Public Forum Debate Analysis

I have had debates in previous classes, but just with partners, not a large group debate like in this tutorial activity. Our group was pro two tier healthcare and the other group was opposing it. For

When watching or listing to a baseball game you can tell that the broadcasters are very knowledgeable about the sport, each team, players, etc.. However, this is something that just doesn’t happen over night since the complexity of this specific genre system inside the broadcasting discourse community. Remember that certain criteria of discourse communities according to novelist John Swales, “A discourse community has a broadly agreed set of common public goals” (Swales 220). These public goals can be achieved by genre systems. That’s why there has to be a lot of preparation by both the broadcasters and even more from those that work behind the scenes for the team to make this genre system function properly inside the broadcasting discourse community.

Gee defines Discourses as a way of being in the world; they are forms of life which integrate words, acts, values, beliefs, attitudes and social identities as well as gestures, glances, body positions, and clothes. (Gee 278) I decided to do my paper on The World Overcomers Church because I wanted to learn how a church is considered a discourse community. According to Swale’s there are six characteristics that make up a discourse community. They are common goals, mechanisms of intercommunication among members, participatory mechanisms to provide information and feedback, utilizing one or more genres in communication, a specific lexis, and a threshold level of members with a degree of relevant content and discourse expertise. (Swale 321) I had to go to the church to observe to understand how it is considered a discourse community. The churches goal is to obtain happiness, values, beliefs of ethnic and morals to trust in god and have faith.

I think most people can identify with this movie, the fear of speaking out to others to convince them of your point. The fear of trying to prove a point to others that may have more knowledge on the subject or be able to refute it better. In reference to the movie it was about defending a personal honor, having the right to speak out and be equal with others. Debating requires excellent mastery of vocabulary, logic, and nerves. In a debate, you need to be poised and confident in order to get your point across effectively. Just like a regular speech. There are many speeches that have lifted hearts in dark times, gave hope in despair, inspired brave feats, gave courage to the weary, honored the dead, and changed the course of history. Without inspiring, passionate public speeches many people may not have had the fortitude to press on.

The movie, The Great Debaters, takes place in the 1930s and explores the struggles of three students from Wiley College’s debate team. The first character introduced is the youngest student from the team, 14 year old, James Farmer Jr. He is an ambitious young man who strives to live up to his father’s expectations. James struggles with fear throughout the movie. He is sheltered and does not understand the severity of the racial conflict of the time. This trait is evident in the film in two key scenes. The first is when his family is out for a drive and his father accidently hits a white man’s pig. James’s father is very cautious during this interaction and James witnesses the incident from the car. This interaction has a major impact on James and gives him a greater understanding of the racial conflict. The second incident occurs when James is unsuccessful in his first debate. When given other opportunities to debate, he questions himself and fears failure. This fear plays a role in the debate team’s future competitions.

In his article “The Concept of Discourse Community,” Professor John Swales defines what a discourse community is, following with a list of six different points that a group must align with in order to qualify as a discourse community. These parameters are as follows: “a broadly agreed set of common public goals,” “mechanisms of intercommunication among its members,” the use of “participatory mechanisms primarily to provide information and feedback”, use or possession of “one or more genres in the communicative furtherance of its aims”, “some specific lexis”, and “a threshold level of members with a suitable degree of relevant content and discoursal expertise” (471-473).

Throughout high school, I harbored a deep admiration for debate and dreamed of joining the team. Its quintessence of ideals in rational argument, tolerance for conflicting points of view, and rigorous self-examination appealed strongly to me. Yet simple things, like pronouncing a word wrong or having an accent, were enough to hold me back. Thus, I passed through my high school years unnoticed.

Promptly from the very beginning, feeling of formal writing strikes in mind while reading the paper and it is maintained throughout the whole writing. Coherence, clarity and attention grabber particularly at the onset of first paragraph through definition of discourse community, in the fifth paragraph via counterargument and many examples of real life experiences makes the paper interesting and always engaging to read. These are the strengths of this paper.

Relate to the Audience: I understand that everyone has their opinion and that each opinion means something, but just sit back and take in a little more information about this debate.

State main argument #1: Kids should have recess for at least 20 mins a day

I have participated in Speech and Debate throughout my years in high school. Speech and Debate is the school activity that I use to express my creativity, ideas, and opinions. I competed in many events over the past 4 years: Humorous Interpretation, Congressional Debate, Duo Interpretation, and Impromptu Speaking.

Presidential appeals for public support had become a commonplace in 1992. Some examples of going public are a special prime-time address to the nation, televised press conference, traveling outside Washington. to deliver a speech to a business or professional convention, and a visit to a day care center with network cameras trailing behind.

While both sides did exceedingly well, the con side did just slightly better and therefore won the debate. The pro side did do a better job creating thoughtful responses and quoting from sources, but the con side did a few other things better. The con side had the better opening

What topics are labeled important enough to be talked about during presidential debates? Topics such as terrorism and national security; the economy; jobs and employment; and the Affordable Care Act and Healthcare all managed to be the center of attention during all debates. What topics were almost entirely ignored? Topics such as gun policy; social issues like LGBT rights and abortion; and the environment and climate change were put to the side to instead talk about Hillary Clinton’s email scandal or the sexual assault charges brought up against Donald Trump. While terrorism and national security; the economy; jobs and employment; and the Affordable Care Act and Healthcare are all very important topics, but one topic that was ignored and should have been at the forefront of the debate was climate change.

My team has a number of strengths. First of all, it is the flexibility of majority of team members, thereby creating an effective team. The team members, although they come from different units, they are capable of accommodating each other’s views resulting in a strong team.