Help Me with My Debate (2 Viewers)

[sallyinzaghi]

Oh there have been a slight error, I did not meet the school champs, but I will be on next monday for the finals!!

I WON!! :extatic:

actually your posts have helped a lot, luckily the preposition (I got opposition ) has stated that mostly countries over the world do not take co curricular activies seriously etc etc, and I used Holland as an example to dispute them..

But I must warn, in the finals the school champions are REALLY, REALLY good. It's suicide going against them.

Oh by the way, I just might add the biggest error I made today. I was supposed to say "the university of north carolina, texas has stated..." but instead said "the university of new south wales, texas.. oh wait, that's in australia. Dear lord help me. As I was saying, the university of North carolina.."

I tried to cover up my mistake but failed drastically. The competition was very close, our opposition team lost to us by only mere 5 marks.

 

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[Slagathor]

But you won, that's the important thing!

The finals! Who cares if you don't win, you made it really, REALLY far!! :thumb:

 

[mikhail]

Well done Sally!

See, Erik, and to think you didn't want to post the Dutch example!

 

[Slagathor]

My yes, to think that may have made the difference. That's insane, really

 

[gray]

Hey :wth: I can't believe i totally missed this thread after salilah posted the new topic. I'm ashamed. Sorry i couldn't help out

Congrats dude, and thanks for mentioning my uni :thumb:

++ [ originally posted by sallyinzaghi ] ++
I was supposed to say "the university of north carolina, texas has stated..." but instead said "the university of new south wales, texas.. oh wait, that's in australia.

 

[sallyinzaghi]

My God that was really embarrassing, the judges were giving me this 'look' when I said UNSW was in Texas!

Anyway, this is the finals topic. You guys should help me with this one PLEASEEE its kinda hard for me, and damn the school champs are really freakin good! This is no exaggeration

The topic is

*drumroll*

"handphones (cellphones) have diminished genuine communication"

again, I do not know which side I'm on, so both points for preposition and opposition would be greatly appreciated.

The competition is on monday.

 

[mikhail]

I'll have a go when I have some time this evening Salihah. I couldn't do it justice right now.

 

[mikhail]

Here's a series of children's opinions in England!

There are claims that texting is affecting the way you write at school.
Do you agree? Are children growing up worse spellers because of texting? Or do you think it is not important as long as you are understood?

Tony Blair has also hit the headlines, not as PM but for being the school dunce by spelling "tomorrow" wrong.

So we want to know if u think traditional spelling matters ne more.

Email us now!


I've done it myself , I've used 2 instead of two and gr8 instead of great in school many times without even noticing it!
Colum, Belfast

I think that spelling is very important in our lives and we need to know how to spell things but I think for texting and e-mail you should be able to shorten words as long as people know what you mean.
Emma, 12, Heysham

Spelling is good but texting is just chatting to our mates so it doesn't matter how we spell words. But in school we should spell properly.
Eleanor, 12, Isle of Man

Spelling doesn't matter that much but it would help when you leave school. Though spelling tests are horrid because they make you nervous.
Sarah, 12, Dudley

I do think spelling is important because if you don't know your spellings, it can affect your career. Text messaging won't help, so those who depend on texting won't have very good careers.
Fatemeh, 10, Birmingham

Many people get spellings wrong everyday, so I don't think that it is right to expose Tony Blair like this just for a spelling mistake.
Sarah, 15, Colwyn Bay

I think spelling is important because most jobs are associated with spelling and some people need spelling to read because reading is educational.
Jade, 12, Saltash

I think that texting is causing a problem. People that cannot spell proply get hooked to this NEW ENGLISH and are starting to talk like that too.
Nadia, 13, Bedford

I use my phone for texting and phoning. I text when I just want to tell someone a small note. I use proper English at school so it doesn't affect my work.
Kayleigh, 14, Cumbria

I think that it is fine to do the text spelling when it's on your mobile. But if you do it at school it could ruin the way you write language.
Maya, 9, Loughborough

I think spelling is important at primary school, but when you move to secondary, you normally know how to spell.
Angus, 12, Guernsey

The way that we spell is important as we need to spell our own English language.
Lauren, 13, Flitwick

