It is very important to, while debating, use correct spelling and grammar.

I took on this debate for sh1ts & giggles :) --------------------------------------------- My Contentions: A person's spelling is not indicative of their knowledge on a certain subject, or reflective of their skills as a debater. In fact, most of the time when people debate, it is not via the internet and therefore their spelling skills have nothing to do with the outcome. I would also like my opponent to define "very important" in terms of the resolution. Does he mean that is it the most important? Second most important? Or what? I argue that if there are (many) more important things in terms of debate other than perfect spelling/grammar, then it is not VERY important - just a positive aspect of any written or typed debate. --------------------------------------------- My Rebuttals: "Wen ur dibating its very impertant to spel corectly and to be use proper grammar, cuz otherwise itt mite be slitely dificilt to read ur argumints. yaou shou;ld also avoid amking typo sin youre argu;ments. A argumint with lotts of errorrs wil be hard to reed and therefore yoor argumint wil seem les credibill." * Slightly difficult does not = impossible. * I read debates all the time that contain proper spelling and punctuation, yet often I can't understand them for other reasons (i.e. bad flow). So I'd rather read a debate that contains some spelling mistakes and/or typos than struggle to re-read every sentence because someone's content doesn't make any sense. ----------------------------------------------- "It is vary importint to spel good n ur debayts. Utherwise, u mite sownd like an idiot. Itt is cleer that argumints that are void of errorrs r mor convincin. Also good be eloquent." * To some, you MIGHT come off like an idiot if you use poor spelling in your debates. To others, you may come off as an idiot if you support liberal politics. Does that mean that people should revolve their debating around what others think? More on this later... * Prove that error-free arguments are more convincing. I argue that a few typos here or there will not make much of a difference in the outcome of a debate. Consider the better debaters you have seen on this site, for instance. Though bright, none of them are perfect and all of them have managed to win many debates despite some minor spelling errors. Note that neither the resolution nor my opponent discussed the extent of the errors. ----------------------------------------------- "If sumwun cant reed ur argumint, how you suposed win the debayt." * Voters on this site should be able to read. Whether they vote against you or not based on your grammar is another story. Besides, I argue that debates SHOULD be judged based on content with some, but less emphasis on presentation. Everybody has a different way of getting their point across. For instance, Pro chose to type his argument like a dyslexic first grader in order to establish his case. Real clever. ----------------------------------------------- "It be esentchil have few erors as be posibil. It nnot be dificilt to see win reeding debayts, thaat bad speld arguments mor prone too loose." * Where in the rules of debate, or in "debate etiquette" per se, does it mention that few grammatical errors is ESSENTIAL? It is suggested that an argument presented with less spelling errors appears more thought out, but that is not always the case; I've seen arguments with some misspellings totally outperform an opponent's "perfect" rebuttal. ----------------------------------------------- "If u mayk lot of errorrs, probiblee wont win. Th espelling of words be importint to reeders whin thay r decideeng hoo to vote for. It matter alot." * Speculation/Assumption -- no proof * Why is the spelling important? Why does it matter a lot? It may mean something to you, but not everyone. ----------------------------------------------- "I chalinge u too name 1 ARGument in wich they mayk Lots, and lots uf mistayks, yet still has beter argumint." * In this debate, Beem0r presented the more clear argument, yet lost the debate in the Facebook Tournament even though astrosfan's spelling/grammar/punctuation made his arguments more difficult to read. http://www.debate.org...