Students may be familiar with professors vs. students debates, but may not be familiar with the recent modification called professors vs. professors.
On Nov. 7, Delta College faculty members debated as to the relevance of bachelor’s degrees and if the value is worth the cost.
Naturally the faculty members shared a few tips for students to consider when preparing their own debates.
The most common point made when debating was to always start by researching the other sides arguments so you could be prepared.
“I researched how bachelor’s degrees [weren’t] worth the investment before researching that it was,” said Director of Forensics
Kathleen Bruce, who was arguing that bachelors was worth the investment.
A good source to pull for the debate according to Dr. Bill Ferriolo is articles written by academics.
“You want to go to publications that have no financial stake in the data,” he said, because financial stake could mean content would be modified to fit an agenda.
The alternatives are also online, through the Delta library’s online resource as well as interviews or direct articles.
But not Google.
“Google is usually tertiary sources and you usually want primary sources,” said Bruce.
Once you get to the debate however, there is more than just facts to support you.
A few points Ferriolo gave were to fit in humor if you can, try to phrase arguments to fit the audience and don’t be afraid to put in a few jabs towards your opponents position on the subject.
Current plans are to make the professors vs. professors debate every semester while keeping the professor vs. students debate to its current annual listings.