I think that mobile phones aren't ruining our spellings because I use one and I can spell right.
Andy, 14, Ferndown

I think some people who send txt messages frequently, do take that language into school with them and write using it. I know someone, who instead of writing 'for' they write '4'.
Simon, 12, Bristol

I think that yes it does affect your spelling but you also don't have to write like it in txt messaging! You choose to write how you want to.
Ryan, 14, Northampton

I think spelling is important and mobiles don't affect you as long as you know what the word means and how to spell it properly.
Penny, 12, Saltash

I think it does matter if you spell wrong when you're on a phone because you wouldn't be able to read what they were trying to say.
Karina, 12, Bristol

I don't think it makes a difference if we write in txt cos ppl still know wot we R tlkin about!
Sophe, 14, Crewe

I think spelling is very important as you need it in later life. I also think txtin people could affect some people but not all.
Kirsty, 14, Boscombe

I think spelling is really important because when you do your tests or applying for a job they won't think much of it and you'll be left with nothing.
Stacy, 9, Bristol

I do think that spelling is important, but there is nothing wrong with shortening it as long as you do know how to spell properly and you do so at school.
Alex, 12, Otley

I think spelling is very important and mobile phones are ruining the way we write our language.
Stephanie, 13, Bournemouth

 

[mikhail]

Half of people rude on cell phones, but only 15 percent admit it

by Emily Motsay
July 01, 2003 1:00 PM EST

According to a new Harris Interactive survey, 86 percent of wireless phone subscribers believe they rarely or never engage in discourteous cell-phone use. However, 50 percent believe Americans are generally discourteous when using cell phones.

More than half of those surveyed said they are uncomfortable leaving home without their wireless phones. Further, 97 percent said they have either used or seen someone else use a wireless phone while in a restaurant, 35 percent have seen someone using a wireless phone during a play and 25 percent have seen someone use a cell phone during a class.

In addition, although a majority of users believe features like a vibrating ringer, voicemail and text messaging promote courtesy, 45 percent do not use voicemail, 50 percent have never used a silent or vibrating ringer and 77 percent have not used text messaging.

The Harris Interactive survey was commissioned by AT&T Wireless Services Inc., which has dubbed July Wireless Etiquette Month and has launched a series of wireless etiquette ads to run on train cars in Boston, Chicago, New York and San Francisco.

 

[mikhail]

Conversation as an art form was most popular at the turn of the last century, when it seemed that anybody with a mouth and an opinion could claim to be an accomplished artist in the field. At that time, conversation was second only to comic opera as the foremost means of self-expression.
Since then, conversation has steadily declined as an art form. The disarray in which the conversational arts presently exist is seen by many conversation critics and denture wearers (often one in the same) to be as much a symptom of the decline of the western civilization as the popularity of Pee-Wee Herman.

The proliferation of other art forms in the 20th century is largely responsible for the decline in a number of ways. Artists who used to spend their entire lives developing their conversational artistry now devote themselves, instead, to the far more accessible fields of television, the cinema and paperback romance novels.

Especially paperback romance novels.

(The British Lord Athol Twittden, who is considered by many critics to be the last great conversational artist, has said: "Conversation is degenerating at just the time that we need it most... Is sitting in front of a big box really as emotionally satisfying as showing off your intelligence by completely destroying Freudian psychological theory in a conversation that last several days? I hardly think so. But, then again, I have yet to own a cordless converter...")

The newer art forms have also debased the form of the artistic conversation. At the height of the art form's popularity, a typical conversation would last over three hours, and include such topics as: the meaning of life, the latest play at the Savoy, the existence of god, the unnatural habits of the people down the lane, the viability of the continued existence of the Monarchy, the struggles of the emerging middle class, the authorship of Shakespeare's plays and the availability of a good wine for the evening's meal. A conversation that did not turn to more than six subjects was rarely a critical success.

Today's conversations barely last more than five minutes, on average, and often centre around other art forms, particularly television. The following is a not uncommon form for such a conversation to take:

"Hello?"

"Hi."

"How are you?"

"Good. How are you?"

"Fine. Did you see Magnum last night?"

"Yeah. Wasn't it amazing?"

