TFA State 2021 - Online WS Debate Procedures

TFA State 2021 - Online WS Debate Procedures

These procedures supplement the existing WS Norms - they are not a replacement. The goal is to provide guidelines to foster fair and transparent competition. 

Tech Check - Wednesday evening - 6-8 pm

ALL WS Debate team members, coaches, and judges should report for WS Tech Check.  

WS Judges Training - MANDATORY - two options

ALL WS judges are required to attend mandatory judge training during ONE of TWO time periods:  Wednesday, March 10 at 7 pm OR Thursday, March 11 at 8:30 am.  School judges not attending will not be scheduled and will be considered NO SHOWs for the purpose of judge bonds/penalties.  Hired judges not attending will not be scheduled and will not be paid. 

Prepared Round Start Time

There is NO Roll Call prior to prepared motion rounds. If you are NOT in your room 10 minutes before the round, your judge will start your tech time (i.e. if your tech check is at 
5:45 pm and you show up at 5:55 pm you will have lost 5 minutes of tech time).  TECH TIME IS PER TEAM. 

Roll Call and Announcements - 30 minutes prior to round start time for Impromptu rounds

Prior to each Impromptu round beginning with Round 3, teams should report for Roll Call in the WS Announcements Room.  All team members should be present and renamed as School Code-Side/Speaker-Name (ex. DebateHS- P2/4-Ima Debater).  Any team not present at the time of motion announcements will lose impromptu prep time.  All team members are responsible for any announcements made during this time period. 

Impromptu Round Start Time

The Impromptu prep process may not exceed 60 minutes. Teams should move directly from their prep room to the competition room. TEAMS MUST PREP IN THE ASSIGNED ROOM AND MAY FORFEIT THE ROUND IF THEY FAIL TO DO SO. Failure to report within 5 minutes of announced time will risk forfeiture of round. 

Points of Information

Before each speech, the speaker should indicate how they want to receive POIs. (Options include visual - with a card, hand over camera, raised hand icon OR verbal.) The convention is to accept two POIs during each constructive speech. 

Speaker Order/Tech Issues During Round

Debaters must announce the intended speaker order prior to the start of the round. No deviation may be made from the stated order UNLESS a speaker is unable to continue due to tech issues.  IF a fourth/fifth team member is available to replace a speaker who has gone offline, the original debater may be replaced and the judge will change the name on the ballot.  Should a team have only three speakers, and a speaker who has already spoken loses internet access, the debate may continue.  However, if a speaker who has not yet spoken loses internet access, and cannot rejoin within 10 minutes, the team will forfeit the round if a replacement (fourth/fifth team member) is not available.  

In no case may the third speaker give the Reply speech.

Impromptu Prep Process

Students should prep impromptu motions in the assigned rooms. Failure to do so can result in loss of round. All team members should have cameras and microphones on at all times.

During preparation, students may take notes on electronic devices, but students should not use the internet for active research during the round. Students may use Google docs (or other online tool) to communicate throughout prep with all members of their team. Non-competing students must close out of the Google doc before the round begins and remove themselves from any text threads/other modes of communication used during the round. 

During preparation, teams may not bring any handwritten, printed, or published materials with them into their preparation room (or area) for impromptu debates aside from the following: an English language dictionary or a bilingual dictionary and a single- volume encyclopedia or almanac. Students may use a digital dictionary, single-volume encyclopedia, or almanac in place of a physical version as long as each team member is using the same digital resource, i.e. students may not use different digital almanacs in one round.

The use of hand-held cellular phones is permitted as a timing device only during impromptu prep. The cell phone must be kept in airplane mode during preparation.  Use of cell phones or other devices during prep for any purpose other than timing may result in the loss of a round. The device may be used during the round for bench communication between participating team members. Non-participating team members may NOT be part of text threads OR ANY OTHER FORM OF COMMUNICATION DURING THE ROUND. 

During the debate, students are permitted to bring with them hand-written notes

prepared during the preparation period, an English language dictionary or a bilingual

dictionary and a single-volume encyclopedia or almanac (or digital versions of these

items). No other printed or published materials are permitted. 

Use of the Internet to do research or communicate with anyone who is not one of the five team members during preparation may result in the loss of the round.

For students working together in a classroom, home, etc., ANY communication about debate with someone (coach, teacher, parent, sibling, etc.) who is NOT a member of the five-person team may result in loss of round or disqualification. (We understand that those participating from home may have unique situations arise - ex. a mother who forgets her student is competing and hollers “take out the trash” will NOT hurt her child’s competitive chances.)

Communication on the Bench

Working together in a live setting offers a competitive advantage to those students that is not available to all.  As a result, for purposes of equity, students debating in the same location should use the same digital communication on the bench that is available to students working from different locations.  Judges observing in-person communication are to warn teams once and then use point deductions to indicate the norm violation.  Such point deductions may result in loss of round. 

