The theory and practice of argumentation and debate

by Victor Alvin Ketcham

I. Methods of delivering the argument.

1. Reading.

To read an argument is certainly the most ineffective way to present it. After all the work of constructing the argument is accomplished, it is certainly poor policy to intrust its delivery to the lazy method of reading it from the manuscript. Such a method presents all the disadvantages of speaking with none of the advantages of reading. If the argument is read, the reader can inform himself fully of its contents, because he can read it slowly or rapidly as he chooses. Passages which he does not thoroughly understand may be re-read. Moreover, he may go back over the argument and review its main points as well as scrutinize all the evidence offered to support them. But if the argument is read from a manuscript, the listener must receive it at the rate of delivery which is chosen by the reader. He cannot, as a general rule, ask that the passages which are not clear to him, be re-read, and at the end he is not permitted to go back and ponder over parts which appear to him to be of doubtful validity, nor can he very well question the evidence presented. Furthermore, the reader, being tied down to his manuscript, cannot give the force or expression to the argument which would be possible were he speaking directly to the persons addressed. He cannot see by the look of understanding or perplexity on their faces, just what parts of his argument are clear and what parts are not clear to them. Again, the sympathy which should exist between speaker and audience is almost entirely shut out. A manuscript stands like the Chinese wall between the speaker and his audience.

The defects of this method of delivering an argument are pointed out because there is a decided tendency on the part of college men, and a few men of some reputation, to adopt this manner of presentation, which is certainly the easiest way but which is generally as ineffective as it is easy. Whenever it is important that real results be obtained, whether in the class room, in a formal debate, or in real life, this method should be avoided.

2. Memorizing the argument verbatim.

The delivery of a speech memorized verbatim is certainly to be preferred to reading, because it at least affords the speaker the opportunity of stating his case directly to his audience, and permits the use of all the arts of declamation; but since the speech is set in definite form it precludes the modification necessary to adapt the argument to the contentions advanced by the opposition. In college debating this form of delivery is especially objectionable because from it the student derives little practical benefit. As has already been pointed out, the great value of debating lies in its training for the practical affairs of life by teaching the student to frame his argument on the spur of the moment, adapt it to the conditions of the particular situation which he is facing, and present it in an effective manner. All of these advantages are lost if the argument is committed to memory verbatim.

3. Memorizing the argument by ideas.

By this method the written argument which has been prepared is made the basis of the delivery. It furnishes a substantial foundation for the speech. The argument has gone through the process of construction according to the directions heretofore given. It is, therefore, an efficient instrument of persuasion and the greatest results may be most surely obtained by the method of memorizing the argument by ideas. The three steps in this process of memorizing are as follows:

First, the argument should be read over slowly several times in order that the speaker may get an accurate view of the production as a whole. In most cases the student will have this much accomplished by the time he has written out the argument in final form.

Second, the central idea of each paragraph should be memorized. As a general rule, the paragraphs will conform to the topics of the brief. That is, each topic in the brief, with the possible exception of the lowest sub-topic, will be developed by means of a separate paragraph. The central idea will, of course, be the thought expressed by the statement in the brief which the paragraph is designed to develop. However, this idea should be committed in the form in which it appears in the finished argument, and not in the form in which it appears in the brief. In this way each idea will be grasped in its relation to the rest of the argument as well as in its relation to the manner in which it has been elaborated in the paragraph. Each idea presented should then be committed in its proper order so that the speaker can go through the entire argument and state the idea expressed in each paragraph.