A librarian from Portland changed how I run our debate nights

Last Tuesday, our club argued about ending books with open questions. Sarah, who runs the library events downtown, pointed out that we spend 20 minutes on plot holes and 2 minutes on how the book made us feel. She said debates should center on emotion first, then facts. Has anyone else tried flipping the order like that?

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daniel4742d ago

Flip it and see what happens. We tried emotion first once and got nowhere, just people telling stories about their feelings instead of actually talking about the book. Facts ground the discussion, they give everyone something to point at. You can argue about plot holes all night and still learn something about how the story works. Starting with feelings just turns it into a therapy session where the loudest person wins. Sarah's idea sounds nice, but in practice it kills the actual debate. We switched back after two weeks.