2013 Marquette University Debate Institute

Doing Debate Research

By David Henning

Director of Debate at Lakeland College, The Sheb and Sheboygan North

Doing Debate Research

At the Varsity policy level, doing your own research is essential. You will not succeed in the long run if you do not do your own research. Evidence doesn’t just fall out of the sky. You must research, read and then cut your own evidence. You must keep updating your affirmative and negative files, because recent evidence often helps win debate rounds. There is no substitute for good, original research.

Doing Debate ResearchResearch is a skill, like flowing, that is always a work in progress. One can always improve their research skills, and there are a variety of different methods one can use to do successful research. Research is a skill that needs to be used in order to improve. Research skills may be the most valuable thing you get out of debate. Once you are a good researcher, writing papers for high school, college or graduate school classes or seminars becomes easier. A good deal easier, since a year of doing high-level Varsity policy debate has been compared to doing a Master’s thesis, something to which I can personally attest. Below are some helpful ideas to get you started.

Doing Debate Research

1. Read the articles your cards were taken from. Many debaters use evidence from debate camps, other teams and other squad members. That’s a good thing, because no one has the time to research everything that relates to the debate topic. There are several reasons why you should go back and check the original sources of your cards, especially your most important cards.

Doing Debate Research

1. Read the Articlesa. You will learn about your arguments more

thoroughly. Reading the original article/book/newspaper your cards were cut from will broaden your knowledge of that particular argument. The more you know about your argument, the easier it is to debate that argument.

Doing Debate Research

1. Read the Articlesb.You may find better cards. Not every card,

especially those from summer debate camps, is the best card in the article or book. You will often be surprised at the number of great cards that whoever cut your card failed to notice and cut.

Doing Debate Research

1. Read the Articlesc. You can tell whether the card was taken out of

context. Debaters routinely take cards out of context, or cut cards on a point when the author concludes the other way. You want to avoid using such evidence; reading the original sources can help you tell when the other team has taken cards out of context or is using cards that the author would disagree with. This can also help you tell if your own cards have been taken out of context.

Doing Debate Research

1. Read the Articlesd.Do this for the WDCA novice evidence packet.

Although I know that the evidence is in the novice packet is fairly good, given who prepared it, even the people (person) who put it together miss stuff. Going through the novice packet is also a good way to begin learning how to research, since you can see how and where the cards were cut.

Doing Debate Research

2.Look up the footnotes in the article or book you are cutting. This is an important step in any type of research you do. It will broaden you potential evidence base considerably.

Doing Debate Research

2.Look up the footnotes.a. Reputable authors cite the sources of the

material they used in writing their article or book. You may find evidence in the sources that the author initially consulted. You will learn that the Chicago Manual of Style Citation System is far superior to the APA Citation System (just a name and year) for all academic research and writing.

Doing Debate Research

2. Look up the footnotes.b. You can check whether the author of your original source

has been intellectually honest. Authors sometimes take materials out of context, either mistakenly or deliberately. Being able to point this out in a debate round is a powerful way to undercut the claims of your opponents. And knowing if your own material is out of context means that you can take that card out of your case or blocks and find a different one, because you don’t want to be caught in a round with out of context evidence.

Doing Debate Research

2.Look up the footnotes.c. Look up the sources in the footnotes of the

articles you checked from the original author’s footnotes. This will give you another level of potential cards and arguments.

Doing Debate Research

3.Utilize on-line research tools. There are a number of on-line research aids that can make your life considerably easier. Use them. This list is by no means comprehensive.

Doing Debate Research3. Utilize on-line research tools. a. The National Debate Coaches Association Open Evidence

Project: http://www.debatecoaches.org/page/open-evidence-project

The NDCA compiles and posts the evidence that was generated at a number of summer debate institutes. This can be a tremendous resource and give you new ideas for research. Do be sure to go back to the original articles those cards were taken from, for the reasons outlines above.

Doing Debate Research

3.Utilize on-line research tools. b.Consider buying or subscribing to the

Thursday File [No!—Don’t Do It] or other materials online at Cross-X.com: http://www.cross-x.com/evazonHere, too, go back and check out the original sources these files came from.

Doing Debate Research

3. Utilize on-line research tools. c. Use search engines intelligently. Everyone knows

about Google and other internet search tools. The problem with those is you get millions of hits for each query. Narrow the focus of your search parameters as much as you can. Try searching with words in different orders. Use similar but different words. Learn advanced internet search techniques from someone who knows them.

