Speaker 2 begins powerfully by simplifying the underlying principle of the opposition’s case. He then refutes this premise through characterising their stance in a negative manner. The speaker then effectively proves the validity and strength of his own argument compared to the opposition’s ‘flawed’ premise.
After this refutation, he logically outlines his team’s three pronged constructive argument. By providing a clear structure, the speaker ensures that the adjudicator can follow his argument. This is an effective technique as it simplifies your team’s argument thus allowing for the audience and judge to better interact and understand your ideas. Regardless of the strength of your ideas and points, the judge has to always be able to follow what you are saying otherwise there is no use. Therefore, this is an important skill that all speakers should try to employ.
As stated in our article on the WSDC judging guideline, strategy accounts for 20 points in the judging criteria. During this speech, the second speaker demonstrates effective use of strategy by linking back to his team members’ previous arguments, and strengthening it by providing an alternate constructive argument on the same basic ideas. By linking your second speech to your team’s argument, you will be able to maximise your points in the judging criteria.
Disclaimer: This purpose of this article is solely to analyse debating technique and not offer any views or stance on the content of the aforementioned debate.
DebatePro 