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5 March 2011

Worlds Magazine 3rd Issue‏

The third issue of the De La Salle Worlds Magazine has just been released.  It contains a number of interesting articles including an interview with their co-CA, Sam Block, and one of the DCAs, Art Ward.

Other important updates (registration dates etc) can also be found in the same issue.

4 March 2011

Q&A Debating for "adults"

Here is another question and answer from my e-mail archive.  This one is a common question because once people finish college there really isn't an option for them to continue debating.  The question is about Ireland but I think it can apply to almost any country.  Perhaps a few of us should get together and set something up but in the meantime I hope this is useful to someone.

Question:
Hi Colm

I am looking to join a debating club/ public speaking club for adults in Dublin. Do you know of one?


Thank you
XXXX

Answer:
Hi Xxxx,

This is actually a very common question but not one I have an easy answer for.  I’ll split my answer to your question into two areas Debating and Public speaking. For debating the options are not very good but for public speaking things are a bit more hopeful.

Debating: I’ve looked a couple of times to see if is a debating club for adults and actually it tends to be a very rare. They pop up every now and then but often they are run to a political agenda (I have seen a few socialist debating clubs advertise events and I know Ogra Fianna Fail do some debating but you aren’t really going to get a diverse range of opinions in events like these).

Some organisations like Macra na Feirme and Junior Chambers hold debating competitions but that’s only an offshoot of their core activities. I came across a Dublin Debating Society a few years ago as they were debating against a Toastmasters club. However I haven’t heard anything about them in a long time and can find no trace of them on line now.

Given the popularity of debating in college I’m always surprised how there isn’t more debating for adults. I once looked as setting one up in Limerick but found that there was not a lot of interest from the general public and we didn’t even have enough people to hold a debate let alone have an audience. I think the key is to have regular interesting guest speakers to attract a crowd and from that crowd the membership will develop. Unlike Limerick a club in Dublin would have a much greater pool of interesting speakers to call on but no one ever seems to have tried setting one up. I know there are clubs in London, Toronto, Singapore etc that seem to do quite well.

Public speaking: I’ve already mentioned Toastmasters above. Toastmasters are often looked down on by university debating and certainly its a very different atmosphere and philosophy.  However it is the only world wide organisation catering for public speaking.  I think this might be an option you should try. A typical toastmasters meeting contains both impromptu short speeches and longer prepared speeches. It’s an interesting mix that seems to suit most people. You will get to make a impromptu “table topics” speech at every week. No one is forced to speak so if you don’t want to you don’t have to but in general once people have settled in they tend to be happy to take part.

Then 3-4 times a year you make a longer prepared speech based on a training manual which develops your public speaking style over 10 modules. Feedback is given by an assigned evaluator (and by the general audience in the form of feedback notes) but in a very encouraging positive way. Once you have completed the first manual of 10 modules there are a number of other shorter manuals you can then take up to develop other areas (e.g. business communication).

I believe the key thing about Toastmasters is finding a club that suits you. The first club I went to was the original club in my city. The member profile was on the older side (I would say the average age was late 40s). There is nothing wrong with that but I was in my 20s and didn’t really feel comfortable there. After that I tried a newer club in Limerick (there are 3-4 in the city) and there I found the member profile much younger and really enjoyed the company of the people there (I actually met my wife there, but that’s another story).

I recommend looking at your local newspapers and see what toastmaster clubs are near you (or try http://www.toastmasters.com/ to find a list of clubs). Don’t feel obliged to join the one closest to you. You can normally attend 3 meetings as a guest without joining so you can see if you like the atmosphere and the people. If you don’t feel comfortable there then try another club. Hopefully you will find one that you like.

I hope that gives you some guidance. If there is anything more I can do to help let me know. If you want clarification on anything above let me know.

Regards,

Colm

Last week for travel subsidies to judge in China!

Frist, thanks to all who have already submitted applications for adjudicator positions at the FLTRP Cup. We will make our first-round assessments for travel subsidies for adjudicators interested in attending the FLTRP Cup on March 10. If you have not submitted your application by this date you will likely miss out on available travel subsidy funds. Please visit http://www.chinadebate.org/Adjudicator.asp to apply.


