Using the Internet for improving debating skills
by Alan Pritt
In our lives we are involved in many debates and arguments, but we rarely work on improving our debating skills. There is a lot of information on how to debate effectively, but in practice it can be difficult to actually apply this knowledge - especially in the middle of an argument. Face to face debating and arguing are so fast paced that it is difficult to slow down and work on improving those skills.
The Internet provides a solution.
Internet forums and newsgroups provide a great way of improving your debating skills. The main benefit they offer is time. In a real life argument, the pressure is on to provide a response straight away. With the Internet, you could take a whole day to think through a response if you wanted to.
I've never taken a whole day to think about a single response, but I have taken several hours. This may seem excessive, and for a lone argument it probably would be. However, rather than just trying to make my points in a particular argument, I'm trying to
train up my general debating skills. Where there are weaknesses in my ability to respond, I can spend time trying to overcome them before I respond.
Another way you can use the internet forums is to
analyse existing debates. Take a particular debating concept and try to find where it is used effectively and ineffectively in old forum discussions. For example, if you have been reading up on logic and your want to apply the theory, you could search through a forum debate looking for logical errors and also
correct uses of logic.
You can also analyse your
own debates. If a debate is going round in circles and you don't seem to be getting anywhere, you can analyse why you think that is. Re-read your debate and try to find an alternative way of communicating your view. Perhaps it will even enlighten you to problems in your
own statements.
Important things to look out for include:
arguments going round in circles or repetition of the same arguments and responses
people showing signs of annoyance
you showing signs of annoyance
people skipping over difficult issues
the debate losing focus and moving off into other areas
Lots of opinions and beliefs with no solid evidence or logical argument
With the slow pace of an Internet debate, there is time to address issues like these. In face-to-face communication, these things are more difficult to spot; you have to respond straight away and you can't look back over your arguments. However, debating on the Internet will transfer over to the real world. As you become more adept at spotting debating problems and dealing with them, you will gain the speed of response required for real world debating.
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