How to Debate In Front Of Inexperienced Judges

By Rebecca Heller, Georgetown University ’16

Not every APDA tournament has enough experienced judges to adjudicate every round. This means that some tournaments use “campus judges,” or students of the host school who are rarely or never involved in APDA. These students are usually friends of someone on the debate team and will agree to come judge at the tournament as a favor to their friends (or because they’re promised free pizza). Campus judges are important because they allow tournaments to proceed when they otherwise wouldn’t be able to. However, it can be more difficult to debate in front of them because they aren’t familiar with APDA norms and judging standards. This guide explains how to successfully debate in front of a campus judge.

The first step to debating successfully in front of an inexperienced judge is to identify that the judge is actually inexperienced. There are a few telltale signs. If your judge asks you how long each speech is supposed to be or what the speaker/points scale is, it’s likely that they are new to APDA. Some other common signs that your judge is new are that they don’t use the regular wording to call each speaker up, that they don’t ask people to put their names on the board, or that they ask POCs along with the Opp team after case construct. Once you’ve established that your judge is inexperienced, you can do a few things to improve your chances of doing well in the round.

First, chat with your judge before the round if possible. Ask them if they did high school debate. If they did, and if you know a bit about high school debate, you can try to slightly tailor your strategy in the round to the specifics of the style they did.

Second, style is extremely important with an inexperienced judge. If the judge isn’t used to APDA arguments, they often vote as much on speaking style (or on who they perceive as being dominant in the round) as they are on the substance of your arguments. There are a few things you can do to help yourself here. Make eye contact with your judge. Make sure that you don’t speak too quickly- inexperienced judges sometimes see it as “bad form” or get frustrated if they can’t flow as quickly as you speak. Project your voice so that you’re speaking loudly enough. Number your arguments and group them clearly.

Third, you should limit your use of APDA jargon as much as possible. Your judge probably won’t understand how to “cross apply an argument,” what it means if you call the other team “squirrely,” or what a “burden” is. Make your arguments in plain English and clearly explain why you won the round. Using APDA slang and terminology won’t help you do that.

In that same vein, if you’re doing to tight call or countercase, you have to also explain to the judge what a tight call or countercase is. Don’t assume that they know. You should explain at the top of the LO speech what you are doing, and then you should explain exactly what each team now has to do in the round. As Opp, for example, you would explain that in a tight call, Gov needs to show not just arguments that could have been made in the round, but also how those arguments would actually win. As Gov, you would explain that you now only have two speeches in the round and Opp has four, so you just need to show one path to victory that Opp had. Debaters often say that you can’t tight call or make theory arguments in front of an inexperienced judge. This is not true. You certainly can make theory arguments. What you can’t do is just say the word “tight call” or “abusive” and expect the judge to know what it is. You need to clearly explain and clearly warrant everything you’re saying.

Fourth, run a case that’s straightforward and clear. Don’t choose one that requires a lot of caveats to be viable. This probably isn’t the time to run a very counterintuitive case about how murder is actually a good thing. Often, inexperienced judges vote on what sounds right to them, so make sure that your case has clear arguments.

Finally, in each of your speeches, be extremely clear about why you are winning. When you respond to the other team’s arguments, number your responses (“we have five responses to this”). Doing so makes it easier for the judge to write your responses down and differentiate between your arguments. It also makes it clear to the judge that you had lots of responses to each of the other team’s arguments, so the judge is less likely to drop you because of one silly argument that you did not respond to.

At the same time, don’t just respond to the other team’s arguments- also explain why the arguments that you are winning are more important than the ones that the other team is winning. This is just good debate strategy in general, but it’s particularly important to be explicit in front of inexperienced judges. In your rebuttal speeches especially, explain how you won each argument, and call out points that are reasons you should win. Explicitly label them as “reasons to vote for us” or “reasons we won the round.” Again, recall from above that just throwing the phrase “RFD” around is unlikely to help you, because the judge might not know what RFD stands for. Once you’ve laid out reasons you’ve won the round, explicitly explain why your arguments are more important than the other team’s. Try to predict which arguments the other team will collapse on, and explicitly say why those are NOT round-winning arguments for them.

Debating in front of an inexperienced judge is more challenging, because they’re not familiar with APDA norms and jargon. However, remember that your judge being inexperienced does not mean that your judge is unintelligent. Your judge is likely a very bright person. As long as you are clear about your arguments, there is no reason that you can’t have an enjoyable and successful round in front of an inexperienced judge.

