what's it like to be on a debate team? and/or what is debate like?

Question

I'm considering joining my high schools debate team, partly because I'm fairly good at arguing and like to be able to argue something without getting in trouble, and also because it would look good on a college application, hehe. I was just wondering what you even do on a debate team in high school, and things like that basically. Thanks!

Answer 1

two types of debate, CX and LD

CX works well for someone who wants a partner to lean on...deals heavily with evidence and current events.

LD is well for the loner...deals heavily with theory and philosophers.

In between your debates, you have extra little events like impromtu speeches and such.

Both are good for learning to speak in front of crowds and formulate an argument (strong skills to have in college). My bias is towards CX as it trains you to research well, keeps ya up on current events, and it's generally more flexible and therefore more fun.

Basically what you do is sit around all the time reading over theories, articles, etc...putting together evidence, arguing, so on and so forth.

I would recommend debate to anyone, as those who apply themselves well really stand out in college. Being in college now I can spot a debater in the first week.

Good luck and have fun...some of your fondest memories of high school will be a result of being on the debate team.

Answer 2

Hehe, sounds like my logic before joining. :P

It's a really good experience because you learn many useful speaking skills as well as being able to argue with other people.

What you do really varies within schools but at our school we were part pf the QDU Debating competition (Queensland Debating Union). We had a debate about every 3 weeks - one month apart for 4 rounds and then it went into the finals if your team had won 3 or 4 out of the preliminary debates.

The topics were usually on things that were going around at the time that had two distinct sides each with their own points. One example was "That nuclear power should be given a chance". One teamis the affirmative and the other is the negative and you argue the points, making your point to the audience as well as taking down the opposition's points.

Each speech was around 5-7minutes long plus in the senior division you can stand up in someone else's speech and ask a question of the opposition on a point they had just made (I love doing that! :D)

Mostly our team had meetings every week and a bit more often just before the debate where we thought up points to use and possible things the opposition might come up with.

Debating is really good. You learn life skills that stay with you for ages like public speaking and communicating effectively in a group.

I hope what I said helped. :)

Answer 3

Are you comfortable speaking in front of a group of people?

If so, it seems as if you have what it takes. Debating is fun, though there are different types of debating. When I was in debate, we didn't have teams, per se, but rather debated another individual (from another school) in front of a judge or two. When debating in the finals, students would do so in front of the judge(s) and an audience (which was pretty much everyone not participating in the finals). Of course, everything may be different nowadays--I was in debate in 1994.

Answer 4

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