CSCI 215 Semester Project
Debate some of the top technology topics of the day
It is the FINAL PROJECT (organ music). This assignment is worth 17% of your final grade.
There are two parts (3 really) to this project. Part 1 is a team debate. Part 2 is a research paper to be
done individually based on the topic you have been given.
Part 3 is showing up to your recitation and making intelligent decisions on the debates.
All partners (teams) have been set and the topics picked. Look for a link in D2L
with that information.
Due Dates:
Debates will start on November 6th.
Thursday Recitations will debate 11/6, 11/13 and 11/20
Tuesday Recitations will debate 11/18, 11/25 and 12/2 (no recitation 11/4 or 11/11)
All papers will be due 12/2 by 5pm.
Contact your partners as soon as possible if you haven’t done so already.
Debate – Part A
There will be an Affirmative team (Pro) and a Negative team (Con).
Each team will be made up of two people….when there is an odd number of classmates in a recitation,
or an odd amount of teams we will deal with that.
You will have one topic from the list below, you will be pro or con on the topic.
Timing and Order:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
Speaker one will be the Affirmative first speaker (A1). (6 minutes)
Negative’s second speaker (N2) will get 2 minutes to ask A1 questions. (2 minutes)
Speaker two will be Negative’s first speaker (N1). (6 minutes)
A2 will get 2 minutes to ask N1 questions (2 minutes)
A2 will speak rebuttal for 4 minutes. (4 minutes)
N2 will speak rebuttal for 4 minutes. (4 minutes)
Debate ends.
8. Both teams will get a running two minutes of prep time between speeches, which means you
can use 30 seconds here, 30 seconds there, etc.
Rules:
1st Affirmative must:
- define the topic.
- present the affirmative's team line.
- outline briefly what both speakers in their team will talk about.
- present the first half of the affirmative case.
1st negative must:
- accept or reject the definition. If you don't do this it is assumed that you accept the definition.
- present the negative team line.
- outline briefly what both of the negative speakers will say.
- rebut a few of the main points of the first affirmative speaker.
- the 1st negative should spend about one quarter of their time rebutting.
- present the first half of the negative team's case.
2nd affirmative must:
- reaffirm the affirmative's team line.
- rebut all the remaining points of the negative's case.
- the 2nd affirmative should spend about two thirds to three quarters of their time rebutting, with
facts.
- present a summary of the affirmative's case.
- round off the debate for the affirmative.
2nd negative must:
- reaffirm the negative's team line.
- rebut all the remaining points of the affirmative's case.
- the 2nd negative should spend about two thirds to three quarters of their time rebutting using
facts.
- present a summary of the negative's case.
- round off the debate for the negative.
Neither second speaker may introduce any new parts of their team's cases.
Explanations and hints:
In debating each team will present points in favor of their case. They will also spend some time
criticizing the arguments presented by the other team. This is called rebuttal. There are a few
things to remember about rebuttal.
1. Logic - to say that the other side is wrong is not enough. You have to show why the other side
is wrong. This is best done by taking a main point of the other side's argument and showing that
it does not make sense, using quotes from articles or journals. Because a lot of the thinking for
this needs to be done quic
kly you need to do your research and be prepared. This is one of
the most challenging and enjoyable aspects of debating.
2. Pick the important points - try to rebut the most important points of the other side's case.
Don’t get stuck on one of three or four points the other team has presented. Then you win one
argument and they win all the rest.
`Play the ball' - do not criticize the individual speakers, criticize what they say. To call someone
fat, ugly or a nerd does not make what they say wrong and it will also lose you marks.
CUE CARDS. Do not write out your speech on cue cards. There is even a current, and indeed
deplorable, trend towards computer generated cue cards. Debating is an exercise in lively
interaction between two teams and between the teams and the audience, not in reading a speech.
Use cue cards the same way you would use a prompt it a play, they are there for reference if you
lose your spot.
NERVOUS HABITS. Avoid them like the plague. Playing with your cue cards, pulling on a stray
strand of hair, fiddling with your watch, bouncing up and down on the balls of your feet or
bouncing your cue cards off the nose of the nearest audience member as you are finished with
them only distracts from your presentation. Use your whole person to effect, don't let any one
thing detract from your ability to persuade the audience.
ELOCUTION AND OTHER BIG WORDS. This is not an exercise in grammar or elocution. Try
to avoid being too informal but don't go overboard the other way. There are no marks to be
gained from trying to use big words you don't understand or can't pronounce. In the same way it
is a huge mistake to let someone else write your speech. People that do that aren't entering the
spirit or developing the skills of debating and end up looking really silly getting stuck on a word
they just can't say.
Matter is what you say, it is the substance of your speech. You should divide your matter into
arguments and examples.
An argument is a statement "The topic is true (or false depending on which side you are on)
because of x", where the argument fills in for the x . For example in the topic "That the zoos
should be closed" an argument may be: "the zoos should be closed because they confine the
animals in an unnatural environment".
An example is a fact or piece of evidence which supports an argument. If our argument is: "that
zoos should be closed because they confine the animals in an unnatural environment" then an
example might be: "that in the lion cage at Taronga Park Zoo in Sydney the animals only have
about 200 square metres where in the wild they would have 2000 square kilometres to roam in.".
Any examples that you use should be relevant to the topic at hand. Examples which have very
little or nothing to do with the topic only make a speech look weak and lacking substance.
Matter cannot be just a long list of examples. You do not win a debate by creating the biggest
pile of facts. Facts are like bricks in a wall, if you don't use them, cement them together properly
then they are useless. Similarly you cannot win a debate solely by proving that some of the facts
of the opposition are wrong. It may weaken their case a little, the same way that removing some
of the bricks from a wall will, but you really need to attack the main arguments that the other
side presents to bring the whole wall crashing down.
Paper
Each student will do a paper as an individual, it will be a 5 page paper with three parts. The
papers will cover one of the topics from the list below, it doesn’t have to be your debate topic,
but it will save you a lot of time if you do it on your debate topic. The first two pages will be
written as the PRO for the topic. The next two pages will be written as the CON for the topic.
The Fifth page will be the reference page.
There is nothing wrong with having an opinion and feeling strongly about an opinion. But if you
enter an argument with a completely closed mind where you just don’t understand the other side
then both sides will put up their defenses and nothing is going to be solved. The more you know
about the other opinion the better off you’re going to be. There are not enough people that can
see both sides these days, this is your intro to opening your mind and not being the normal
stubborn close-minded citizen we have in today’s society.
Paper Topics
(You don’t have to use your debate topic and of these 13 will work)
1. Should cities offer free public wi-fi?
a. Yes (Affirmative)
b. No
2. Social media does more good than harm. Low/medium
Pro – Does Good
Con – Does Harm
3. Will computer technology cause human workers to become obsolete?
a. Yes (Affirmative)
b. Negative
4. Driverless cars are a good thing.
a. Affirmative/ yes
b. negative
5. Stop the fight with piracy
Pro – Stop fighting piracy.
Con – For continuing the fight to stop piracy
6. Are we too dependent on computers?
Pro – Yes we are too dependent on Computers because……………
Con – No we are not too dependent on Computers because………….
7. Are video games contributing to violence?
Pro – Yes video games are contributing to violence
Con – Video games have nothing to do with violence.