The Foreign Languages Teaching and Research Press (FLTRP), organizer of the most prestigious English language debating tournament in China, invites you participate as a guest adjudicator at the 15th FLTRP Cup National English Debating Championship. The FLTRP Cup will be held May 7-14, 2011 at the FLTRP’s Convention Center in Beijing.


To apply to be an adjudicator, please visit: http://www.chinadebate.org/Adjudicator.asp

Last year, the FLTRP Cup made a successful transition to the British Parliamentary format, the style of debating employed by the World Universities Debating Championships. This transition was critical to connecting Chinese universities to the world of international debating and required the cooperation of volunteers willing to contribute their experience as adjudicators to the effort. We had an outstanding group of adjudicators attend, including Jess Prince (Canada), Sam Greenland (Australia), Josh Martin (USA), Stephen Boyle (Ireland), Lars Duursma (the Netherlands), Uri Merhav (Israel), Loke Wing Fatt (Singapore), Filip Dobranic (Slovenia), Jason Rogers (Canada), Justice Motlhabani (Botswana) and Monica Ferris (Canada) just to name a few. To continue the progress made last year, we are even more committed to bringing qualified adjudicators to this year's tournament.

Though the competition is open only to Chinese university students, there is a great need for skilled adjudicators to ensure that the standards of the BP style are upheld. To encourage you to participate in this effort, the FLTRP is sponsoring an incentive package for all qualified adjudicators with significant BP experience who agree to adjudicate at the 15th FLTRP Cup. All qualified adjudicators will receive:

· Scheduled transfers from Beijing airport to the FLTRP Convention Center (May 7)
· Hotel at the FLTRP Convention Center (May 7-14)
· All meals while at the Convention Center (May 7-14)
· Transfer to downtown Beijing (May 14)
· Hotel in downtown Beijing (May 14-17)
· Tours of major sites like the Great Wall & Forbidden City (May 15-16)
· Some meals while in downtown Beijing (May 15-16)
· Transfers to airport on May 17

Additionally, we will offer partial air travel subsidies to select qualified adjudicators.

The FLTRP Cup is the oldest, largest and most celebrated intercollegiate debating competition in China. Since it’s inception, the FLTRP Cup has been a major sponsor of intercollegiate debating in China and is on the forefront of promoting open discourse and intellectual exchange among the best and brightest of Chinese college students.

Questions may be directed to steve.johnson.alaska@gmail.com or to fltrpcup@gmail.com.

3 March 2011

Q&A Confidence hit in "second season"

Here is the next Q&A e-mail I came across in my clean up of my e-mails.  I suspect this is a common problem as a lot of speakers find they do well as freshers/maidens but find it difficult when they reach second year and are expected to compete against senior speakers.

Hi Colm,

I was looking at the guides for debating at KOC worlds, and I found them really interesting. The thing is, I've been debating for a year (I'm now a second year) and I'm still pretty shit but I really want to improve and I found that the advice on some stuff to be a little general for where I'm at. I'm not that bad, but I came pretty low on the tab at XXX and we have one or two really good first years who I'm afraid could out strip me this year !


I've been told my problem is that while I have the basics of stuff like role fulfillment and structure and I understand how it works, I am still sloppy and tend to forget about the more nuanced aspects of it. Would you have anything on that ?

I have also been told that while I have the basics of analysis and structure to my speech it is only mediocre. Again would you have anything to show me on that ?

Also, I am wondering if you have any advice on how to clear up messy debates ? Do you have any pointers on how to watch out for and recognise it and how to rectify it ? Or how to prevent creating one when in first prop ?

I know I'm already asking you a lot, but I also found your articles on first principles to be really interesting. Would you have any more guides on first principles and how I can improve my competence with bringing debates back to that ? That's where I could really gain, because I often get bogged down by weird motions and hence make dodgy points.

I'm sure you get a lot of emails like this so I'd be very grateful if you could respond.

