Debate Assignment Task

Task Guidance

Please debate Either in favour OR against ONE of the following motions:

• Is global business travel doomed in 2022?
• Which will dominate global travel in 2022 – Staycations (within your home country) or Long-haul travel (over 7 hours)?
• Generation X or Y – who will dominate the global travel market over the next 2 years?
• Should there be MORE restrictions on our international travel movements in 2022?
• Face2face or Digital experiences – which will dominate travel, tourism, aviation OR hospitality over the next 2 years?

Students can choose their preferred position to one of the debate motions above.  Students will debate with one lecturer on their chosen motion.

Format for the debate (with an indicative guide to timings)

Opening Remarks (maximum 10 minutes): Each student will formally present FOUR key arguments to support their chosen position. Students are required to use a maximum of 1 slide per argument, followed by their list of references on a subsequent slide(s). Slides should be used as a prompter for each argument as opposed to providing excess text on each slide. Please avoid simply reading your notes.

Cross-examination & counter arguments: (maximum 13 minutes) The lecturer will then cross-examine the student. The student will then have an opportunity to counter-argue their points further, based on the cross-examination. Students should anticipate these counter-arguments through their research and thus be able to refute these counter-arguments accordingly.

Concluding Remark (2 minutes): Each student will provide an overall conclusion to the debate, reaffirming their position in a succinct but well-reasoned context

Scheduling the debates

Students are expected to choose their debate motion and position by the end of Week 2.

The schedule for the debates will be posted at the end of Week 3.

There will be a Reading Week at the end of Week 3.

The debates will run in Weeks 7 & 8.

For additional guidance on this assignment, please access the assignment vodcast available on Canvas.

Opening Remarks (through a formal presentation) - Structure/clarity of communication/flow of discussion – clear introduction setting the context of the debate, making key headline opening arguments, supported effectively with references/examples; The articulation and depth of the opening arguments relating to the motion position will account for 40%.

Cross-examination – Ability of student to address issues raised in the cross-examination and present further arguments to support their chosen position. It is important that the debate stays focused on the motion and every argument is backed up with effective evidence (and triangulation of evidence) – case studies, statistics, newspaper articles, industry reports etc. The articulation and depth of counter arguments relating to the motion position will account for 40%.

Concluding Remark – a clear overall well-reasoned and succinct conclusion reinforcing the position taken in the debate -  will account for 10%.

References – quality, range and extensiveness of references (at least 25 references across different sources are expected). The currency of the data (how recent is the data) and the triangulation of references (cross-referencing data to add further justification to points) are critical. Marks for references will also be embedded with the debate itself, but the extent, presentation, currency and quality of the references will account for 10%.

Timings – the lecturer will ensure strict adherence to the allocated debate time, so please practice your opening comments accordingly, anticipate the counter-arguments from the lecturer and be well prepared overall.