[Week VIII] Summary: Speak Out! Debate and Public Speaking in the Middle Grades

This book is contained of what in debate and public speaking for middle grades is. It gives useful tips for debate and public speaking and basically, it is clearly introducing us about how to speak properly in front of many people and how to be an attractive public speaker. There are three main sections that is discussed in this book. Section one is talking about the introduction to speaking and debating, section two is talking about making and answering arguments, while section three is talking about debating in class and competition.

In the first section, Introduction to Speaking and Debating, you will first be introduced to the basic and advanced techniques in speaking and debating. This section is contained of another three chapters. The first one is Introduction to Public Speaking and Debating which explains about the verbal communication skills that is necessarily be payed attention such as the appropriate volume, rate of speed, emphasis of words, clear articulation, organization of the speech, and last but not the least is the appropriate word choice. While the non verbal communication skills which is needed to be considered is body positioning and movement, eye contact, poise, and speech anxiety. The second chapter is Introduction to Debating which explains about a general understanding of debating, debate topics, rules and regulation in debate, preparation period, debate material, points of information and heckling, and also judge training and decision-making. And the third chapter is The Middle School Public Debate Program Format which mostly teach us about the understanding of the debate topic, the number of teams and debaters, speaking order and team responsibilities, taking notes in a debate, and the preparation period and points of information.

In the second section, Making and Answering Arguments, you will learn deeper about the technique for making and answering arguments using a good reason and a good evidence. This section also followed by three chapter. The first one is Making Arguments which explains about an introduction to evidence, critical thinking, cause and effect, and cost and benefits. The second chapter is Answering Arguments which tells you how to refute an argument when you are debating. And the third chapter is Learning to Research which tells us how we are going to do effective research in order to present our point in a logical way to convince people that our points are correct.

The last but not the least, in this third section, Debating in Class and Competition, you will be guided to refine your debating skills and help you prepare for debate competitions and classroom debates. It again, contains of three chapters. The first chapter is Making Arguments Matter: Impacts which tells you about what an impact is, and explaining and comparing your impact. The second chapter is Opposition Strategies which tells you about what would the opposition strategies are such as refuting back the case, making offensive arguments and off-case arguments and indirect refutation.

Overall, from the sections and chapters included in the book, this book is telling us about the steps on how we are going to survive in public speaking and debate.