All the author's royalties from the book will be donated to the Debate Association (Singapore), to help them spread debating to students from less privileged backgrounds. International customers can buy the book from Amazon.com or http://www.marshallcavendish.com/marshallcavendish/genref/Think-Speak-Win_B24238_Singapore.aspx. Thanks for supporting this project!
About the author:Gaurav Keerthi was the President of Debate Association (Singapore), and is a founding Fellow of Raffles Debate Academy and has over 16 years experience in the field. In 2006-08, Gaurav worked with MediaCorp to develop and star in the Emmy-nominated student debate TV show, The Arena. He was listed as one of Prestige's 2008 "Power List" for his work as President of Debate Association (Singapore). He has also served as a debate consultant for Google, the World Bank, the Singapore Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Finance, and written speeches for cabinet ministers.
Sounds like one of those numerous people who put themselves out there as being a debating guru without ever having done anything in debating themselves.
ReplyDeleteI don't know Gaurav's background so I can't comment. However I know Neill Harvey Smith has a new book just released on Amazon US and soon to come to Amazon UK and once I get a blurb on that one I will be posting it also.
ReplyDeleteDid you ever write a book from this blog?
ReplyDeleteNo. Never had the time.
ReplyDeleteHad a chance to browse through this book. It's badly written and the guy does not sound like he knows what he is writing about. He also goes around the Singapore circuit making wild claims like he coaches the Singapore WSDC team and that he was champion debater for Stanford.
ReplyDeleteHi Colm, thanks for posting this. This is the author, and I'd like to quickly address some points before they get recirculated.
ReplyDeleteI'm not claiming to be a world-class debater - my blurb about the author makes no such assertions. I used to teach an introductory debate program for 13-15 year old students for many years - and almost all the Singapore WSDC speakers were selected (independently, by an unrelated panel) from that program. The Singapore WSDC 2007 team that made it to the grand finals were largely selected from this program I taught. I also helped to directly train the team in S Korea - this can be verified with the speakers themselves if you wish. I am also not sure where the last commented heard me making those other claims. I debated for Stanford, but did not enjoy the particular American format of debate, so decided to try out other activities while in college. All the claims made in print on the book blurb are factual and can be verified, including the one about me co-developing an Emmy-nominated TV show about debate.
This book is not aimed at world-class debaters, or people who intend to compete at a very high level. This book is aimed at students who have never spoken in front of a crowd before. As such, it does not try and address the nuances of clever rebuttal. It explains what "rebuttal" is, for a non-debater. It eschews terminology in favour of simplicity. I know that many of the world-class debaters on this site will not have any use for my book, but my goal is to help new young students (aged 12-15) learn more about the activity. The writing style is designed to appeal to a younger audience.
I understand that some may feel it is still "badly written" - that is a personal opinion which I respect, and would love to understand more about this so that I can improve the book for future revisions.
My goal is to spread our common love of debate to students who don't have access to top coaches or passionate teachers, and who are looking for a simple introduction (without complex terminology) to this fun activity.
Thanks again for posting the link Colm!
[This is still the author]
ReplyDeleteJust to add: unlike many other authors who write the book to earn money, I'm not keeping a single cent from this book - it will all go towards providing debate training for students from less-privileged backgrounds. I hope that people will be supportive of the project overall.
I'm also very eager to hear how I can improve the book for future versions, keeping in mind my target audience of complete newbies who are NOT going to be debating at a national/international competitive level.