Being the third and last speaker, my job was to rebut the arguments of the opposition, but being recently interested in persuasion techniques, I decided to try and use the persuasion techniques more than my normal sarcastic factual and demeaning methods. It was just for general interest that I would try to apply the persuasion techniques that I had learned, more or less and among them were :
- Speak in affirmative
- Create Scarcity and Urgency
- Talk fast
- Be cocky
These were my actual notes that I wrote to use in my debate. However, trying to implement some other things I've learnt such as leaving the audience with an emotional impact to remember as well as the fact that apparently westerners are easy to influence emotionally, I tried to make a more emotional debate by not saying much but through constant emphasis, repetition and tone. I could play the emphasis and tone part oddly well, but the repetition and the rest, I needed to write it down cause I am not that kind of person. Also, I tried to play aggressive alongside with the fast talk. This was, more or less, what I said for the debate:
"So, think of the children and think of the future generation. Listen to that voice screaming in your head, and for the sake of humanity... Stop this madness before it grows... So, I say, BAN VIDEO GAMES! And abolish them before they creep into your house and infect your loved ones! Stop them for the sake of your brothers and your sisters that we may live in an era of peace and shun away this madness!"
So... yeah... Played right, I put forward the most emotional speech the school has heard, apparently... The thing that stuck, of course, was the part about the children. The effects of that, however, caused a major influence to the audience. I played my cards right and that made a huge difference. Now, a slight reminder that I think most people would vote against this motion beforehand, especially since the audience were mostly teenagers and generally as well I think most people would not like video games to be banned...
So, what was the results from the audience? (Drum roll, please...)
Almost 75% of the audience voted to ban video games!
That's great, amazing! It was a clear difference that most people voted to ban video games (it was of course, not solely due to me) but it was influential. My speech worked to persuade the audience, leaving a great impact on them in voting for our house.
However, overall, the judges were to decide on the real winners and that was something I did not know about... If the judges were in consideration a less emotional speech would have been made and surely enough, because I did not say much and went over time, it became a factor to our defeat... To the judges, the marks were close, but ultimately, we lost. So, what can I conclude? Persuasion is not all that is needed to win a debate.
Hence, to debate, a good combination of emotion and logic is needed to attain the best results. You must convey a good message to the factual people but also appeal emotionally to the audience and judges. This creates the ideal speech especially for the last speaker. Emotion should not solely overrule your speech but should but placed side by side with a good argument. Also, timing... and teamwork is really important apparently...
I'm not sure why I'm analyzing what exactly happened with my debate, but it was an interesting topic and the turn of the table really says something to me. I would just like to highlight that actually...
P.S. Columbine High School Massacre is a worthy mention as it did have some good video game linkage but is ultimately due to some other factors
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