PF 2009 Part 3

Continuing with our series on introductory PF…

This probably isn’t a problem for you, but it is a problem for a small team without much of a history of group research. To wit, what the hell is group research, anyhow?

First of all, there’s the question of what, exactly, comprises the group. It can be merely the two members of the sole team doing PF during a certain period (we’ve had that a few times amongst the Sailors), or it could be a couple of teams, plus maybe a lost soul or two simply interested in either the subject or PF per se. Whatever the size of the group, there are some rules that seem obvious.

All research is owned by the team. In other words, if you find anything at all, it is to be shared by everyone.

All people involved in debating a topic are involved in researching it. While it may be convenient to have a lot of other people go scouring the vaunted halls of data while you lounge about on your divan eating Turkish delight and watching “Saved by the Bell” reruns, following which you simply skim the best of what others have done to write cases, this is not allowed, for a reason other than the apparent unfairness of work assignment. The thing is, knowledge is the number one key to success in debating, or at least one of the number one keys to success. The acquisition of knowledge does not come from looking over the shoulders of those who have themselves acquired knowledge, but in the actual act of acquiring it. Let’s say that you’re specifically looking up international health plans. Every plan you look at, good, bad or indifferent, tells you something about health plans in general. If a lot of them are the same, that tells you something. If they’re all different, that tells you something. If all the doctors in one country are women, that tells you something. Different rates of infant mortality tell you something. In your research, discovering any of these bits of data might lead you somewhere you weren’t expecting. Depth of knowledge comes from going down different pathways. Superficial knowledge comes from dabbling. The debater with depth of knowledge will inevitably win out in the long run over the debater with superficial knowledge. Trust me on this. (My brief against some critiques in LD is, of course, that they are an attempt to circumvent the acquisition and display of knowledge on a topic rather than an honest attempt to challenge the grounds of a resolution, which if done correctly require just as much research.)

Research must be organized in advance. If it’s just the two team members, each gets a starting assignment. If it’s a handful of people, more assignments. The researchers should work as a team, specifically digging stuff up. There will be overlap, but there’s nothing wrong with that. In the end, there will be a bounty of material that is mostly different, that can then be shared, in keeping with the rule above that all research belongs to the team (except for the lazy yabbo on the divan with the Turkish delight).

Research, after it is acquired, must be made physically available to everyone. We haven’t quite knocked this one yet. We don’t have any specific programs for organization, although I have seen various schemes and database apps on occasion from Policians who do this for a living. We’ll be working on this, but at the moment, we simply put it into a folder online where everyone can access all the good stuff. With a small number, that works well enough. And, of course, given that resolutions tend to repeat, if not literally then at least spiritually, it’s good to be able to go back and look at the old stuff. This is going to be my problem going forward, coming up with a workable solution to data organization. I’ll let you know if I come up with anything revolutionary. I doubt if that will happen.

Think about your research. All of the above speaks merely to research in the raw. Obviously there is good research (useful, meaningful data) and bad research (useless, meaningless data). One needs to distinguish between the two, but that shouldn’t be too hard if you’ve done enough work in the acquiring in the first place. If all your data say that there’s a one in ten chance of hell freezing over except for one chart that proves that hell is already frozen, the odds are that your vast data weighing in on the warmth of hell indicates that hell as a skater’s paradise may not be something you want to buy into. “Facts” that are out of line with all your other facts, or your intuition, are either paradigm shifters or bogus, and as a general rule, the latter is more likely than the former.

There’s more to research than facts. How you read the data is yet another issue. This is why the acquiring is so important. In the process of acquisition you will usually discover facts not merely as data in a vacuum but evidence in support of a position. Professor So-and-so points out that all the doctors in Amazon City are women, and links this to a low infant mortality rate and better education for immigrants, or whatever, and you have acquired not only facts but opinions to draw on, to inform your own opinions in putting together your case positions. Of course, there is a lot of raw data out there (I post plenty of charts in the Feed), but most data has a point of view surrounding it, or a source lending it substance and veracity and trust (or lack thereof). Mastering these aspects of research, i.e., weighing its value, is as important as the mechanics of the thing, but can’t be done until the mechanics of the thing are inherent in your approach to things. It’s scales and concerti again, again: you can’t make art until you first master technique.

Finally, there is the question of research in a library versus research online. This is a tough one. If you have access to the resources of a major university library, grab the group and go there. But absent that, nowadays the resources of your average local library (not to mention school library) may be of the slim pickings variety. Get everybody together and go on line, as a group, in that case. But do work together, if at all possible, regardless of where you’re working. This will keep everybody organized and working toward their specific assignments, while keeping you flexible for changing assignments. This is not to say that everyone won’t do independent research as well (making the fruits of this labor available to the team), but group research will ultimately bear different fruit, and therefore should not be ignored.