Three Resources for Debate Research
Unlike impromptu styles of debate like British Parliamentary, many styles are either entirely prepared or include rounds of prepped debates. These include World Schools Debate, Canadian National style, and Public Forum.
For these styles it’s important to develop strong research skills, in order to build strong cases with creative, topical arguments that are supported by highly credible evidence.
In this article we’ll discuss a few different sources for debate research and how to use them.
Before looking at each resource however, let’s cover the research basics for online research. There are a number of ways to modify search terms to refine your results and focus on specific sites, keywords, information types, and date rangers.
- At the very start you should probably use general searches, but try to narrow your focus as soon as possible to start really digging into the details. Putting quotation marks (” “) around keywords or terms will give you results including those exact phrases, instead of a range of closely related words.
- By adding a plus sign (+) you can combine these exact searches to return results with multiple exact keywords, for example, [“nuclear weapon” + “second strike capability”].
- You can also restrict a search engine to return results from just one website, for example, [site:ndu.edu “directed energy weapons”]
1. Google News
In debate, you need to keep your sources up-to-date and informed by changing world events. Even minor updates to the status quo can significantly alter the strategy one side or another should use in a debate round, so you should always look for recent and updating news sources.
One way to do this is by setting Google alerts for specific keywords and terms related to your debate topic. That way you won’t miss an important or useful new update to a story that could affect your topic.
It also helps you avoid the embarrassing problem of having a key detail your points rely on being eliminated by a new development, such as a politician losing their election or a law being overturned.
2. Google Scholar
While Google news lets you search through aggregated recent news articles, Google scholar helps you find the deepest dives on any topic.
In fact, many news articles will summarize or quote from peer-reviewed studies and papers. The problem is that many articles will overlook key details or oversimplify the arguments made by the academic experts.
So while news articles are good for providing context and overviews, you should dig down into the academic studies they cite. That way you can actually provide the specific arguments and figures, rather than a reporter’s second-hand summary.
In addition, academic papers often present unique and creative interpretations or approaches to debate related topics, so they can help you choose higher-impact caselines and more unique impacts.
3. Local Library
You don’t always need the most cutting edge sources for debate research. Oftentimes it’s best to start with a good background source to help introduce you to the basics of a complicated topic. In those instances you can’t beat going to a local library, whether it’s through your city, school, or a nearby university.
Librarians are experts in information technology, databases, and often the subjects that their libraries specialize in, so they can often help you find not only the exact book you were looking for, but sources you didn’t even know to ask about.