Debate Judging Instructions

Below is a ballot with instrucions for filling it out, it includes information about what information goes where.

The sample ballot above included instructions about how to fill out the information on the ballot. In order to determine which team wins the round, the first and primary concern is the stock issues, which will be explained below. Other concerns when deciding the winning team are how well the debaters communicate, and how well structured and presented the arguments are.

Topicality: this argument states that the affirmative teams plan does not fall within the confines of the resolution, an extreme example would be if a case was presented that called for the protection of Black Rhinoceroses, since the resolution this year deals with the support of UN peacekeeping such a case would not be topical, often the distinction is not so easy, so you must decide.

Harms: this argument states that there is nothing wrong with the status quo that requires the proposed plan, thus the plan is unnecessary, and can do no good. An example would be a plan to send US forces to quell uprisings in Antarctica, since there are no uprisings in Antarctica such a plan would not be necessary and would just deplete troop reserves. Again the distinction is often much more subtle, and you must make the decision.

Inherency: states that currently there is no reason for such a plan not to take place, implying that the plan is obviously flawed.

Solvency: states that the plan cannot solve for the problems it claims to. An example: preventing violence in Sudan by protecting the Black Rhinoceroses obviously this isn’t going to work; again all examples are extremes use your judgment.

Disadvantages: this argument states that passage of the affirmative plan will cause a serious disadvantage. An example of this is a plan to send the entire US army to Sudan to distribute food, and to prevent violence, obviously this would leave troop strength everywhere else at zero leaving us no protection. Again it is never this obvious so consider the argument carefully

Those are the major voting stock issues, remember that the Affirmative has to effectively counter the arguments in order to win, the negative only needs to win one argument to win the round, as this proves the affirmative plan deficient in some way.

You should become familiar with the resolution, this years resolution is:

Resolved: That the United States federal government should establish a foreign policy substantially increasing its support of United Nations peacekeeping operations.

Below is a sample of a filled out ballot to give you ideas on what it should look like when you complete it.

When filling out the ballot remember

• You must assign all four ranks, the best speaker with the “1” rank
• The winning team may not have more points than the loosing team
• The winning team and loosing team may have equal points
• Provide positive comments on each debaters performance
• Offer suggestions for improvement that may have made a difference in the round
• Specifically state why the winning team won
• Ensure that all judge code, team code, and other information is correct
• Sign the ballot

If you have any questions I can be reached by e-mail at jjbird@gmail.com

Thank You for taking your time to judge debate. John Bird