Brian Lain and Lyle Scruggs

1991 - Addressing Homelessness : Social Services in the 1990's

Research is one of the most crucial aspects of debating successfully, yet it remains an insurmountable obstacle for many debaters. Sure, most of us can say that we've "cut cards," but how much of that card cutting matters in the debate? How often are you using handbook evidence or evidence obtained from you or your teammate's hellish summer stint at a debate institute for the entire year? How often are you searching for new answers to the same old arguments everyone else is running? The answers are probably "not at all," "mostly" and ..not very."

The answers should be "almost always," "not much" and "always;" and an active attempt at research throughout the year can achieve those answers. The obvious result (or impact) would be that you win more debates, but there are much broader benefits that apply to your entire academic career and life.

DEBATE BENEFTTS FROM RESEARCH

Successful debaters do lots of research. The logic behind a heavy research emphasis is twofold: first more research means you find better, more specific evidence saying what you want to say. For example, in a debate about the implications of a certain nuclear weapons system, evidence that more weapons increase the chance that nuclear weapons will be used is less compelling than evidence that says the particular weapons system you're talking about increases the chance of nuclear weapons being used. Thus, it will be more difficult for the other team to beat your more specific arguments, and you'll win more debates, even if they talk faster than you. Arguments defeat spew.

Of course, if the other team did its research then ... you're still better off. You now both have arguments, and it's a debate. More importantly, research helps you win debates because reading about the topic area provides you with general knowledge of the area. You will know what questions are being asked in the literature, what certain terms mean in the literature, even the assumptions under which certain predictions are made. Knowing the subject matter also helps one speak extemporaneously, which is essential in the modem world of high-speed debate. The value of all of this is that you can use that information as a point of departure for answering or asking questions that are unexpected, or in making arguments. You generally sound better to the judge in the back of the room

when you actually know something of what your talking about. (Pretending to know may work sometimes, but if the judge and the other team do know then your credibility in making even true arguments may suffer.) In the modem world of debate, the activity has become a clash between opposing positions. Debates are decided not by the number of arguments in the debate (most times not even by which arguments are "dropped") but by which arguments are better explained and developed.

NON-DEBATE BENEFITS OF RESEARCH

Besides winning more debates, research broadens your base of knowledge on a variety of subjects. Articles or books seldom just discuss things as specific as building houses for the homeless. And the issues in debates over the course of the year are much broader. Just a look at the rest of this book provides a small part of these possibilities. This can help you in other classes in school, and in college (or other) interviews.

These extra-debate advantages also come from the process of research. Reading journal articles or books increases your vocabulary, reading comprehension, and writing skills, because it gives you experience in dealing with new words, concepts and styles of writing. These skills are vital for college entrance exams and applications. Think of the advantage you would have over most applicants if you are conversant on issues college professors are writing and thinking about.

All of these advantages are similar to the in-debate advantage of knowing what in the hell you're talking about and forming informed opinions. You will likely be judged as more credible, and you probably will be more credible.

JUST DOING IT: A GUIDE TO BEING A RESEARCHER

(1) Reading. The most important aspect of research is reading. To do research you must read, and should enjoy reading. You can begin by reading. This will get you into an important research habit. Of course, reading, non-fiction, topic-related, policy-related materials offers you the most efficient cards per word read ratio, but that can be a bit stifling and boring. Fiction doesn't seem important to debate but it can be indirectly useful-for metaphors, analogies or whatever. Besides, it's good for your general development, and can stave off the debate geek mentality.

Reading can achieve virtually all of the advantages mentioned in the preceding sections, excepting having better cards to read. Even in this exception there is an additional benefit to just reading: being familiar with the arguments by reading helps you know what arguments are important, so you can cut cards more efficiently when you sit down to cut cards. For example, many books on a topic include a history of the subject matter. Recognizing what's merely historical recounting and what's relevant to today's context helps You know which paragraphs are cards and which aren't.

(2) Knowing what to read. Before diving into the library it might be useful to know what kind of material You are looking for.

