Ways to Improve Yourself As a Delegate by Selen Güneri

Getting good at MUN is mostly about experience. Besides experience, having good language and communication skills, and good agenda research, the more you take part in different debates, the more resolutions you write, the better you get at MUN. Although experienced delegates are very much likely to succeed, it is always possible to improve oneself in many different ways. In this article, I will show you ways and little tricks on how to improve yourself if you are an experienced delegate. 

Researching 

Researching is one of the main parts of MUN, background information is crucial for the debate and to find solutions. Without proper research, writing clauses, suggesting solutions or even participating in the debate will be very hard. As you gain experience, you are likely to find information resources easier and get familiar with some topics. To improve your agenda research, you can always try to gain information from more formal and professional resources. For example, without being familiar with the vocabulary and the format, it may be much harder for delegates to gain information from past UN resolutions or articles. For that to be easier, you have to read more and more, make sure to take notes, look back and practice whatever you do not feel familiar with. Instead, most delegates prefer to gain information from news articles or platforms like Wikipedia. By doing your research through UN sources, you can improve your reading and understanding skills, and it can be easier for new ideas to form in your head. 

Reading formal articles and learning from better sources can also improve your language skills. These types of sources tend to use a more formal vocabulary and technical words and phrases. As you use better resources, you get familiar with a certain vocabulary and you will be more likely to use these words in real life. You can focus on words and phrases that are not familiar to you, try and use them more often to make better arguments. In most study guides, there are useful links the writers have put for you to gain a better grasp of the topic. By checking them out, you will be more knowledgeable about the agenda item, and you can be sure that you are going in the right direction with your research and that you are gaining useful information. Therefore, in order to do the best research, you should take a look at as many resources as you can and make sure those resources are reliable.

Debating

During the debate, you can be more convincing and be a better debater in general by proving your points with facts. It is always better to attend with extra background information. As mentioned before, you should make sure that you are knowledgeable about the topic. You can organize everything you have found regarding the agenda item in a document, this way it will be easier to find facts and come up with suggestions to different issues. By being organized, you can answer points of information directed to you faster and come up with speeches at any point. For instance, being able to prove your arguments by facts and being able to make new suggestions in different parts of the debate will make you a respected and better delegate. 

Trying new things and attempting to get better in many different fields is a way to improve yourself in general. In MUN, it is very common for one to be familiar with certain committees and prefer some committees. This preference can be based upon the procedure, the type of agenda items of the committee, or any other specific reason. As a delegate who is experienced in a certain procedure or type of topic, you can try different ones to improve yourself in different ways. To illustrate, if you prefer General Assembly committees because you like to write resolutions and then debate on them, in order to improve yourself in directive writing, debating on active and changeable topics, you can try crisis committees. This preference can even be between Harvard and THIMUN procedures. 

In many fields of life, getting better at something you do will have beneficial outcomes. With MUN, if you enjoy being a delegate, it will be very beneficial for you to try and improve yourself, and test your limits. This will lead to better awards, a good reputation and perhaps it will be even more enjoyable. In other ways, your language skills will also improve with your writing skills. Be sure to always look for ways to improve yourself.

 Selen Güneri