Research Always Comes First

Research Always Comes First

The internet is something that is used 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and approximately 1,319,872,109 people (Statistics Brain) use it every day. When that many people are online every day there are bound to be arguments. In “Arguing on the Internet” by Luis Poza, Poza describes going online and deciding to write his beliefs on gun control in a group chat. After commenting, he realizes that it might not have been the best idea because he didn’t fully research the topic. As a result of that he got chewed up and spit out by the others on the group chat who knew more than he did about the subject.
Research is the investigation into and study of materials and sources in order to establish fact. As Poza quickly realized, it is really important to research a topic whether you’re in an argument or writing a news article for something, it is important to be informed. If you get into an argument with someone and you have your facts wrong, it is probably because you never fully researched the topic. When people are passionate about a topic they will always be ready to “talk the talk and walk the walk” and when you proceed to get facts wrong they will most likely be “ready to jump down your throat, point out all your errors, and proclaim you to be their bitch.” (Poza, 68).
Research is always helpful because once you’ve done research you are now more informed than you were before, you know your facts and you actually know what you’re talking about. Research can really help you if someone makes a remark about your opinion, you can then correct that person with the facts, which can then enhance your credibility. You could also do opposition research, after you’ve formed your argument you then look at it from the other side. You basically want to see if you could argue against the argument you have just created. This will help you by taking out any things that could be argued further.
An example of why you should do research would be if you’re voting. Whether you’re voting on a ballot question in your state or you’re voting for the president of the United States, you always want to be informed. Being informed makes you in a way smarter and when it comes to voting you will hopefully feel that you have made the right choice. You never want to be uninformed when it comes to voting because you could potentially be hurting yourself in the end. If you vote yes to something or you are voting for a person to run your country you always want to be informed. You want to know the facts so you can make an informed decision which is why you do your research first.
So by doing your research before going into vote it will help you because you’re not going into it blind. The same is true in a debate, if you don’t do the research you won’t be able to do well in the debate.