Current mood:	irate
Current music:	Billy Joel - Piano Man

Un-Debatable Anger

Ok now, Mark is angry. Some time back, after spring break ended, I had to do a debate for my Political Science class; it was on Capital Punishment. I did the opening and the majority of the closing. Here is my opening statement, if you would like to read it. So. On this debate which I completely rocked on, I received an 86. My partner, who did about the same amount of prep as me, spoke less then I did and whose performance was not as well, received an 87. One of the members of the opposing side who simply rehashed facts, some of which was bad information (such as giving the statistics that X states still use the electric chair, hanging, and the firing squad without stating it's at the request of the convict and claiming that's cruel and unusual punishment) and whose performance was just plain bad received an 88. I have no idea what the other opposing member got. Lets break down the grading, using quotes from the professor:

Preparation for the debate (we had to hand in an initial bibliography and an outline): B

"Decent outline, bibliography could have been stronger." It was an initial bibliography for god's sake, it wasn't all that we did. The fact that we did it and met with him alone should have earned an A.

Organization and effectiveness of opening statement (which I posted): A-

"A clear, articulate and engagin opening with some interesting approaches to the issue, but the analogy you use with the individual's defense mechanism isn't all that persuasive and not supported by empirical evidence." Here is the statement: Capital punishment is to the political body just as self-defense is to the individual. That's not persuasive? Does it not nake sense? Does it not make a concise point? And it's not supported with evidence? How, pray tell, does one support that? If I knew where to look up hard facts to support it, I would have, and spouted some boring dry information for 5 minutes straight. Sorry I didn't.

Use of empirical evidence and outside sources: C+

"Except for evidence about deterrence rates and references to the constitution, there was little empirical evidence brought to bear. This was perhaps the weakest part of your debate." Again, how could I support two of my points with empirical data? Hell, I fucking made one point up, talk about being creative, and I'm marked down for it because there's no evidence of my opinion. Cruel and unusual punishment, that's what this class is.

Rebuttal Stuff: B+

Why is he giving me a grade on the rebuttal? Did I have anything to do with the rebuttal? No. My partner did it. Excellent, lost points on that one.

Organization and effectiveness of the closing statement: B+

"Again, a clear restatement of earlier arguments but would have been persausive with some empirical support, especially your assertion that people serving life could kill again." What?!?! Empirical support? Are you fucking kidding me? I think if you have a brain you can realize the fact that anyone who is not dead has the capability to kill again, no?

Grade given by class: B+/A-

Individual Performance grade: B/B+

Debate Grade: B, 86

This guy must have a personal fucking vendetta against me. Why did I get an 86? I feel his reasons are bullshit. Regardless of that, why the fuck should I get a lower grade than my partner, if I did more performing work and my section got a higher grade? Does that make sense to anyone? Plus when I told other members of the class about the grade I received, and that the others had received a higher grade, they were all shocked. OK. A debate was performed in class today. If the Negative side, whom I fuly respect, gets a higher grade then me, I will be quite dissapointed in the class, even more so then now. If the Affirmative side gets a higher grade, I will be irate. This kid Mike pisses me off like you have no idea. I find him so offensive, so rude, so inane, that every time he speaks I feel like I should be racist or something (which I am not,  by any means). He wastes so much time with not arriving at any point that I feel like I'm paying money to hear him spout utter bullshit. Because, well, that's what I'm doing. I don't know about anyone else, but I couldn't make one point out of his debate today. We'll see how I do on the paper I just handed in. God, I hate that class.