Coaching debate in Canada

8/11/2019 Coaching debate in Canada

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Coaching Debate


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2012 Summer Debate Camp Coaching page 2

Coaching

A Philosophy of Coaching................................................................................1

Coaching Debate...............................................................................................2

Advice to New Coaches....................................................................................9

What to Expect at a Tournament....................................................................10

Tournament Organizing..................................................................................11

Practical Tabbing............................................................................................15

Tabbing and Back Tabbing.............................................................................16

Index


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These materials were written for high schoolteachers who were unfamiliar with debate.Of course, in addition to the materials aboutcoaching and tabbing, all of the materials in this bookand on the website might be useful for a coach.

I hope however that students will use the coachingmaterials, too. The biggest impediment to a healthydebating program is the absence of coaches. I am verylucky at Sacred Heart to have a number of students andformer students who coach the junior high debaters orwho help out with the senior high students.

You too can help with debating in your school oranother one either now, or when you are at university.Sometimes that will make it possible for a supportiveteacher (who knows nothing about debating) to runa debate club; other times, it might make it possiblefor the students to compete who would otherwise nothave the chance.

And for those of you without a coach of your own, I

hope some of this information will make you a betterdebater.

There are a variety of theories and strategies aboutdebate coaching. I am sure not everyone would agreewith the following advice. However, here goes:

Debaters learn by doing When I started debatecoaching I had been a successful debater and I thought itwould help to give students advice on how to improve.Not so much. The most important thing Ive learned isthat students mostly need to gure it out themselves.They get better by debating more, against debaters whoare slightly better than they are. The more ice time theyget, the more they improve.

So I enter my junior high students in senior hightournaments when I can so they get more practice,and more practice debating against better debaters.

One sheet of paper I do not let my studentswrite out their speech word for word, and they are onlyallowed one sheet of paper when the debate begins.(They can take notes during the debate, however). Itis hard for students to learn to speak without notes. Itis easier in the long run if they are never allowed tohave many notes and are forced to get this right fromthe start.

Debaters can model what they see- If you candemonstrate a good PM speech, over time the debaters

in your club can duplicate it. If you are lucky enough(as I am at Sacred Heart) to have once had a gooddebater, you have it made because everybody who wasin club while they were there can steal some of theirstuff. In Nova Scotia, we have a relatively tiny debatecommunity (maybe thirty schools, but we see each otherregularly). That means that my students get to watchall of the other good students and emulate them.

Individual criticism can help, a little When I have time, I try to watch my students at atournament, and then give brief written commentslater. I dont normally comment on the topic (which

they might never debate again); I try to comment onskills: Rebuttal, time management, construction, publicspeaking skills. In short, those things they will do again,time and again. I dont put much stock in an individualscore for an individual round. A tournament average,however, is almost always right. I look to see if one

bad round has skewed the results but if not, I put alot of weight in the collective judgement of the judgesat the tournament.

Numbers tell you something. I have beensurprised to discover that almost without exceptionmy debaters improve a little bit at every tournament.Whether it is a high school tournament in Nova Scotia(which here is judged based on speaker points, not win-loss record), a university tournament, a BP tournament,a national competition almost everyone gets a little

better each tournament and their scores are remarkablyconsistent. So I keep track of each debaters individualscores, and watch their progress. It lets me predict thefuture! It also lets me compare where the debater is

based on their age. It is unrealistic to expect a student

who has been debating for a year to win a signicanttournament. But if I can put their scores in context bycomparing them to other students who were in theirrst year of debating I can get a reliable measureof their ability and success. And thats importantinformation for students: nice for them to know thatplacing 30that McGill is an outstanding nish for agrade nine student in their second year of debate.

It takes two years- There are no hard and fastrules, of course, but because there are a lot of things toget right content, delivery, rebuttal it usually takesa couple of years for things to gel and the debater to

be successful. The learning curve is similar no matterwhen they start, so I encourage students to start early(so they have several years of success).

We serve different communities. Somestudents want to win everything, and have the timeand ability to do so; others are interested in polishingtheir resume and becoming a little better at publicspeaking. Debating has something to offer both groups,even if it is only the former that you can make magichappen with.

The most important skill is analysis. Thereason one debater wins and another doesnt isultimately about analysis. Picking how to run anargument, what arguments will work, and in whatorder they have to be made is what separates thestudent who places 1stin Canada from the very good

debater, who nishes 12th

.They are better after a break. I dont understandhow the brain processes information it has learned,and in particular the debate skills it has learned. Afterthirty years of coaching I can say that a student inSeptember will be signicantly better than they werein April apparently because the break has giventheir brains an opportunity to process and integratewhatever subliminal learning was going on. A studentin January will be a signicantly better debater thanthey were in December.

A PHILOSOPHYOFCOACHING


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Introduction

Astudent in your grade nine class has beggedyou to start a debate club. Me, you say, Iknow nothing about debate coaching. Youmight do worse than the following.Begin by working on the structure: explain what theteams are called, explain what order they speak in,explain what they must do. Talk about denitionsand why they are important. Let the debaters see ademonstration debate before they do one.

Debating consists of three parts: public speaking,content, and refutation. It is difcult for new debatersbecause they need to do all three parts well for thedebate to look good. One of the tasks of the novicecoach is to help debaters address these three parts oftheir debate.

Some teachers who would like to promote debatingworry that they lack the necessary experience.The purpose of this paper is to provide them withsufcient information so that theyyou can coachor teach debate with condence. Nearly every debateteacher or coach begins without experience, so youneednt feel inadequate for this reason. Thoughcoaching and teaching debate are similar in mostaspects there are some ways in which they differsignicantly. This paper will indicate how and whenthose differences necessitate differing approaches.

