The NYCUDL Presents:  

Judging  Public Forum Debate 

 

Expectations of Judges

● If you did not check in with our registration staff downstairs, please give your name and email to the Volunteers Coordinator so that we can register you as a judge for today.

● During rounds, please do not sit at the teacher’s desk or move any furniture in the room without prior

permission from tournament staff.

● Introduce yourself to the debaters and let them introduce yourself to you. It is customary for students to shake hands with their opponents and their judges after the round. If you don’t feel comfortable shaking hands, that’s okay, just let the students know.

● Please do not use your phone during the round for anything other than timing the debate round. Treat

the debate round like live theater, cell-phone use can be distracting to the performers.

● Please return your ballot to the ballot table after the debate in a prompt fashion.

● Please take notes during the round. We will provide note-taking sheets to you upon request.

● Please do not tell the debaters who won the round. This can lessen their confidence in future debates.

● Please give students constructive feedback at the end of the round after you’ve made your decision. Inform each speaker of one thing they did well and one thing they can improve on. Give feedback both on how well students’ arguments were structured and how well they presented those arguments.

● As the adult in the room you are a role model for our students. Model respectful and kind behavior

throughout the day. If the students do not show you the same courtesy please let our tournament staff know.

● If you need to leave early for the day, please check out with the Volunteers Coordinator. The Volunteers

Coordinator will be in the Hospitality Room all day.

● If there are any issues during your debate round please let a tournament staff member know after the round.

● Have fun! The students are excited to show off their skills to you and receive your constructive

feedback.

● Be aware of your human biases---we all have them… What side do you lean toward on this resolution, even before the round? What other biases come from your experience? (favor an underdog, suspicious of aggressive styles, lean toward younger, better dressed, or male or female speakers?)

Remember to judge each round based on the arguments presented by the debaters, and do not allow personal or implicit biases to impact your decision.

Public Forum Debate

Public Forum is a team debate event that supports or rejects a position posed by the monthly resolution topic. The clash of ideas must be communicated in a manner persuasive to the non-specialist or "citizen judge", i.e. a member of the American jury. The debaters should:

● Display solid logic, lucid reasoning, and depth of analysis ● Utilize evidence without being driven by it ● Present a clash of ideas by countering/refuting arguments of the opposing team (rebuttal) ● Communicate ideas with clarity, organization, eloquence, and professional decorum

Evaluation and Judging

Judges evaluate teams on the quality of arguments actually made, not on their own personal beliefs, and not on issues they think a particular side should have covered. Judges should assess the bearing of each argument on the truth or falsehood of the assigned resolution. The pro should prove that the resolution is true and the con should prove that the resolution is false. When deciding the round, judges should ask, “If I had no prior beliefs about this resolution, would the round as a whole have made me more likely to believe the resolution was true or not true?” Teams should strive to provide a straightforward perspective on the resolution. A plan or counterplan is a formalized, comprehensive proposal for implementation. Neither the pro or con side is permitted to offer a plan or counterplan; rather, they should offer reasoning to support a position of advocacy. Debaters may offer generalized, practical solutions.

Judges weigh arguments only to the extent that they are clearly explained, and they will discount arguments that are too fast, too garbled, or too jargon-laden to be understood by an intelligent high school student or a well-informed citizen. A team should not be penalized for failing to understand his or her opponent’s unclear arguments.

In short, Public Forum Debate stresses that speakers must appeal to the widest possible audience through sound reasoning, succinct organization, credible evidence, and clear delivery. Team points provide a mechanism for evaluating the relative “quality of debating” by each side.

Time Limits 1st Pro Constructive Speech – 4 mins. 1st Con Constructive Speech – 4 mins. Crossfire (between speakers 1 & 2) – 3 mins. 2nd Pro Rebuttal Speech – 4 mins. 2nd Con Rebuttal Speech – 4 mins. Crossfire (between speaker 3 & 4) – 3 mins. 1st Pro Summary – 2 mins 1st Con Summary – 2 mins Grand Crossfire (all speakers) – 3 mins 2nd Pro Final Focus – 2 mins 2nd Con 4 Final Focus – 2 mins

Each team may use up to 2 mins of preparation time throughout the debate round.

Notes

Basic Judge FAQ Sheet by the Youth Leadership Council

Key Things to Keep in Mind Do not judge with personal biases.

Judge based on what debaters present to you! If the evidence is not contradicted in the round, take their word as law. If they say the sky is green then the sky is green until proven otherwise.

What are “Mavericks”? Mavericks are debaters that are either missing a teammate or debating by themselves. They will compete as if they are both members of the team. Have no sympathy or pity points for maverick debaters, sometimes they do incredibly well alone. When calculating points do NOT reward them double the points still give them a score of 26-30. Where Can I Take Notes/Flow? It depends on the format you’re judging. Judges can take notes directly on the ballot. Take note that the ballots are scanned and sent to the debaters for feedback, so it is extremely important that feedback is written on the ballot.

If you don’t have spare paper or don’t know how to separate the paper for each round, there is paper available in the Hospitality Room that is already divided by the different stages of a debate. However, those sheets will not be scanned and so comments will still need to be written on the ballot.

