An Introduction to Argumentation & Debate

An Introduction to Argumentation and Debate does an excellent job of concisely and succinctly instructing teachers and students in the fundamentals of debate. Broken into nine chapters, this book covers the basics of debate with brief and clear descriptions. The initial chapter seeks to simply bring the reader into the world of debate and offer a frame of reference with which to make sense of the rest of the book. The second and third chapters serve as a crash course in the rudiments of logic and evidential research-the foundation of any debate (as well as any argument in life). Chapters four through seven focus on the how-to of debate theory for both sides of the debate. Chapters eight and nine focus on speech delivery with specific instructions to each speaker in the debate rounds. (There are four speakers in every debate round-two teams with two members each. Every speaker has three speeches : a constructive speech, a rebuttal, and a cross-examination.) An Introduction to Argumentation and Debate is just that: an introduction. It is not meant to be an exhaustive work expositing the complete elements of, or a full how-to manual for debate. On the other hand, it is an excellent overview of cross-examination debate without reading a thick textbook. Easily read in a day or two.https://digitalcommons.cedarville.edu/alum_books/1330/thumbnail.jp