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it possess for a large audience advantages similar to those of a panel discussion.

5. Symposium: This is still another type of forum. By providing two or three speakers, each charged with the duty of presenting a different point off view, the symposium consciously attempts to direct audience attention to various approaches toward the problem under consideration.  In this it leaves less to chance than does the informal discussion or the panel discussion. It is to be preferred to the single-speaker forum unless the single expert can make a brilliant presentation. Naturally its success will also depend upon the competence of the symposium members.

A possible disadvantage of the symposium is inherent in dividing the lecture time between two or three individuals.  No one of them can give anything but a cursory treatment of his phase of the subject. Thus the symposium may lose in depth while it gains in comprehensiveness. This tendency to lack detailed treatment may be balanced by spreading the symposium over several meetings, all dealing with the same general subject.

Participation by the audience is usually more limited in the symposium than it is in the single-speaker forum or dialogue, but the general technique, i. e., the duties of the moderator, the speakers, and the audience, are the same as in the single-speaker forum.

6. Debate: Unless debate is used to stimulate a discussion 

DEBATE
[[image  - drawing of two tables with soldiers debating in front of an audience]]

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Edited: per instructions not to truncate words, used previous page to complete first word on this page