Use of Cameras During Round

It is the tournament expectation that cameras of participating debaters and judges will be kept on during the round.  Non-participating team members should keep cameras off but use naming conventions.  Exceptions to this policy (example, turning camera off due to unstable WiFi) should be communicated to the WS Tab Room. 

Recording Rounds

The tournament will record rounds. Participants may NOT record rounds. 

Judge Decisions

At the conclusion of the debate, judges should turn off cameras, mute mics, make their decision and submit via the Tabroom ballot.  ONCE THE BALLOT IS SUBMITTED, judges should turn on their camera and microphone.  The decision should be announced first, followed by a brief RFD.  Educational feedback may be provided that will help debaters in later rounds. 

IN NO CASE SHOULD THE JUDGE’S PERSONAL OPINION ON THE MOTION, PROFESSIONAL BACKGROUND OR TRAINING, EDUCATION, ETC. DECIDE THE ROUND. ALL JUDGE DECISIONS SHOULD BE BASED ON WHAT HAPPENS IN THE ROUND BETWEEN THE STUDENTS.

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The goal of this document is to share commonly accepted international norms in World Schools Debate and utilize these norms as the foundation for the event in the United States.  It has been updated for Online Events.

For Online Events the following changes should be made:

1. Online presence: Tournaments should  provide a period for a tech check for teams and judges prior to the first round. Each of the three debaters in the round and the judge should use separate devices and should be seen on-screen for the entirety of the round.  Non-participating team members may observe, but should not take up valuable screen space with their images.  Each person in the round should use naming convention: School, role in round, full name, ex.  Prop 1 - First Name, Last Name; Judge - First Name, Last Name, etc. 

2. Before round:  the judge should go over time-keeping procedures and how speakers want to handle Points of Information before the round begins. 

3. During round:  participating team members should communicate digitally “on the bench” to avoid any extra movement that might distract the speaker or judge.  Non-participating team members may NOT participate in any way, and risk disqualification should it be determined that they were involved during the round.   Participants may NOT receive any outside assistance during the round with the exception of Tab personnel who may respond to tech issues. 

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Norms for in-person events and online events: 

1. The WS judging rubric:  allocates 40% for content (“the matter”), 40% for style (“how the matter is presented”) and 20% for strategy (“how the matter is utilized”).  The team with the higher total points wins the rounds. There are no tied team points, nor low point wins based on team points. Judges should use a holistic, comparative focus in determining the winning team.

2. Allocation of speaker points:  the norm is for constructive speeches to receive between 60 and 80 points with 70 points being the average you expect at the tournament. Generally, points will fall in the 66-74 range.  Reply speeches should receive between 30 and 40 points with the general range falling between 32-38 points. 

3. Roles and burdens of teams: the Proposition must prove that the motion is true as a general principle and/or in the majority of circumstances. The Opposition must cast more than just a reasonable doubt in the Proposition case. Even when the motion is expressed as an absolute, the Opposition must show it is false in a (at least) significant minority of cases. In other words: both teams have an equal burden of proof in WS style debating. 

4. Communication style: as noted above, WS Debate emphasizes "style" as 40% of the scoring rubric. In practice that means that speeches are persuasive in nature and delivered at conversational speed. There should be no "spreading" at all in this format.  Students are encouraged to use notecards or bullet points for delivery rather than reading directly from text.  Eye contact, facial expressions, and gestures are all part of persuasive delivery. If you think of Oratory or Extemp speed and style, you will have a sense of what you are looking for in a WS speech. That does NOT mean that signposting arguments or noting where you are attacking opponent arguments is precluded; it DOES mean that the average person in the back of the room should be able to keep up with what is being advocated and argued. World Schools is very flexible in allowing competitors to be who they are in round (whether that means being sassy, having strong rhetoric, or using humor) as long as the discourse is courteous. 

5. Communication on the bench (in-person events): students are allowed and even expected to communicate with each other during other speeches as there is no allotted prep time. This is not seen as disrespectful unless the whispers become too loud and distract the speaker. Speakers on the bench may move to sit together while the other member of their team goes to the center of the room to speak. 

6. Use of devices ( in-person events):  computers and/or other electronic devices should NOT be used at any point in the delivery of speeches for either prepared or impromptu debates.  Cell phones may be used for timing, but should be placed in airplane mode to avoid any perception of outside communication. The only exception to the use of devices rule would be if a student has a documented ILAP with their home school allowing for use of devices in oral presentation, which the coach would need to communicate in advance to the Tournament Director and WS Tab Room. Devices may be used to research prepared motions in advance of a round, but should not be used during the round itself.  Impromptu motion preparation may only utilize a dictionary/thesaurus and a one-volume almanac (ex. the World Almanac OR the CIA Fact Book). Computer stands are NOT used. Students speak from paper/notecards.