"Yeah. (pause) Well, I gotta go."

"Okay. Bye."

"Bye."

Seventeen seconds. Thirty words. Such a conversation would not be fit as a trailer for any of the great conversations of the past! Why, a great critic of days gone by, a Micheline or a Kroetzburg, would laugh if such a conversation had been brought before him! And, yet, such conversations make up the bulk of the art today.

Part of the problem in the decline of the conversational arts is in the decline of conversational criticism. Critics no longer appear to be interested in detailed analysis of content, some minimalist critics abandoning it totally for the more esoteric consideration of form.

"Nobody has the time any more," critic Alan Freed explained," either to devote several hours to a conversation, or to take the thousands of hours to educate themselves to a level where they can carry on such a conversation. Let's face it: almost all of the great conversational artists were from the upper classes, and had all the time they needed to perfect their craft..."

To stop the imminent extinction of conversation as an art form (last year, only three conversation guilds remained in existence in Canada), many governments are setting up museums and galleries devoted to the art. It is their hope that public interest can be encouraged through the preservation and restoration of the world's great conversations.

Freed doesn't see much hope in this. "School children and academics," he argued, "Are the only one who will go to such galleries, and it is difficult to believe that many of them will go out of genuine interest." Freed then started talking about the need for schools for conversationally gifted children, steel production in Latin America and a variety of other subjects. He apparently went on long after we had left.

Is the art of conversation dying? Could government intervention help prop it up, or would that just delay the inevitable? One thing is certain: this is one of the few cases where an artistic problem may well be solved by a lot of talk.

 

[sallyinzaghi]

Man, thanks a gazillion. God I feel so bad, this is SERIOUSLY cheating :embarass:

 

[mikhail]

The Crucial Social Role Of Conversation
An Explanation Why The Ancient Greeks Were So Clever

To explain why ancient Greeks were so clever that they "showed for the first time what the human mind was for."

the Greek, whether in town or village, was able to sharpen his wits and improve his manners through constant intercourse with his fellows. Few people have been so completely sociable. Talk was the breath of life to the Greek.
{H.D.F Kitto "The Greeks" chapter 3, page 36 published by Penguin 1979}

Moulds Understanding
Conversation is the casual exchange of opinions that occurs as part of daily life. This exchange is crucial not only to the community but to the individual. These communications not only mould communal but also individual understanding. It is not just the apparatus of the community that receives its direction from these transactions, but the individual. By communicating an individual (and a community):

1. Discovers Reality: In various different small ways we
   *Confirm Our Identity: Our image of ourselves is revealed by the opinion of others. We discover how our looks and ability are rated; are we ugly or attractive? clever or stupid? strong or weak?
   *Validate Our Senses:The impression of our senses is confirmed or corrected by the responses of others, who reveal if it was a mirage, an invention of a fevered imagination, or actually occurred. Was there a naked woman, or was it an illusion? Has that man actually stabbed someone, or was it a gesture made with a toy? Did the ground shake, or is my sense of balance disturbed? Is it hot, or am I sick? The responses of others help us determine the truth.
2. Refines Understanding:
   *Expressing an opinion forces the author to clarify what they are thinking, an effort that often exposes short-comings in the original impression. The task of explaining a problem to an audience can discover the cause or solution, as well as confirm the significance of the problem, without having to hear any response.
   *Heeding an opinion confirms, corrects or challenges those already held, with the last forcing a reconsideration that may discover errors or uncertainties.
3. Strengthens Understanding:
   The more often we communicate, the more often we have to discipline and arrange our thoughts, and vice-versa. The example of Alexander Selkirk reported by Woodes Rogers in A Cruising Voyage (1712) reveals that conversation is like any other skill, if it is not practised it wanes. For when Alexander Selkirk was rescued from a deserted island:
   
   At his coming on board us, he had so much forgot his language for want of use, that we could scarce understand him, for he seem'd to speak his words by halves
   People who stop using words lose the ability to speak in words, and as words are understanding, this suggests our ability to think clearly needs exercise through communicating with others, otherwise it atrophies.
   [/list=1]
   Impact of restraint on conversation
   The free exchange of opinions is clearly essential for the creation and maintenance of sane, clear thinking individuals, and thus sane, clear thinking communities. While some inhibition upon expression is necessary for keeping order, these limits must be kept to a minimum and be decided by common law. Once censorship is imposed by any other mechanism it threatens the sanity of the community. Arbitrary and irrational limitations such as those demanded by the proponents of Political Correctness can only result in the creation of a demented community; a society whose thinking is crippled by threat or violence.

