WNDI Debate Research Expectations 1. GET ARTICLES. 1 2. BRACKET EVIDENCE IN ARTICLES. 1 3. CITE, TAG, TITLE, AND SAVE YOUR EVIDENCE. 2 4. INCORPORATE EVIDENCE OTHER PEOPLE GIVE YOU.. 3 5. IF APPROPRIATE, WRITE YOUR POSITION (CASE, DA, CP, K, RESPONSES, ETC.) 4 6. ORGANIZE YOUR WORK.. 4 7. TAKE THE EVIDENCE TO YOUR LAB LEADER FOR REVIEW... 4 1. GET ARTICLES To do this: 1. IDENTIFY THE ISSUE YOU NEED TO RESEARCH You will receive assignments at team meetings or via the forensic listserv or you might choose an affirmative case to research 2. FIND ONLINE ARTICLES Use google.com and Lexis-Universe. Be sure to get trained in how to use these tools effectively. 3. FIND PRINTED BOOKS AND JOURNALS Go to the Library for printed journals and books Scan sections of these printed materials. Use the “Scan to OCR” button inside of Microsoft Word to scan. Ask a staff member for help in scanning.
	Ethical Bracketing 1. You should maintain the meaning of the author (for example, taking out the word “not” or leaving out “but the United States should not change its policy because of this as it isn’t a good enough reason”). 2. Absolutely no fabrication of evidence. 3. If the argument you are quoting is not the author’s conclusion, you should note that on the piece of evidence. If the article goes on to point out that a fact in the section you bracketed is not accurate--you should not cut that piece of evidence.	2. BRACKET EVIDENCE IN ARTICLES Select and copy the beginning and end of each piece of evidence that you find. For example, you’d copy the lines in the article below: "In recent weeks, these fears are beginning to become reality in South Asia. India and Pakistan, long rivals and military opponents, are currently making the final preparations for what very well could be an unrestrained nuclear arms race in this region. This arms race would threaten security of these two free world nations and of other U.S. friends because of the animosity between the countries and the lack of security features of their weapons. Several weeks ago, I made a speech on the floor of the U.S. Senate disclosing in detail information I have received regarding a full scale drive by the radical Iraqi regime to attain a nuclear weapons capability." NOTE 1: Save time by writing a tag and underlining your evidence right when you cut the evidence. NOTE 2: Don’t write on printed material that you need to scan—doing so causes the OCR to fail and you get illegible text. · A GOOD PIECE OF EVIDENCE IS USUALLY 3 OR MORE LINES LONG. · YOU SHOULD UNDERLINE EVIDENCE. You read just the underlined sections in your debates. In general, underline lots for affirmative cases, really developed critiques, etc. Underline very little for 2AC and 1NC quick response cards. · YOUR UNDERLINING SHOULD MAKE ITS ONE MAIN POINT AND GIVE A REASON AND THEN END. If it goes on, make another piece of evidence. Here is an example: In recent weeks, these fears are beginning to become reality in South Asia. India and Pakistan, long rivals and military opponents, are currently making the final preparations for what very well could be an unrestrained nuclear arms race in this region. This arms race would threaten security of these two free world nations and of other U.S. friends because of the animosity between the countries and the lack of security features of their weapons. Several weeks ago, I made a speech on the floor of the U.S. Senate disclosing in detail information I have received regarding a full scale drive by the radical Iraqi regime to attain a nuclear weapons capability. · THE MAIN POINT OF YOUR EVIDENCE SHOULD MAKE AN ARGUMENT IMPORTANT TO AN ISSUE, CASE, DISADVANTAGE, ETC. · YOUR EVIDENCE SHOULD MAKE ITS POINT FORCEFULLY. Skip evidence that includes "maybes," "ifs," and information that your opponents can use against you. · If Your Evidence Uses The Term "It" Or "This" Or "The Program"—cut more of the evidence to clarify or write in what the “it” is—making it clear that you wrote the clarification. · IF YOUR EVIDENCE DOES NOT GIVE ANY REASON--RARELY USE THAT PIECE OF EVIDENCE. · YOUR EVIDENCE SHOULD OFFER CLEAR, SOLID REASONS TO SUPPORT ITS MAIN POINT.