1. What is a Debate?

A debate, of course, is a structured argument betweentwo teams of debaters. The materials that follow are

designed to help you organize educational debates -- -designed to teach principles of argument (research,speaking and refutation) in an atmosphere of goodsportsmanship. Materials dedicated to teachingparticular debate skills are cited in Part 6 of thispaper.

ROLEOFDEBATERS

In competitive contests, debaters are trying topersuade the judges that their team should beawarded the decision, as well as to score highindividual marks.

When a debate team receives a topic, its members

need to analyze the resolution carefully to determineexactly what an afrmative team must prove in orderto discharge the burden of proof, then decide how togo about this.

In either an impromptu or a prepared debate,students should divide arguments and evidenceamong themselves. For a prepared resolution, theyshould so organize research responsibilities amongteam members that they are thorough but do notduplicate each others efforts. A deadline should beset for initial research, after which the team members

should meet to discuss both sides of the resolution.(In tournaments, teams are usually required to argueeach side of a resolution the same number of times inregular rounds. Even if they are preparing for a singleexhibition debate, however, good debaters try to

anticipate what their opponents are likely to say.)

The team members need to consider all possibleinterpretations of the resolution and adopt onethat they are prepared to defend; they must also beprepared to attack other denitions that opponentsmay try to use. If one team attempts to use denitionsthat would produce a truism or a tautology, the othermust immediately challenge such an interpretationas unreasonable. The rst afrmative speaker has theduty to dene terms in the resolution; the negativeteam is not bound to accept afrmative denitionsbut if it intends to rely on another interpretation, itmust make this clear in its rst speech.

The team should decide the order in which itsmembers will speak (not necessarily the same forevery debate) and the order in which points will bepresented. It should decide what the most importantpoints are for each side and how best to prove them.(Unsubstantiated assertions carry little or no weight,so three points with proof are usually better than tenpoints without.)

Most debaters prepare for their debates by dividingtheir paper into pro and con sides. Constructive pointsmust be divided between debaters and examples andexplanations found. In classroom debates studentshave some difculty thinking about ways they canthoroughly explore a constructive point throughexplanation or example. They need help with this justas they need help with understanding the importanceof supporting details in writing essays. Even in class,however, debaters should be encouraged to have nomore than two constructive points each. They need toll up their time with explanation and organizationalsignposts. Because classroom debates inevitablyinvolve students who are new to debating the timerequirements should be reduced substantially. Inmy grade 11 cross-x class debates the times are threeminutes for each constructive speech, two minutesfor each set of questions and one minute for eachrebuttal. In grade 12 the times can be increased byup to one minute per category if the students havebeen exposed to debate in grade 11.

By keeping track of what the opponents have arguedon the opposite side of the paper debaters can beginto construct an effective rebuttal.

Competitive debaters should practice delivering theirspeeches in conditions that simulate the actual debatesituation - before an audience, with heckling, etc.They should not try to memorize speeches - ratherrehearse until they are familiar with their material.Debaters should concentrate on communicatingwhen they speak, smile and take a deep breathbefore beginning to speak, and look at the audience

COACHINGDEBATE

Coaching


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and watch its reactions throughout a speech. Theyshould be careful not to speak too quickly, and pausebetween points and for dramatic effect. They oughtnot refer to other debaters by their given names;rather address them in the third person (or by titlein Parliamentary debates).

During a contest, debaters should stay alert andappear condent at all times. (There is a ne line

between being confident and appearing to bearrogant: the latter can alienate judges quickly.)Debaters should listen carefully to their opponentsand make notes of exactly what they say, to facilitaterebuttal. It demonstrates teamwork if they pass notesor whisper to colleagues (except ones who have theoor, as this is against the rules). Debaters shouldbe polite at all times, even if an ofcial rules againstthem or an opponent is rude to them.

2. Organizing and Administering yourDebate Club

The most important thing to keep in mind is thatdebaters learn by doing. As the old saying goes,

Practice makes perfect. Dont take your students toa tournament to observe: take them to participate.

High school debates in Canada usually operate atfour levels:a) in-house debates, held at your schoolbetween different team members;b) exhibition debates against other schools,arranged by telephoning another schools debatecoach and challenging its team to come over for adebate;c) inter-school leagues, in which schools debateteams from other schools on a scheduled basis;d) tournaments, to which a number of differentschools are invited, in which teams compete for

prizes or the right to represent the area at some othertournament.

Because of the amount of work that organizing atournament requires, it is likely that there will be onlytwo or three in your area each year (although successat these tournaments may qualify your debaters forother tournaments). Some school debate clubs arecontent with only two or three debates a year. Most,however, want more than this, and that void canbe lled by either in-house debates or exhibitiondebates against other schools. Neither requires muchorganization - normally a room, three judges and atime when everyone is free. Attending a tournamentis only slightly more difcult: it normally requiresthat a registration fee be paid, perhaps a form besubmitted by a particular deadline, and that the teamattend on the date of the tournament. Many SchoolBoards now require specic protocols be followedfor all teams leaving the school, especially if stayingovernight. New coaches need to make sure they arefamiliar with these protocols.

Little effort or experience is required to organize ahealthy debate club at your school. Organizing adebate tournament is another story, and is somethingnot usually attempted by novice debate coaches.These tournaments are, however, a valuable source

of revenue for your club and might be consideredwhen determining your budget for the year.