Doing Debate Research

3.Utilize on-line research tools. d.Utilize specialized on-line research aids:1.Google News. This can help you weed out the

garbage from the general search engine. http://news.google.com

2.Google Scholar. A specialized site for academic and scholarly research and writing. http://scholar.google.com

Doing Debate Research

3.Utilize on-line research tools. d.Utilize specialized on-line research aids:3.Google Blog Search. Some blogs are bad, a few

are good. Some have experts and scholars writing for them; others have crazy people who should be locked up writing for them. Either way, you can sometimes find good evidence on blogs. http://blogsearch.google.com/blogsearch

Doing Debate Research

3. Utilize on-line research tools. d. Utilize specialized on-line research aids:4. Google Reader. Google Reader will be your

friend. You can type in search words or topics, or subscribe to any number of feeds, and Google Reader will produce a list of articles on that search topic. Better still is that it provides the articles themselves—all you have to do is click and read. http://www.google.com/reader

Doing Debate Research

3. Utilize on-line research tools. d. Utilize specialized on-line research aids:5. Lexis/Nexis (no, not the Nexus). Lexis/Nexis offers

articles taken from thousands of legal, business and news publications. The problem is that this is a pay site—you have to subscribe and pay (lots of money) to use their service. Some high schools and many public libraries offer Lexis/Nexis, so check with your local library to see if they have it. www.nexis.com and/or www.lexis/nexis.com

Doing Debate Research

3. Utilize on-line research tools. d. Utilize specialized on-line research aids:6. Utilize college and university resources. If you

have an older sibling or friend currently in college, ask them if you can use their log-in so that you can do debate research. Most colleges and universities offer not only Lexis/Nexis but have a wide variety of on-line resources, such as J-STOR and the Alternative Press Index.

Doing Debate Research

4. Network with debaters on other teams. Debaters on other teams may have access to more material or sources than you do. Make friends with debaters elsewhere.

Doing Debate Research

4. Network with debaters on other teams. a. Trade evidence. One of the best ways to get

new evidence or arguments is to trade with other teams. This is common in debate and it helps debaters to get a handle on the myriad of arguments out there each year.

Doing Debate Research

4. Network with debaters on other teams. b. Ask other teams or coaches (especially

coaches) to send you their citations or sources. Many teams will do so, some will not. This practice encourages honest and ethical research by allowing other teams to look at evidence and the sources it came from.

Doing Debate Research

4. Network with debaters on other teams. c. Join an on-line debate community. Both

Cross-X.com and the NDCA have online communities and forums. There are many others out there also. Ask friends if they have any favorites.

Doing Debate Research

4. Network with debaters on other teams. d. Maintain relationships with friends from your

summer debate institute. This can be a valuable source of both evidence and intelligence about what other teams are running.

Doing Debate Research

5. Improve the research structure of your school’s debate squad. No one debates alone, and few very high schools have only two debaters. Get the other debaters on your team involved in research.

Doing Debate Research

5. Improve the research structurea. Share assignments. Have each debater take a

portion of the research load. Decide (by consensus or decree) who will do what. Divide this by subject matter, arguments, areas of personal interest, or on-line research tools. Have more than one person check the citations and sources of the evidence you currently use or have received from other teams.

Doing Debate Research

5. Improve the research structureb. Lead by example. Do the research. As much as you

can. Your example will motivate others to do the same.

c. Encourage novices to do research. Not only does this strengthen team morale and help perpetuate the debate program by teaching those new to debate, sometimes novices will surprise you with some good cards. Do this even though the novices are limited by the WDCA Novice Evidence Packet.

Doing Debate Research

5. Improve the research structured. Establish a weekly evidence turn-in. A regular

deadline will encourage students to do the research and get it in on time.

e. Make it a friendly competition. Set goals—number of cards per week, new arguments constructed, sources checked, or whatever. Award each week’s winner with some small prize, and/or keep track and award bigger prizes at the end of the year. Talk to your coach about this idea.

Doing Debate Research

5. Improve the research structuref. Encourage your coaches to help you do

research and to do some of their own. Some coaches are great at research. They can teach research techniques and often cut lots of cards. Some coaches are afraid to do debate research because they are unsure how to do so. Help them research. Bring them into the research goals competition.

Doing Debate Research

6. Other important research considerations. There are a number of other considerations you need to keep in mind when doing research. Following these practices will make your life easier, both now and later in life.

Doing Debate Research

6. Other important research considerations. a. Take complete citations for each source and

each card. Take down as much as you can for each source. Record the author, year, date, publication, publication date, page numbers (if possible), website address, date accessed and place your initials at the end of each source you researched and each card you cut. See the Citation Guide handout.

Doing Debate Research

6. Other important research considerations. b. Keep the text from the area you cut your card

from, but use bigger font, bold, underlines or highlighters to mark the portion of the card that you actually read. This helps to ensure against dishonesty and out-of-context cards since the larger section from which the card was taken is right there on the block you read.

Doing Debate Research

6. Other important research considerations. c. Be intellectually honest. Don’t take cards out of

context. Don’t misrepresent the source or the argument. Don’t hide evidence from others.

d. Arguments are different. Some, like the Elections DA and most Politics DAs, require daily updates to stay on top of the issue. Others are less time-bound—old critiques of capitalism are often as relevant as newer ones.

Doing Debate Research

6. Other important research considerations. e. Keep a copy of each article, website and book

section in a master file. This makes it so much easier to go back to that source should the need arise.

f. Research is fun! You will come across many cool, unusual and funny things in the course of your research. Sometimes it is even material you can share with non-debate friends or family members.