small school and proper research

[00kmyoung@bsuvc.bsu.edu]

Yeh, yeh, I was from a small school (insert story already posted).  I
think one problem in all the discussions about possible topic ground for
the neg is that everyone assumes that "small" schools must research
every plan and have specific solvency evidence to compete.  From my
experience, and from the comments of others, trying to research every
case is rather pointless be it a large or small topic (whatever the
hell that means).

Face it, most solvency attacks are pointless without generics.  The
claim "we take out solvency" just doesn't carry the weight it
used to.  As a result, my teams have focused more on researching
harm areas and finding turns, das, C/P centered around the major
harm areas.  For example, last year, we ran dedev, deontology, ice age,
and just researched as many links as we could find.  There was not a
single case that we did not have impact turns against.  

I believe that specific case cards are necessary, especially when you
see a team often.  But a topic should not be judged by any means on 
the number of possible aff plans that can be run.  Instead, the topic
should be examined according to the number of harm areas it includes.

Right off hand, it seems to me that SEAsia and Treaties could cover damn
near every harm area every debated.  Granted, you may not have "Vietnam
rice patty eco-system" cards, but the harms are not new.  CR I think
can include several harms areas, but obviously, most of them will stem
from CR abuses.  Dom Terrorism, my favorite, has a small area of harms
(civil rights, militias, abortion, air lines, police state) that are
jsut as easy to research.  Space...well, I debated it in high school.
Despite the large scope, it isn't bad in this area either.  

Overall, each topic can be researched easily by a small squad.  Keep
the focus on the harm/impact areas of the topic, and start cutting
cardst he moment the topic comes out.  If you start researching every
specific policy from now until the beginning of the season, you might
cover only 20% of the possible cases.

Kelly Young
Ball State/John Carroll

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