Guide for Discussion Leaders
Dialogue
The dialogue is a kind of informal lecture-forum. Its procedure is similar to that of the forum except that the leader or moderator acts as an interlocutor. He prepares as carefully as does the chief speaker. To start the discussion he asks the expert a direct question. When he has received a reply, he may give some interpretation or comment of his own and follow with another question. Thus he guides the speaker from issue to issue until the subject has been as fully presented as the time allows. Audience questioning of either member of the dialogue follows.
Because the moderator has the opportunity of guiding the expert and because he may stress a position that differs from the latter’s, the dialogue need not have the disadvantage of presenting only one point of view. In the hands of a skillful interlocutor it possesses for a large audience advantages similar to those of a panel discussion.
