Get Career Ready with Debate
Debating is a skill that connects directly to the practice of basic research. It promotes critical thinking and the ability to engage with diverse perspectives. Here are several key reasons why being able to debate is important and how it relates to doing research:
Gain Critical Thinking & Analytical Skills
Students must assess and evaluate multiple sides of an argument. This mirrors the research process where you must review literature, identify gaps in knowledge, and weigh different viewpoints or hypotheses. Through debate students sharpen their ability to analyze arguments and evaluate evidence.
If you are researching a particular topic, a well-reasoned debate can challenge your assumptions and prompt you to explore new sources or methods. It pushes you to refine your arguments and check for flaws in your reasoning. This directly improves the quality of your research conclusions.
Learn Evidence-Based Argumentation
In a successful debate, arguments must be supported by strong, reliable evidence. This practice of drawing on credible sources, whether data, studies, or expert testimony, mirrors the research process. Researchers are expected to back up their findings with evidence that is valid, current, and relevant. By practicing debate, you improve your ability to structure evidence-based arguments.
Debating teaches how to present evidence effectively and how to make clear, persuasive arguments. These skills are vital for writing research papers, giving presentations, or engaging in peer review.
Communicate with Clarity
One of the goals of debating is to communicate complex ideas in a clear and persuasive way. The ability to distill complex ideas into coherent, understandable arguments is crucial for researchers when they write papers, make presentations, or defend their findings in academic or public settings. Being able to debate helps researchers practice articulating their thoughts concisely and persuasively. This improves their writing and verbal communication skills.
In research, the clarity of your arguments and how you present your findings can make a big difference in how your work is received and understood by others. Debating helps you hone this skill.
Engage with Different Perspectives
Debating requires you to listen attentively and engage with opposing viewpoints. Research often involves collaboration or exposure to a variety of perspectives. The ability to actively listen to others, consider their arguments, and engage with their ideas helps researchers broaden their understanding of a subject and refine their own approach. Debating teaches how to respond to criticisms in a constructive manner. This is a key aspect of the peer review process in academic research.
Build Confidence
Debating builds confidence in defending your ideas, but also in challenging them. This is critical in research. You may encounter situations where your findings are questioned or criticized. Debating teaches how to stand firm in your convictions while also recognizing when you might need to adjust your position in light of new evidence or compelling counterarguments. This balance between confidence and adaptability is key for researchers, who must be open to revising their conclusions while still being able to defend their methodology and reasoning.
Learn Problem-Solving and Creativity
In debates, participants often need to come up with creative solutions or arguments on the fly. This encourages flexible thinking and the ability to apply knowledge in different ways. This skill is valuable in research. Researchers must often think outside the box to design experiments, interpret data, or develop novel theories. The problem-solving aspects of debating cultivate creative thinking, which can lead to innovative approaches.
Prepare for Public Engagement
Debates often happen in front of an audience. This requires debaters to speak clearly and persuasively. In research, scholars must often present their findings to a broader audience such as at conferences and media engagements. Having debate skill provides researchers with the experience of speaking persuasively to diverse audiences, tailoring their message while remaining true to the evidence. Debating is not just about winning arguments. It's about honing the skills of critical thinking, reasoning, and communication. By becoming a strong debater, you enhance your ability to conduct research and communicate your findings effectively.
Riding the Waves of Research
Preface
Why write another book about doing research? This is because research is not only for academics living in ivory towers. Research is a way of moving through the world. It is a practice of noticing, documenting, questioning, and adapting. To me, research feels a lot like surfing in the ocean. You scan the horizon for a wave (i.e., an idea or problem worth solving). You prepare, position yourself, and commit to the wave. Sometimes you miss. Sometimes you wipe out. But when you catch the right wave it carries you far.
This book is designed for students, early-career professionals, and anyone curious about riding the waves of research. The first edition of the book, Doing Developmental Research (Guilford Press) focused on many of the challenges of studying infants and children. But like the ocean, research, is vast. In this new edition, I expand beyond the laboratory. You’ll see how the same skills can be used across fields from selecting stocks to designing toys, improving classrooms and urban landscapes, to guiding businesses, understanding social media and marketing products. The goal is to help you find balance on the board: to move from curiosity to evidence to impact.
Introduction: Riding the Waves of Research
Picture yourself in the ocean at sunrise. The water is calm but alive and rolling with energy. You watch the waves forming as you decide which one to catch. This is what it feels like to do research. Every wave is a possibility. Some are small and quick, others powerful and risky. You can’t ride them al. You have to choose. Research works the same way. The world is full of questions, patterns, and problems waiting to be explored. Which one will you commit to?
People think of research as rigid, slow, or locked away in academic journals that only professors read. But like surfing, research is about flow. Companies test ideas like surfers trying new breaks. Cities measure patterns like reading the tides. Doctors and designers, psychologists and policy makers all ride their own waves of research.
The process is simple but powerful:
Spot the wave → Be curious, notice what matters.
Choose your line → Frame a the question.
Paddle in → Gather data and evidence.
Ride with balance → Analyze, adapt, and adjust.
Kick out cleanly → Share your results, and set up for the next wave.
This book will help you develop your research skills. It will help you to make connections. We’ll begin with how to think like a researcher, then move into finding your question, designing your study, gathering data, and communicating what you learn. Along the way, you’ll see examples from a variety of fields and learn to make connections.
Research is like surfing - it is never about one perfect ride. It’s about building the confidence, creativity, and resilience to paddle back out and catch the next wave. So grab your board. Let’s go ride the waves of research.
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University Calabria, Department of Culture, Education & Society DiCES
We are pleased to announce the University of Calabria, Department of Culture, Education and Society (DiCES) is now a ZWFILY® affiliate. The mission of DiCES is to carry out research and training in the fields of Culture, Education and Society from an interdisciplinary perspective. The Department makes use of converging and complementary skills in the scientific and cultural psycho-pedagogical, philosophical, linguistic, sociological, juridical, economic-business, archaeological, historical-documentary areas. The cultural scientific project of the Department is aimed at building new and fruitful collaborative experiences regarding teaching, the strengthening of research and the third mission, and internationalization.
The Secret to Successful Global Internships
What is the formula for a meaningful college internship? How can we support students and small to mid sized companies in making more meaningful global connections? Could hybrid internships be a solution? Join us for a conversation with Dr. Markus Lemmens and Tricia Skoler.
This event is by invitation only. Please write to us at info@zwifly.com for details.
The secret to successful global internships. A conversation with Markus Lemmens and Tricia Skoler