Debate Unit Reflection

The past few weeks we have been focusing on the Debate Unit in Public Speaking class. Over these weeks, we did many debates and discussed over which techniques are more effective and useful in debates. Personally, I have always been interested in debates, I enjoy discussing a topic with peers and reaching a conclusion to see which point of view is the correct one. Throughout my freshman year, I had various debates in my English class and I also participated in 2 Model United Nations, so it is safe to say that I has already had some practice and context in debates. However, this class really helped me improve my skill because of the way how we were required to implement logo, pathos and ethos into our arguments, rather than just say whatever comes to mind. In the two main debates that we had in class, I was on the winning team, however the margin of which the team won by differed. The first debate was a much closer decision, as everyone in the class was still wrapping their heads around the debate and the topic. Although in the second debate my team had a much more organized and planned course of action, which I think is what allowed us to come out winning in the end. In the first debate, I did not include much logos or pathos, so my arguments were somewhat weaker and were easy to rebuttal, however in the second debate, I focused much more on the strength and credibility of my arguments in order to strongly get the team’s point across. The final day on the topic was spent doing mini debates, where we would pick a topic and discuss it 1 on 1 without any proper research. This activity was very fun and helpful as it taught me to be quick on my feet while arguing, and how you don’t really need to know everything about the topic you are discussing in order to come out on top.