Introduction

Muhammad Yunus Zakariah The Debating News @ H & G Strategic Communications Sdn. Bhd. Director (Operations and Research)

Debating is the art of influence, friendship, and eloquence, of ready wit and irrefutable logic. And it harnesses the most powerful of social forces, arguments. Debates and arguments surround you. It plays with your emotions, changes your attitudes, talks you into a decision and guides you to buy things. Debates and arguments lie behind political labeling, advertising, jargon, voices, gestures and guilt--trips; it forms a real--life Matrix, the supreme software that drives our social lives. Debatecraft serves as a decoder. By learning the tricks we use to persuade one another, the art of debating reveals the Matrix in all its manipulative glory.

Programme Objective(s): On completion of this programme, participants shall be able to: 1. Comprehend the format of British Parliamentary debating, 2. Produce the most effective, clear and well--structured persuasive speech, 3. Comprehend and apply the three components of persuasive speaking, 4. Structure their speech strategically to enhance comprehension/understanding, and 5. Present the message that they intend to convey and achieve the desired outcome.