Poking Holes in a Case

OK so we’ve talked about why we might have a debate and we’ve discussed some of the roles of the debate and some of the different the different words related to having a debate.

OK let’s now talk about some of the phrases we can use in the debate itself.

And we’re going to look at phrases for how we can poke holes in a case.

What does that mean.

Well as I said before when you have a debate you build a case for something right.

This is my case.

I’m making a case for whatever it is.

Maybe we’re talking about the drinking age here to poke holes in that is to show where the weak points are and make it look weaker.

On the other side imagine you have a bag full of water and you dig deep dig poke holes in it.

What will happen to the water.

It will leak out.

So when we’re having a debate one thing we can do is use a couple of specific phrases to show the weaknesses of the other side not the other person but just the arguments being made.

OK.

So let’s look at how we can do that.

Let me introduce this topic first.

The drinking age at 21 in the USA is a good way to prevent drinking problems later in life.

Now I don’t know if you know this but in the United States you have to be 21 years or older in order to in order to actually buy alcohol.

You say it’s the legal drinking age 21 years or older.

OK.

Some people say it’s a good idea.

Some people say it’s a bad idea.

It’s very controversial.

OK well it doesn’t matter how you feel about it OK.

But we’re not going to focus on your opinion or my opinion but let’s just say we’re going to disagree with this.

We’re going to either actually disagree or play the devil’s advocate.

And we’re going to look at some phrases we can use.

Well one thing we can do is ask a question and we ask a question to force the other side to say yes about something related to a point that is against what they said or against their own argument.

OK you want to find or pick out true statements small statements that might disagree with their side and they should be factual statements.

That means they should be facts F A C.T.

s.

They should be true.

And then the other side has to say yeah that’s true.

Yes that’s true.

Aha yeah that’s true.

And if you make them agree the other side to small points that are smaller than the main argument you force them to do that then it makes their side look weaker.

This is a very simple thing to do but this is a common debate tactic or strategy.

You can off often use the word tactic.

OK so how can we do that.

Well it’s very simple and you might see this in movies about court cases where there’s a lawyer talking to someone in court isn’t it true.

Isn’t it true.

Now this is a very powerful beginning because all they have to say to answer this is yes.

And if they say no then they have to defend it and say why a fact that you’re stating is not true.

So you should say something that’s true.

So they have to say yes.

Isn’t it true that that many high school students get drunk at least once before age 21.

Now you have to say yes to that because it is true.

There are movies about it.

It’s a fact.

Many high school students do get drunk at least some point before they turn 21.

It’s true.

You have to say yes that’s true.

So I’m building to something maybe I then make another statement like this now isn’t it true that blah blah blah.

You can make another one.

So I’m slowly breaking down your position your view your case.

OK.

Now how about this one.

And I’m not saying this is a fact.

I’m not totally sure.

But isn’t it true that the rate of alcoholism hasn’t decreased over the last 40 years.

Now if what you’re saying is true the drinking age at 21 is a good idea if what you’re saying is true then we should see that alcoholism or people being addicted to alcohol which is what alcoholism is addicted to alcohol.

We should see it going down.

Right.

If it’s working.

OK so if I say this isn’t it true that the rate of alcoholism hasn’t decreased hasn’t gone down over the last 40 years maybe I have a graph here.

Right.

As you can see from this graph this is the rate of alcoholism it hasn’t gone down.

Isn’t it true that the rate of alcoholism hasn’t gone down over the last 40 years.

The other side has to say.

Yeah that’s true.

So this isn’t it true thing can be a very very powerful tool when you use it correctly when you ask the right questions can’t always use it but in many cases you can.

And I really like it.

Now we’re going to look at one more question phrase that we can use when we want to show that we believe the other side is wrong and provide an opposite fact.