Regards,
XXXX

Answer:
Hi XXXX,

I know where you're coming from. Some people seem to take it up very quickly but for most people it's a bit of a slog. I was not a good debater. It took me 3 years to even become average at debating. I think if I was to go back now I would be better but in reality it was hard work for me. I think the best way to think about it is like Golf. There are some golfers who can just pick up a club and do really well (Darren Clark) but there are others for whom it is a hard slog of work (Padraic Harrington). Both can be successful you just have to remember that just because you aren't a natural doesn't mean you can't win majors in the future.

Without having seen you speak it's hard to say what are your strengths and weaknesses. You say you know the basics and that's good to start with. After that the the main thing is practice. There really is no replacement for it. Debating is like any skill. The more you practice it the better you get. A lot of the reason for that is there isn't a check list that can be applied to every debate. Sure there is the basic stuff but after that every debate is different. The definitions, the challenges, the arguments, the rebuttal etc or the lack of any of these all change the course of the debate. You have to go through this time and again to learn the differences. In the likes of Oxford, Sydney etc they will have several debates and workshops a week and competitions at the weekends so some speakers (in particular in the run up to Worlds) are practicing 2-3 times a week and debating 5-7 times at the weekend.

OK so that's not a very helpful suggestion on the debating stuff. Practice. Anyone could have told you that. One other thing strikes me on your e-mail though. "I'm still pretty shit" "I am still sloppy" "I'm afraid", "only mediocre", "bogged down". Your confidence is shot!

That's fine. That's fixable. I was there in my debating career. I didn't think I was good enough and therefore I was not good enough for a very long time. What you need to do is build up something that can be the core strength of your debating ability. Something that can be your crutch that you can mentally go to when you walk into a room and look at the others in there and say to yourself "I'm better than everyone else here at.......". For some people it is their speaking style, For some people it is their analytical ability. For some people it is their depth of knowledge.

If you can do that in one area your confidence will improve. If your confidence improves you will become more persuasive. If you become more persuasive you will win more debates. If you win more debates your confidence improves and so on.

So what do you do. Well the easiest is to start to work on your knowledge. I don't know if case files are still common on the circuit. They go through phases when they are seen as essential and when they are seen as naff. In the times when it's naff those people in the final with backpacks. They are hiding their case files in the backpacks. You are not going to know everything about the huge range of topics we expect debaters to be able to argue so you need to have a case file of information.

Do you have your Times or Mace motion yet? If you do start working on those. Read about the subject. What's the background to the topic. Understand the issues on BOTH sides. Get the best articles you can find on the subject and summarise the main points. Attach the summary and the key articles together and there is your first file of knowledge. Don't try to memorise it. This isn't an exam. Understand what you are reading then file the sheets so you can get the info out when you need it.

Now once you have done your times and mace debates move on to the motions that were at UCD. After that the motions at Oxford and Cambridge. Start reading the paper every day. If you have some free time instead of listening to music listen to a news show on the radio at least once a day. It's probably only 30 minutes to get the main issues and you will be surprised what sinks in. Over time you will build up your knowledge base so that you can walk into a room and realise that you know more about this topic than everyone else in there.

Now how do you apply that knowledge. For that look at http://worlddebating.blogspot.com/2005/12/preparing-for-worlds-3-first.html. The basic principle of how to think about your argument What is this Debate really about? What is usually required to win this debate? What can we add to the debate that hasn’t already been said? Are our arguments convincing? Are our examples good & getting to the heart of the issue or simply taking up time?

If you have the knowledge and ask yourself those sort of questions about your argument you will find that your performances improve.

It's going to be a slog. Don't get disheartened. You are going to take some beatings over the next few months but hopefully you will see some progress as well. The best thing is to set yourself a target (say top half at a particular IV). That gives you something to aim for and a reasonable time frame to get the work done.
I hope some of that helped.  Let me know how you get on.