In my experience, it is best to have regular in-housedebates regardless of what else you do. The debatesmay occur weekly, bi-weekly, monthly or whateveris to the convenience of the club. If debates are heldregularly, debaters reserve the time for the activityand interested spectators know when to come to

watch. When tournament dates are near, the regularmeeting can be used to rehearse your team. Beforesending a team off to a tournament, I would normallysee the team debate the tournament topic once ortwice and suggest whether I thought that the contentneeded to be changed or tightened, whether thespeaking style was appropriate, and so forth.

3. Judging and Criticizing Debaters

A very important part of your job as a debate coachis to observe your debaters debate and to tell themwhat they are doing wrong - preferably in positive,diplomatic terms! You will also be called on to judgeand criticize other debaters at tournaments.

Although you may be completely new to debate,this is nonetheless something for which you are aswell qualied as anyone. A debater who convincesyou has debated well; a debater who does not, hasnot. Debate judging is subjective - a debater canexpect to nd different judges reacting to the samespeech in different manners. But this is as it oughtto be: debating is not a closed subject which onlythose in the know can judge; all members of thepublic are people whom a debater may, in differentcircumstances, wish to persuade. Debaters abilityto fulll the differing expectations and demandsthat different judges bring to the debate mirrorstheir ability to persuade the public at large. So your

opinion as a novice is every bit as valid as the opinionof somebody who has been coaching or watchingdebate for a long time.

What may need renement, however, is your abilityto identify the often subtle things about the debatingspeeches that you found pleasing or not, so thedebaters can make changes in their presentations.The balance of this part is directed to that end. If youwant further guidance, consult the teaching materialsnoted at the end of this paper.

Judges are asked to evaluate a debate awarding aboutone-third of the marks for each of three categories:the content of the speech, the debaters presentation(or delivery or style), and debating skills. Contentincludes the debaters analysis and understandingof the subject; presentation includes organization.Debating skills include logic, the ability to rebutthe arguments of the other team, and technicalknowledge and practice of the rules. Of course, thethree categories are not quite distinct: for example,poor content may detract from strong presentation,or vice versa. However, it is useful for instructingjudges to break the debate into these major parts.These criteria are used on most common debatingscore sheets.


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Topic Anything goes, but it should be controversial and worded as an afrmative statement(of fact, value or policy). Usually referred to as the resolution, proposition, or Bill.Cross examination style debates, the recommended style for teaching debate in theclassroom, may form resolutions in the form of questions.

Teams Two temporary coalitions (usually of two or three debaters a side) called the Afrmative

(Pro, Government or Proposers) and the Negative (Con, Opposition, or Opposers),among other things ...

Dress Tournaments tend to encourage, but not require, business casual dress. Classroomdebates require less formality.

Tools Facts, charts, pictures, logic, humour, homilies, emotional appeals, dramatic delivery.Words, words, words. But no weapons, please.

The single biggest difference between teaching and coaching debate lies in thecommitment and enthusiasm of the participants. In the classroom, many studentsare more frightened by the prospect of speaking in front of their peers than by anyactivity we might require them to do. To alleviate their fears, I encourage them toscript their constructive speeches entirely and to prepare about 10 questions each toask their opponents. I then have them practice enough so that they are not tied totheir texts during debates, but I do not require them to memorize their speeches. In

debate club coaches should encourage students to speak extemporaneously as soonand as much as possible. In class the students need speak extemporaneously only inresponse to questions and during the brief concluding rebuttal.

Objective Afrmative must prove the resolution, Negative rebut it. These roles are reversedif the Negative introduces a Counterplan (in which case, the Negative assumes theburden of proof).

Ofcials The Moderator (Speaker in Parliamentary style) calls the debate to order, announcesthe topic, introduces the debaters and ofcials, outlines the rules, maintains order, asksthe judges to consider (and when desired, announce) their decision, congratulates thedebaters, thanks the judges and adjourns the debate. In classroom debates this roleshould be taken by the teacher. He or she should read from the moderators scriptbut may shorten or modify it to suit the needs of the class. It is important to treatthe debate with dignity and some formality in order to get the students to take theexercise seriously. This formality is far less important when coaching debate becauseall club members have made a commitment to the activity.

The Timekeeper (Clerk in Parliamentary style) carefully keeps track of speakingtimes, advises debaters (with cards or hand signals) how much speaking time remains,and signals (usually by standing up) when the speaking time and any period of gracehave expired. Allowances should be made for interruptions. This role should beperformed by a student in classroom debates.

The Judges are usually adults who are expected to be non-partisan and to decidewhich team won the contest on the basis of what the debaters said, disregardingtheir own beliefs, prejudices, or special knowledge of the topic. Judges should sitapart from and not confer with other judges before completing their Score Sheets.In classroom debates students should be required to act as judges. In my grade 11debating unit every student is required to debate once and judge once. Student marksare averaged with the teachers mark to come up with the students grade for the unit.

In my debate club team members critique each other but do not assign point valuesfor practice debates.

Order of Speeches The Afrmative team enjoys the rst speech and the last word. The constructivespeeches alternate between the teams Afrmative, Negative, Afrmative ... whilerebuttals alternate between the teams Negative, Afrmative, Negative ... (InParliamentary style, only the Prime Minister has a separate rebuttal speech: all otherdebaters must include any rebuttal in their constructive speeches.) Intermissionsbetween speeches are generally not encouraged as they can interfere with thespontaneity of the debate. In the classroom I give teams two minutes between the endof the constructive speeches and cross-examination portion of the debate to preparetheir summary and rebuttal.

