Three Research Tips from Top Debaters
This may seem obvious, but consistently taking notes as you read, watch, or listen to sources, is key to effective and efficient research. Even just underlining or highlighting keywords and phrases significantly improves your ability to remember new information, and remember key concepts to come back to later on.
Even more importantly, notetaking helps you remember where the best information is within a text or other resource. That helps you save time later on, and helps you provide others with convenient references, as well as allowing others to verify your claims about what you’ve learned.
Competitive debate is one of the best ways to develop your note taking skills, from fast-paced impromptu styles like British Parliamentary (BP) to evidence-based and partially scripted formats like Public Forum. Both styles require debaters to quickly decide what ideas and details to focus on and which to ignore or minimize. When it comes to research projects, it’s never too early to look for a specific, focused research question or niche.
Take Notes As You Go
Look At The Big Picture, Then Dig Deep
It’s intimidating when you don’t know the broad outlines of a topic. Getting a bird’s eye view is crucial. Without context you can’t tell key details apart from unnecessary filler. You might also find the topic connects with something you’re already interested in.
Wikipedia isn’t a bad place to start, but online versions of the Encyclopedia Britannica, for example, often have much more detailed articles with stronger standards of evidence and editing. Once you’ve gotten familiar with the topic, start narrowing your research by choosing a research question.
Don’t worry about coming up with an “original” question that nobody’s written about before; chances are there’s been at least a couple of books or academic articles written that cover similar ground. That’s a good thing though, since it’s a sign you’ ve asked an interesting question, and you’ll have plenty of sources to work with.
Even after you’ve finished most of your research, and are close to finishing your essay or debate case, it’s always a good idea to take a break from your narrowed research question or highly detailed evidence, and look at the broad themes of the topic again. That’ll let you put your specific arguments in their proper context as well as ensuring you don’t miss out on interesting connections.
Many people find introductions and conclusions the most difficult sections to write in any format, from debate speeches to book reports. Deliberately moving from broad themes to narrower details, and back to the big picture again, often helps you make connections and see themes in a much clearer way.
Think Like A Detective
Debaters have to be skeptical about everything, since experienced debaters can sound confident and passionate about arguments they don’t even believe themselves. Developing a skeptical attitude helps debaters see through their opponent’s rhetoric and confidence in the middle of a round, and the same skills can be applied to prepared debate cases, essays, and any other research project. Detectives and investigative journalists use similar skills.
There are two research habits that debaters develop which, when used together, can help find weaknesses and opportunities in even the most confidently delivered arguments and seemingly authoritative articles. The first habit is to find out the background of whoever’s work you’re using as a source.
For example, let’s say you’re reading an opinion article in the Washington Post about the pros or cons of increased unionization in the tech industry. You may agree or disagree with the author, but if all you do is read their article and then move on, you’re missing out on some very important context. Even a quick research detour into the Washington Post itself would tell you that the paper has been owned by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, the wealthiest person in the world, since 2013. That fact alone doesn’t mean you should dismiss anything about unions or tech companies that you read in the Washington Post, but it does help you recognize patterns in how the paper reports on those issues.
Understanding the incentives and motivations of the authors and organizations whose work you’re reading for research is the only way to separate credible sources from questionable ones. It’s also useful to familiarize yourself with the biases of media outlets, think tanks, and other organizations that often get cited in prepared debate cases. Whether you’re in a fast-paced debate round in Public Forum style, or racing to finish a research assignment, learning to quickly assess the biases and motives of your sources is key.
The second habit is to compare multiple sources against each other. Detectives and journalists always try to get multiple versions of a story from different witnesses or suspects, so they can compare details from each version. Sometimes an author’s bias is clear from their personal background, or the arguments they make, but it becomes much clearer once you compare multiple articles from different authors and organizations.
In the early stages of research, when you’re trying to get familiar with the topic, comparing-and-contrasting sources gives you a broad view of key issues, rather than letting one source limit your viewpoint to their own. It also helps in the later stages, when you’re integrating evidence from your sources into arguments.
One trick for writing strong arguments in debates, essays, and undercover investigations alike is to always have more than one logical link and multiple pieces of evidence to support each point in your case. That way, your opponents have to refute each independent subpoint and example. It also greatly increases the likelihood that you’ll convince the judge. If one link gets refuted, or the judge doesn’t find a piece of evidence as persuasive as you did, they’ll probably be convinced by the second or third ones.
Finally, don’t just use the first few sources that a search engine like Google shows you. In the same way that any media organziation or think tank has it’s own biases and agendas to push, platforms and search tools like Google do too. So try refining your search terms as you learn more about your topic, and never rely on “trending” or “promoted” content.
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