Great Diseases: Infectious Diseases

In a structured, formal debate, the goal is to present the audience with compelling arguments backed up with facts, quotes and statistics in order to convinvce them that your opinion is correct. In fact, good debaters go in already having some idea of what arguments their opponents will use and have prepared thoughtful rebuttals.

Debate Structure

Each team is responsible for arguing the affirmative or the negative on a particular topic or position. A team must make brief, but convincing arguments throughout the debate. The structure of a debate typically follows this form:

• Introduction
• Present your position, three main supporting arguments, and a brief conclusion summing up how the arguments support your stance
• Present your first argument
• Typically, theaffirmative team presents first, followed by the negative
• Debate Turns
• Rebut an argument made from the opposing team
• Present your own argument in support of your stance
• Conclusions
• Restate your arguments and your position witout introducing new information
• Typically, the negative view concludes their arguments first, followed by the affirmative

Each team is given a certain amount of time to speak for each section. Teams may not interrupt each other and may only speak when it is their turn.

There are often three areas of judgement in a formal, team debate: matter, manner and methods. The two most important areas are methods and manner.

Debating Methods

There are a few methods to use when debating that can help you succeed.

• The rule of threes - three is a number that provides repetition without being too long. Organizing your debate around threes is a good way to make a concise but convincing argument. 
• Present three overall arguments to support your stance
• Present three items of "proof" to support your argument
• For example: a quote from an expert, a study, and a statistic
• Logical Fallacies - these are arguments that can appear convincing at first, but are inconsistent, untrue or not factual. Try to avoid using these in your arguments, and be on the lookout for these to appear in your opponents' arguments.
• Strawman - these happen a lot on politics, where someone  makes a statement and their opponent misrepresents it by exaggerating, misrepresenting or making up the stance of their argument
• Example: After Will said that we should put more money into health and education, Warren responded by saying that he was surprised that Will hates our country so much that he wants to leave it defenceless by cutting military spending.
• False Cause - where you assume that correlation (things happening together or in sequence) is equivalent to causation
• Appeals to Emotion - when no logical or rational argument is made, but instead a person appeals to fear, envy, hatred, pity, pride, etc.
• Example: Parents telling you to think of the poor, starving children in Africa with nothing to eat when you won;t eat your dinner.
• Slippery Slope - trying to argue that if you allow one thing to happen, it will snowball into something worse and therefore it should not be done at all.
• Example: Colin Closet asserts that if we allow same-sex couples to marry, then the next thing we know we'll be allowing people to marry their parents, their cars and even monkeys.
• Ad Hominem - When you attack a person's character or personal traits instead of their arguments.
• Example: After Sally presents an eloquent and compelling case for a more equitable taxation system, Sam asks the audience whether we should believe anything from a woman who isn't married, was once arrested, and smells a bit weird.
• Find more logical fallacies and examples here: https://yourlogicalfallacyis.com/
• Argue a rebuttal before it's given
• Do your research on both sides of the debate
• In your argument, present a common rebuttal you might get against your argument, point out why it is wrong and argue your point

Debating Manner

Remember that it's not just WHAT you say that is important, but HOW you say it and present yourself, too. It is very important to practice beforehand, especially if  you have little experience or are nervous about speaking in front of groups. Practicing gives you the confidence you need to make and deliver a good argument.

• Make eye contact - Making eye contact with your audience is essential to connect with and engage them in your arguments.
• You want to ensure you have enough notes to represent your ideas clearly and accurately, but not so many you are reading aloud
• Speak clearly - Be sure to enunciate and speak slowly and loudly enough the whole room can hear and understand you.
• It is common when you get nervous to speak too quickly, mumble, or speak softly.
• Practice with your group or in front of friends or family so they can give you feedback.
• Speak with feeling - It is important to not be monotone (AKA a robot) when speaking to the audience.
• Be sure to use natural inflections and vary your tone and loudness to emphasize different points in your arguments.
• Never yell, but raising your voice a bit can indicate passion for a topic.
• Move deliberately - Do not stand stiffly, but also avoid nervous habits (like running your hand through your hair) because both are distracting
• Use gestures and movements for emphasis or to call attention to things
• Make sure you scan the audience from time to time so your head and shoulders aren't stiff and staring.

Can you recognize the debating mistakes being made in this video?

Your school or local public library is always a great place to start when looking for resources to search for science and health information. Ask your local librarian for help!

All of the following links are to public, free, full-text resources. You do not need to belong to, or have access to a library to search these resources or download the articles. You are also welcome to search Google Scholar, but be aware that you may not be able to access the full-text of many of the items you find.

General Science and Health Resources

Expert

• PubMed Central - PMC is a free full-text archive of biomedical and life sciences journal literature
• Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) - DOAJ is an online directory that provides access to quality free, peer-reviewed journals
• Google Scholar - Google Scholar provides a simple way to broadly search for scholarly literature, though it may not be freely accessible
• Drug Information Portal - gives users a gateway to selected drug information from the U.S. National Library of Medicine and other key U.S. Government agencies

Consumer Health

• MedlinePlus -  MedlinePlus offers reliable, up-to-date health information, anytime, anywhere, for free to patients and their families and friends
• Healthfinder.gov - resources on a wide range of health topics selected from approximately 1,400 government and non-profit organizations to bring you the best, most reliable health information on the Internet
• Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) - provides expert and consumer health-related information on all areas of health and disease

Infectious Diseases Specific Resources

Expert

• Emerging Infectious Diseases - peer reviewed, open access journal published monthly by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
• Centers for Disease Control: Data & Statistics - Search for data and statistics on many highly prevalent diseases and topics
• International Journal of Infectious Diseases - aims to provide a source of information relevant to professionals involved in the epidemiology, clinical diagnosis, treatment and control of infectious diseases
• British Medical Journal Archive - here you can do a topic search all of the articles ever published by the British Medical Journal
• BMJ Public Health - lists of the most recent information from the BMJ in Public Health topics
• BMJ Infectious Diseases - lists of the most recent information from the BMJ in Infectious Diseases topics

Consumer Health

• ProCon.org: Vaccines -  nonpartisan, nonprofit website that presents facts, studies, and pro and con statements on questions related to whether or not vaccines should be required for children.
• CDC Diseases & Conditions A-Z List - Find information from the CDC on certain diseases, including treatment & prevention methods
• European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control: Health Topics - similar to the CDC Diseases & COnditions A-Z resource, except focused on the european countries
• National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases: Health & Research Topics - explanations of common allergies and diseases, as well as related infection topics

Boston Public Library

The BPL has some databases with full-text health information. To access these, you will need a BPL card and an electronic PIN. You can set these up at the BPL in Copley Square or any BPL Branch location.

You can see the list of electronic access resources they have from this web page. I recommend speaking with a librarian to get advice on which resources would be best for your particular topic, but you may want to try:

• Health & Wellness Resource Center
• Health Reference Center Academic
• Nursing Resource Center
• Global Issues in Context

Minuteman Library System

The MMLS also pays for specialized full-text resources. You will need proof of residency in any town with a library in the system (Newton, Somerville, Cambridge, and many more) in order to get a card with an access code on the back.

I recommend going to your specific library and speaking to a librarian, since some libraries have access to databases other libraries in the system do not. A brief list of some databases that all MMLS patrons can access include:

• Science in Context
• Nursing and Allied Health Collection Resource Center
• Health Reference Center Academic
• Health and Wellness Resource Center
• Expanded Academic ASAP

You can usually access these by going to the library homepage and finding the link for databases.