Published October, 1915 Second Edition, October, 1916 Printed in the United States of America 8950 P538 1924 EXPLANATORY NOTE In this volume have been brought together materials that will be of use to the student or individual wishing to know how to prepare a debate or how to organize a debating society or league of debating organizations. While conforming to The Handbook Series in that it is made up of reprints of articles taken from a large number of sources, effort has been made to select those articles that describe the subject most clearly and concisely and, at the same time, give a fairly wellconnected account of the various processes. For convenience the work has been divided into two parts. In Part I have been put all the articles relating to the preparation of the individual debate. The articles have been selected so as to describe, in logical order, all the steps through which the debater must go: Selecting the question and defining the terms; analyzing to determine the main issues; collecting and recording evidence; selection and proper use of evidencethis includes a description of the forms of reasoning and fallacies; drafting the brief; preparing the argument from the brief; and practical suggestions for delivery and for the division of the work among the members of the debating team. Part II is devoted to the organization and management of the debating society. In the articles included in this division are conveyed brief and valuable suggestions for organizing a society and drawing up its constitution; the management of the society, including a brief description of the more important rules of order; selecting of the teams; the coaching and judging of a debate. The latter half of Part II is given over to a description of various forms of inter-society debating organizations, with model constitutions. For the benefit of those wishing to read more extensively on the subject, a list of books on debate and public speaking is appended to the book. There is also included, as Appendix B, a subject index to a large number of books and pamphlets containing bibliographies, briefs, arguments pro and con, reprints of selected articles, or reports of entire debates on questions of 708868 importance. Most of these books and reports are completely indexed, others for important subjects only. The object has been to get an up-to-date usable subject list rather than a complete one. This subject index ought to be especially helpful to high school debaters in selecting topics for debate, and after having selected them, to obtain helpful material for the debate itself. The compiler wishes to acknowledge her indebtedness to the authors from whose works material has been drawn for this volume, and to thank the publishers for their kind permission to reprint the selections. E. M. PHELPS July 15, 1915 EXPLANATORY NOTE FOR THE This Fifth edition of the Debaters' Manual is presented in the hope that it will receive the same generous response that has been accorded the preceding editions. To Part I has been added an article of some length on the Rebuttal, by Mr. Clarence S. Dike, coach of debate in the High School of Atlantic City. This article has not been published before. In Part II the article on the Interscholastic Debating League of Texas has been rewritten by Mr. Roy Bedichek, Head of the Interscholastic League Division, Bureau of Extension; University of Texas, and several new articles have been added, dealing with Tryouts, Judging, and the Oxford system of debating. Appendices A and B have been revised thoroly, many new references have been added, references to out-of-print material have been dropped except where the articles are still useful and to be found in libraries generally, and subjects and references now out of date have been deleted. August 16, 1924 E. M. PHELPS CONTENTS Definition and Importance of Argumentation and Debate. (Ketcham, V. A. Theory and Practice of Argu- PART I. HOW TO PREPARE A DEBATE 1. Selecting the Proposition for Debate. (Jones, L. Manual for Debaters. p. 34-6. Univ. (Ketcham, V. A. Theory and Practice of Argu- a. Collecting and Recording Material for Evidence. b. How to Estimate and Present the Evidence. |