Some basic rules of debate:

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Rebuttal Attacking the other teams arguments and evidence and defending your own(sometimes called refutation). This is the clash that characterizes good debating andis encouraged throughout the debate (except during Cross-Examinations). In theCambridge format of rebuttal, each debater has a separate rebuttal speech; in Oxfordformat, only one debater for each team has such a speech.

Speaking Times Vary, depending on the experience of the participants. It is highly desirable that alldebaters have equal speaking time in tournaments. In most championship debates,the maximum speaking time is eight minutes per debater at the senior high schoollevel.

Styles of Debate Some of the most popular styles of debate throughout Canada are Academic, Cross-Examination, Canadian Parliamentary, British Parliamentary and Worlds Style.

In Academic style, each team member gives a constructive speech. Depending on therebuttal format, one or all members of each team give a rebuttal-defence-summaryspeech. There is then an opportunity for debaters to complain about rule violationsand having been misquoted or misrepresented by their opponents. Heckling may beallowed, though it is probably wise not to introduce this feature until after novicedebaters acquire some experience.

In Cross-Examination style, the procedures are the same as those in Academic

style, though no heckling or points of order or privilege are allowed. After eachconstructive speech, the debater who delivered it is questioned (cross-examined)by an opponent. Strict rules govern the witness (debater being questioned) andthe examiner (questioner). After all speeches and cross-examinations, there is anopportunity for debaters to complain about rule violations and having been misquotedor misrepresented by their opponents.

In Parliamentary style, debaters assume Parliamentary roles (such as Prime Minister,Leader of the Opposition) as they debate the Bill. Except for the Prime Minister, eachdebater delivers a speech which is expected to include rebuttal; the Prime Minister hasa (shorter) opening speech and an Ofcial Rebuttal. Debaters may heckle and raisePoints of Order and Points of Privilege. They may also raise Points of Information ifthe member with the oor consents.

In British Parliamentary style four two-person compete simultaneously. In the highschool version of this format speaking times are ve minutes and speakers may beinterrupted during the middle three minutes by their opponents rising on points ofinformation. All teams must present new arguments with the last speaker, or partywhip, for each side summarizing the entire debate. This is a lively and popular stylewith students and is one of two styles used for all university debating tournamentsin Canada.

Worlds Style requires three person teams with each member taking on a specic role.One member for each team delivers a nal reply speech. Debates are enlivened byfrequent Points of Information raised throughout all but the respective reply speecheswhich conclude the debates.

One distinct advantage shared by both parliamentary styles as well as Worlds styleis one reply or rebuttal speech per team. A disadvantage of Cross-X and Academicstyles, especially evident in debates of three aside, is the sometimes tiresome repetitionthat accompanies the three summary/defense/rebuttal speeches. This repetition is

not, however, as evident in the best teams.

The reason that Cross Examination style works best in classroom debates is that noviceand/or reluctant and/or nervous debaters benet from the formalized clash thatcomes with the questioning period. It does not have to be created extemporaneouslyas it does in the other formats.


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Keep in mind the following when offering yourreview of a debate:

CONTENT

You need to choose resolutions that are interestingfor your students, but do not require a greater skilllevel or knowledge base than they are capable of. Forelementary students, I start with students should not

be allowed to watch television on school nights.

For older students I start with a banned or legalisetopic This house would ban boxing or legalizeprostitution or drugs or beauty pageants orwhatever might be of interest. These are entrylevel topics (although they can be valuable for moreadvanced debaters) because they have a yes-nooutcome. The arguments on each side can be simpleand still be effective.

I never suggest arguments to competitive debaters Im not sure it helps them, as thats part of the learningI want them to do. You can ask about examples, youcan challenge content and argumentation, and you

can critique what they have done. In the classroomsome suggestions may be made to prod studentshaving trouble but try to avoid doing their workfor them

In terms of what content to coach for, studentsnormally start off by advancing reasons, and then(over time) learn to make arguments. There is adifference. Increasing physical tness is a reasonhigh school students should be required to take gymthrough grade 12, but it is not an argument. Anargument requires two parts of analysis: to showrst of all why something is desirable (tness in ourexample) and secondly that the proposal will achieveit. An opposition debater may agree that tness isdesirable but disagree that gym class will achieve it,or argue that there is a better way to achieve it, orargue that tness is not desirable.

When evaluating the content of a debaters speech,take a long view. The same debater will never haveexactly the same content in two different debates- even if the debates are on the same topic - so heor she will not benet very much from an intricatediscussion of where his or her content succeeded orfailed. If the debater has poor research skills, theway to correct this is to show him or her where andhow to nd relevant information. But this shouldbe done while the debater is preparing for his or hernext debate rather than in a post mortem on whathas just nished.

You do owe your debaters your assessment of theircontent after a debate, however, so they can developan ability to gauge what sort of documentation isadequate. Did each point have sufcient proof? Itis also important in my experience that you reviewyour notes of the debate with the debaters. A debatermay nd it difcult to know when he or she hasmade a point effectively. For example, one debateron a team will rebut an argument and the same pointwill then be rebutted (unnecessarily) by a colleague.So tell your debaters what points you thought eachteam won - established through their reasoning and

evidence - and why.

PRESENTATION

Competitive debaters need to learn to speak mostlywithout notes. I do not let even my novice debatersuse more than a single page of paper. This hasdisastrous results in the short term because they arenervous and inclined to forget important material.

