Judging Debate FAQ

Judging Debate

In debate events, the students may ask you for your ‘judging paradigm.’ What they want to know is how you will judge the round and/or your familiarity and experience with academic debate. A good approach is to be honest with the students regarding how often you judge debates, and what your role in the community is (parent / coach / teacher / volunteer). Students are taught to adjust their performance to their audience.

Debaters will often time themselves. Cell phones may be used as timers if they are in airplane mode. Computers are allowed in all debate rounds except Parliamentary debate.

For ALL debates, your personal opinion/knowledge should not be a part of your decision. The students do not decide what to debate or what side they are on. The winner is the team/debater who defended their assigned side the best.

YOU ARE ENCOURAGED, BUT NOT REQUIRED TO DISCLOSE YOUR DECISION TO THE COMPETITORS AFTER SUBMITTING YOUR DECISION ONLINE. The only exception to this rule is in the elimination rounds - once there are 3 judges present, disclosure of decisions becomes neccesary.

Parliamentary Debate (Parli)

2 on 2 debate- resolutions are DIFFERENT for every round.

Topic will announced before each round

Each side should talk about the other one’s arguments

There is NO evidence, There is NO cross examination

Public Forum (PF)

Public forum debate can be compared to a nationally-televised debate, such as 'Crossfire' in which the debaters argue a topic of national importance, typically one involving foreign or domestic policy as opposed to Lincoln-Douglas' more philosophy centric debate, in terms that a "common" person would understand.

Check the names to ensure you are watching the right debaters!

Lincoln Douglas Debate (LD)

1 on 1 value debate

The Affirmative upholds the resolution,

the Negative proves them wrong.

Check the names to insure you are watching the right debaters!