How to debate | Debate motions

The how to debate section is going to give you some ideas about the debate per se. I will provide you answers on how to debate in any debate format, and some topics are going to be made directly for a specific debate format.

How to make a public speach - Hand gestures

Tuesday, 11 December 2007

This article is the first in the series called “what to do to be a good speaker”. The articles are going to speak about different aspects of what is a good thing to do and what isn't while making a public speech.

This article is going to speak about the hand gestures.

Everyone is using hand gestures while speaking in the every day life. The gestures that we already use are those, that we should use while having a public speech. But there should be some modifications to what we do.

But before we go there, we should ask the question, why do we want to make gestures. It will make your speech more interesting, because if you hold still while having a speech, well why do we need a real person up there? Just bring a recording and play it. The other a bit more serious thing is, that you need to support your words with the body language. Some of the research has shown, that 70-80% of the message that the audience receives, is the non-verbal message, and a big part of it comes from the gestures. So don't forget to send the biggest part of your speech with your hands.

The gestures that we use are normally done in the narrow place in front of our stomach. They are ok, but if we have a public speech, the gestures are not going to be visible enough. That is why we have to lift them, so that we make them in front of our lunges. The other thing is, that we should make them a bit wider, that means that we should use more space in front of us.

The other thing that we should think about while having a public speech is that you should use different gestures. If you are going to use only a coupe of gestures, than the audience will get bored with the gestures and you will not be able to transmit your message efficiently.

Let me say, that there is nothing wrong, is there is a time, when you do not use gestures. You don't have to look like a bird that is trying to fly, because you make gestures all the time. Your gestures should say the same as your words do. If you are excited any so is your speech, you should use more gestures. If not, don't gesture that much.

There are a couple of things, that you should not do with your hand. Don't touch your head or face, or scratch it. It stops the transmittion of the sound, and the audience will not be able to hear you clearly and the won't be able to see the expression on your face, so again the message won't be transmitted in the best way.

Don't and I mean don't, like ever, take a pen with you when you go and start speaking. You will play with the pen and this is going to distract your audience, and they won't pay attention as much as you would like them to. You will have the pen in your hand, you will swirl it around, or you will drop it etc. And next to all the distraction it will make you look nervous. And even if you are, you shouldn't show that to the audience.

The other thing that you should leave on the desk are the papers, if you have any. And you should have something written down, so that if you get lost, you can remember fast, what is the next thing that you should say. But don't hold the papers in your hand. You will make less gestures, if you will hold the paper in your hand and we don't want that. If you hold your papers in your hand, the shaking of your hands will be more visible to your audience, and they should not know, that you are nervous.

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Time allocation and sign posting

Sunday, 09 December 2007

Im going to do two articles in one, because the both things, that I'm going to write about, talk about what you should do in your speech.

A good time allocation means that you will do all of the roles, that you need to fulfill within your speech. Being the first government speaker means, that you have to present a problem, a solution, a model and arguments. If you plan your speech good, you will use around four minutes for your arguments, and the other time will be used to present the problem/solution/plan, and a half minute closing of your speech. The time allocation gets more interesting, when you need to do more in your speech. First opp speaker has to present own arguments and negate what the frist speaker has presented. For the first opp speaker it is more important to present own arguments than to negate. That means, that in a seven minute speech you will use up to four minutes for presenting your own arguments and the other time will be used for negation and for other things that you do in your speech (introduction, closing).

The same goes for the next two speakers. You need to think about your time allocation before you start your speech. You need to know at what moment you would like to be where. Plan, that you need to be at the start of the second argument at 4,5 minutes, and if you are not, you need to finish whatever you are doing and go to the next argument. Time allocation gets more interesting on the second table. Third government speaker has a lot to do, because presenting an extension will take a lot of time of her speech, and he also needs to take time to go through the first tables and make some more rebuttal of the previous opp speaker. The best way to do it is that you start with your most important stuff, in this case you need to start with your extension. After you finish, you will have time to do the rebuttal. You can decide to do it the opposite way, but it happens often, that people get just too much involved into negation, and with that they do not present the extension clear enough, and this will cost you a good placement in the debate.

The most important thing, that you need to do is the extension, and if you waste time on the other things, that are not that important, you will show, that its not you, who makes the decisions on the speaker floor, its the speech, that takes you, where it wants and that is not a good sign. As Im just at the extension speaker of the government, this is a good place to explain the sign posting idea. Sign posting means, that you should always explain the judge, what you will do in your speech. You need to do it at least three times. In your introduction you have to tell the judge, how your speech is going to look like. That does not mean, that you need to come up and start "Ladies and gentleman, I am the third speaker of the government and my role in the debate is to negate what was already said in the debate and to present an extension". Most judges have a good idea about what your role in the debate is, so don't repeat that, because you will bore the judge, and you don't want to do that in the first sentence that you make. What you need to do is that you, while make your introduction tell the judge what your arguments will be about.

It is easier for the judges to follow, and it is fair to the opposite teams, so that have an idea, what you will speak about up front. In your speech, you should always tell, when you from one argument to the other, when you go from the negation to your own substantive material, when you go to your extension. Most of the judges wait for you to do your job, so they will react on you saying to them, what you are doing. So this is the second sign posting,that you need to do. The third sign posting that you need to do is at the end of your speech. You should sum up, what you have said in the debate. Do not repeat it too much, just go through the one most important thing for each argument.

To make the sign posting clear in one sentence: You need to tell, what you are going to do, than do it and tell what you are doing, and at the end you need to tell, what you have done in your speech. If you follow the ideas presented in this article, you will have a better structure, you will do your job as a speaker and the judges will follow what you speak about and it won't happen, that you think you said something, but the judge just won't get it. Comments to this article are welcome!

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