Everything students, parents, and teachers need to know about debating and public speaking. Welcome to the world of school debating and public speaking, the best training ground for developing self-esteem and learning to look critically at big issues. Speaking well builds confidence and opens up a world of opportunity, in education, leadership, careers, and community and political engagement. In an increasingly competitive world, being a convincing, passionate, and persuasive speaker is essential to standing out from the crowd. Claire Duffy not only demystifies the process but makes it fun. Learn all about the best ways to prepare for a debate or speech, the persuasive power of reason, the art of argument and rebuttal, and, when worse comes to worst, how to be gracious in defeat. Including practical tips from the pros and helpful step-by-step examples, this is the essential handbook for making every spoken word count. Including practical tips from the pros and helpful step-by-step examples, The Teen's Guide to Debating and Public Speaking is the essential handbook for making every spoken word count and will prove to be an enduringly popular and highly valued addition to school and community library Public Speaking/Debating instructional reference collections. ― Midwest Book Review “The Teen’s Guide to Debating and Public Speaking” by teacher, coach, and speaking competition organizer Claire Duffy is the perfect instructional introduction to public speaking and would admirably serve as a textbook for junior high and senior high debate classes and programs. Speaking well builds confidence and opens up a world of opportunity, in education, leadership, careers, and community and political engagement. In an increasingly competitive world, being a convincing, passionate, and persuasive speaker is essential to standing out from the crowd. In “The Teen's Guide to Debating and Public Speaking” Duffy not only demystifies the process but makes it fun. Students will learn all about the best ways to prepare for a debate or speech, the persuasive power of reason, the art of argument and rebuttal, and, when worse comes to worst, how to be gracious in defeat. Including practical tips from the pros and helpful step-by-step examples, “The Teen's Guide to Debating and Public Speaking” is the essential handbook for making every spoken word count and will prove to be an enduringly popular and highly valued addition to school and community library Public Speaking/Debating instructional reference collections. It should be noted for personal reading lists that “The Teen's Guide to Debating and Public Speaking” is also available in a digital book format. ― Midwest Book Review Claire Duffyis a teacher, coach, adjudicator, and competition organizer. Working with young people is her specialty. She has coached people at all levels, from student champions to twelve-year-old beginners and CEOs facing important professional speaking challenges. Claire lives in Sydney, Australia. Debate as we know it probably started with the ancient Athenians, who believed that orderly free speech was an important part of good government. For a man to be considered suitable for public leadership (sorry, girls, they didn’t want you) he had to persuade people using reason. Not bribery or a knife at the throat, just reason, in the form of well-crafted, logical arguments. He was judged on this. Today it is still a sign of an intelligent, well-educated person that they reason things out in a systematic and logical way. Note that I say “logical” and not “persuasive.” The two are related but also quite different. Persuasion depends a lot on emotions. When we are stirred up and our feelings are engaged, we are more likely to take action, or change our minds about something. Consider advertising. It’s all about emotional appeal and the “Wow!” factor: gorgeous images, catchy songs, and promises to make you rich/thin/fit/beautiful. Advertising excites you, and before you can say “Think!” you are parting with your money. Or maybe you’ve been fired up by the persuasive powers of a speaker for a cause: the environment, a charity, medical research. After they’d finished, you were ready to help out in any way you could. That person was persuasive. In life you can be very successful if you can persuade people emotionally ― but this is not what debating is about. Arousing people’s feelings won’t hurt but it doesn’t win a debate for you. Debates are about the mind, not the heart. When we talk about something being “per-suasive” in debaterspeak, we mean that it’s logical, com¬pelling, and convincing. HOW IT WORKS: INTRODUCING LOGIC, PREMISES, AND FALLACIES If you were a doctor, you’d need to know how the human body works before you could go poking around in any¬body else’s. In the same way, you’ll be a better debater if you understand what goes into a good argument and how they work. Understanding the shape of arguments will help you attack your opponents