While debates have been a hot topic during the past several months, the truth is that the importance of debating issues is rapidly falling by the wayside. Having become a forum for personal attacks, snide comments and ridicule, today’s debates hold none of the dignity of the discourses they were intended to be. Constructive debating, that is debating with the goal of educating and being educated on issues in order to elevate all involved is an art. With all this in mind, the following suggestions are offered for effective debating:
Reference Facts Accurately During the Debate
Facts support your points. They should be well-researched and correctly stated and they should come from irrefutable sources. Don’t quote an individual and expect those in opposition to automatically take your word on this matter. Better to incorporate statistics and generally accepted facts than to use anecdotal evidence which can be easily dismissed.
Make Your Points in the Debate Clearly
Don’t use terms that are ambiguous, open to interpretation or that require specialized knowledge to understand. When speaking to like-minded people you can assume with relative comfort that they will understand your meaning. In an open forum, however, this is not always the case. Use of vernacular sets you up to be misunderstood and that is precisely the opposite of your goal in any debate.
Set Aside Your Ego and Emotion During the Debate
Emotionally charged words may knock your opponent off his or her game, but that type of rhetoric will only backfire as cooler heads see through the flash and find no substance. Racial, ethnic, or religious slurs have no place in a rational debate, nor do personal attacks. Attention should be focused instead on the problem or problems in question.
Do Your Homework Before the Debate
Before entering into any debate there are two things you should understand: your position and that of your opponent. If you don’t have a thorough understanding of your position you’ll never be able to explain it to anyone else. The same goes with the holes you are attempting to poke in your opponent’s logic. If you don’t thoroughly understand all aspects (and subtle nuances) of his argument, you stand a good chance of proving his point instead of your own. One technique is to take the position with which you do not agree during a discussion with a colleague or friend as a way to grasp all sides of he issue. Its been said that if you can defend it you can break it down in a debate.
In addition avoid these common traps:
- Attacking the arguer, not the argument.
- Assuming an answer with the phraseology of the question.
- Misunderstanding and/or misrepresenting statistics.
- Confusing cause and effect.
- Creating a caricature rather than presenting reality.
Following these simple, logical guidelines may not make for tantalizing discourse but it will empower you to hold your own in an intellectual debate with just about anyone.
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