Bo Seo on What Debate Teaches Us About Listening to Each Other

Description

If you tend to nod along rather than disagree, or you leave arguments feeling that both sides lost, this course offers another way. Bo Seo, author of Good Arguments, breaks a good disagreement into five elements from formal debate: topic, argument, rebuttal, rhetoric and quiet. The lessons show how to agree on what you are actually arguing about and how to make a claim that is both true and worth caring about. A lesson on rebuttal makes the case for listening before you push back. Later lessons cover the four kinds of debate bullies, a side-switching exercise for understanding an opponent, choosing when to stay quiet, and why arguing online so often goes wrong.

Each lesson opens with a video from Seo and works through the idea with example exchanges and flip cards, and several lessons end with a reflection exercise.

About the expert

Bo Seo is the author of Good Arguments. The course describes him as a two-time world champion debater who coached the Australian and Harvard debate teams, and who later worked as a journalist. He moved from South Korea to Australia as a child and took up debate after a teacher invited him to join the team.

What you’ll be able to do

• Identify whether a disagreement is about facts, norms or what to do, and agree on that before arguing
• Build an argument that proves a claim is true and that it matters, using the four W’s
• Listen to and write down an opponent’s points before refuting them, then offer a better alternative
• Match your tone to your point and tell the story behind your claim so people listen
• Decide whether an argument is worth having with the RISA checklist
• Recognize a dodger, twister, wrangler or liar and respond to each
• Write the strongest version of the other side’s case before you argue your own

Who it’s for

Anyone who argues with colleagues, family or friends and wants those arguments to go somewhere. It suits people who avoid conflict as much as people who enjoy it.

What’s inside

10 lessons, self-paced:

1. Introduction
2. The Three Types of Disagreements
3. What an Argument Is (and Isn’t)
4. The Pitfalls of Interruption and the Art of Rebuttal
5. The Controversial yet Undeniable Power of Rhetoric
6. To Argue or Not to Argue, That Is the Question
7. The Many Faces of Debate Bullies
8. Switching Sides (and Empathy as a Verb)
9. Technology, Humanity, and the Future of Debate
10. Conclusion

What you get

• 365 days of access from the date of purchase
• A certificate of completion when you finish the course
• Your place is saved, so you can stop and come back whenever you like
• Works on a computer, tablet or phone

You can also get this course, and every other course in the library, with All Access for $99.99 a year.