Customer Reviews

The Debater's Guide, Revised Edition

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

"ONE STOP SHOPPING" I highly recommend this book for professors teaching undergraduate Critical Thinking and Debate Courses.

For days, I searched for a book that my students (could afford $)would ENJOY reading. In addition to Freeley's book this is the one I adopted for my class at Emerson College.

It CLEARLY (using pleasant layout & copy) explains * The Debate Process * Building The Debate Case * Elements of Debate * Research * Constructing Affirmative and Negative Cases * Refutations * Cross Examination

Speakers Duties, Delivery Style, etc.

THIS 143 PAGE PAPERBACK CAN GO ANYWHERE...

Burden of rejoinder! Plan meet need! Fiat? Fiat who? Hey, stop talking so fast! And what's this "kritik" thing?

Okay, let's face it, it's old. It's from the days before politics disads, and when "cards" really were 3x5 index cards. Obviously a poor resource for intruducing anyone to the contemporary debate forum. If you're a novice who wants to learn to win rounds, this is not the place to look. Reading this my first year of debate just made me more confused than when I started. Debate has changed a lot since this book came out. The theory, style, and lingo are all so different today that this book is practically useless as a learning tool.

On the other hand, for long-time debaters who want to codify their style to be more powerful, intuitive, and organized, this may prove quite helpful. The methods of evaluating and presenting arguments that this book investigates are really quite good, and the section on cross-examination is second to none. I've judged too many high school rounds where debaters waste time, let their opponents weasel out of certain death in cross-ex, or simply don't see the obvious fallacious connection between disad links they havn't seen before. If nothing else, this book could boost your speaker points a few notches here and there.

I only gave it three stars because it no longer lives up to its title, but I didn't give it less because every time I skim it it's enlightening.

I recommend The Debater's Guide, 3rd Edition for improving critical thinking skills, presentation of arguments, and research strategies. Starting with the 1987 revised edition, it has been an immense help to me over the years, especially after I began graduate school. It's so well-written, it's fun just to thumb through.

I am surprised at how much of this overlaps with the 1987 revised edition. The typeface is darker (thank goodness), and the layout has changed, but the content really hasn't. Do debaters still use index cards? I much prefer the 3rd edition. However, they really ought to update the content more someday.

SUMMARY

---------------

Definitely worth buying if you are interested in debate or improving your own reasoning / research skills.

Being a first time Coach/Judge/Teacher, this really came in handy. Debate really changed my classroom around and got the kids wanting to learn and their speaking abilities soared higher than I ever expected. I recommend this book for any college or high school instructor who has to teach oral communication.

As I prepared for teaching a Cross-X Debate class, after being out of debate for over a decade, this book was incredibly helpful for reminding me of the basics. Ericson gives a lot of helpful ideas on how to approach arguements, and arguement in general, as well as the backbone of various forms of debate, with the standards and the outliers or possibilities. It would be more helpful if it was newer of course, with some updates to our reality, especially the web, but there is little reasonable in my asking the book to write itself at a later date!

"ONE STOP SHOPPING" I highly recommend this book for professors teaching undergraduate Critical Thinking and Debate Courses.

For days, I searched for a book that my students (could afford $)would ENJOY reading. In addition to Freeley's book this is the one I adopted for my class at Emerson College.

It CLEARLY (using pleasant layout & copy) explains * The Debate Process * Building The Debate Case * Elements of Debate * Research * Constructing Affirmative and Negative Cases * Refutations * Cross Examination

Speakers Duties, Delivery Style, etc.

THIS 143 PAGE PAPERBACK CAN GO ANYWHERE...