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This digital document is an article from Campaigns & Elections, published by Campaigns & Elections, Inc. on June 1, 2002. The length of the article is 3649 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Watching debates: a focus group analysis of voters. (Cover Feature).
Author: Mark Watts
Publication: Campaigns & Elections (Refereed)
Date: June 1, 2002
Publisher: Campaigns & Elections, Inc.
Volume: 23Issue: 5Page: 27(5)

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This digital document is an article from Commonweal, published by Commonweal Foundation on October 22, 2004. The length of the article is 696 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Commonweal's 80th anniversary issue.(political debates between John F. Kerry and George W. Bush)
Publication: Commonweal (Magazine/Journal)
Date: October 22, 2004
Publisher: Commonweal Foundation
Volume: 131Issue: 18Page: 6(1)

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This digital document is an article from Mississippi Business Journal, published by Venture Publications on October 6, 2003. The length of the article is 2992 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

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Title: Debatable debates.(Perspective)(Brief Article)
Publication: Mississippi Business Journal (Magazine/Journal)
Date: October 6, 2003
Publisher: Venture Publications
Volume: 25Issue: 40Page: 4(1)

Article Type: Brief Article

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This digital document is an article from Commonweal, published by Commonweal Foundation on October 22, 2004. The length of the article is 553 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Debates & decisions.(political debates between George W. Bush and John F. Kerry)
Publication: Commonweal (Magazine/Journal)
Date: October 22, 2004
Publisher: Commonweal Foundation
Volume: 131Issue: 18Page: 5(1)

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This digital document is an article from St. Louis Journalism Review, published by SJR St. Louis Journalism Review on October 1, 2008. The length of the article is 909 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

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Title: Debate offered WU Student Life chance to show off- and they did.(Washington University)
Author: Joe Pollack
Publication: St. Louis Journalism Review (Magazine/Journal)
Date: October 1, 2008
Publisher: SJR St. Louis Journalism Review
Volume: 38Issue: 309Page: 15(2)

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This resource contains photocopiable debate sheets on a wide variety of thought-provoking topics, complete with background and for and against points to encourage discussion, reading and writing and develop vocabulary. Ethical topics include animal testing, banning of mobile phones in schools, gun laws, beauty pageants for children, teenage criminals, censorship and the banning of hunting. Since many of the opinions are in authentic spoken language, the terminology and spellings are in American English to reflect the natural idioms of the language. ... Read more

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Learning to argue and persuade in a highly competitive environment is only one aspect of life on a high-school debate team. Teenage debaters also participate in a distinct cultural world--complete with its own jargon and status system--in which they must negotiate complicated relationships with teammates, competitors, coaches, and parents as well as classmates outside the debating circuit. In Gifted Tongues, Gary Alan Fine offers a rich description of this world as a testing ground for both intellectual and emotional development, while seeking to understand adolescents as social actors. Considering the benefits and drawbacks of the debating experience, he also recommends ways of reshaping programs so that more high schools can use them to boost academic performance and foster specific skills in citizenship.

Fine analyzes the training of debaters in rapid-fire speech, rules of logical argumentation, and the strategic use of evidence, and how this training instills the core values of such American institutions as law and politics. Debates, however, sometimes veer quickly from fine displays of logic to acts of immaturity--a reflection of the tensions experienced by young people learning to think as adults. Fine contributes to our understanding of teenage years by encouraging us not to view them as a distinct stage of development but rather a time in which young people draw from a toolkit of both childlike and adult behaviors. A well-designed debate program, he concludes, nurtures the intellect while providing a setting in which teens learn to make better behavioral choices, ones that will shape relationships in their personal, professional, and civic lives. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

A fine documentary record of a micro-world
Painfully accurate in places, this portrays the life of a mid-Western high school debate team as a window on the entire world of "policy" debaters in the '90s. Although the Minnesota context is unfamiliar to me, I experienced waves of awkward deja vu about my own experience about a decade earlier in another middling debate state. The author, a sociologist, writes without snark or academic cant. He admits that his son did well enough to win the nationally prestigious Tournament of Champions in the late '90's. I'd say this work does a fine job of capturing the main experiences and drama in the tiny world of forensics. Several micro-worlds could be studied further, namely, the atmosphere of summer institutes (esp'ly Northwestern's cherubim), a close study of the high-powered atmosphere in a dominant debate school, such as those in Chicago's North Shore, and a study of the influence of high school debate on those who participated in it. (One of the funnest facts from this book was that Michael Stipe, lead singer of REM, was a high school and college debater, and his song, "The End of the World as We Know It" evokes his memory of the many nuclear wars he must have spoken about in his time debating.) The only weakness in this book: a paltry index, which could not possibly have been put together by anyone who'd read the book. Two of the most quoted people, James Copeland and David Zarefsky (the most experienced sages of high school and college debate, respectively) have no index entry. For extra credit: I highly recommend the documentary, RESOLVED, which covers in 90 minutes the entire range of "policy" debate.

