Video: How To Prepare For A Debate

COLUMBUS, Miss. (WCBI) – Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton will face off in their first head to head debate Monday night. Both sides have spent weeks getting ready in their own ways, but how do you prepare for a debate?

The Mock Trial Program is the closest thing to a debate team on the Mississippi University for Women Campus.

These students debate in a courtroom setting, rather than on a stage.

Students have to know a little about a lot of different things, follow specific rules, and have valid questions and answers ready for their opponents.

“They have to learn how to operate on a platform, whether it be a debate or a courtroom, in our particular situation. They’re certain places that you position yourselves. Hand movements can mean the world, a turn of the head, how your voice inflection operates. Different things are going to portray different things to individuals, and come across in different manners,” says MUW Assistant Professor of Legal Studies, Ashley Chisolm-Whitten.

When the mock trial starts, so does fast thinking and being quick on your feet.

“Students have to particularly be able to listen, work in that small time frame to develop a sudden response, and an adequate response because just coming off, shooting off the hip, is not going to suffice in a courtroom setting,” says Chisolm-Whitten.

That’s why students say their binder full of facts and notes is like having a baby, because it’s by their side all year.

“You have to prepare. You have to research, you have to spend time looking at the material, and then you have to, you know, we spend a lot of time working on our voice inflections, trying to make sure that we say whatever we mean to say, very loud and with authority,” says MUW Political Science Major, Toya Mcqueen.

Besides knowing the facts and research about arguments, students also have to know the specific rules and how to frame their answers.

“We’re proofing points, and it’s facts, foundation. It has to be laid out for the questions to be asked, and it has to be laid in order for the jury to understand it,” says MUW Legal Studies Major, Keeli Pigg.

The skills students gain from the program go further than just the classroom.

“Even in life, you have to come up with valid points, no matter if that’s a job you’re working in a pharmaceutical company, you always have to come up with a valid point, and again, it just comes back to practice, practice, practice,” says Mcqueen.