Public Speaking and Debate Summer Scholars Session I & II
This track will help you develop communication skills that enhance your academic and personal lives. We work within the format of policy debate, presenting detailed arguments about significant, contemporary issues and topics. Policy debates require strong research, critical thinking, and writing and speaking skills, skills you will use after this course in a myriad of areas.
The first half of the program provides opportunities to develop skills in public speaking through short, informative and persuasive speeches. We will also watch clips from film and television programs that illustrate points raised in class. Class lessons and activities, including individual and group presentations, offer many opportunities to hone your public speaking skills. Then, to help you develop arguments for your debates, we will work with Notre Dame’s library holdings. You will learn how to use a university library and navigate electronic databases. Divided into teams of three or four students, on the last day of class you will argue for or against a resolution you and your classmates have crafted.
Whether you are an experienced debater or have never delivered a speech before, all you need is the desire to develop as a critical thinker and effective speaker.
Course Schedule
This course will be offered during Summer Scholars Session I and Session II on campus.
Academic Director
Patrick Clauss, Ph.D.
The O’Malley Director of the University Writing Program, Patrick Clauss studies the relationships among argumentation theory, composition theory and pedagogy, and rhetoric. He teaches Writing and Rhetoric, Multimedia Writing and Rhetoric, and undergraduate and graduate courses in public speaking. In the spring of 2014, he was named a recipient of the Rev. Edmund P. Joyce, C.S.C. Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching. He has served as a member of the College Board’s Curriculum Committee for the AP Language and Composition course and examination. In 2022, he was the recipient of the Thomas P. Madden Award, honoring a member of the faculty who contributed the most to the teaching of first-year students.