A. Topic books

At the beginning of a new debate season, we would suggest that you read two or three "topic books." By the way, the debate season starts when the topic comes out, not when the school year does. Most early season cases are developed from the exploration of topic books. Most of the ideas included in this handbook started in topic books, and often topic books are used as the beginning limits on topicality. If its written about in a book surveying the problems of the homeless you're Probably going to have to debate it. This isn't the NCAA and there are no limits to preparation and practice in the "off season." In fact, the summer is a great time to start research because you don't have classes or homework. Turn off the TV and the VCR and hit the library a couple of times a week.

Topic books don't stop being useful after the beginning of the year, though. It is always useful to look at new topic books as the year goes on. They are a great source for ideas for new arguments, and more recent topic books that you find as the year progresses, may provide more recent and better evidence for your files.

Topic books may further be subdivided into two broad categories: general survey books and seminal coverage books. General survey books are Ones that cover a broad spectrum of the issues on all of a topic. For example, Homeless in America, edited by Carol Caton, has sections in the book on homelessness and mental illness, medical problems of the homeless, and crisis shelter and housing programs. Such a broad spectrum may not be particularly deep on each of these subjects they do, however, provide a great introduction and overview of the topic as well as some specific arguments, disads, and cases.

Seminal coverage books are books available under several subheadings which provide a more in depth coverage of some subjects- An example is Madness and Government: Who cares for the Mentally Ill? By Henry Foley Ph.D. and Steven Sharfstein AD., which provides an in depth discussion of the mental illness problem of homeless individuals. This book gives a critique as well as suggestions for the community mental health center concept.

B. Journal articles

Articles found in journals are very useful for debaters. Journals can come out monthly, quarterly, biannually, or annually- Examples are Social Problems, Journal of Social Issues, and Social Forces- Journals are distinguished from popular magazines by their length and thoroughness in feature articles. Also in a journal article the author defends a certain thesis such as "the Special Supplement Food program for Women, Infants, and Children is a failure. Such a specific presentation is much more useful than most of the survey articles written in Time , Newsweek, U.S. News and World Report. The thesis Presented by Mr. Graham in his article gives support and in-depth explanation to the arguments against using the WIC. Once again, a better explanation is what wins rounds. Evidence that provides an in-depth warrant as well as a claim is better evidence.

Government documents

These are always useful to debaters. Documents may take the form of both hearings for the House or Senate as well as government publications, such as the FDA Consumer, a Publication produced monthly by the Food and Drug Administration. Government documents are very useful because hearings before committees present the testimony of experts in the field on both sides of an issue. For example, the house hearing, Homeless in America gives the testimony of Nora Greer, of the American Institute of Architects, on the housing problem among the poor.

D- Newspapers and current periodicals

It always useful to get the most recent articles written on the arguments you are running. Keeping up to date with a newspaper such as the New York Times, or a periodical that comes out weekly or biweekly, such as US News and World Report, will be helpful in updating arguments. Such "dailies" can be useful in keeping abreast of what issues are currently going on and how they relate to your arguments. It is extremely useful to subscribe to a daily so you are ensured access, and can easily gather the cards from it

(3) Brainstorming. Another good idea for starting the year is to engage in a brainstorming session with teammates, your coach or even Your parents. This will get You thinking and talking about issues to do research on. In a team situation you can also begin the process of dividing the workload. Remember, brainstorming is an unlimited flow of ideas; don't hold anything out because it sounds "kooky. Many off-the-wall ideas in early year brainstorming end up as well developed arguments later. After the first couple of tournaments, you or your team will know of ideas they might not have thought about, and more brainstorming and research is required to cover these new issues. Most Often this will require research to answer arguments you learn about at these tournaments.

