Tags: Research Techniques

The pre-camp evidence packet for the two-week policy debate labs at the GDI are now available.   Go to this website, find the "evidence/lectures" link on the left side of the screen, and click.   The packet includes the outer continental shelf aff and neg, the Heidegger critique, the midterms DA (Dems Good, Dems Bad), economic growth good/bad, and a comprehensive impact defense file.   Feel free to peruse - we're proud of the work…

The following is an email exchange between myself and Richard Lappin, one of the foremost authors on the subject of how to define democracy assistance. I want to thank him for providing a thorough response to the questions I raised. (He quotes the questions in his responses, but I would be happy to forward the full exchange to any interested parties.) William Mosley-Jensen   Email Text: Dear William, My thanks once again for contacting me…

Debate, like chess or poker, is a game of strategy. Across alternating speeches—which roughly correspond to “moves” by each team—effective strategy requires anticipating your opponent’s line of attack and then preempting it or developing a strong response. In most situations, planning up to the third move (2AC, after the 1AC and 1NC) is the key to success. Clearly, the strategic approach to debate has huge implications for Affirmative case…

I try to keep up with the ongoing digitization of offline research materials.  For debaters, this isn't such a big issue because of the premium placed on the recency of evidence.  But the dependence on Google News, regular search engines, and Lexis can cause debaters to miss important information.  Arguments that are less subject to recency issues, like the Kritik, performance, and the Project also widen the field…