In the medium term, however, it forces the debatersto speak from notes (rather than reading somethingthey have written out). They need to get used towriting points or headings, and then pulling up theirsupporting material without notes. This is a skillwhich is quickly learned. If you let debaters startwriting out their speeches, it will be hard to breakthem of this.

Otherwise, regard public speaking as a longitudinalskill. The material for a debate on climate change islikely completely different from a debate on how toget rid of dictators. So comments about content are oflimited use in a debate because the debater may neverdebate that exact subject again. However, most of the

speaking mistakes a student makes will be repeatedagain and again. So initially, this is a useful place tocritique. Generally:

Debaters need to slow down Debaters need to vary their speed, volumeand tone Debaters need to organize their argumentation(signposting with a roadmap, and named points)

A debaters delivery is much less likely to changedramatically from speech to speech. You thereforeare able to work on weaknesses in this category overtime, knowing that you will have a chance to seethe debater perform again and be able to evaluatewhether he or she has been able to correct any faultsyou have identied.A debater must be audible, appear condent, andhis or her voice should be interesting, of course.Debaters should appear spontaneous and naturaland make frequent eye contact. But it is clear that theability to speak in public is more complex than that.In this respect, however, your untrained reactions toyour debaters are valid guides to whether they aresucceeding or need improvement. If you think thata debater is speaking too rapidly, tell him or her toslow down. Tell debaters what they must do to makea better impression on you, but also warn them thatdifferent judges may have different expectations. Tryto have a variety of people help you to judge debates

from time to time, the more, the better, especiallythose with expertise in pertinent elds.

ANALYSIS

This is usually equated on debating score sheets witha debaters ability to understand the arguments madein the debate (by both his or her team and opponents)and the relationship between the arguments madein the debate. The ability to recognize the areas ofagreement between the teams and to focus attentionon the central issues that are in dispute is part ofthis. An effective way to teach this skill is to ask the

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debaters to identify the key issues in the debate. Iask this question before a debate, and again after,and I expect each debater to be able to identify theissues that both teams will raise. In reviewing mynotes on the debate with the debaters afterwards, Itry to identify the issues I thought were important,especially if they were overlooked by one side or theother, and to show how the issues t together.

ORGANIZATION

Visible, clear organization is vital to a successfuldebating speech. The essence of debate is controversy- a disagreement between two teams. It is essentialthat you as a judge are able to understand exactlywhat points are being made by a team and whichopposition arguments have been answered. Thespeech should have a clear introduction, middleand conclusion. The transition between argumentsshould be clear. The conclusion should be both asummary of the team arguments and the debate tothat point, and an emphatic appeal for support.

REBUTTAL

There are three things to coach for: have studentsclearly label or identify the argument they areresponding to, have them refute primarily argumentsand only if time permits should they refute facts,and encourage them to have more than one line ofrebuttal if possible.

Rebuttal is not really a separate debate skill. It isa specific occasion for a debater to use content,presentation, analysis, logic and organization. Butbecause the key difference between debating andpublic speaking is the necessity for debating speechesto clash with each other, rebuttal is often singled outfor special attention on a debating score sheet.

Rebuttal is a compendious term which includesboth the re-building of ones own teams arguments,and the attacking of the arguments of an opponent.In each case the procedure should be the same, andshould consist of two stages. First, the debater shouldrecall for the audience the opposition criticism: Myfriend told us that this plan would improve Canadascredibility with NATO. (Too often debaters simplylaunch into their reply and the audience is leftwondering what point is being answered). Afteridentifying the argument, the debater must answer it.Does the debater address both parts in rebuttal anddoes he or she succeed in neutralizing all importantopposition arguments?

Pay special attention to a debaters speaking skillsduring rebuttal: this is a more spontaneous part of thedebate, and relatively strong delivery here can signalthat a debater is suffering in his or her constructiveremarks by being tied down to a prepared script.

DEBATESKILLS

This category is used partly to evaluate a debaterstechnical mastery of particular debate rules orprocedures. As such, it tends to be cut and dried:a debater either knows the proper way to raise aPoint of Order or does not. You should ensure that

you and your debaters are thoroughly familiar withthe Rules of Debating (both general and those forthe particular style(s) employed) so that they donot break them and also so that they know how toprotect themselves if their opponents break the rules.Myths and misconceptions about the rules abound,mainly because many debaters never bother to readthem. Apart from the Rules of Bilingual Debating,there are only six pages of rules, and coaches should

review these carefully with their debaters beforetournaments.

Not every debate by your students will justify anexhaustive review. Debaters who are new may needto concentrate on basic skill development and beunable to benet from a detailed critique. In time,however, most debaters will appreciate being offeredconstructive criticism on these topics. I suggestthat you let different judges in the room deal withdifferent topics during their critiques. In that way thedebaters need not hear long, repetitive critiques butwill nonetheless nd each topic covered. By havingdifferent judges discuss content, speaking style, andso on after different debates, debaters will obtain

the benet of the different points of view that judgesbring to a debate.

In classroom debates I tend to emphasize that judgespay attention to content and presentation only.Debate skills are appropriate for more sophisticatedand experienced debaters. In content I tell studentjudges to listen for arguments, evidence and examplesthat convince. I think that organization has bothcontent and presentation implications. If content iswell organized it is easier to follow.

In terms of presentation I tell my student judges topay attention to such things as pace, volume, andemphasis. I tell them that they should watch for eyecontact and that debaters should not be too tied totheir texts.