 

[mikhail]

++ [ originally posted by sallyinzaghi ] ++
Man, thanks a gazillion. God I feel so bad, this is SERIOUSLY cheating :embarass:

Nope, just research!

 

[mikhail]

How cell phones are changing our social habits

By Andre Mouchard

Orange County Register


We're ruder.

We're later.

We're more spontaneous, less hamstrung by geography and at least semi-willing to accept rules of conduct created by children.

Mobile phones may be smaller than ever, but they're changing us in big ways. Context, a Baltimore company that uses anthropologists to study consumer trends, says as much in its latest study of cell phone users, a report called ``The Mobiles.''

Here is some of what they found:

• Parents initially see cells as security, staying in contact with their children throughout the day. Over time, cells become a source of tension, as kids and parents take cell calls during dinner and other family time.

• Teens and children use cells to connect with parents, and as a way to create their own world outside the family.

• If you came of age using a cell, your idea of community might not be limited by geography or age. Traditional changes that once ended relationships -- moving away, going to college, changing jobs -- don't. You talk with friends from junior high or you regularly dial up three time zones away. The conversations might not be deep, but you're ``in touch.''

• Conversely, you might see little difference between seeing people face to face and talking to them on the phone. It's not unusual for younger cell-phone users to hang out together and chat with other cell-phone users, ignoring those without cells.

• Teens typically play the role of cell expert, teaching parents and grandparents. Teens also, increasingly, set the rules of mobile-phone etiquette.

• Crisis is redefined. Bosses wind up making decisions that subordinates once handled routinely.

• Workers who use their phones conspicuously run the risk of being seen as slackers. Real workers with real work don't have time for their cells.

• Slave to your cell? You're not alone. Many jobs now require full-time cell contact. This results in some free labor for employers and resentment among employees.

The study also found that many:

• Use cells for security.

• Don't change their lifestyle to suit the technology.

• Fear incoming calls because they often mean bad news.

• Americans, once keen on punctuality, are routinely late, using cells to set up new meetings or for last-minute planning. Also, as long as they've been warned, Americans aren't automatically bothered by tardiness.

• South Americans, where punctuality wasn't a big deal in a pre-wireless world, are with cells more punctual and increasingly less tolerant of lateness.

• People of all ages complain about other people having private conversations on cell phones in public.

• Virtually everyone who has a cell uses it for a private conversation, in public, as they adjust to the technology. As they become more comfortable with cell use, they don't make public calls and they don't criticize those who do.

 

[Slagathor]

Thankfully, we don't have that "loss of the art of converstaion" here in the Southern of the Netherlands (Breda, Eindhoven but also Dutch speaking part of Belgium) but they do in the North though (Rotterdam, The Hague, Amsterdam)

If someone from the North says:

"Hey, I gotta talk to ya!"

Someone from the South would have said:

"Pardon me please, I do hope I am not disturbing in any way but could you perhaps spare a moment of your time, I would like to speak with you"



PS. I know my "location" says The Hague but I was born and raised in the South

 

[gray]

++ [ originally posted by mikhail ] ++

Nope, just research!

Oh come on dude, research is just a euphemism for google whoring :LOL:

 

[sallyinzaghi]

:LOL:
does anyone have tips on how to convince people? I'm really nervous, my opponents are damn damn damn damn good, they're like one of those perfect people type. Really convincing and they nail their opponents bad.

Ah fek.

 

[gray]

++ [ originally posted by sallyinzaghi ] ++
does anyone have tips on how to convince people?

Take a gun.

 

[sallyinzaghi]

I was hoping for a more serious answer

 

[mikhail]

Just be confident. If you act like you know your stuff, other people will pick up on that.

Talk slowly enough that you won't trip yourself up - speaking quickly is great, but not everyone can do it well.