(4) Dividing the research burden. Few have the interest or time to research everything, so dividing the research assignments gives you more coverage and less overlap. (If four teammates go out and cut the same articles, three of you have wasted time, unless you are reading for overview only.) Divisions of work might mean that you don't get all your favorite topics, but they can become your favorites or at least areas of relative expertise. Anyway, you can't always get what you want. It is also often helpful to divide the burden of researching current periodicals that aren't yet in the indexes. This is extremely useful in the case of news weeklies (USNews, Time, Newsweek), monthlies and most especially newspapers (local paper, New York Times, Christian Science Monitor, Wall Street Journal and Washington Post being top priority). Such research can provide you with the timely information you may to win arguments (e.g., spending and election disads, Uniqueness, inherency).

(5) Cite notebooks. It's important that you keep track of what you're doing. If you begin to do lots of research it's easy to forget that you've already read an article or that your team or coach has. All debaters should keep a "cite sheet" of articles they have researched and of articles that should be read in the future (see next section).

(6) Get ideas from other squads. If you hear a case or disad that sounds more promising than some of your own arguments, three is nothing wrong with "stealing" the argument. The truth is, it's not stealing. They don't have a patent on the idea. Debate is about the free flow of information, and if their argument is more "true" you have every right to use it.

(7) Get cites from other squads. This may sound heretical to some high school debaters or coaches but you should get cites from another team during or after a debate. The purpose of debate is knowledge and understanding as well as competition. Turning debate merely into a game of information secrecy for the purpose of competition by greedily hording cites undermines the other, more lasting benefit of learning and further turns debate to a level of debating generic unlinked arguments. Also bear in mind that the sharing of cites might benefit you in obtaining the other team's hard to find cites. It is very helpful to keep in touch with teams running the same arguments you are, especially the same case. Both teams can share information on recent developments of arguments that am important to both of you.

(8) Don't trade evidence, trade cites. Sharing cites is NOT the same thing as trading evidence for two reasons. First, if all You get is cards, you cannot properly understand the argument in general or of the particular author. You learn next to nothing and will crumble into "uh, uh" if you debate someone who did read the article in its entirety. Second, copying blocks may mean copying mistakes the other team made, such as taking the evidence out of context (see section below). If you use this flawed evidence you're hosed. Additionally, if you read the article, you can nail other teams that misquote the evidence.

(9) Include footnotes in your processed evidence. When an author footnotes his argument with another author supporting him, go ahead and cut the footnote, and add it to the bottom of your card. This idea, developed by Gordon Mitchell, makes your cites more valuable. When debating with the evidence, You can argue, "hey look this argument is so credible its also Supported by so-and-so. "It also makes possible instant research if You decide that you need to go back and get more cards on some issue-you can simply scan the footnotes at the bottom of the key cards in your file.

HITTING THE LIBRARY

This is, obviously, where research is done, but the amount of time you spend here depends on how proficient you are in using the library. The best way to minimize your time in the library is to use it for what you need it for and get out. Of course, if you like the library spending time there won't kill you.

(1) Research in chunks. When you get to the library with a research topic in mind, find cites and scan the shelves. The best approach is to do library research in big chunks, devoting five or six hours to it at a time. It is a waste of time if you constantly spend time going back to the Library for what you forgot, especially if your access to big libraries is limited.

(2) Use the indexes. To find cites, use the indexes. This is much faster than thumbing through all the back issues of key periodicals. Of course, if time is not a big barrier, i.e., in the summer, you can do this, but after using indexes to get started.

The most valuable index to start with is the Social Science Index. It looks a lot like the Reader's Guide, which your school librarian might have told you about, but it covers generally longer and more specific articles on various topics. It also indexes different periodicals than the readers guide. Reader's Guide may be helpful too, but it generally isn't as valuable. For debate purposes usually an article on the homeless from the journal Social Problems will be more valuable than one in People. Other indexes that will be useful on this year's topic (and most topics) include Social Science Citation Index (rather confusing at first but very valuable for its bibliographic information), Public Affairs Index Service (PAIS), Index Medicus (medical journals), Congressional Index Service (CIS-government documents) and the Index to Legal Periodicals.

