China Debate Education Network Judging British Parliamentary Debate

Judge as Educator

• A good judge is a good teacher, not necessarily a good or experienced debater

• Transitioning from debater to judge involves changing priorities.

• A judge’s role in a debate is to help students improve.

• A judge also has the responsibility to encourage students – especially new debaters.

Practical Elements of Judging

• Conducting the Debate– Do not start the debate until all debaters and judges are

present.– Introduce the debate.– Introduce each speaker in turn.– Be prepared to keep time if there is no timekeeper.– After the debate, temporarily dismiss the debaters.– After the decision is reached, reconvene the debaters,

announce the rankings and provide oral feedback.

Keeping Good Notes

• Good notes are necessary in order to keep track of arguments constructed by all debaters.

• A variety of methods of taking notes are possible. There is no single “right” method.

• Examine your notes in order to reach a decision and to discuss the decision with other judges on your judging panel.

Reaching a Decision

• Most tournaments will use a form of judging called “consensus judging”

• In consensus judging, all judges will have to agree on one set of team rankings and speaker points for individual students and teams.

• In the rare instances where consensus is not possible, the decisions about final rankings are put to a vote with the chair’s vote serving as the tiebreaker

Responsibilities of the Chair

• Provide all the adjudicators a few minutes to look over their notes and independently decide their initial rankings.

• NOT to bully the other judges into accepting the chair’s rankings.

• Lead the post-debate discussion.• Explain the rankings and give constructive

suggestions to each debater.

Completing the Ballot

• Rank the teams 1st to 4th (1st is the best, 4th is the lowest).

• Assign speaker points– Technically the point range is from 0-100.– 75 points is generally considered the average.– To rank a speaker 85 points or higher the debater should

have strong points, be well organized, and be very persuasive.

– To receive points lower than 65 the debater should be totally disorganized or demonstrates poor argumentation skills.

Sample Ballot

Ballot Before Debate Begins

Completing Ballot After Debate

Providing Oral Feedback

• Does the feedback encourage debaters, especially beginners, to improve?

• Does it clearly provide suggestions for improvement to each debater?

• Does it clearly explain the reasons the panel reached its decision?

Judging as Reasonable and Impartial

• Judge with respect to the topic at hand• Do not judge what was NOT presented if another

team also did not present these issues or arguments.• Do not judge on preconceived views of the

arguments or motion – even if you believe the arguments to be incorrect.

• Judge as a “Reasonable and impartial observer” based on the arguments made in the debate.

Good and Bad Observation Habits

• Listen carefully and avoid things that will distract your focus.

• Use non-verbal communication in a supportive manner.

• Avoid behaviors that might unintentionally suggest bias toward one or more teams.

• Approach the debate with good humor.