In this project we learned about the art of debate… and then had an actual debate in front of an audience at the PLP winter exhibition 2023! I got the opportunity to debate the important topic of economic growth vs. the environment.
Be It Resolved That We Should Sacrifice Economic Growth for the Good of the Environment
If you know anything about me, it’s that I love all things nature and environment, so of course I was debating the affirmative (for the good of the environment). My opponent in this debate was Zach, who gave a great speech for the negative in our debate. You can watch the video of our debate below.
The driving question for this project was:
How can we use a formal debate to convince an audience we’re right?
The debate above is a clear example of how a well-written and structured debate speech, rebuttal and closing can be used to effectively convince an audience that they should support my ideas. Public speaking in general I believe is a very important life skill as it allows you to communicate your ideas to others in a convincing way.
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The first part of this project was to create a 10 sentence persuasive paragraph about “the best __ ever.” I wrote mine about an app we use a lot in PLP called Craft. We then made several changes to this paragraph over the course of the project to make it more convincing. This included effective balance of pathos (emotion) and logos (logic). I discovered that my writing tends to side towards logos. We also made edits to improve parallel structure, tone and opinion. If you’d like you can see the changes I made by clicking below.
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The next step was to conduct research on our topic, including the creation of an annotated bibliography. I found this step very challenging as it was hard to sort through a lot of sources and determine which ones I could actually understand and were also credible. As it turns out, the question of whether we should sacrifice economic growth for the good of the environment is not as clear as one might think. Unlike commonly agreed upon topics such as the imminent dangers of climate change, scientists still haven’t figured out a way to have both economic growth and care for the environment. Thankfully with some help, I was able to find a collection of sources. I then used the competency “Questioning: I can share ideas, ask questions, and research information from a variety of sources” as well as the C-R-A-P acronym (Currency, Reliability, Authority, and Purpose) to argue why each source was a good choice for my annotated bibliography. You can see my research below:
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It was then time to write the first draft of our speeches. I should start by explaining that our debates were structured as follows:
- Affirmative Speech (4min)
- Negative Speech (4min)
- Negative Gives Rebuttal (1min)
- Affermative Gives Rebuttal (1min)
- Negative Closing Remarks (30s)
- Affermative Closing Remarks (30s)
Writing the speech took me a loooooooooooong time. I put in a lot of effort and thinking and created this first draft:
I then got feedback from my friends on what I could improve (you can see their feedback as comments on the page linked in the card above). Using this feedback, I created a second draft, which I got feedback on from Ms. Madsen, as well as more from my friends.
I then made a few more edits to create the final version which you can read below (or just watch the video above). This step used the competency “Communicating: I can express and reflect for communication by determining appropriate and effective forms for purpose, audience, and message.”
I also created prep for rebuttal, as well as closing remarks. The challenging part with rebuttal is that there was no way to know what my opponent was going to say until they gave their speech during the debate. (Yes, this was an actual debate: I never knew what Zach was planning before the live performance of the debate.) I did my best to guess at points he might make in order to prepare responses that could either prove those points incorrect or undermine their effectiveness. If you’d like you can see the prep I did for this below.
I’m particularly proud of my closing remarks:
The overflowing landfills and island of plastic in the Pacific are clear signs of our thriving GDPs. So are the climate related natural disasters that will only become more frequent, severe and costly. I don’t know about you, but I would rather have a little less stuff and a lot more clean air, water and land. More forests. More biodiversity. More stable climate. Let’s face it, if we don’t take care of the environment, forget about economic growth, there will be NO economy… or planet worth living on.
I then practiced my speech several times in front of my friends and classmates, as well as Ms. Madsen. The main struggle I have with public speaking is lack of emotion. I tend to go full monotone when I speak in front of an audience… which unfortunately is not very interesting to listen to. I did my best to exaggerate every time a word needed emphasis to solve this problem. Although it helped, I think I can still practice and continue to improve upon this for future projects and events. Huge shoutout to my amazing friends Faith, Teva and Nolan for listening to many practices of my speech, as well as giving feedback on my drafts!
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The final step was to have the actual debate at the PLP winter exhibition. Our involvement in this year’s exhibition was fairly simple. We set up the rooms with a podium and a screen to display the debate topic and participants, as well as a camera to film the debates (which was my main role aside from debating). I really like the way our rooms turned out, as they were simple, effective and less wasteful compared to previous years. I was really proud of how our debate turned out, and I think Zach and I both gave very convincing debates, and I was able to win! If you haven’t yet, make sure to watch the recording of our debate above! You can (and should) also watch my classmates debates below:
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I came across this inspiring video during my research about how we need to treat climate change like a war. I highly recommend you watch it:
In conclusion (as I said in my speech): Let’s face it, if we don’t take care of the environment, forget about economic growth, there will be NO economy… or planet worth living on. I encourage YOU to consider what kind of future you would like to have… and how you can contribute to our planet in a positive way so that we can continue to have a planet worth living on.
Thank you!
Well written and researched speeches, especially Fraser’s! Also well filmed.