It is mostly in government documents that young debaters have problems with indexes. The Congressional Information Service index has three volumes indexing each year of government hearings. The "Index" volume lists all hearings by subject, author, and title. It then gives a abstract number, such as S I 1. 1-3 1. Next, it is necessary to look in the "Abstracts" volume in which hearings are listed by the abstract number found in the "Index." Once you find that number, there is a listing of its title, author, Su Doc number, as well as an abstract on the contents of the documents (I-lint: this will help you narrow down your research). After you decide you wish to look at the document the critical information that you need is the Su Doc number. It is like a call number for the document. For hearings it will start with the letter "Y" followed by a series of letters and numbers describing its location. which will help you find it in the library.

It is also useful to use indexes not only to find specific cites, but to find locations in the library that can be browsed to discover more evidence. In many instances, the best articles are not found in the indexes; they are located by browsing around in related material.

Remember, the librarian is your friend in this endeavor, at the very least to teach you how to use the indexes and to tell you subject words (i.e., Library of Congress Index key words) to look for.

(3) Use the DRG as an index. You can also utilize our handbook as a guide. AR of the sections have cited cards, and the evidence in the book is often only a few cards from an article with many more cards waiting to be cut. The DRG is not an end to itself, usually only 50% of the cards in any given article are included in the DRG. Go back to get the articles!

(4) Browse current periodicals. These are unlikely to be indexed, so being on top of them is vital. Often you can just go through entire call letters (because they are subject-grouped). You should visit these places over the course of the year because they will get new issues. The index for 1989 won't change.

(5) Be selective in getting cites. The indexes give article titles which hint to the article's usefulness for your subject. At the beginning it is probably better to err on the side of overkill and get too much, but in a pinch titles can help you pare down the flood of cites. This book contains selected cites, and the outlines provide a rough estimate of the subject of the cited article.

(6) Put promising cites in your cite list. When you find cites write them down, even if you don't plan to look up all of them that day. In the summer, when you have fewer time constraints, this is especially true. If you have the cite with you, you don't have to waste time going back through the indexes later in the year.

(7) Divide your cites into subjects. If cites in an index are about homeless women, homelessness and alcoholism, housing and the homeless, and so on, divide them into separate headings on a cite sheet. This will aid you and the team in compiling cite sheets or in going right for a particular subject when the need arises.

(8) Find cites in chunks. Ideally, you can divide the task by spending one day, or a chunk of it, going through an the indexes, and writing down cites. This can serve as resource for the rest of the year and you'll not use the index (for those periods at least) for the rest of the year on that topic.

(9) Utilize the card catalog. Use the card catalog to find books. These too should be recent (1986 to the present, unless the recency is irrelevant). In addition, scan the shelves around the call number for a particular book for other books that are relevant. This can provide you with broader and/or more in-depth coverage of certain issues. Cite the books as well.

(10) Use footnotes and bibliographies to expand your cite list exponentially. One of the best ways to expand your source basis is bibliographies. Writers' bibliographies are extremely valuable because the research is done for you, and, if you refer to the places in an article or book where the cite is, you can get a good idea of what the cited authors article is talking about. Bibliographies can also include articles relevant to the debate about an issue that won't be in one of the big indexes. Bibliographies can also contain articles that are harder to find (such as reports of certain government bureaucracies, or papers published by think tanks).

(11) Remember that the research area is bigger than the topic area. Debate issues often draw from a large variety of literature. This is especially true with disadvantages and case impacts. Sometimes what you're searching for extends beyond the range of articles on homelessness, and, as a researcher you have to expand your focus by reading articles and books on things other than the homeless. However, if you divide the research burden amongst the team, it is easier to cover these issues.

(12) Get the full cite. When you get evidence from an article, or xerox it, make sure you write down the author, his or her qualifications, the source (periodical, book, etc.), date and page number. Often the qualifications are found at the bottom of the first page or in a block in the middle or end of the article. Some books and periodicals gives all the qualifications of contributors at the beginning or end of the issue. The above information should appear above every card, or at least be on a cite sheet in your possession so other teams may have access to the information. This is true even if you aren't planning to trade cites with them, because they may wish to indict author, qualifications source or date.

