Research Lecture

This lecture was given at the UTNIF by Misael Gonzalez Research can be boring o Integrate other activities so you dont get bored and your research will still be quality o Theres no better feeling than beating someones brains with a strat youve worked hard against o Research is great b/c it lets you debate the counterintuitive o You have to be good at research to be good at debate o Research isnt always cutting cards: scouting, what argumentss people read against your aff, what they read against common neg positions, etc, being up to date with current arguments What should you be researching? o What is a card? It should be a complete argument: claim, warrant, impact How can I use this piece of evidence in a debate? What arg does it allow me to advance? Tags should have claims and warrants Sources should be good When you cut a card, it should include complete paragraphs Best evidence you can cut: from peer-reviewed source o 2: qualified authors that are not peer-reviewed, on their blog, etc o 3: lay publications. Like news sources. Best for politics cards, not stuff like philosophical or science stuff. o CRAP: blog articles (with the rare exception of blogs written by professors), Places to find good evidence: o Google scholar is awesome, great when youre at a university. Carpool to a university library and request temporary network access. o Get a pen-scanner and scan stuff from journals o Public libraries have GREAT databases o Make good friends with your lab leaders and let them send you an article you need o Google itself is good, use news or to find within a certain time period o Ebsco is awesome o Lexus nexusreally really refined searches and law review articles. Law review articles have great footnotes and lay out their arumentsgs in ridiculous detail, as well as congressional testimonies

Project Muse and Jstor good for k stuff Google news: use it to send articles directly to your inbox as an update. You can set up filters in gmail if youre sick of getting articles every day o Google books: cant really cut cards b/c its images, but you can take a screenshot and ocr it. Google books will let you get a preview so you can tell if its worth it to find at a library or buy How to put together a file: o Have an idea of what youre doing at the macro and micro levels o Know what file youre cutting o What kind of cards you want and what stage of the research youre on General research is important, start very broadly and then get more specific as the year goes on Need to know the terms that they use in the literature so you know what to search for No such thing as the end of the internet. Just change search terms Get everything: even if its not what youre looking for, it can be used for an opposite file (global warming good/bad), use it to know what people will say against you. Understanding the debate that happens in the literature will be k2 understanding the debate in the round Will help you narrow your searches Ways to be bad at research: o Find a million cards for an obvious argument (e.x.: genocide bad, Cuba not trading with the U.S.) o Better to have a few good cards than a lot of bad ones o Dont search for stuff using debate jargon; use the terms that are in the literature o A lot of people fail at research b/c they get tied down to the truth. Sometimes you have to lower you threshold for the truth Impact turns may be offensive to cut (heg good, etc) o Bad researchers dont finish it out. o Dont cooperate or work with each other o Dont change their search terms o Find articles that arent really impacts: national security, instability, corruptionthese things are only impacts if they lead to something Good researchers: o Start an impact file o Get cites from everyone! This is easier when youre nice o Keep a list of relevant articles and websites and frequent them o Track down material in the footnotes o If you find an author who writes a great article, search their name and find other stuff written by them o o

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Work on a few things at the same time so you dont get bored Read with an open mind; dont have tunnel vision when youre going through an article what can I use this for in a debate? dont have distractions, find a good time and place give yourself certain rewards, dont look at facebook without doing 30 minutes of work, etc be creative. Read a lot. If you cant find the authors qualifications, google the author How a cite should be: Author name, date, qualifications, title of the article, [link], [initials]