An important, well-written book
This is an outstanding book.Gary Alan Fine looks at high school policy debate from the point of view of an academic sociologist.The subtitle says that this book is about high school debate and the adolescent culture, but Fine does much more than deal with that:This is the only ethnographic research into the subculture of high school debaters that has ever been attempted.

Sounds deadly dull, doesn't it?Well, it's not.This is, in part, because Fine was a high school debater, and his son was a high-level, national circuit debater; thus, Fine has a feel for the human side of the activity.Further, he is one of those rare academic researchers who can weave the results of his research into a well-written narrative.

I coached high school debate for fifteen years.In my view, Fine captures what it really feels like to be part of an activity that is highly valued by adults but not at all understood by them.He relates the exhilaration of winning, the camaraderie of being part of a team, and the frustrations of working oneself to the brink of a breakdown doing something that not even one's parents or friends actually understand or care about.

But why should anyone not associated with high school debate care?

We are constantly told that education is in crisis and that US students don't do anything well-- except wear baseball caps backwards and listen to rap music.Obviously, that's an exaggeration, and most kids and schools are doing fine.But there is a whole subculture of high school kids-- the debaters-- who are doing better than "fine"; they're willing to spend literally hundreds of hours a year researching complex social and political issues and to subject themselves to the searing pressures of competitive public speaking as they advocate positions on those issues.

Understanding what makes those kids tick is important, if for no other reason than that a large fraction of lawyers and legislators are former debaters.These kids are literally going to be running the world some day.

So, Fine's study is important.It is also good reading, and, since it does not deal with debate theory at all, it's accessible to non-debaters.In fact, it might be most important for those who haven't had any contact with the world of debate to read it.

I highly recommend this sensitive, compelling book.

(My one and only complaint about this book is the picture on the cover.I have never, ever seen a debater look like that.Indeed, it looks like a kid trying to impersonate Hitler.Why did the production staff select that picture?)

A good guide to what debate's really about
Fine is a sociologist, and so you find out a lot here about the culture of debate. I found this right on target as both an old regional policy debater (similar to the Minnesota teams profiled in the book) and the parent of a national circuit policy debater (similar to the teams Fine's son participated in). Fine does a great job explaining the differences between these and the tension between them.
There's NO debate theory or how-to in this book -- but then those books don't really contain a consideration of the culture of debate, either.

ATTN: High School Policy Debaters and Coaches
I debated in the National Forensics League and the Urban Debate League for two years, and GIFTED TONGUES does a never-before-seen job in detailing the high school policy debate sub-culture. GIFTED TONGUES is the only book in the market that goes into the workings of several modern high school policy debate teams. Other books that claim to attempt to describe policy debate are out of date with the times.

GIFTED TONGUES might not have much insight into complex policy theory, but it's defintely worth your time if you're a novice HS debater OR a debate coach who wants advice to increase team membership, watch for pitfalls, and promote team morale. ... Read more

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This digital document is an article from Do-It-Yourself Retailing, published by National Retail Hardware Association on July 1, 2004. The length of the article is 881 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

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Title: House acts while Senate debates: flurry of House activity moves business legislation.(Capitol Retail Report)
Publication: Do-It-Yourself Retailing (Magazine/Journal)
Date: July 1, 2004
Publisher: National Retail Hardware Association
Volume: 187Issue: 1Page: 69(1)

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This digital document is an article from Argumentation and Advocacy, published by American Forensic Association on March 22, 1998. The length of the article is 647 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Effects of presidential debate watching and ideology on attitudes and knowledge.
Author: William L. Benoit
Publication: Argumentation and Advocacy (Refereed)
Date: March 22, 1998
Publisher: American Forensic Association
Volume: v34Issue: n4Page: p163(10)

