Debate trick: argue the side you disagree with. If you can’t, you don’t understand your own side yet.

You cannot tell a strong position from a comfortable one until you try to break it. Building the best version of the opposing case forces you to find the real reasons people hold it, which are rarely the stupid ones you assumed. Most of the time you come back holding your own view better, and occasionally you come back having changed it.

Pick something you are sure about and write the strongest page you can for the other side, without jokes. If the best you manage is a caricature, you have found your work. Then ask somebody who actually believes it whether you got it right.