Judge Training

Overview

• Parliamentary Debate Fundamentals
• Round procedure
• Submitting Your Ballot

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Part 1: Parli Fundamentals & Rules

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Parliamentary Debate Fundamentals

• Every debate has one topic, or “motion,” worded in the format of “This House”
• EX: “This House would ban zoos”
• Two sides: Government and Opposition
• GOV supports the motion
• OPP opposes the motion
• GOV will define TH

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Rules

• Extemporaneous – no consultation with ANY outside resources
• Debaters are allowed to search up definitions. We do not consider one definition source as inherently more accurate than another.
• NYT standard of knowledge
• Debaters should not rely on knowledge beyond that of the average NYT reader
• New arguments in rebuttal speeches are not permitted
• However, Gov rebuttal is allowed to respond to any new content from Opp 1 and Opp rebuttal
• New examples are permitted in the rebuttal speeches
• New pieces of comparative analysis (also known as weighing) is also permitted in the rebuttal speeches. Weighing seeks to explain why one argument is more important than another
• Debaters may call a Point of Order “POO” if they believe the other team has broken this rule

Speech Times

• Prime Minister Constructive (Government) - 7 min
• Leader of the Opposition Constructive (Opposition) - 8 min
• Member of the Government Constructive (Gov) - 8 min
• Member of the Opposition Constructive (Opp) - 8 min
• Leader of the Opposition Rebuttal (Opp) - 4 min
• Prime Minister Rebuttal (Gov) - 5 min
• Each speech has a 30 second grace period at the end – so, 7:30, 8:30, 4:30, and 5:30 is how long debaters can speak for!

Part 2: Round Procedure

Before the Round

• Make sure that you are on Tabroom.com and logged into your account.
• When a round is announced, click on your email in the top right corner of the screen (on tabroom).
• There should be a button that says “Acknowledged.” As soon as you see your assignment, please click it – this will bring you to the ballot.

Before the Round

• Debaters may conduct the coin flip, determine their side and topic, and begin prepping for the round without the judge present.
• Teams have 15 minutes of prep time before the round begins; judges should ensure the teams are back within the 15 minutes

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Before the Round

• We recommend that you ask about and make note of:
• Which team is on which side (e.g. Friends Seminary on GOV, Horace Mann on OPP)
• The speaking order for each team – for instance, Ryan Lafferty will be speaking first and third, Julia Schroers will be second
• You should invite speakers to OPTIONALLY introduce their gender pronouns, but EMPHASIZE that debaters are not REQUIRED to state their pronouns

Part 3: Ballot & Scores

Speaker Points

<23 - profanities, equity issues (requires justification) 26 - a good speaker with strong argumentation

23 - debater did more to help the other side win than their own side 27 - very strong speaker, speech had little to no clear flaws

24 - speaker made no positive or negative contribution to round 28 - the speech could have won the round alone

25 - average >28 - best speech you’ve ever heard (requires justification)

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A 25 SHOULD BE THE AVERAGE SPEAKER SCORE

Evaluating the Round

• As a judge, you have to award one team the win (GOV/OPP)
• Your decision should be based solely off the arguments made in the round
• Look over your flow. We encourage you to consider:
• Which arguments were most important in the round?
• Refer to weighing arguments made by debaters in 3rd speeches – which arguments did they identify as most important?
• Who won those arguments?
• Who had the best analysis? Who best refuted their opponent’s arguments?
• Where there arguments one side made that the other side did not respond to?
• Judge the debate that happened, not the debate that you “wanted” to happen

Guide to Judging a Round

Reason For Decision (RFD)

• Submit your ballot on Tabroom BEFORE you give the debaters your RFD
• AFTER submitting your ballot through Tabroom, judges MUST disclose (i.e., announce to the debaters) who won or lost the round, provide an oral justification (Reason For Decision), and comments/feedback to the debaters.
• Do NOT disclose speaker scores
• Keep under 10 mins

Part 4: Tabroom Specifics

Submitting a Ballot

• Verbal reasons for decision (RFDs) are required. Written ones are optional.

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Judging Mavericks

• If a team consist of only one debater (a maverick), that debater must get the same speaker score for all speeches
• If you see on Tabroom that the debater was supposed to have a partner, but that partner did not show up, the partner that is not present receives a speaker score of 23.

Low-Point Wins

• Speaker points should be reflective of the contributions a speaker made to the arguments in the round, not their style or manner of speaking
• Hence, situations in which the team with the lower cumulative speaker score wins should be very rare
• If you do give a low point win, you have to then justify it to tournament staff

Final Thoughts

• It is easy to get lost in the rules of debate, but at the end of the day you are the judge and it is the job of the debaters to convince you:
• If they make arguments you do not understand or use jargon you do not understand, that is their fault. It is their burden to communicate effectively
• The NYPDL values a particular kind of debate based around making the round accessible to all in it and prioritizing productive discourse
• Thus, we encourage you to penalize in-round behavior that seems antithetical to this (e.g., a team intentionally talking fast so their opponents cannot understand)

In-Round Reference Sheet

• We encourage you to use this sheet if there are certain rules or procedures that you do not remember in-round. It includes:
• Speech times
• Abusive definitions
• POC’s, POI’s, POO’s
• Extended speaker score guide
• Judging mav’s
• Low-point wins
• Other procedures

Live Doc Can be Found here:

Questions?

Thank you!

Reach out to us with any questions.