Colm

Results of Frank Thakur Das Memorial Debate, India

The Frank Thakur Das Memorial Debate was recently held at Mal College, Delhi University, India


The winners were Ramjas B (Karandeep Aazan Khanna & Kapilan Mahalingam) while the runners up were Ramjas A (Shobhit Nanda & Rohan Kochar)

The motions were:

Round 1

1. Festivals : THBT commercialization of festivals is good
2. Fasting : THW ban religious fasts unto death
3. Faith: THW use faith based rehabs in prisons.

Round 2
1. National Anthem: THW not force children to sing the national anthem in schools
2. Cultural Societies: THBT cultural societies should tax their members’ earnings.
3. G.I Joes: THBT parents should not give their children GI Joes and other war toys (tanks, guns, submarines, grenades etc)

Round 3
1. Bosses / Subordinates: THBT bosses should be held accountable for corruption activities of their subordinates
2. Espionage: THW decriminalize corporate espionage
3. Rashtrapati Bhawan: THW rent rooms in the Rashtrapati Bhawan (president’s residence)

Round 4 – Fictitious Setting
1. Superheroes : THBT all individuals with superpowers should be de-powered
2. Harry Potter: THBT Aurors should be allowed to use all unforgiveable curses at all times
3. Archies: THBT the makers of Archies should create a homosexual Love story.

Round 5
1. Gujarat : THW legalize the sale of alcohol at competitive prices in Gujarat
2. No man Left Behind: THW discard the no man left behind policy
3. Voter Rights: THW grant voters the right to recall.

Round 6
1. Illegal Immigrants: THW grant birthright citizenship for children of illegal immigrants
2. Ex-Rebels: THBT ex-rebels should not be integrated into state security forces.
3. Scientists & Researchers: THBT full time scientists and researchers should not pay tax on their salaries.

Quarters
1. Black Money: THW allow citizens to transfer black money into white without the fear of prosecution
2. Lifestyle Choices: THBT the government should restrict lifestyle choices to combat climate change
3. Gender Discrimination: THBT religious bodies should not be allowed to discriminate on the basis of gender.

Semis
1. Material Advancement: THBT material advancement is more important than civil and political rights.
2. Koreas: THW reunify the Koreas
3. Islamic Dress: THBT the Arab world should stop selling oil to France until it removes restrictions on Islamic Dress

Finals
1. THBT Democracy is a luxury
2. THW create an international battlefield (war haven)
3. THBT a world where lying is impossible would be worse than one where it is possible.



Thanks to Devna Soni for ths info.

2 March 2011

Q&A Points of information

You may recall that around the last World Championships I created a lot of posts with information from my computer archive.  Continuing on this I'm working my way through my hotmail account and cleaning up years of messages in it.  In this process I have come across a lot of questions I have been asked about debating and the replies I sent. I've decided to post some of them here for future reference.  So to continue.....


Question: I have some questions points of information. I'll be doing the xxxx debate soon, so I'm just confused about them.
What should their content be?
Is it ok to stand up and tell the speaker that you don't agree with their point, to tell them that their explanation is bad?
Should it be like a piece of rebuttal, or is it hust a simple piece of fact?
Plus, I made an absolute fool of myself last year by making NONE. I just got shy, and I was trying to come up with full rebuttal sections, but  by the time that I had them finished, they had moved onto another point.
By the way, is it ok to give a point of information on a point that the speaker has moved on from?

Answer:
First of all I'll direct you to my training article on points of information.  http://worlddebating.blogspot.com/2007/09/tips-points-of-info.html.  That will cover the specifics of how and when to offer a point.
 
To address some of your specific queries you asked is it a piece of rebuttal or a fact. It can be either, neither or many other things. That probably doesn't seem like it help but my advice is this : if you are just starting out don't tie yourself up in knots worrying about what makes a good point of information.  There are some very simple things to do as a beginner:


- If you think of something to say then offer a point with it. It doesn't matter if you think you sound stupid because they very rarely are stupid. Get up there and offer it.

- Research your motion. Know it as well as you can and then listen carefully to what the other side are saying. You will find that the better you know the subject the more flaws you spot in the opposition speeches and these are what you can offer points on.

