JUDGING 101 | smsdpro

Here are two hints to make your judging experience more fun and enjoyable.

1. No personal bias

In debate, the students are asked to be ready to defend both sides. If you happen to have strong personal feelings on the debate topic, please do not automatically determine the winner based on your personal opinion. Keep an open mind, and look for the contestants who make a more convincing case.

2. You're the Boss

It is the contestants' job to PERSUADE YOU. Students must adapt their arguments, strategies, speaking style, to what they think will persuade or entertain YOU. If they fail, they lose! This is not spelling bee, where there is usually only one correct answer. Two experienced judges can watch the same speech & debate competition, and disagree on the winners. That is fine! You are the sole determiner of which speeches were more effective in persuading YOU, minus any personal bias.

If you can read and understand this sentence, you are more than qualified to judge!

Speech and debate is a highly subjective human activity, and each person is persuaded differently. To give our students the best training possible, we need to expose them to as many humans as possible. Human subjectivity is a critical part of the game. Learning to cope with human variability is an important life-skill. Thus, don't worry about "making the wrong choice" -- the judge is always right!