Thursday, October 29, 2015

Was Fight Club Helpful?

In Fight Club, I have learned how to argue.  From the first Fight Club until now, I have dramatically improved.  My confidence in my side of the argument (whether I be placed on the easier or harder side to argue - 99% of the time the harder side) has increased.  While I still see plenty of room for improvement, the fact that I stood up and spoke for five minutes without a script in front of a group of people is an improvement in and of itself.  

I think that participating in Fight Club has really helped me develop as a thinker as well as in my writing.  My paper definitely used tactics I have learned in fright club to develop my argument and further my stance.  I also found myself using many templates from Graff's They Say, I Say which was surprising. Fight Club was noticeably helpful when formulated my thesis and my topic sentences. When I began explaining and reasoning quotes also we easier to explain how they relate to my argument thank to Fight Club.

However sometimes when writing a paper, tactics used in Fight Club do not work out as well.  For instance the repetitiveness of your argument is more clear when written out sentence after sentence.  In person, it's easier to forget what the person said last round, but if it's down on paper you can only repeat yourself in so many different  
 ways before everyone gets bored.

Therefore, in a verbal argument it's easier to explain yourself and clarify things without being obnoxious.  You can also play off what other people argued but that's harder to do in writing as well.

5 comments:

  1. I agree it is easier to start sounding repetitive in papers as opposed to verbal arguments. This may be because people have something to reference when they read your writing, but when speaking you need to make sure people are keeping up with what you are saying more because it is harder to stop and think about what a speaker is saying.

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  2. I also struggle with arguing, especially in front of a group. I also think that Fight Club has helped me to improve in that area. You did a great job arguing for our group today and were convincing to the audience in my opinion.

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  3. I agree with you that Fight Club has given you (and the rest of the class) confidence to argue ideas clearly to others. Another good point you made was being repetitive, whether verbal or in a paper. Sounding repetitive in a paper is never a good thing, yet it is the opposite for speaking most of the time.

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  5. I agree that Fight Club has forced me to become more comfortable with speaking up in front of others. While it isn't always easy, practice helps, and you did a great job in class. You used your time well and were clear with your points that you brought up.

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