Assignment/Activity Title

Interdisciplinary Debate
Year Sophomore
Skill
Research, Performance, Public Speaking
Category Critical Reasoning

Portfolio

I chose the Great Debate for my portfolio because it was the first major assignment as well as
interdisciplinary that I had been assigned this year. As an interdisciplinary assignment, there was a group
research component where all of CAP 10 spent two days researching in the library. In the past, my time
management during research blocks such as this one has not been overall satisfactory. With this project, I was
determined to be better prepared and I utilized my time effectively and I was on the right track at the end of the
first day. Once the research was finished, I had a few days to practice my debate speeches and go over my facts.
This was the part of the debates I was most worried about and one of the main reasons it is important to have
the debate in my portfolio.
I am not a public speaker. As I have expressed in past portfolios, public speaking is not one of my
strengths and I do not typically do well on public speaking assignments. One of my nervous habits is the
tendency to speak quickly, often to the point where people interrupt me to try to get me to slow down so I can
be understood. The debate was not an exception. While I feel that I was well-prepared for the debate and that I
knew my material well, I delivered my facts rapid-fire and the main reason why I lost points on this assignment
was because of my speed. I hope that by the end of the year, or if not by then, then by the end of my time in
CAP, I will have been able to overcome this issue. I wanted this debate to be in my portfolio so that I can have a
foundation that I can build upon and so I can, at the end of the year, look back and be able to reflect on how Ive
grown.
The debates are also important to include in my portfolio because they easily summarize CAP and what
we do in the program. They pulled together all four components of the programour four classes: media,
english, journalism, and governmentand related them all to each other, as well as required extensive research
that was then analyzed and synthesized into argumentative statements that we defended and explained in front
of our peers. The debates let us engage in discourse about various relevant topics and, public speaking aside, I
truly enjoyed the experience.
Although I still need to work on my ability to speak in front of my peers at a normal speed, I am overall
proud of my work in this project. I felt that I held my own in this project, despite the fact that my topic was one
that I was unfamiliar with and my partner was very familiar with, and I was not the deadweight I feared I would
be. I went into the debates not knowing much about my topic other than the fact that I was against the idea of
commercial drone use, which was my topic. My partner on the other hand was well versed in drone use and
other related technical advances and I was afraid I would be a hindrance in the debate. As a result, I looked to
my partner as the leader of our group; which I am also proud of since, as I have noted in previous coversheets, I
am a perfectionist and I tend to take control and micromanage during group projects. I used my research time
well and, by the end of the two research days, I felt very prepared and knowledgeable, which certainly helped
with my confidence in the project.
Overall, the debates were an enjoyable experience and most definitely one I can learn from and I look
forward to more assignments like it in the future.

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