Syllabus for Spring 2014 Seminar - SPCH 171 Advanced Debate

SPCH 171: ADVANCED DEBATE
Alfred C. Snider, Instructor
4:00-6:45 PM Tuesday – Lafayette 311 - Spring 2014

SCOPE OF THE COURSE
This course is designed for students who are interested in advanced competitive academic debate in the WUDC format. This course is designed to give these students opportunities to advance their debating skills by competing against other college debaters. Students will work on their speaking, critical reasoning, and argumentation skills. The class serves as an intense laboratory for debating skills that can then be deployed in different settings and throughout life.

ASSIGNMENTS
Each student will complete the following assignments:
1. Attend class instruction sessions and engage in exercises and curricular activities. Students will have readings and should view videotaped materials.
2. Students will give 2 short oral presentations in class. 20% of grade.
3. Compete in a debates in class and/or at tournaments. 60% of grade.
4. Students will complete short essay on the conduct, implementation and staging of WUDC debates. 20% of grade.

CLASS PROCEDURES
• Debating will take place in our classroom or in other arranged spaces.
• After training sessions and/or debates the instructor will meet with individual students or as teams to chart their progress and evaluate their performance in debate rounds.
• Students will use the extensive instructional materials available at
• https://www.uvm.edu/~asnider/AdvancedDebate/
• http://debate.uvm.edu/learndebate.html ; including videos at http://debate.uvm.edu/wudcvideo.html and audio files at http://debate.uvm.edu/low.html
• http://debate.uvm.edu/trainwudc.html

EVALUATION
Students will be evaluated on the basis of earned points only. There will be no extra credit work available. Each assignment has a basic point value (adding up to 100) of which students will be awarded a portion based on the quality of their work. Students should be aware of the University policies on academic honesty.

OUTSIDE OF CLASS
Students should feel free to meet with the instructor during office hours or at times that can be mutually agreed on. Feel free to ask for explanations of assignments, class material, grading, or anything else that might be of interest. The instructor's goal is to develop a friendly working relationship with each student in this class.

CONCLUSION
This is a tentative syllabus and may be revised. A schedule will be provided.