The skills of arguing and counter-arguing are valuable, both in the real world and in academic writing. Not only do you need to evaluate another person's argument by examining it for proper evidence and logic, but, if you disagree with it, you also need to logically counter-argue that position, using your own evidence.
Your next major writing assignment will involve a critique of an article, which involves similar thinking to the debate we held. This means you will have to read the article, understand it, summarize it, evaluate it based on several criteria, and offer a counter-argument if you disagree with the author (or offer further arguments if you agree with the author).
(Jill Tschopp Huang, 2010)
