Intelligence Squared Debate
This project was composed of three main sections. The first was an essay detailing our position on a prickly politics problem, the second was a mini debate in class that we composed about the topic we had wrote our essay about, and finally, a debate at all-school exhibition, which I conducted the opening statement for. The topic for our debate was whether the United States should admit 50,000 Syrian refugees. I argued for the motion. In order to build background information, we first learned about the origins of ISIS in order to better understand the geopolitics of the Middle East. Afterwards, we wrote constructive arguments as well as rebuttals of arguments the other team had made. To our complete and utter astonishment, these pieces were used to make an essay. At this point we had the majority of the evidence we needed. I am a goofball and kept finding evidence to better refute the other team's arguments. We then held our debate, which I did two rebuttals for. After this, Ally, our teacher, took a survey of what our favorite topics of debate were and who wanted to back them at all school exhibition. The two topics of debate were whether the United States should continue using drone strikes in the Middle East and whether or not the United States should admit 50,000 Syrian refugees.
This project has shaped the way I think about the Middle East by giving me a much more fundamental and complete picture of how it has become the mess it is today. My view is not in any way complete and will never be, but some insight into a topic is better than none. Now I have the insight to at least be able to discuss on a somewhat basic level the politics and situation of the Middle East and the rise of ISIS. This project has helped me to solidify my standing that the United States needs to admit Syrian refugees. To see why I have come to believe this, my essay is below.
During this project I solidified my understanding of Logos Ethos and Pathos, argument organization, and evidence analysis, as well as delivery. The strategies that I have developed for the latter will continue to help me in the future. On a whim, I decided to perform an opening statement as opposed to a rebuttal. This meant that I had to compose an 850 word speech and memorize it with limited use of notecards. To do this, I wrote my speech and reformatted it into a set of boxes. In each box, there was a bite-sized chunk of text. This allowed me to find my place extremely efficiently and look at the audience as much as possible. It also allowed me to use much more organized, understandable, and sophisticated language. You can see this in the difference in quality between my debates, which can be found below.
This project has shaped the way I think about the Middle East by giving me a much more fundamental and complete picture of how it has become the mess it is today. My view is not in any way complete and will never be, but some insight into a topic is better than none. Now I have the insight to at least be able to discuss on a somewhat basic level the politics and situation of the Middle East and the rise of ISIS. This project has helped me to solidify my standing that the United States needs to admit Syrian refugees. To see why I have come to believe this, my essay is below.
During this project I solidified my understanding of Logos Ethos and Pathos, argument organization, and evidence analysis, as well as delivery. The strategies that I have developed for the latter will continue to help me in the future. On a whim, I decided to perform an opening statement as opposed to a rebuttal. This meant that I had to compose an 850 word speech and memorize it with limited use of notecards. To do this, I wrote my speech and reformatted it into a set of boxes. In each box, there was a bite-sized chunk of text. This allowed me to find my place extremely efficiently and look at the audience as much as possible. It also allowed me to use much more organized, understandable, and sophisticated language. You can see this in the difference in quality between my debates, which can be found below.
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