Congress JUDGE Guide

Congressional Debate

In Congressional Debate, you are watching a room of students as they simulate a session of Congress. Students have already received and prepared their cases to debate legislation weeks in advance. Congress uses parliamentary procedure, which will be carried out by the Presiding Officer (PO), a high school student with knowledge of the event. The PO will control the chamber, keep track of speakers, and recognize who will speak next. You won’t have to worry about running the round or timing speakers. 

Judges will be judging students on several factors. 

Did their speech clash or refute other senators in the round? 

Did their speech make sense to the topic? 

Did they seem knowledgeable about the debate topic or were they just reading?

Did they ask and answer questions effectively in cross examination? 

Were they persuasive in their argumentation? 

Did they use evidence to prove their points? 

Was their delivery fluid and professional? 

Was the student a confident speaker?

Did they participate in the debate with a speech or just questions?

Ranking

Keep in mind, that those that gave SPEECHES should be ranked HIGHER than those that only asked questions. 

--Rank students 1 through 9, with all remaining students tying at 9th place. 

1 = best in round, 2 = 2nd best, 3 = 3rd best, and so on.

--Speaker Points

Do NOT worry about entering speaker points. There are not like what you have done in other speech or debate events. They will not impact the competitors at all.

Feedback

In your ballot on tabroom, please write AT LEAST two strengths of each speaker’s performance. 

Also please write AT LEAST two helpful critiques of each speaker’s performance. 

Keeping track of 10-12 competitors?

I highly suggest keeping track of the speakers as they are speaking by taking notes throughout the round on tabroom. (Give FEEDBACK as you go) If you wait until the end of the round, you may find yourself confused. The best way to keep track of so many speakers is to rank as they speak. 

For example:

Your first speaker would be first because there is no one to debate against at the start. 

----Speaker 101 - 1st

When your second speaker speaks, you will compare them to the first. Now who is 1st and who is 2nd? The 2nd speaker had better arguments, so now they rank as 1st. 

----Speaker 101 - 2nd

----Speaker 102 - 1st

When your third speaker speaks, you will then compare them to the first two speakers. Now who is 1st, 2nd and 3rd? The 3rd speaker was better than the 1st, but the 2nd is still strongest so far. 

----Speaker 101 - 3rd

----Speaker 102 - 1st

----Speaker 103 - 2nd