Second encounter with Methodist College

Our second debate (30.05.2009) against Methodist College was an impromptu one, on the topic "THBT pircay is economically desirable".We had to oppose the topic and we managed to secure victory.

The New Logo

Due to the concerns of many that our former logo was unacceptable because the words "debaters' syndicate" were written over the Wesley College crest, we were compelled to design a new logo. This was in a way quite fortunate, as it provided us with a chance to make a meaningful symbol which defines us and signifies what we stand for. Thus a two month long designing process began to create a new logo.....an emblem....a symbol that defined and best explained the Wesley College Debaters’ Syndicate.

Our former logo

So without further a due here is our new logo:

As I mentioned before the new logo is a meaningful one and its meaning is centered on Aristotle’s three arts of argumentation and persuasion: Ethos, Pathos, and Logos.

• The Greek letter Lambda signifies Logos or logic our primary weapon as debaters. Logic involving deductive and inductive reasoning, analysis, the internal consistency of the message--the clarity of the claim, the logic of its reasons, the effectiveness of its supporting evidence, is central and imperative for any good argument, and is thus the primary mode of persuasion. As you may have noticed the letter lambda can be seen to be intertwined with a sword. The sword being the primary weapon of a warrior in most cultures signifies how logos or logic is the Debaters' syndicates’ primary weapon........something we will not go into a debate without.
  

• Aristotle’s second appeal is Ethos (Greek for 'character') or the credibility of a speaker. We tend to believe people whom we respect. One of the central necessities of argumentation is to project an impression to the listener that you are someone worth listening to, in other words making yourself a credible authority on the subject of the debate, as well as someone who is likable and worthy of respect. This is symbolized by the Greek letter Epsilon and is connected to the shield in the center of the emblem. Thus the letter Epsilon and it's connection to the Shield seen at the center of the emblem signifies how the Debaters' Syndicate protects itself and it's arguments with credibility.

• The third technique of rhetoric being Pathos (Greek for 'suffering' or 'experience') is about the emotional appeal of one who is in argument. A good debater appeals to our sense of identity and self interest and exploits common biases; we naturally bend in the direction of what is advantageous to us, what serves our interests or the interests of any group we believe ourselves a part of. This is achieved through the emotional or motivational appeals; vivid language, emotional language and numerous sensory details like stories, humor etc. Thus the numerous methods of practicing pathos is symbolized by the Greek letter Pi and the four Ninja throwing knives (four signifying the numerous methods of practicing pathos).A ninja throwing knife or shuriken is a long distance and deadly secondary weapon which is an essential part of a Ninja’s arsenal either to be used in isolation or in complimenting his primary weapon; the Ninja sword. Thus a parallel could be drawn between a Ninja’s throwing stars and the importance of Pathos for a debater.

· The shaded blue circle is meant to symbolize Wesley College and its double blue colours to which our allegiances lie.

Thus to summarize we debate with logos (logic) as our primary weapon, Pathos (emotional appeal) as our secondary weapon and Ethos (credibility) to shield our arguments. This to us ( the current debating team of Wesley) symbolizes and defines the Wesley College Debaters’ Syndicate’s approach towards debate and argument and our commitment towards furthering and perfecting all three of these areas which are central for the creation and debating of arguments and the presentation of these arguments.

Please comment and give us your input and opinion about our new logo.

Maleen Jayasuriya

President

WCDS

Fall at SBC

I thought I'll not write about our losses,like the Egyptians dont have any records of their defeats.But what the heck! that would be stupid, plus the debate against SBC this week (16.05.09) was just too fun to not write anything about it.We found the impromptu topic kind of tough: "THB that fines should be relative to wealth" which we had to oppose.SBC did an excellent job proposing....the main problem we had was that we found it hard to counter argue their main principle argument which was that rich people arnt dettered by low fines and that it would be unfair on the poor as the poor will be affected more by a fine than a rich person,thus we should make fines proportional .
Looking back I can think of a few arguments we could have made,(my brother just gave me an argument we could have used just now.We could have said we should have a fine that is high enough to detter rich people and poor people alike.....an excessive fine instead of trying to tailormake fines for different economic classes,which is complecated and costs money so...if we had coupled that with what Gehan said then we could have done something).But overall I like how we handled it...we came up with a relatively unorthodox argument and stuck to it throughout.....and we didnt panick when we knew we were going down...which was kind of cool .....I felt that we kept on the pressure throughout
Well all in all I was reminded today that loosing sucks, and that we cant afford to loose again...specially at our next debate with Joes this monday on the topic "THB that China should ratify the post Kyoto protocol".

Maleen

Sisters vs Brothers: DC league debate against Methodist College

Our second League debate was against Methodist College; our sister school.Once again we were on the proposing side, so the debate was hosted by us. The debate took place on the 2nd of May, the topic being "THB the international community should intervene militarily to cease gross human violations" and we managed to secure a victory. According to the judges it was a clear win but we could have increased the margin of victory if we rebutted some of their arguments a bit more.The Metho team did a great job too and brought a few very important arguments, but as the judges put it most of them wernt really developed.All in all it was a good debate......and this is our second debate for the league and our second victory.Our next debate is agaisnt SBC on the 16th and would be our first "away" and impromptu debate for the league.
Maleen

Wesley's first encounter in the DC league!!

Wesley College enter the DC inter-school league in fine style by beating St. Bridget's Convent at last Saturday's debate.(25/04/09)The debate, with the home team Wesley as the proposition was under the motion " THW prosecute holocaust deniers".
As the judges put it,the debate was "by far the best debate we have seen in the league and for that matter the last twelve months", due to reasons as pointed out by the judges such as extensive research and good preparation. The S.B.C. team's strong arguments made the points of the debate be split 2:1, but due to them being presented to the house too late wasn't able to save them from defeat. Our heartiest thanks to the S.B.C. team whose support and solid opposition made it all possible and without a doubt, a very interesting debate.