248 thoughts on “How to Debate In Front Of Inexperienced Judges

  1. Pingback: Arie Baisch
  2. Pingback: Chirurgie Tunisie
  3. Pingback: contact fue
  4. Pingback: التدويل
  5. Pingback: اقتصاد
  6. Pingback: Student Success
  7. Pingback: engineering majors
  8. Pingback: Academic research
  9. Pingback: celebrate
  10. Pingback: Pharmacy's PHD
  11. Pingback: Fiverr Earn
  12. Pingback: Fiverr Earn
  13. Pingback: Fiverr Earn
  14. Pingback: Fiverr Earn
  15. Pingback: fiverrearn.com
  16. Pingback: fiverrearn.com
  17. Pingback: fiverrearn.com
  18. Pingback: fiverrearn.com
  19. Pingback: fiverrearn.com
  20. Pingback: fiverrearn.com
  21. Pingback: fiverrearn.com
  22. Pingback: TMS System
  23. Pingback: cortexi
  24. Pingback: prostadine buy
  25. Pingback: fiverrearn.com
  26. Pingback: french bulldog
  27. Pingback: fiverrearn.com
  28. Pingback: fiverrearn.com
  29. Pingback: fiverrearn.com
  30. Pingback: jute rugs
  31. Pingback: SEO in Kuwait
  32. Pingback: Intertising
  33. Pingback: Sem
  34. Pingback: Piano Removals
  35. Pingback: isla paddle board
  36. Pingback: bitcoin
  37. Pingback: frenchie colors
  38. Pingback: Samsung phone
  39. Pingback: smartphones
  40. Pingback: future university
  41. Pingback: seo
  42. Pingback: wix marketplace
  43. Pingback: Fiverr.Com
  44. Pingback: Fiverr.Com
  45. Pingback: french bulldog
  46. Pingback: future university
  47. Pingback: french bulldog
  48. Pingback: six sigma
  49. Pingback: Warranty
  50. Pingback: FUE
  51. Pingback: FUE
  52. Pingback: FUE
  53. Pingback: FUE
  54. Pingback: MB Removals
  55. Pingback: Classic Books 500
  56. Pingback: FiverrEarn
  57. Pingback: FiverrEarn
  58. Pingback: FiverrEarn
  59. Pingback: FiverrEarn
  60. Pingback: FiverrEarn
  61. Pingback: Media
  62. Pingback: FiverrEarn
  63. Pingback: Escorts Australia
  64. Pingback: pupuk cair terbaik
  65. Pingback: partners
  66. Pingback: Econometrics
  67. Pingback: neuro zoom
  68. Pingback: french bulldog
  69. Pingback: Football
  70. Pingback: FiverrEarn
  71. Pingback: FiverrEarn
  72. Pingback: live sex cams
  73. Pingback: FiverrEarn
  74. Pingback: FiverrEarn
  75. Pingback: FiverrEarn
  76. Pingback: FiverrEarn
  77. Pingback: FiverrEarn
  78. Pingback: FiverrEarn
  79. Pingback: FiverrEarn
  80. Pingback: FiverrEarn
  81. Pingback: FiverrEarn
  82. Pingback: FiverrEarn
  83. Pingback: FiverrEarn
  84. Pingback: FiverrEarn
  85. Pingback: FiverrEarn
  86. Pingback: FiverrEarn
  87. Pingback: FiverrEarn
  88. Pingback: FiverrEarn
  89. Pingback: FiverrEarn
  90. Pingback: FiverrEarn
  91. Pingback: FiverrEarn
  92. Pingback: FiverrEarn
  93. Pingback: Paneer
  94. Pingback: wix seo expert
  95. Pingback: solar
  96. Pingback: diamond
  97. Pingback: Slot Thailand
  98. Pingback: FiverrEarn
  99. Pingback: FiverrEarn
  100. Pingback: FiverrEarn
  101. Pingback: cheap sex cams
  102. Pingback: french bulldog buy
  103. Pingback: live sex cams
  104. Pingback: live sex cams
  105. Pingback: frt trigger
  106. Pingback: Derecho fiscal
  107. Pingback: 늑대닷컴
  108. Pingback: Situs slot online
  109. Pingback: One Peace AMV
  110. Pingback: nang delivery
  111. Pingback: allgame
  112. Pingback: 918kiss
  113. Pingback: หวย24
  114. Pingback: pg slot
  115. Pingback: itsMasum.Com
  116. Pingback: cybersécurité
  117. Pingback: evisa
  118. Pingback: ozempic
  119. Pingback: 300 win mag ammo
  120. Pingback: sicarios madrid
  121. Pingback: itsMasum.Com
  122. Pingback: itsMasum.Com
  123. Pingback: itsMasum.Com
  124. Pingback: sfr cybersecurite
  125. Pingback: apprendre a coder
  126. Pingback: Skywhip tanks

Leave a Comment