8/28/23 Great Debate!!

This past week, I did a court style debate in AP US History. We were given two texts, one excerpt written by Thomas Paine and another written by a loyalist colonist. We were assigned groups and had to defend the position of either one as if it was a trial. There were assigned judges and we presented arguments to them. I ended up being a loyalist, although originally I had felt confident with a patriot argument. Even though I wasn’t on the side that I planned, I felt as if I had strong arguments and was able to argue efficiently. The patriot side had weak arguments, bringing irrelevant information up in order to attempt to counter our side and avoiding the questions we asked. I believe this partially played a part in my team winning in the end. On our own, we had some good arguments. I have found that in my experience, I tend to win debates on the side that I don’t particularly agree with. I think these debates are helpful to gain experience with improvised arguments. Although I may not end up in a form of law where I need to debate others like that, I think it’s a good experience to learn public speaking skills and improvisation. I learned a lot from it and hope I can do something similar again soon.