7. Argument construction and use of evidence: there should be a focus on proving the motion and clashing “big ideas.” Arguments in the WS format are derived from logic, rather than through a focus on carded evidence (as in other American formats). Students are not expected to cite their evidence (name, publication, date, etc.), and should not be penalized  in any way for not doing so. In general, arguments are supported by warrants (analysis and logic) and examples (used from across the globe). Students are expected to be able to provide examples from outside the United States to support their arguments unless the motion is country-specific.  There are no “cards” that are read. Evidence cannot be “called for” or looked at during or after the round. Supporting material is integrated into the speeches, similar to Extemp or Oratory, but without the need for specific source notes. As in all forms of debate, the example should not BE the point, rather, it is an illustration OF the point. In other words, in judging the quality of an argument, the question of whether the logic makes sense comes before the evaluation of supporting material. New content is designed for constructive speeches (delivered by the 1st and 2nd speakers). The 3rd speaker is allowed to have new warrants and to make extensions, but is generally not offering new substantive arguments (claims). Replies should not have any new content (unless the Prop Reply is replying to new material in the Opp 3) as they should be crystallizing the debate. Debates aren’t won solely based on what’s on the “flow”—often in American debates people think if an argument is conceded it is automatically true, but a lot of judges in the WS format won’t vote on arguments they think are poorly explained/justified or wildly implausible even if the other team doesn’t explicitly respond to them.

8. Refutation: WS Debate is not intended to be delivered line-by-line. This means that refuting every single example/link is not necessary: it is more about the bigger picture. Arguments and lines of analysis may be discarded in the round without impacting the decision as long as the principles behind the arguments and the core points are extended. 

9. Models: while there are not plans in WS debate, Side Proposition can offer a model (an illustration) of what the Prop world would look like.  It does not have to be specific advocacy and is not needed for every motion.  Side Opposition could offer a counter-model if a model was presented but these are not common and are unnecessary in most cases.

10. Definitions & Definitional challenges:

WHAT IS A GOOD DEFINITION:

1) Definitions should be 1) reasonable, 2) obvious (understandable, expected and accepted by an average voter / intelligent person), 3) fair (allow “normal” / quality debate)

2) Time and Place setting are not allowed - definitions and Interpretations should be as general or as specific as the motion.

3) Squirreling” is not allowed and is considered strategically bad.

WHAT CAN OPPOSITION DO IF THEY DISAGREE WITH THE DEFINITION

1) accept it

2) broaden it 

3) challenge it

4) run "even if" case

DEFINITIONAL CHALLENGES must be

1) Explicit (done by the 1st Speaker of Opposition)

2) Explained (arguments for the re-interpretation are offered)

3) Relevant (debater should explain how the judge just see the debate under the new terms)

JUDGING DEFINITIONAL CHALLENGES:

1) Judge needs to holistically compare both definitions and decide how the debate should be understood

2) There are no automatic losses regardless of who wins the definitional challenge 

11. POIs:  the norm for Points of Information is that a speaker will take two.  Taking less is seen as not engaging with the other team. Taking more can be viewed as strategically weak as it cedes too much time to the other team.  POIs may be questions OR statements and should be limited to 15 seconds in length.  They should NOT be offered in two parts nor are follow up questions (as might appear in direct questioning in Congress) generally accepted. Other team members should avoid interrupting the speaker with more POIs while that individual is attempting to answer.  POIs may be offered at approximately 20 second intervals.  Interrupting more frequently is viewed as "barracking" (harassing) the speaker. POIs only occur in the first three speeches on each side; there are no POIs in the reply speeches. Additionally, the first and last minute of each eight minute speech is considered protected time where POIs cannot be asked. 

12. The judge as chair: the judge serves as the Chair of the round and therefore should call the various speakers to the center of the room to deliver the speech.  The Proposition team can also be called the Government/Side Proposition while the Opposition team is opposed to the Government and is also called Side Opposition.  Conventionally, the speakers/audience members use tapping the table to indicate support.  The judge taps the table once at the 1 minute mark, once at the seven-minute mark to indicate protected time has concluded, and twice at the 8 minute mark.  The judge should tap the table repeatedly at the 8:15 minute mark to indicate that the speaker should stop.  There is no prep time and there is no “off-time road map.” After the round is over, the convention is for the Judge/Chair to ask the debaters to “cross the House” and shake hands, then step outside for a few minutes.  The judge then completes the ballot, double-checking the math (NO tied team points, NO low-point wins), and calls the team in to give a brief oral decision.  Remembering that there is a different motion every round, comments should indicate why one side was preferred over the other while still offering suggestions that will help the debaters improve in later rounds.