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This digital document is an article from The Santa Fe New Mexican (Santa Fe, NM), published by The Santa Fe New Mexican on September 14, 2008. The length of the article is 482 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: VOTE 2008 DEBATES SET FOR HOUSE, SENATE RACES.(Local News)
Author: Gale Reference Team
Publication: The Santa Fe New Mexican (Santa Fe, NM) (Newspaper)
Date: September 14, 2008
Publisher: The Santa Fe New Mexican
Page: C-1

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This digital document is an article from Social Education, published by National Council for the Social Studies on September 1, 2000. The length of the article is 659 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Presidential Debates: Not a Spectator Sport.(Brief Article)
Publication: Social Education (Refereed)
Date: September 1, 2000
Publisher: National Council for the Social Studies
Volume: 64Issue: 5Page: 325

Article Type: Brief Article

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This digital document is an article from The Register-Guard (Eugene, OR), published by Thomson Gale on October 10, 2006. The length of the article is 764 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: DeFazio, Feldkamp clash in debate.(Politics)(While both concur that Washington needs cleaning up, the congressional candidates spell out differences on the issues)
Author: Gale Reference Team
Publication: The Register-Guard (Eugene, OR) (Newspaper)
Date: October 10, 2006
Publisher: Thomson Gale
Page: C1

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This digital document is an article from Argumentation and Advocacy, published by American Forensic Association on June 22, 2009. The length of the article is 6959 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

From the author: Senator John McCain's selection of Governor Sarah Palin as his running mate in 2008 came as a surprise to many. Senators Joe Biden, John McCain, and Barack Obama had been in the public eye since before 2007 as they campaigned for the presidency-and Biden and MeCain had been in the spotlight in earlier presidential campaigns. Thus, of the four running mates for the two major political parties, Palin was the least well-known. The selection of Palin generated tremendous interest in the vice presidential debate. For the first time in history more voters watched the vice presidential debate than the presidential events. This paper reports a functional analysis (Benoit, 2007) of the 2008 vice presidential debate. Key Words: Biden, Palin, Vice President, debate, Functional Theory, functions, topics

Citation Details
Title: A functional analysis of the 2008 vice presidential debate: Biden versus Palin.(Report)
Author: William L. Benoit
Publication: Argumentation and Advocacy (Magazine/Journal)
Date: June 22, 2009
Publisher: American Forensic Association
Volume: 46Issue: 1Page: 39(12)

Article Type: Report

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This digital document is an article from Black Enterprise, published by Thomson Gale on May 1, 2007. The length of the article is 892 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

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Title: Will presidential debate rise above race? A candidate's color should have no bearing on his credentials.(WASHINGTON REPORT)
Author: George Alexander
Publication: Black Enterprise (Magazine/Journal)
Date: May 1, 2007
Publisher: Thomson Gale
Volume: 37Issue: 10Page: 29(2)

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This digital document is an article from The Santa Fe New Mexican (Santa Fe, NM), published by The Santa Fe New Mexican on May 28, 2010. The length of the article is 870 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: A KINDER, GENTLER GOP GOV. DEBATE.(Main)
Author: Unavailable
Publication: The Santa Fe New Mexican (Santa Fe, NM) (Newspaper)
Date: May 28, 2010
Publisher: The Santa Fe New Mexican
Page: A-1

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This digital document is an article from National Underwriter Property & Casualty-Risk & Benefits Management, published by The National Underwriter Company on September 16, 2002. The length of the article is 4369 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Self-insuring terrorism is risky. (Cover Story).(Congress debates terrorism insurance bills)(Government Activity)(Brief Article)
Author: Caroline McDonald
Publication: National Underwriter Property & Casualty-Risk & Benefits Management (Magazine/Journal)
Date: September 16, 2002
Publisher: The National Underwriter Company
Volume: 106Issue: 37Page: 14(1)

Article Type: Brief Article

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This digital document is an article from Argumentation and Advocacy, published by American Forensic Association on January 1, 1996. The length of the article is 8645 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: The use of evidence in presidential debates: a study of evidence levels and types from 1960 to 1988.
Author: David Levasseur
Publication: Argumentation and Advocacy (Refereed)
Date: January 1, 1996
Publisher: American Forensic Association
Volume: v32Issue: n3Page: p129(14)

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