Looking forward to meeting Methodist's College next Saturday with the motion,"THB the international community should intervene militarily to cease gross HR violations"

"ORA ET LABORA"

Sithira Gunasekara,

Secratary,
WCDS.

1st term report of the 2009 O/L batch Debaters of Wesley +A.I.S. Impromptu postponed

2009:O/L-2009:T1:End_Report\+NEWS v.1

To all interested,
A team which consisted of only 2009 O/L batch Debaters taking part in the Law Faculty Debating Tournament this year was the major achievement we had for this Term, from our batch to be precise(for those who are unaware there had been several issues regarding the lack of enthusiasm from out group) . Thanuja Meegahawatte captained the team which also feathered of 2 new faces, Amaan Akram and Amirthajeevan. Even though the team did not overall do well, only winning 2 of the 5 debates, the performance could also be rated good, since the new debaters had actually only seen "a" Parliamentary debate, and had no former training/experience or Knowledge in the formats used at the inter school level. In addition we took part in the Workshop conducted at our own school by the Law faculty.
Even though this might not seem to be much, the decision to post reports every term too could be added as a significant landmark we achieved in the 1st term of the 2009, which shall accompany future future.
Future plans for the 2nd term of our batch will be posted shortly.

End

Thanuja Meegahawatte
2009 O/L Batch of Wesley College

+Also, last night A.I.S. informed me that the Impromptu Tournament had been postponed to the 16th of May 2009.

We are ready

We are all pumped up and
looking forward for
the League.

The last few years have
been a mix of success
and failure......but now
we know what
we have to do...how far we
have to go...and we are ready to
do what it takes.

The Workshop!!

The team at Mao's Birthday bash!

The First Project of the Debaters’ Syndicate: “A comprehensive look into the World Schools style of Debating”

Introduction

The Debaters council of Sri Lanka the leading organization for debating in our country introduced the “World School Style of debating” to schools early this year. This format of debating which is starkly different from the previous formats of debating most schools in Sri Lanka are used to is currently the standard and format which is followed at an international level, particularly the World Schools debating championship which is one of the largest international debating tournaments held. Sri Lanka has participated in this tournament for the past few years and the Debaters Council of Sri Lanka has been the body which has facilitated the creation and training of the Sri Lankan National debating team. The Debaters Council is made up of past debaters in Sri Lanka who have adjudicated and debated many national and international level debates and have introduced this new format of debating to Sri Lanka so as to develop school level debating in Sri Lanka to meet higher standards. As the Debaters Syndicate of Wesley College which is a member of the Debaters Council of Sri Lanka we see it as our duty to help in this effort by organizing a workshop on this new style of debating dubbed “A COMPREHENSIVE LOOK INTO THE WORLD SCHOOLS STYLE OF DEBATING”. The Council has agreed to send some of its qualified members to carry out the workshop. The Interact Club of Wesley College has volunteered to help the Debaters syndicate to organize this project successfully.

The Executive Board

· Project Chairperson : Maleen Jayasuriya

Lashanthan Gopalan

· Project Secretary : Shazad Synon

Dhanish Musafer

· Project Treasurer : Sithira Gunasekara

Jeremy de Zilwa

· Project Editor : Chrisjit Xavier

Akeel Majeed

· Finance Director : Shamil Latheef

Praveen Jayaratne

· Food and Beverage : Thanuja Meegahawatte

Fazlan Faiz

· Sounds and Lights : Khabeer Sharker

Nishan Caseem

· Hall Management : Imfaz Iqbal

· Decoration : Haseeb Hameed

· School Coordination : Firnaz Najimudeen

Details of the Project

· Date : 25^th March

· Time : 2.30p.m. to 5.30p.m.

· Venue : Wesley College, Colombo 09.

In the College Main hall

· Schools Invited :

•             St. Thomas' College, Mount Lavinia
  
• Bishop's College
  
• Ladies' College
  
• Visakha Vidyalaya
  
• D. S Senanayake College
  
• St. Bridget's Convent
  
• Ananda College
  
• Methodist College
  
• Colombo International School
  
• St. Joseph's College
  
• Royal College
  
• Anula Vidyalaya
  
• Holy Family Convent
  
• Lyceum International School
  
• Oxford International School
  
• Asian International school
  
• Musaeus College
  

· No. of participants per school : 6 – 8

Financial Details of the Project

The estimated budget for the project is as follows:

	Description	Qty.	Unit price	Total
1.	Refreshments	150	Rs.150	Rs.22 500
2.	Rewards	150	Rs.50	Rs.7 500
3.	Tokens of Appreciation			Rs.7 000
4.	Notebooks	150	Rs.150	Rs.22 500
5.	Miscellaneous			Rs.500
	Total Expenses			Rs.60 000

Contributions to cover the budget are welcome in the forms of banners and advertisements and donations. The details in regard to this are as follows

One banner = Rs. 5000

One page in the notebook = Rs. 1500

Half page in the notebook = Rs. 1000

Outer back cover of the notebook = Rs. 5000

Inner back cover of the notebook = Rs. 3000

Handbills Distribution = Rs. 5000 (negotiable)

If interested please contact any of the following persons

Maleen Jayasuriya : 0112563115

Chrisjit Xavier : 0112733623/ 0771546804

Sithira Gunasekara : 0115616893

Jeremy De Zilwa : 0115514177/ 0771922144