Marks for my grade 11 students range between 80-95. Because this is a difcult task for many studentsI do not want any of them to be discouraged by poormarks. However, I do impose signicant penaltieson students who fail to ll their time during theirconstructive speeches. These speeches should bethree minutes long and I insist that they all be at leasttwo and one half minutes. I also allow them thirtyseconds grace time. This allows students to makesure they practice enough to condently know theywill ll at least the minimum time required. Studentswho fall short of the required time are penalizedtwo points for every ve seconds short. These rules

should be made clear to students at the beginningof the unit.

Though students judge one another in class debatesI do not allow debaters to know how they have beenmarked by their peers and the only comments theyare privy to are mine.

4. Tournament Etiquette

Sooner or later, you are likely to attend a debatingtournament. Let me set out for your information


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some dos and donts.

First, realize that the tournament organizer needs yourconsideration. Submit your registration forms by thedeadline, or early; pay your fees when required, anddo what you can to make his or her life easier. If yousay you are bringing a team to the tournament, showup with one: the entire draw is predicated on yourliving up to your word. If you let the tournament

organizer down, that necessitates substantial changesto the draw, puts the tournament behind schedule,and inconveniences every team attending.

Second, once at the tournament, put yourself in theplace of the organizer. He or she may be new at thejob and in any event is probably in need of all thehelp you can provide. Offer to do those things youdwant help with if you were running the tournamentand expect to be asked to judge and to supervisecertain activities.

Offer your debaters moral support between rounds,but dont coach them. In particular, it is unethical tolisten to their future opponents and then brief your

debaters on the case they will meet. It is also bad form(and often does more harm than good) to suggest to adebater that he or she should suddenly begin makingdrastic changes in his or her presentation. Yourdebaters deserve your support and encouragement,but save the detailed de-brieng until you returnhome.

During a debate, you must do nothing to indicateto your debaters how they should proceed: passingnotes or signalling is improper. (Before the debatebegins it is normally proper to counsel your teamon which side of the resolution they should choose,if they have a choice, or what style of debate theyshould opt for. It is improper, however, to helpdebaters with the preparation of an impromptudebate. When in doubt, ask.)

If during the tournament you see a debate in whicha clear abuse is taking place (for example, Points ofOrder are getting out of hand), in rare cases it maybe appropriate for you to interrupt the debate asa judge. With that exception, however, you mustnot interrupt a debate once it is in progress, and ofcourse you may never interrupt a debate in whichone of your own debaters is taking part. You mustnot attempt to convince another judge how to scorea debate - his or her independent opinion is sought -although if you are experienced, you might feel ableto answer a question concerning the rules or somesimilar matter. If in doubt, refer questions to the

tournament organizer. You must not speak to judgeswho are judging a debate in which your debatershave taken part until the judges have completed andsubmitted their score sheets.

Some tournaments solicit a critique of debates youhave judged. If this is done, please keep your publiccomments brief so as not to delay the next round ofdebates. Debating is intended to be educational,and most debaters appreciate constructive criticism.Please restrict your public comments to generalremarks and, where possible, to positive remarks.Any negative or personal comments you have to offer

are best given privately or, when the debate ballot soprovides, in writing.

Even if you disagree with some aspect of theadministration of a tournament, such as judging ina particular case, you should not publicly criticize it,especially not in front of your or other students. Thisis not good sportsmanship and does not set a goodexample for them. You are welcome to complain

privately to the Provincial Co-ordinator, however,and such input is welcome as it helps the debatingorganization to improve its practices.

5. Practice

Debaters seem to need about fty debates beforeeverything gels and they are suddenly pretty goodat all skills. The sooner they get their fty debatesin, the sooner theyll be good. That means lots ofdebating and they learn bad habits as well as good,so debates against other debaters who are better aremore valuable than debates against weaker debaters.The best learning comes from debating someone

who is a little bit better, not a lot better, than theyare. Good debaters are not born, they plagiarize. Bydebating against someone who is good, they learn tomodel that debaters technique. I dont mean thatthey lift their arguments (they probably wont dothe same topic again any way); they imitate whatthey do. That means that as a priority, a novice clubneeds to go to tournaments or workshops where theywill debate against or be paired with good debaters.Debaters are able to model good debating they haveseen elsewhere much faster than they can learn itthemselves.

While very successful debaters have better technique,I think most of the technique only comes from time

and experience. So I coach for analysis: more thoughtabout the resolution is what normally separates thedecent debaters from the outstanding. I review thescore sheets and comments from every debate mystudents attend. Almost without exception (despitedifferences of judging and style) every studentsaverage mark improves every tournament. One ofyour tasks as coach is to reassure students who havehad their egos bruised that they are getting better,and to show (from your longer view of their progress)that success is at hand. Almost without exception,everyone stinks when they start. The ones who placerst have simply kept at it until they got better. Youneed to help your students see it.

6. Other MaterialsThe Canadian Student Debating Federation isan organization dedicated to promoting andcoordinating high school debate in Canada. Ithas afliated organizations in each province andterritory.

Please dont hesitate to call on the Federation if wecan assist your programme in any way. In addition tooffering advice, we will attempt to supply you withthe names of schools in your area which participatein our programme.

Coaching


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Nova Scotia Debating Society materials are availablefrom: http://www.debatingsociety.ca/ns/

Other debating materials may be found at: https://sites.google.com/site/debateresourcesns/

Brian Casey, 1984John Filliter, 1995

David Stewart, 2011


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Coaching

Meet regularly.When you are starting a new club, it will be hard toget enough people to come out. Generally, peoplewho tend to be interested in debating are alreadyinvolved in a ton of other activities. You need to

carve a space out for yourself on the extra-curricularschedule. Having a regular meeting providesstability to your club that people can then workaround with the rest of their very busy lives. It isinevitable that whatever time you pick will conictwith something else. Thats OK. Not everyone willhave time for debating. Once a week after school forabout one and a half hours is ideal.

