Persuasive Series

The 3 M's

This chapter does go for all public speaking in general but specifically debating. When you are debating you are graded on 3 categories. I like to call the 3 M's, you are graded on Manner, Method and Matter. In this chapter, I am going to debrief what all of these are and mean. 

Manner, I actually vaguely talked about manner in a previous chapter I talked about tips on when speaking (this is manner). All three M's are crucial when debating, but the manner is probably the most important in my opinion because it is how you deliver your speech to your audience. Were you shy and nervous? Or were you passionate and giving eye contact? 

If you were doing the second option in my opinion it shows that you are confident, passionate and really into the topic. When speaking you must give eye contact and have natural, consistent body gestures. This shows that you are engaging specifically with your audience and panel, it shows that you are comfortable, open and confident when doing this consistently and naturally. Try not to force yourself to wave your arms everywhere, otherwise, people will just be confused and think you are trying to be a bird. Be natural is always the key. 

Tone also falls under manner, are you saying the sentence in the right tone? Because depending on how you say something, that is how your audience is going to take it. If I say to you that you should listen to your parents in a joking tone, you are going to take it as a joke. But if I say it firmly, you will take me seriously. 

Method, I have talked about how to structure a speech already. But to explain further method is an important part when debating because its how you structure your speech. When speaking/making your speech, you must have it neatly organised as you would an essay, so then your audience/viewers know what you are talking about. It also shows your organizational skills as a speaker, it shows that you know how to write a speech right and what to do for each part. When structuring a speech for debating you have to be very precise to be able to get the marks, structuring a speech is also known as signposting. 

It is not as easy as; an introduction, reasons, and conclusion. You have to SIGNPOST to your audience, examples would be;

As I begin my speech, I will...

My first/second/third Point is...

As I rebut, I am going to say/do...

To conclude...

Always link your point or contention to your argument. 

As an example, your contention is that Social Media has demonstrated to young generations what new and developed technology looks like. Then when doing your argument...

My first/second/third point is that social media proves to young generations that new and developed technology can be life-changing and saving than...

Moving on to the final M, matter. Matter is actually what you talk about.  Is your content good? is it reliable? does it make sense?

Too answer these 3 questions, your content has to be reliable- otherwise, your audience/adjudicator will mark you as a liar and that you don't know what you are talking about and you are just making up nonsense, this is mainly through preplanned debates not secret topics, I will discuss more about secret topics in another chapter. 

Whenever you bring in evidence, you must credit it and I don't mean say it's full website name. Say the actual organization. As an example, according to the government... Now when speaking you will not say this, you will most likely say according to the health institution of [place] or the New York Times has posted... This shows to the audience that your sources are credible and reliable. 

Does it make sense? Are you being grammatically correct when you talk? This is a simple thing but when you mix up words you sound weird and you don't make sense. Are you also structuring your sentences correctly, so that they link together? This also comes under method but also with matter. 

The matter is crucial because it is your arguments/points/reasons. You must have strong arguments! Because it gives you a better chance at winning! It shows that your reasons have been well searched and made well. It shows that you know how to make a good strong argument that you are confident in. When creating your speech, a good way to start is to write your topic out on a piece of paper and analyse it, find out its exact meaning- so when providing a definition or model/counter model, you will know the meaning of what you are talking about. When debating, do a big team split. 

Split your team into 3 categories. Your third speaker can never have arguments/points, the third speaker only rebuts the oppositional and summaries your team's case. When splitting first and second speakers have very broad contention, then minor points to it. Examples would be Economics, Social and Environmental etc.

Now to end this chapter, I hope you enjoyed and benefitted from this. There are other chapters in this book that will explain these points in more depth and what you need to do, to exceed in these areas.

Put your comments below, they are appreciated!