	Note: Highlight the author’s last name and the year and then click “Cite” or press the F8 key in MS Word. Note: All evidence is 10 point TimesNewRoman font except the tag, name, and year are 12 point bold TimesNewRoman font. Save your file every 5 minutes!	3. CITE, TAG, TITLE, AND SAVE YOUR EVIDENCE 1. PASTE THE EVIDENCE YOU COPIED INTO A DOCUMENT Press Ctrl and G at the same time to insert text without pictures & web formatting (inside the wndi template). 2. SOURCE CITE THE EVIDENCE Your evidence source citation should include the following: First Name Last Name, Qualifications, Date and year, TITLE OF BOOK/JOURNAL, Page number. So, your citations will look like this: July Davis, Professor of Politics, Harvard University, June ’09, JOURNAL OF COMPLEX ISSUES, p. 227 NO SHORT CITATIONS like this Smith '09 Why? Because we want judges to be impressed with the quality of our evidence. Qualified evidence does make a difference. DO NOT USE SAME SOURCE AS ABOVE. Why? Because when briefs are cut and paste--the source "above" no longer is above. WEB PAGE CITATIONS? Include the html address and the date you viewed that web page (www.wcdebate.com, accessed 9/12/9). NEWSPAPERS: Cite as the Newspaper rather than the staff person unless there is a specific, more qualified author in which case, cite the author. 3. TAG THE EVIDENCE TO MAKE ARGUMENTS A tag is a short, complete sentence that states the main point of evidence. Your tag should: 1. BE ACCURATE State the main point of the evidence. Try to use the wording in the evidence itself. 2. BE CONCISE Use 4 to 9 words; If you want, add in a 2nd line to the tag giving further explanation. NOTE: Some debaters use long, explanatory tags. This can be fine. 3. BE PERSUASIVE Make the label an argument worth making in a debate. 4. USE NO SYMBOLS OR ABBREVIATIONS They slow down readers and frequently are not comprehensible. 4. TITLE THE PAGE WITH A 4 TO 9 WORD TITLE FOR WHAT THE EVIDENCE SAYS At the top of each page, write a brief title—an argument “Oil revenue good—solves poverty” or “Oil revenue causes prolif” that VERY CONCISELY states the argument the evidence on that page makes with a warrant. HIGHLIGHT THE BRIEF TITLE with your mouse and click the “Block Title” button in MS Word or press F7 on the keyboard (doing this is important because it sets up the ability to automatically generate a table of contents). YOUR EVIDENCE WITH TITLE, TAG, SOURCE CITATION SHOULD LOOK LIKE THIS: Lifting Iraq Sanctions Bad—fuels WMD Iraq would use post-sanction windfall for WMDs, not its people DANIEL BYMAN is Policy Analyst at the RAND Corporation, Foreign Affairs, January/Feb, 2000. The greatest difficulty is in shoring up sanctions, which are necessary to block Saddam's WMD programs. Sanctions fatigue is acute. Critics in the region -- and, increasingly, at home -- regularly denounce the humanitarian cost of sanctions. To counter, sanctions' defenders need to more vigorously and more frequently point out the obvious: Saddam has spent what limited money he controls on arms and lavish rewards for his followers, not on the well-being of the Iraqi people; money earmarked for humanitarian purposes often goes unspent; the regime smuggles humanitarian goods out of Iraq to sell on the black market; and Iraqis living in the parts of northern Iraq under U.N. control fare far better than those under the Baathist thumb. If sanctions were removed, there is little reason to expect that Saddam would spend the new revenue on the Iraqi people and every reason to believe that he would blow it on Iraq's WMD programs. THE FIRST COUPLE OF TIMES YOU DO YOUR EVIDENCE—PLEASE HAVE YOUR WORK DOUBLE-CHECKED BY A STAFF MEMBER
	4. INCORPORATE EVIDENCE OTHER PEOPLE GIVE YOU Talk with other debaters about any evidence that they cut that will help you complete your assignment. Incorporate it into your work. 5. IF APPROPRIATE, WRITE YOUR POSITION (CASE, DA, CP, K, RESPONSES, ETC.) Make your Disad shell, Counterplan text, Value Case, etc. 6. ORGANIZE YOUR WORK To do this: 1. MAKE SURE YOU HAVE ALL THE EVIDENCE YOU NEED You have thoroughly researched at least Lexis, Google, and the On-Line Catalog. · You have asked other squad members if they have anything on your assignment. · You have used quality evidence from a diversity of sources. · You have sound, believable arguments. · You have answers to all of the key arguments. ALL OF THEM. · Your evidence has been approved by your lab leader. 2. PUT EVIDENCE THAT DOESN’T BELONG WITH YOUR ASSIGNMENT INTO A SEPARATE DOCUMENT OR GIVE TO ANOTHER DEBATER IN YOUR LAB OR AT THE CAMP. 3. REARRANGE AND RENUMBER EVIDENCE IN YOUR FILE TO ORGANIZE YOUR WORK. 4. PUT YOUR CURSOR ON THE FIRST PAGE OF THE DOCUMENT AND CLICK THE “INSERT TOC” BUTTON. This will insert a table of contents. Check it to make sure it has everything in it and that things are organized the right way. Make fixes. 7. TAKE THE EVIDENCE TO YOUR LAB LEADER FOR REVIEW He will review your work, suggest changes, you will revise it.