Have a debate at every clubmeeting.It doesnt need to be serious and it doesnt need tobe long but you really should have a debate everytime you get together. First of all this gives everyonevaluable practice and gets people in the habit ofgetting up and talking. You want to give a manypeople as possible the chance to debate and youwant to give everyone as much practice as possible.Secondly, it is much easier to frame lessons in termsof practical experience than theoretical situations.The only way to get good at debating is to debatea lot.

Watch a demonstrationround.If possible ask a nearby club of more experiencedebaters to come and give a demonstration debate at

you club. Or go visit them or whatever works best. Itis a good idea to see some debates done well so thatyou have an idea as to what youre striving for.

Debate!Its all well and good to read up on the different stylesof debating and listen to all the seminars that areavailable and so on, but there is no better experiencethan being in a debate yourself. Kick of your shoes,pick a fun topic, team up with one of your studentsand get your hands dirty. Its fun for students to taketheir teachers on and its good practice for you tohelp you get your head around some of the strangerconcepts of debating.

Go to tournaments.Tournaments are the focus of competitive debatingas well as being a fantastic learning opportunity. Inone weekend tournament your students will get asmuch debating experience as they would get in sixclub meetings. In addition, many tournaments willallow judges to give constructive criticism at the endof rounds; this offers a valuable alternate perspectiveon the performance of your teams. Finally, debaterswill have the opportunity to debate against newpeople so they will see new tricks and techniquesas well as getting experience dealing with tacticstheyve never seen before.

Ask around.In general, the people involved with debating are atalkative bunch. This shouldnt surprise you, theyredebaters! Take advantage of this fact by getting themto talk to you about tips and tricks for coaching.A lot of strange thing can happen in a debate andexperienced coaches have probably dealt with asimilar situation. They will probably also have somegood ideas on what resources you might nd usefulin any given situation. Speaking of resources, checkout the following web site to get you started.

https://sites.google.com/site/debateresourcesns/

Make it fun.Debating is fun. If you arent having fun while youare debating, something is wrong. Debaters who

have fun tend to debate a lot and the only way to getgood at debating is to debate a lot. So make sure thatyou and your students are having a good time.

Tim Maly

ADVICETONEWDEBATECOACHES


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Guidelines for Coaches and Debaters

Like any activity, there are a number ofunwritten assumptions that are part ofdebating tournaments in Manitoba. That canbe confusing for coaches and students who areunaware of them. This document is intended toprovide some additional information about what toexpect at tournaments. If you have any questions orsuggestions, please contact the executive.

1. There is an initial maximum number of teamsallowed per school, but you are welcome to askto bring more. If you ask and there is space, theorganizer will let you know how many additionalteams you are allowed to send.

2. Unless it states otherwise on the invitation,schools need to bring one judge per 2-person teamthat they send. Judges do not need to be experienced.Judges for senior events may not be high school

students. Judges for junior events may be in grade10 or older.

3. Once the topic is given out, teams must preparefor impromptu debates on their own without helpfrom pre-prepared notes, electronic devices, debaterson other teams, coaches, adults, etc.

4. Coaches should not judge their own students,unless the organizer has specifically approved,something that will only happen when there is noother option.

5. If coaches are just watching rather than judginga debate, they should not make comments during or

after the debate, although they may make commentsto their own students privately.

6. Normal dress for debaters is tie and dressshirt, dress pants and dress shoes for boys, andthe equivalent for girls. That is an expectation andshould be encouraged but is not required, so itshould not be a barrier to someone debating.

7. Resolutions must be dened in a straightforwardway, i.e. an interpretation that the average person onthe street would accept as a reasonable interpretationof the resolution. In some cases the organizer maylimit the denition and those limitations must befollowed. Denitions cannot use time/place sets (i.e.

specify a particular place or time that the debate willtake place in, e.g. the British cabinet during the Battleof Britain) or squirrel (i.e. change the meaning of theresolution to something different) the resolution,unless the organizer explicitly allows it.

8. Students may use points of order or privilege butthis would be a very rare thing reserved for extremecases, e.g. a point of personal privilege because thestudent was signicantly misrepresented. Points ofinformation are not allowed in the novice categoriesbut are encouraged in the open category. As a

guideline, ideally students should offer 2 per speechbut they should not be too frequent, i.e. at least 20seconds between them. Students should accept 1 or2 per speech. Students do not have to use points ofinformation but students who use them well should

get additional marks.

9. If there are an odd number of teams in a category,the organizer may move a team from one categoryto another to balance numbers or can use a swingteam, i.e. an additional team to balance numbers.In order to balance numbers, the organizer maysplit a team, but only with the coachs agreement,so that each team member debates on their own asa one person team.

10. Hybrid teams, i.e. teams with members from 2different schools, are not normally allowed but canbe permitted by the organizer if there are studentswhose partners dont show up, or if a school does

not have enough debaters to eld a full team, or fora swing team. Hybrid teams should not be used toproduce super-teams, i.e. the best debaters from 2different schools in one team. That being said, theorganizer may allow hybrid teams even if thosereasons dont apply, if they make that clear on theinvitation so that everyone has the same chance,and if the event is not a provincial championshipsor qualier.

