如何贏得辯論，總統辯論或其他
快樂學堂
President Obama and former governor Mitt Romney have teams of advisors and aides to help them prepare for their three debates. But what about the rest of us who would like some help winning an argument—at work， at school or at home？
For advice， we asked two experts at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem， North Carolina. Allan Louden chairs[任教授職位] the Department of Communication. Assistant professor Jarrod Atchison is the director of debate. His first piece of advice is to know your audience.
Jarrod Atchison： Before you know if you’ve won or you lost， you have to know who the audience is or who the judge is. And so in everyday argumentation some people think that logic alone will prevail[占上風] when sometimes that’s not the most persuasive[有說服力的] form of argument in a given situation. So you have to know your audience and what they consider to be relevant[相關的] information for the debate at hand[即將到來].
Second， find a “universal principle” that everyone in the room—from the audience members to your opponent[敵手，對手]—can agree to. Jarrod Atchison says if you argue from that principle， “then you do not have to fight the fight about the basics of the evidence.”
Third， he says the best debaters are the best listeners. They listen to what their opponent is saying， instead of just repeating their own position.
And fourth， he says， “be very careful in deploying[使用] history in argumentation.” Some people think that having one strong historical example to support their side will win the argument. But their opponents may have other historical examples to support their side.
Atchison： And a very good debater will always use that to their advantage by saying， “Well， you may have identified one example that supports your direction. But here’s a larger， more important example that supports my side.”
奧巴馬總統和前州長米特·羅姆尼都有各自的顧問團隊來幫助他們準備三場（總統）辯論。但對我們這些想在工作場合、學校裏或者是家裏贏得辯論的人又有什麼好的建議呢？
我們請來了（美國）北卡羅來納州溫斯頓-賽納姆市的維克森林大學的兩位專家——傳播係教授艾倫·勞登和擔任辯論總監的助理教授賈羅德·艾奇遜——為我們指點迷津。艾奇遜的第一條建議是了解你的觀眾。
賈羅德·艾奇遜：在了解辯論是成是敗之前，你必須先了解你的聽眾或者評委。因此，在日常的辯論中，有人認為邏輯這個單一元素就會讓自己占上風，但在某些特定情況下，邏輯並不是最有說服力的論證形式。所以，你必須了解你的觀眾，以及對他們來說什麼是即將到來的這場辯論的相關信息。
第二，找到一個能讓現場每一個人——從全場觀眾到你的對手——都同意的“通用法則”。賈羅德·艾奇遜說如果你以這一法則為出發點辯論，“那麼你不需要與基本的知識作鬥爭。”