I am doing a debate for my final exam and it's approaching a lot faster than I expected. I was given the stance of lowering the drinking age to 18. But I was wondering if anyone had tips for debating. I would much rather have keeping the drinking age, because all of the stats support it. But we can use powerpoint and such for our debates. There will be 5 mins intro, 2 mins rebuttal for each side. The rebuttal is worrying me most, because who know's what they are going to say? But ANY help would be greatly appreciated. +'s for any help

Nate

When he does your rebuttal, start taking notes on his key points and blast them away with superior logic...

... or lie, politicians do that often too.

[This message has been edited by ryan.hess (edited 12-05-2006).]

Do the debate drunk. And for your closing argument tell every one but not before that. I'm sure you got the whole: old enogh to die for your country, drive a car, vote, get married and buy p0rn thing. Other then that I can't help much.

Is the purpose to prove your argument or display your debating skills? If it's the latter, propaganda techniques can be used to shoot down any rebuttal http://library.thinkquest.org/C0111500/proptech.htm or http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Propaganda can get you started Actually, they can be used for both "offense" and "defense". If the person you are debating tries to pull a fast one, you can point it out. Just watch out for them doing the same to you

well, you can go for the overshoot - making drinking 100% legal to anyone, than "back down", to "accept" 18
europe is a good example for younger drinking ages.
water quality is a good arguement for the SW states.
seperate liqours from beer/wine - making just the beer/wine acceptable at 18
the founding fathers were all brewers, and there was no drinking age at the birth of our nation
18 IS the accepted adult age.

DONT use the "its OK for a 18 yr old to shoot Iraqi's, so why cant they drink?" the 2 dont actually have anything to do with each other.

Thanks guys! I need all the help I can get on debating, and the topic. I have never debated in my life, and this isn't even a debating class. That's another story. I'm trying to figure out what I should do for an intro (5 mins) and what the others might say. I can see the "alcohol causes deaths, related to violence, domestic, crashes, etc" How do I rebut against that? It's true. I don't want to stick to the "if you can kill you can drink" I like to have some scholarly sources and sayings, like using foreign countries that do not have any drinking age, or at least a lower one. And how education in those countries keeps the children safer, and they drink more responsibly and in moderation...

there was a thread about this question recently, read it all carefully, especially the arguments you'll have to try to shoot down. if anyone can find a contrary argument, it's the people on PFF.

quote Originally posted by ace35: I can see the "alcohol causes deaths, related to violence, domestic, crashes, etc" How do I rebut against that? It's true.

its also a very traditional thing. wine has been drunk by the finest of people thru the ages. everything that is great will also cause tragedy.
heck - even animals get drunk. there are trees, where the animals leave the fruit until it ferments, THEN they eat it. you'll see a pile of drunken animals just laying around the tree every year.