Of debate issues

Adjudicating debates aint easy after all as compared to debating itself. I would rather be debating rather than sitting on the other side of the room, evaluating. Well, the yearly affair went on smoothly but this year (alhamdulillah) , but the organizers left out many things due to budget matters. Hopefully by next year, they’ll be able to string the pieces back together and arrange the flow accordingly.

The issue that is left to say is regarding the contestants. In ANY game, there’ll be teams that will lose and win. As a human being, you face your ups and downs and at times you must accept your fate. It doesn't mean that if you are from a 'certain prestiguous' faculty your team ought to win. Judges do not come with a preconceived mindset okayy.. There were groups with confidence and the master of language but you sometimes need to reflect on the utmost important thing in a debate is how you present your points. It is useless, even if you have a native-like English accent but you present ideas that aren’t concrete and the group tends to shift from one mechanism to the other. You need to have a balance in language, content and organization.

Here are some tips for future debaters; firstly you need to understand the motion and know what you are talking about. You also have to present points clearly and steadily-meaning that you need to get your facts right and be clear with your presentation. The whole team also needs to know their roles, i.e; the first speaker needs to define the motion, and the 3rd speaker needs to rebut.

In order to differentiate a good debater and a mediocre debater is that a good debater will avoid reading (the prepared speech) as need to think your own feet and try to explain the fact as though you are the master of it. Normally experienced debater will end on time and they will end after 30 seconds after the 1 minute warning to show their respect to time. Good debaters are also ones that are intelligently humuorous and entertaining. There’s a vast difference between a debate that is serious (dull) and one that is lively (entertaining).

Here’s a slideshow about debating that I found online.

Hopefully, future debaters will understand what debating is and control their emotions eventhough they fail to win the round. Winning is not everything.. There’s no use for being upset and blaming other people for your loss. Sometimes you just need to look at things from other people’s point of view in order to become better. All in all, debates are supposed to encourage you to instill positive insights and not demotivate you. That’s why, as a debater you learn to be matured and learn look at things in different perspective. At times you need to know that sometimes you can't get everything that you want.

I'll leave you with some pics from the debate.

adjudicatorsteam Ateam A practising
team B

both teams unite~ after d quarter finals