Critical Advocacy Series

Comprehensive survey of argumentation, persuasion, public speaking, and debating.

An educational series for students, teachers, and citizens interested in critical communication skills. The emergence of a global community of ideas and discourse requires successful individuals to develop critical advocacy skills – to develop strong ideas, to present them effectively, to defend them skillfully, and to critically analyze opposing ideas. Based on decades of international experience, this series will provide you with the ideas and training you need to succeed.

Click on the lecture title to view that lecture through streaming video.

PARTS	TITLE - click to view	CONTENTS	SPEAKERS	LENGTH
ONE	INTRODUCTION TO DEBATING	Study & practice of debate, where to find debate, preview of major topics, reasons to gain debating skills.	Snider, Meany, Berube	48 minutes
TWO	TYPES OF ARGUMENTS	Definition of an argument, induction, deduction, causation.	Snider, Meany, Berube	43 minutes
THREE	FORMS OF ARGUMENTATIVE PROOF	Role of proof in argument, expert opinion, historical fact, statistics, empirical study, testimony, analogy, comparison, popular belief, and tradition.	Snider, Meany, Berube	44 minutes
FOUR	REFUTING ARGUMENTS	Refutation defined, refutation techniques - challenges, lack of relevance, critique, turning the tables, minimization.	Snider, Meany, Berube	54 minutes
FIVE	PRACTICAL USES OF ARGUMENT	Argument in the ideal and actual world, fallacies, personal bias in the audience and the speaker, argument and the universal audience.	Snider, Meany, Berube	44 minutes

SIX	FORMATS FOR DEBATING	Considerations in format design, parliamentary debating, policy debating, Lincoln-Douglas debating, public debating, media debating	Meany, Whitmore, Berube	44 Minutes
SEVEN	PREPARATION FOR DEBATING	Topic analysis, brainstorming for ideas, research, briefing	Meany, Whitmore, Berube	40 Minutes
EIGHT	ORGANIZATION FOR DEBATING	Organizational tools, building a case, organization while refuting, issue selection during the debate, summaries, weighing issues	Berube, Meany, Snider	49 Minutes
NINE	SKILLS FOR DEBATING	Cross examination, points of information, judging	Meany, Whitmore, Berube	38 Minutes
TEN	SPEAKING TO PERSUADE	The role of delivery in argument and persuasion, delivery guidelines, delivery elements, nervousness and anxiety	Berube, Snider, Meany	39 Minutes
ELEVEN	OBJECTS OF PERSUASION	Focus in persuasion, cognitive elements; changing attitudes, beliefs, motives, behavioral intention, behavior	Meany, Snider, Berube	54 Minute
TWELVE	THEORIES OF PERSUASION	Traditional theories, information processing theories, elaboration likelihood model of persuasion	Snider	46 Minutes
THIRTEEN	STRATEGIES OF PERSUASION	Audience analysis, audience-issue relationships, applying the elaboration likelihood model to persuasion situations, persuasion and behavior.	Berube, Meany, Snider	53 Minutes

THE SPEAKERS

Alfred Snider, University of Vermont, USA
Over 35 years as an award winning teacher, trainer, and debate coach, special expertise in persuasion theory, expert public speaking coach, widely published, and global experience in speech communication and debate outreach. One of America’s best lecturers. Director of World Debate Institute for the last 20 years. Former USA National Debate Coach of the Year.

John Meany, Claremont Colleges, California, USA
Over 30 years as an innovative teacher, trainer and debate coach, special expertise in training teachers and judges, America’s most successful parliamentary debate coach, director of major program to bring debate into under funded high schools, and famous lecturer.

David Berube, University of South Carolina, USA
Over 25 years as an award winning teacher and debate coach, world’s most published debate theorist, expert in argumentation in popular culture. Former USA National Debate Coach of the Year. Gifted lecturer.

Marc Whitmore, English Speaking Union, London, UK
Having studied in the UK and the USA, was Director of the Centre for Speech and Debate at the ESU coordinates activities in over 30 countries. Gifted teacher and lecturer, was also the founder of the Tesco London Debate Programme to bring debate into underserved schools.