Essay Instructions: Firstly, Please only reference books, not internet sites.
1200 word length. Argumentative Essay. Harvard Referencing -- i will upload the hardvard ref. booklet approved for this course.
When referencing please make sure to take care when sources are cited in text correctly (i.e. with page numbers)
I will provide you with an outline of the case study (my debate team), towards the end of the instructions here.
Essay task description:
“Using your own debate as a case study, evaluate the effectiveness of debates as a communication strategy”.
In this essay you will evaluate the effectiveness of debates as a communication strategy. In building your argument you will use your own debate as a case study, analysing two key areas. The two areas that must be considered are the development of team dynamics within your group, and the public speaking strategies used in your presentation. Your argument must be grounded in academic theory and must include analysis of effective communication relevant to the debate process and presentation.
Two key areas which must be considered are the development of team dynamics within your group, and the public speaking strategies used in your presentation.
Your response must include analysis of effective communication relevant to the debate process and your essay must be grounded in academic research.
WHAT ARE YOU BEING ASKED TO DO?
Analyse group’s group processes and performance during the debate presentation.
Present your analysis in a formal academic essay.
Through this analysis, you must decide whether debates are an effective communication strategy or not and build a case accordingly.
consider how various elements of communication were utilised in the preparation and presentation of a debate.
How effective was your use of these different elements, eg decision making, interpersonal communication, conflict resolution, oral presentation skills?
Overall then are debates an effective communication strategy, or not?
For example, we expect students to define effective communication and then to analyse how effective they were when communicating in their groups (decison making, interpersonal communication, conflict resolution, etc), how effective was their debate argument (logical structure, appropriate eveidence, clear thesis, etc), and how well did their team communicate publicly (non-verbal communication such as body language, posture, facial expression, gestures, or verbal communication elements such as voice tone, pitch and volume, etc).
Your debate is your case study.
However….with case studies, beware of subjectivity and emotive writing.
STRUCTURE:
-The thesis statement ??" the approach you are going to take, what you are going to be arguing. Sits in the introduction.
-Topic sentences ??" the primary idea of each paragraph. One per paragraph, one idea per paragraph. Each topic sentence has to fit logically with the thesis statement.
THESIS STATEMENT examples:
--Debates are an effective communication strategy because they represent the outcome of team processes, draw on the oral presenting skills of team members and allow the use of ethos, logos and pathos to send a persuasive message.
--Debates are an ineffective communication strategy, as they rely heavily on a functioning team, assume a certain level of public speaking skills and allow emotion to defeat reason and logic in the presentation of their arguments.
--Debates can be an effective communication strategy provided they are presented by a functioning team, with satisfactory public speaking skills. However debates’ dependence on effective team work and public speaking skills means that if either or both of these elements is missing, they are an ineffective communication strategy.
PARAGRAPH EXAMPLE:
Eye contact is an integral part of presenting and, when utilised appropriately, results in effective communication between a debater and audience. Eye contact is important in the public speaking domain and ‘refers to the extent to which the speaker looks directly at the audience’ (Pearson etal. 2011:350). There are a number of reasons why consistent eye contact promotes communication of a message to an audience. Firstly, eye contact that encompasses the entire audience and takes in each individual has a greater chance of obtaining their attention (Gamble & Gamble 2010:394). Secondly, and especially in relation to debating, eye contact can be used ‘to gain credibility and to come across as sincere or trustworthy’ (Floyd 2009:222). Finally, eye contact communicates particular messages that promote rapport with the audience. These messages can be ‘viewed positively as a signal of confidence, warmth, and attentiveness’ (Pearson etal. 2011:100). Speakers from the affirmative team in the case study reflected these findings. Each employed a strategy of consistent eye contact with the audience, making sure their gaze moved from individual to individual. This process ensured they held the audience’s attention, and peer feedback suggested that all speakers were confident and came across as credible and trustworthy. The eye contact utilised by the affirmative team was instrumental in communicating a clear, believable message, and contributed largely to the team winning the debate. Therefore, when an effective eye contact strategy is employed by a team, debates are an effective communication strategy.
