Basic Research Methods

What is the point to doing research for Lincoln-Douglas Debate?

Answer:  Find background knowledge in order to understand the breadth of the topic  To find specific evidence to use in your cases

How do you do your research for school papers and projects?

Research begins…  NOT AT THE COMPUTER!!  It begins at a discussion to generate general initial impressions of the resolution and a brainstorming of key words

After key words….  Use the Internet to see what is out there  What is your first goal?  It should be to find an article that discusses the topic or resolution conflict in general without being too biased to either side  Articles should footnotes, bibliographies and NOT BE BIASED

Breaking Research Down  Do it over several nights  Night One:  Find 10 good articles to read  To find good articles find:  On topic titles  Abstracts  First four/last four: skim the first four and last four paragraphs of the articles, they should state context, thesis, main points and conclusions  Bibliographical information

SKIM Your Articles  Rank your articles from 1 to 4 as most to least important  Defend your choices in one to two sentences under the articles

Step Two: Read your articles  Should be done on the second night  Read first and last four paragraphs  Read the topic sentences of any other paragraphs  CTRL-F: Find function, use this to quickly skim an article to see if key words are in their

Step Three  On night three, you should read articles in their entirety

Activity  Use the three night activity to find Three good articles for the Civil Disobedience topic