(13) Utilize the Xerox machine. Rather than spending time reading all your articles in the library, xerox the articles (or check out the books and do that at home).

(14) Cut and paste at home and not in the library. Once you find articles get them and leave the library if you want. You can cut, paste and slug them at home. If you have limited access to a library (e.g., if you have to travel to the library for the day) don't waste time blocking evidence during library time. Blocking isn't research, and two hours of lib@ time is nothing if you spent an hour and a half cutting and blocking the articles you found. I know someone who spent twelve hours in the library over two days and cut four hundred cards doing research for the handbook. That includes xeroxing time.

(15) Continue your research in other areas. There may be other places besides the library that will be useful to your search.

A. Federal Agencies. Calling federal agencies like the Department of Housing and Urban Development may provide some valuable evidence this year. Most agencies are eager to help if you give them enough information about what you are researching. After all, persons working for these agencies are professionals devoted to these topics.

B. Independent Research Groups. There are several institutions devoted to researching topics of political concern. A call to the Heritage Foundation, for instance, can easily get them to send you material they publish that you would not otherwise have access to.

C. Experts in the Field. Don't be afraid of trying to get in touch with some of the prominent authors of your arguments. They will probably be flattered that you know about their works, and are likely to refer you to some additional sources that could help you.

(16) Follow up on authors frequently cited. Most indexes have a listing of sources by title as well as subject. Tracking down other things written by a prominent author can provide extra evidence for arguments. Most useful for this is the Social Science Citation Index (SSCI). Although a bit difficult to use, it indexes everything that a writer gets published, as well as every time that author is quoted by someone else can provide additional evidence in support of or a particular argument).

SUGGESTIONS ON GETTING ACCESS TO LIBRARIES AND SOURCES

One of the often cited problems for many high schools is their proximity to research libraries. Most of the suggested indexes in this article and most of the periodicals and books utilized in the Debater's Research Guide will not be in small town public libraries. The first suggestion in attempting to resolve this research problem is to find out what your smaller library has or does not have. Once that's determined, use those in your town library. For the remaining sources I suggest that you find the nearest university research library and travel to use it. This will probably demand that you use time very wisely as your access is probably limited. Also, you should plan to go for a whole day, meaning probably ten to twelve hours. This may not be pleasant, but the fruits of that labor will be substantial. You should also realize that sources found in the legal periodical index are at law school libraries, index medicus sources at medical schools, and CIS sources at libraries which are government document depositories (usually big university libraries).

If you need special access to one of these libraries as non-student (sometimes the case at law or medical schools), your coach can probably arrange it. Additionally, your coach may be able to arrange borrowing privileges (but don't count on it). Finally, if you have access to a library that doesn't have a book or a particular article in a periodical, find out if they can get it or a copy through interlibrary loan. This usually takes some time, but it gives you access to just about any book you can imagine as long as some library in that state has a copy of it.

THE USE OF LIBRARY RESOURCES

Library books do not belong to you. They are where they are to provide public access to information that is the cornerstone to the free expression and flow of ideas. That means everyone has a right to access to them, including rival schools in your area. Never, never deface, steal, tear pages out of or otherwise unduly deny access to any sources you find in the library. This includes hiding books in the library. It is unethical, unfair and in most cases illegal. If you own the book you can do whatever you want to with it. Otherwise preserve it for others to use.

Getting the edge on other debaters is done through looking harder and better for information. Research can provide you with the competitive edge in debates and can educate you to know more about how the world works. Ideally, all debaters will do enough h to answer the other team's arguments and both sides will know what the other side is talking about. It is in those situations that you will have the best debates, and whether you win or lose will be a little bit less important.

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George Graham, Spring 1991, The Public Interest.

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Brian Lain won the Harvard tournament for Wake Forest last year and returns this year as a senior. Lyle Scruggs graduated from Wake Forest in 1990 and qualified for the NDT twice during his career.