REFERENCES:
Your essay should be grounded in research, therefore, this essay must CONTAIN AT LEAST 8 ACADEMIC REFERENCES which are cited throughout the body of the essay.
USEFUL POINTERS:
--Avoid the use of the first or second person ??" ‘I think’, ‘our debate’ ‘when we had meetings’.
--Refer to participants as ‘first speaker’ or ‘affirmative team’, etc.
REMEMBER:
--This essay is not a continuation of the debate. You are not presenting analysis of the debate topic and why it is or is not correct.
--Your essay is about the debate itself - your team’s performance and argument, the things that contributed to your success or defeat, and whether or not debates are an effective communication strategy.
--Base your response on academic research, then add illustration from your case study to support the theory
CASE STUDY OUTLINE
We were the Affirmitive, with 4 team members. I was the second speaker.
Unfortunately with my group there was an issue of only meeting the one time as a team to discuss and appoint speaker positions. 2 males 2 females (me being the 2nd female speaker). The appointed leader (4th speaker), did not do well with organising team members at all, in fact speakers 3 & 4 failed to show up and respond to messages about meetings regarding the debate, whole lot of empty promises.
On the day of the debate -- group dynamics was weird at first but surprisingly once the debate was under way and as soon as 2nd speaker (me) had spoken the debate did flow quite well, apart from the usual nervousness that people experience from public speaking. 3rd speaker had a very hard time with it (she hates and shy's away from public speaking of any sort) that's why she was placed in 3rd.
The overall experience leading up to the big debate day was awful because there was no organisation, no leadership.
However, the debate went ok considering, I think it is because of these issues we did win the debate (lost by a couple of points). Afterall, the information argued by (the affirmative) us, was killing the opposing teams flimsy irrelavent points, but it was the way it was presented which could have been more convincing if we had practised with mock debates and practised the speaches we had written. ....
WRITER OF ESSAYTOWN-- It makes sense that you choose the direction of the thesis statement (with this case study in mind), i'll let you choose which way to go as to whether debates are an effective form of communication.
One last thing below is the recommended course readings listing of books for this task if you would like to look them up. These are prescribed in the course outline for this task. Feel free to reference other books.The first one listed is the set text for this course.
Eunson, B 2008, Communicating in the 21st Century, 2nd edn, John Wiley & Sons, Milton Qld.
Phillips, L 2006, Basic debate, McGraw Hill, Columbus.
Brittenham, R & Hoeller, H 2004, Key words for academic writers, Pearson/Longman, New York.
Cioffi, F L 2005, The imaginative argument: a practical manifesto for writers, Princeton University Press, Princeton,
Crusius, T W & Channell, C E 2003, The aims of argument: a rhetoric and reader, 4th edn, Mayfield Publication Company, Mountain View, California.
DeVito, J 2006, Human Communication: the basic course, 9th edn, Addison-Wesley Longman, New York.
Fogelin, R & Sinnott-Armstrong W 1997, Understanding Arguments: An introduction to informal logic, Harcourt Brace College Publishers, Fort Worth.
Freeley, A J & Steinberg, D L 2005, Argumentation and debate: critical thinking for reasoned decision making, Thomson Wadsworth, Australia.
Govier, T 1997, A Practical Study of Argument, 4th edn, Wadsworth Publishing Company, Belmont, California.
Holowchak, A 2004, Critical reasoning & philosophy: a concise guide to reading, evaluating, and writing philosophical works, Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Lanham, Md.
Kane, T 1988, The New Oxford Guide to Writing, Oxford University Press, Oxford.
Kee, C 2006, The art of argument: a guide to mooting, Cambridge University Press, Melbourne, Victoria.
Rieke, R D 2005, Argumentation and critical decision making, Pearson, Boston.
Sather, T 1999, Pros and cons: a debater's handbook, Routledge, New York, [Electronic book].
Smith, P 2000, Writing an assignment: effective ways to improve your research and presentation skills, How To Books, Oxford.
Taylor, R 2001, Essay savvy: a step by step guide to writing that dreaded essay, Purple Parrot Publications, Campbells Creek, Vic.
Spurr, B 2005, Successful essay writing for senior high school, college and university, New Frontier Publishing, Epping, N.S.W.
There are faxes for this order.