- A point of info is just like an interjection you make in a conversation with your friends. It could be a fact, a joke, a disagreement (i.e. rebuttal) whatever comes naturally in the conversation. The same applies to the POI.

- Don't sit there over analysing your points of information. Does it hit the right issue, is it worded correctly, is it backing up my case, will I look stupid. Just offer it. You will find if you trust your first instinct then 90% of the time you will get it right.

- Like any skill in debating practice makes perfect. Don’t expect to be offering killer points of information in your first year debating. Keep offering them and as your skill and confidence increase your points of information will become better and better.

Now some things to avoid in your Point of Information

- Don't go over 15 seconds. They can be as short as you like (if you offer a point in 5 seconds then there is a chance the speaker wasn't listening and was looking at his/her speech and then they look stupd) but don't go over 15 secs as the chair will cut you off and you may not have made the point.

- Be relevant to what they are saying at the time. Don't try to drag them back to a point back in their speech. It looks bad and indicates that you are struggling to keep up with what they are saying. If you think of a good rebuttal point but the speaker has moved on to another issue then just note it down and use it for your rebuttal in your speech. If you have already spoken note it and hope someone else on their side makes the point again. If that person is the last speaker and you don't get to make the point don't worry about it. That will happen to you dozens of times in your speaking career.

Register for Galway Euros TODAY!

We would like to remind all institutions that the re-registration for Galway EUDC 2011 will take place Wednesday 2nd March, as has been advertised and previously communicated. The team cap will fill up very quickly therefore we want to be quite clear that registration will open at exactly 12 noon GMT. (12pm Galway, London, Lisbon. 1pm Paris, Amsterdam, Berlin. 2pm Athens, Ankara, Tallinn. 3pm Moscow, Doha) Registration will remain open for only 24 hours on this occasion, as we are confident that this will capture the vast majority of entrants, and that our team cap will be filled within this time. We will be accepting additional teams to the waiting list via emails to this address - only once registration has closed!

Only institutions need register in this first phase as independent judges will be asked to register 2 weeks later on the 16th of March.

As we are conscious of the time factor the details that you will be required to submit have been reduced to 5 so as to make the process as quick as possible. Those details are

- Institution Name
- Country
- Delegate Leaders Name
- Contact Email
- Number of teams and judges registering.

As announced, the team cap will be 200 and 3 teams per institution. Requests for extra teams must be made by email before the 9th of March and will be dealt with after the waiting list has been exhausted. As in previous years, while registration places will be allocated on the basis of the order in which they registered, one team spot will be reserved per eligible country.

Once institutions have successfully registered they will then have 3 weeks to transfer a deposit of €50 per person. This will be a non-refundable mandatory payment and must be made before the 23rd of March. Failure to pay this deposit on time will result in removal from the registration list and waiting teams will be given the opportunity to take the vacant places. Institutions may opt to pay the full amount of €265 per person at this stage if they please. The balance will otherwise need to be paid by the 27th of April.

The registration programme can be accessed through our website www.galwayeudc2011.ie/register and any further details or questions can be addressed to registration@galwayeudc2011.ie

Once again, I would like to apologise on behalf of the OrgComm of Galway EUDC 2011 for the inconvenience caused by having to re-run registration. We thank you for your understanding.

Nollaig O'Scannlain
Convenor Galway EUDC 2011

1 March 2011

Belgrade Open Final Video

Following on from their work livestreaming rounds from the recent World Debating Championships in Botswana, IDEA were at the Belgrade Open broadcasting a live stream of selected debates.  They have now posted a recording of the final.

Motion: This house believes that post-conflict governments should share power between both parties who were involved in the conflict
You can view the final below or click here to see the IDEA video archive.

28 February 2011

Shortlisted in the Irish Blog Awards

After two or three years of being nominated we have finally made it from being nominated to being shortlisted in the Specialist blog categry.  Brian Cowen being good enough to hold the Irish Election and accompaning debates at the same time as the judging for the short list certainly helped catch the attention of the judges and I hope they saw other things they liked here.

I'm not sure how one goes from the shortlist to the final but fingers crossed.  There are some strong blogs on the list but you never know...