular meaning in the context of the debate. For example, in a debate that deals with whether genetically modified foods should be labeled, it is necessary to know from the beginning what constitutes a genetically modified food product.
Encourage them to read the materials a couple of times (in the management course I coach these are organized in chapters), even the reading for the opposite team. In that way they can figure out a strategy to organize their presentation as well as anticipate the points are going to be brought up against their arguments. It’s also important for students to practice their entire presentation out loud so they have an idea of time management as they become familiar with public speaking. In terms of oral presentation skills, you should emphasize to the debaters that they should not read, and should maintain eye contact with the audience, which is a non-verbal way of engaging their attention. Index cards are an acceptable way of keeping track of the order of the arguments they will stress, but in order to avoid reading too much from them, suggest they write bullet points, rather than entire sentences.
If they are using numerical data such as statistics and/or percentages, remind your students that if they are hard to understand, the audience will just glaze over them. Quantitative data should be easy to read and understand and should make a strong point. If they are quoting textbooks or the internet, make sure they cite valid sources and not just random articles (especially online), and that they have those sources (author’s names particularly) readily available during the debate, in case someone asks.
Time does not have to be equally split, but all students in a team must participate. Have students dress professionally (although this is not a strict requirement). Attire is a non verbal language that reveals many things, and it is difficult to find credible someone wearing an oversized sweater whose sleeves are longer than the arms. Lastly, remind students to keep their language appropriate and to keep their composure. Debates can get heated, but for as much as a Jerry Springer fight will definitely engage the audience, the loudest people are usually revealing insecurity.
The end of each debate could be marked by an open Q&A period where the audience can participate and ask questions or comments to the presenters. Here you can explain how the topic is still current and give an informal assessment of the students’ participation.
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