Question

Carmen feels very confident that she can put together a winning argument for the upcoming class debate on the pros and cons of preserving wilderness versus allowing it to be developed for commercial purposes. as a result, carmen is likely to

Answer 1

I believe the answer is: Prepare early by identifying and reading relevant articles

By reading relevant articles, Carmen might be understand various point of view when disecting the relevant issued that would be debated.
This would  help her to prepare a collection of answers that could be use to counter her opposition's arguments.