How to persuade and influence people: The art of effective geographical debate

This article supports students to prepare to participate in a debate. We consider thorough preparation as the foundation for effective debate. Here we provide guidance on one approach to preparing as effectively as possible. We outline this before considering three key elements to this method of preparation: 1) substance: your knowledge and understanding of the debate topic; 2) style: how to present your points clearly and succinctly; and 3) persuasion: how through both substance and style you effectively persuade people of your argument. We conclude by summarising the key points raised in this guide and identifying how they apply to other assignment contexts. The discussion that follows uses the debate topic ‘Should an additional charge be applied to all single-use plastics?’ to demonstrate the approaches we suggest.

Citation

Healey, R. L., & Leatham, C. (2022). How to persuade and influence people: The art of effective debate in geography. Journal of Geography in Higher Education, 46(2), 315-325. https://doi.org/10.1080/03098265.2021.1904215

Publisher

Taylor & Francis

Journal

Journal of Geography in Higher Education

URI

http://hdl.handle.net/10034/624413

DOI

10.1080/03098265.2021.1904215

Type

Article

Description

This document is the Accepted Manuscript version of a published work that appeared in final form in Journal of Geography in Higher Education. To access the final edited and published work see https://doi.org/10.1080/03098265.2021.1904215

ISSN

0309-8265

EISSN

1466-1845

Additional Links

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/03098265.2021.1904215