Role-Playing
Role-playing activities are frequently used to generate and refine ideas. By asking the members of a group to take on roles, you can apply a variety of perspectives to a subject. For example, you might ask one person to play the role of a “doubting Thomas,” someone who demands evidence from a writer for every assertion, or a devil’s advocate, who responds to a writer’s arguments with counterarguments. Role-playing activities that are useful for generating and refining ideas include staging debates, conducting inquiries, and offering first-person explanations.
Staging a debate. In a debate, speakers who represent different perspectives argue politely with one another about an issue. You might try one or more of the following role-playing activities:
- Adopt the role of the authors of readings used in a class. Each “author” presents his or her perspective on the issue.
- Adopt the role of a political commentator or celebrity who has taken a strong stand on an issue. One member of a group might adopt the role of Rachel Maddow, for example, while another might adopt the role of Rush Limbaugh, and still others might adopt the roles of Candy Crowley, Joe Scarborough, or Bill O’Reilly. Each “commentator” or “celebrity” presents his or her perspective on the issue. To prepare for the debate, watch or listen to commentaries on a site such as YouTube.com to learn about the positions these commentators have taken in the past.
- Adopt the role of an authority on an issue, such as a scientific adviser to a local zoning commission, the manager of a small business, or the director of a nonprofit organization. To prepare for the debate, conduct research in your library’s databases or on the Web about the person whose role you are adopting.
- Adopt the role of someone affected by an issue or event. For example, if you were generating ideas about a natural disaster, such as the effects of a flood in the Mississippi River valley, you might take on the roles of people who lost their homes and were forced to move, health care workers and police officers who stayed on duty, students who lost their schools, or small business owners who lost their livelihoods, all of whom could discuss the impact of this natural disaster on their lives. To prepare for the debate, conduct research on how the community was affected by the event.
Conducting an inquiry. An inquiry is an attempt to understand a situation or an event. For example, a military tribunal might review soldiers’ actions during a military operation, while a medical inquiry might focus on the causes of a problem that occurred during a medical procedure. To conduct an inquiry, try the following role-playing activities:
- Defend a contemporary or historical figure. The writer presents a case for this person, and the other group members ask questions about the person’s actions or ideas.
- Review a proposal. The writer presents a proposal to address an issue or a problem. The other members of the group raise questions about the merits of the proposal and suggest alternatives.
Giving testimony. First-person explanations offer insights into the causes of, effects of, or solutions to a particular issue or problem. Role-playing activities that involve giving testimony include the following:
- Adopt the role of devil’s advocate. The writer offers an explanation, and one or more respondents offer reasonable objections. Each devil’s advocate — the term is drawn from the process by which the Roman Catholic Church confers sainthood, in which an advocate of the devil argues that the candidate is not worthy of sainthood — asks for clarification of the points made by the writer and suggests alternative explanations.
- Adopt the role of a person affected by an issue. The writer takes on the role of someone who has been affected by the issue. After the writer explains the effects, the other members of the group ask questions about the writer’s experiences with this issue.