TITLE Debate as a Paradigm for Deionstrating Skills in Argumentation and Logic.

This, paper a4ines that the judge who uses argumentation and logic as the sole criteria for determining the winner of an academic debate sees debate as an intellectual contest with speech being only an incidental element. A paradigm for judging is presented and discussed in terms of the following core concepts: analysis, investigation, evidence, reasoning, refutation,1and rebuttal. Analysis is thearriving at an understanding ofthe proposition and the discovering of the inherent issues. Investigation is the processof accumulating information about a proposition. Evidencelis aninformative statement believed by the listener and employed,,by anarguer to secure belief in another statement. Reasoning is the *process by which we infer a conclusion from premises. Refuitation is the attempted destruction of the opponent's argument. Rebqttal is the attempted rebuilding of an argument once i