Communication During a Debate Written Assignment

Answer the following:

Describe a time when you could not reach an agreement with someone on an issue that is considered to be controversial to the public. The issue should display an opposing debate that has some degree of emotional charge from politics, ethics, philosophy, or religious beliefs. This can be from any life experience.

The reading lists 10 specific rules for debate to follow in any situation. Use these rules to answer the following:
During the disagreement, did one or both parties follow any of these rules? Which rule? How was this helpful to the outcome?
During the disagreement, did one or both parties NOT follow any of these rules? Which rule? How was this harmful to the outcome?
Did either of you shut down communication? Was ending the conversation a good choice? Why or why not?
Why is communication important when working through a controversial issue?

Criteria for written assignments:

Type your full name, course name, and date in the upper left-hand corner of the page
Type your subject in the center of the page. The subject should be the name of the assignment
Start your writing at the left margin (do not center your entire paper)
Use Calibri, Arial, or Times New Roman 12-point font
Use double spacing
Use correct spelling and grammar
Use proper citations to give credit to other resources and ideas that are not your own
There is no length requirement, but you must answer all of the questions in depth.

Refer to the required readings to support your answers. This written assignment must be in essay format. Clearly answer each question in complete sentences.

ANSWER

Communication During a Debate

One of the debates I have had with a friend is one concerning abortion and whether it is the right of the women to decide whether to keep the baby or not and, if it is so, whether the man should also preserve the right not to support the child if the woman goes ahead and keeps the child despite stating he is not ready.  The abortion debate is controversial because it touches on several areas of life, such as religion and the autonomy of women.  In this debate, both parties tried to stay civil.  There was, however, the case of generalization and extreme examples.  Most of the rules in the list were followed apart from a few because of the gravity of the debate.  One factor that helped keep the debate sane is that we ensured that the debate was logical and did not try to appeal to emotions.

The rule that was not followed in the debate was extreme generalizations and extreme examples.  The other party used religion to counter the argument despite the argument being not religious, and we had agreed to view it from a contemporary point of view.  This took the debate out of context and made it impossible to have a rational conversation.  After the debate took a religious at, I decided to shut the communication.  This is because I realized the outcome after that was going to end up in one of us getting offended, and thus that was the best action to take.  Communication is an important factor, especially when talking about controversial issues, because if everyone communicates their points clearly without emotional blackmail, there are chances that the conversation could end up with a neutral conclusion.