We have to give constructive verbal feedback after the round? What do I say? Our debaters are not just asking for positive feedback but critical feedback as well. Offer both a glow (something the student did well) and a grow (something the student can improve on) to each student. Think about what pushed the argument in favor of the winning team. Even small things matter and can add points to their argument. Were they staring at their speech paper the whole time? Were they stumbling over their words? Did they establish any eye contact? Was their argument strong but weakened/beaten by the opposing team (or vice versa)? Did they not include the dates of their facts? Did they seem to lack confidence in their speech? Please keep in mind, that when giving advice to new debaters, critical feedback can cause levels of anxiety. For Novice/beginner debaters it might be best to give them a “compliment sandwich”, in which you praise their performance, give feedback, and compliment them again.

Evidence Rule When debaters present evidence to support an argument, they should have that evidence available for evaluation by the other team or the judge, upon request. If debaters do not have the evidence present, the judge should conclude that the particular argument is not supported by evidence.

When a team challenges evidence, it doesn't count against the teams' prep time. Instead, the round pauses while the judge verifies the validity of the evidence

If the evidence is found to have been falsified, then the round ends and the team that had false info automatically loses the round

If the evidence check is found to be valid, then the round resumes as normal.

Is Technology Allowed in Rooms? If you are a Public Forum or Policy judge, Laptops and Smartphones are allowed to be used during debates however they CANNOT have internet access nor be used to text/call. If possible, ask that students put their phone on airplane mode to prevent any prohibited activities. If you’re a Parliamentary judge, technology is not allowed at all! Low Point Wins Low point wins are discouraged, but are used only for specific instances. And if it is checked off “YES” the reasoning must be legible and written on the ballot. Simply, a low point win is when the team with lower total speaker points still wins the debate. This can happen for a number of reasons, but we find that if you believe that one team deserves to win but has less speaker points, it’s much better to put them ahead points-wise.

However, if one team is at a disadvantage (such as a teammate not showing up), if the disadvantaged team wins, it is a low point win.

Judge Preferences Students may ask you your “Preferences” before the round begins. “Preferences” are specific things judges are looking for (examples - speed, eye contact, presentation skills). Please be open and straightforward regarding what you look for in a round.

30 Point Scoring Rubric

A score of a 24 or lower should be given in the event that a speaker fails to speak or in the event that a speaker verbally attacks another participant or engages in otherwise objectionable behavior – such cases should be reported to the tournament staff.

Writing Reason For Decision (RFD) Comments

Judge RFD explanations are incredibly important for improving debaters, for improving thinkers.

So how do you weigh who wins a debate so that BOTH sides learn to improve?

The most helpful explanations explain which team convinced you most about how truthful the resolution is. It’s even possible that a team can do that even with just 1 significant argument, defended and developed in each

speech--even if the opponents had 3 arguments in their case!

Most experienced judges feel the best RFDs will guide debaters to improve how they shape their analysis and how they weigh the content of their arguments.

The best RFDs give feedback on all 3, not just 1, key goals: 1. speaking/organizing skills 2. general debate refutation skills 3. comprehension & persuasion on key issues

FOR EXAMPLE: RESOLVED: The death penalty should be abolished.

RFD: In the end, Con’s crystallization deepened and extended their resolution                     

interpretation as not requiring the death penalty regularly, but not banning it for                         

use with clear-cut or confessed terrorist conspirators. This framework was weakly                     

challenged. So, the potential to prevent future massive terrorist attacks means Con’s                       

“saves lives” impact outweighed the probability of Pro’s lives impact –executing                     

innocents by mistake. 

This prompt may help: Reason For Decision (RFD):

It seemed the ____ team persuaded better on whether the resolution was overall true---and why it was true. The argument about _____________ was most significant, and the clash showed strong extension. For example ____________________________________________________________________. In comparison, the opponents mostly argued __________________________________________. The winning team,__________, compared impacts best, showing a more believable story about the overall truthfulness (or not) of the resolution. For example_______________________________________________.

Ballot Checklist Please review this checklist before submitting your ballot to the ballot table. Please wait at the ballot table while your ballot is being checked. It can get a bit hectic at the table when a lot of judges are trying to turn in their ballots at once. We thank you in advance, and appreciate your patience. - NYCUDL Tournament Staff

Note: The numbers on this checklist match the sample ballot on the next page. 1. Did you sign your name? 2. Did you put points on the ballot for each student? Speaker points should be awarded for each student and should reflect how well the students presented their arguments in the debate round, not necessarily what arguments were made. 3. Did you rank the students? If two students are given the same speaking score in a debate round we use speaker ranks to break those ties. 4. Did you note which order the students spoke in? 5. Did you indicate a winner? There are no ties in debate rounds! 6. Does the winning side match the winning team? Make sure when you write which side won the debate that you also list the school that won the debate. 7. Are the points for the winning side higher than the points for the losing side? If the answer is yes, you must write “yes” on the ballot or indicate yes with a check mark. 8. Did you provide comments for the debaters? Coaches use ballots as teaching tools since they will not be in the debate round with the students. 9. Did you provide a reason for your decision? (This is independent of the speaker comments for debaters.) The staff at the ballot table will ask you, “I see you voted for Aubrey and Jess from NYCUDL, where did you write your reasons for voting for them? 10. Did you provide a school affiliation? If you’re not here with a school today, you may write “none” or “hired.”

SAMPLE BALLOT