Should I do debating?

[TheIllusion]

Hello,
I was thinking whether joining my school debate team is a good idea. For those with experience, did debating groups improve your English skills, or was it a waste of time (as I am now completing unit 3).
Thanks.

[supR]

Hello,
I was thinking whether joining my school debate team is a good idea. For those with experience, did debating groups improve your English skills, or was it a waste of time (as I am now completing unit 3).
Thanks.

Although I did the HSC, I did join the debating team in Yr 12, and we won the debating competition
Realistically, I'd join the debating team if you were genuinely interested in debating and thought I'd be fun and challenging.
It definitely helps you think of arguments rather quickly, and this ~could~ correlate to developing your English skills, but I wouldn't say it's a clear cut as that.

Overall though I really did enjoy debating and believed it to be a very valuable and enjoyable experience, so if you are up for the challenge, I'd definitely recommend it!

[charlottemchenry]

I did the HSC not VCE so can't comment on its applicability to VCE.

However I was in the debate team from year 5 to year 12. Debating was so much fun and was a really interesting extracurricular. NSW debating gave us 1 hour to write our speech (assuming same). In this way this helped me think on the spot and quickly write as well as develop arguments quickly.

However debating is a fair bit of work so if you're not committed or don't enjoy speaking in front of crowds it's probably not for you.

Overall I found debating to be so much fun so if you think you would enjoy it definitely give it a go.

Hope this helps.

[Jigsaw]

Hey there,

I was fortunate enough to have the opportunity to do debating from year 7 until the end of year 12 (and am in the process of becoming an adjudicator) and I really enjoyed the experience. Not only does it allow you to strengthen your argument, logic, reason and communicational skills (amongst many others), but it also allows you to stay in-touch with present issues within society. Although it's a bit difficult to say how much debating will improve your English skills, I definitely believe that there is a correlation, for sure. Anecdotally, my ability to identify arguments and spontaneously think of rebuttals definitely improved, as well as my communication skills in front of larger audiences. One thing debating will definitely assist you with in English is language analysis! I found that I was able to identify arguments and techniques in written pieces, as well as use them effectively in my own oral assessment (as I had been practising it for so many years). Every time you debate, you'll strengthen your communication skills, which will undoubtedly prepare you for your oral presentation in unit 4, which requires you to present a point of view that relates to a recent issue.

All in all, debating definitely allows you to develop crucial skills which you will use beyond the classroom. If you're thinking of joining, there's no harm in trying it out to see what you think of it!

[hums_student]

I thought I'd offer some insight as someone who quit debating in year 12 - I did debating from year 7 until 11 and quit in year 12 as I was worried that the time commitment would sabotage my VCE performance. In hindsight, I really regret it. From year 7 till 11 I've never intentionally put effort into English, or any humanities subjects, but I was still passing with decent grades.
 
I found that the skills you get from debating - which isn't just limited to public speaking but also things such as thinking on the spot, writing persuasive arguments, addressing key points and sticking to the contention really helps with English and humanities.

Debating has very similar criteria to these essay-based subjects - establish a contention, develop key arguments, introduce evidence to enhance your points, and ensure that you are getting your message across. It really helped with my essay writing even though prior to year 12 I never consciously put effort into trying to improve my writing skills.

So yeah - debating definitely helps - not just with English but across all sorts of essay-based subjects. If I could rewind the clock I'd definitely stop myself from quitting at the start of last year. But that's just my experience with debating.