Convincing and debating

Scientists are often in a situation where they need to discuss their findings or their need for extra funding or resources with other members of the scientific community or with the gen-eral public. Therefore, the ability to express yourself concisely and clearly, using strong ar-guments, is of utmost importance.
This interactive seminar with real-life scenarios, public speaking exercises, argumentation examples and debates will help participants successfully engage in various interactions with other scientists and non-scientists. Your Q&A sessions will never be the same again. You will disarm other people’s arguments against you now that you can look behind their facade. And last but not least, you will win on paper (e.g. research- and grant- proposals)! You will convince your boss to buy this fantastic Mass Spec.

In this course you´ll learn about:

Public speaking

• Fear of public speaking
• Establish contact
• Different group sizes
• Stylistic figures

Argumentation strategies

• The right argument for the right audience and setting
• Scientific proof vs. understandable analogy: get more versatile

Structuring your argumentation

• Structures for adversarial and neutral audiences
• Addressing the ‘opponent’ or a third party

Interactions

• Learn to challenge the argument
• Reply to challenges and even attacks