11. Awards are presented to the top speaker fromeach school, with open taking precedence overnovice, and to the top speakers and teams overall.Usually the team awards are based on total speakerspoints rather than win-loss record, although sometournaments use win-loss.

12. Organizers try to avoid scheduling teams fromthe same school against each other, although itsometimes can occur.

John Robinson

WHATTOEXPECTATATOURNAMENT


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Coaching

The debate community depends on new coachestaking the plunge and organizing debate events.It is rewarding: your students get to attend atournament without any travel or hotel cost, andother coaches will lionize you, briey. Experiencedcoaches are always willing to offer advice, and will

share the burden if they can.

Some of the advice which follows is cribbed from apiece I wrote in 1976 with Daphne Gray-Grant; noacknowledgement whatever is offered for stealingher work.

Less formal events

At Sacred Heart, I host two kinds of event withlittle requirement for organization. Twice a year,we have a novice workshop no one needs toregister in advance, we simply assign partners fromthose who show up, trying to pair students fromdifferent schools, to allow some cross pollination

at different levels of ability and force students fromdifferent schools to get to know each other. We haveexperienced students comment on the debates, sothere is no tabulation required. The experienceddebater also acts as moderator. Pairings for teamsare random. If we do not have an even numbers ofteams, we have a 3-a-side debate in one room.

Inter school debates are also important (whether witha single other school or several) because studentstake the process more seriously if they are facingteams from somewhere else. Inter school debatesalso offer tournament experience for my back bench(who may not be able to participate in a tournamentwhich only registers a few teams from each school).

These events too can be done with assigned partnersfrom different schools and random pairings, but atSacred Heart I usually let students debate in schoolteams. The challenge for an event of this kind isnding the necessary number of judges. I dontaward prizes or determine results, and on that basis,someone to offer comments in each round is all thatis required. I normally put my front bench to workdoing that. You might consider using an event likethis to train or prepare parents to become judges ata real tournament.

More formal tournaments

Let me discuss some of the more important issues.

The organizational requirements, of course, dependon the size, and scope of the event.

In my view, the three keys to a successful debatetournament are the resolutions, the judging and thetabbing. Of course, it would be lovely if everythingabout the event is perfect. But it is normally thosethree details that debaters notice when they gowrong.

Resolutions Many excellent resolutions arenot suitable to be debated impromptu, others are not

capable of being debated by high school students,some are not capable of being debated in the limitedtime constraints available. Younger students maylack the sensitivity to debate some topics (which areappropriate by these standards) without soundingoffensive.

More commonly, the resolution is one sided, at leastin a special debate sense. If the arguments on oneside can be very briey explained, the resolution isprobably not suitable for a debate. That is the case ifthere is one very important argument which in reallife carries the day. The reason we dont give everypublic school student an iPad is cost. However, oncea team states that argument in a debate, they donthave anything else to say. So a debate which appearsone-sided because of cost, may in fact be one sidedin favour of the other team (who can ll 10 minutesof constructive speaking time talking about why itwould be great to give each student an iPad).

It is not enough that there be good arguments for eachside; the arguments need to ll the allotted time, too.Cost a key, real-life argument is generally not auseful argument in a debate (because the costs arenot capable of being decided by the judge internally,in the debate room, and without research).

Evaluating whether a topic is well balanced requiressome signicant debate experience. I expect it willtake some time before you are comfortable in settingdebate topics that are appropriate for your event.Bounce your suggestions off experienced coacheswho may be able to suggest tweaks or changes oridentify problems you had not foreseen.

JudgingIn a perfect world, any adult would be asufcient debate judge, because convincing an openminded person of reasonable intelligence is the goalof the high school debater. Unfortunately, there ismore to it than that. Untrained judges nd it difcultto weigh content and refutation. The temptationis for public speaking skills to be rewarded, ratherthan content or refutation. The novice judge canbe fooled by a carefully prepared speech, which iswell written and well delivered but fails to respondto the case on the opposing side. A debate is notjust public speaking: content and refutation are ofsimilar importance. Following and parsing the logicof a high school debate speech may require someexperience.

There are no short cuts to coming up with qualiedjudges. People with debate experience (coaches,university debaters, and older high school debaters)are best. My experience is that each year I get abouttwo-thirds of last years judges to help out, whichmeans I am constantly trying to nd more people.Because my events grow from year to year, I amalways prepared to trade favours for anyone who iswilling to judge for me. Happily, university debatersare a wonderful resource, and the experience of the

TOURNAMENTORGANIZING


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judges who return from year to year continues toincrease.

I do run a judges workshop in advance of mytournament which helps a little, and I try to assignjudges so that better judges see more importantdebates. For the judges workshop, I talk about thethree things we evaluate (content, refutation andpublic speaking is the way I put it), have a shortened

debate with some of my own students (with a widerange of ability) and then talk about what mark eachspeech should receive and why.

Although conferral among judges does not work inNova Scotia, I think you can encourage the novicejudges to speak to more experienced judges afterthey have scored the round.

Because I post results electronically on the web,novice judges can take a look at their scores andcompare them with others in the room if they wish todo so. I have also put up an electronic and a printedbrieng on the Donahoe site (https://sites.google.com/site/donahoecup/brieng-for-judges). Im

not sure many judges used it, but it is an alternativeto having them give up the time for an in personbrieng.

Tabbing The subject of tabbing deserves aseparate essay (actually two), and they followthis article. As an organizational consideration,I encourage you to build in time for errors to becorrected. At the Donahoe I do ve rounds of debateon Saturday, and have all of Saturday evening tocheck the tab and the break. We still make mistakes,but fewer than if we had to announce the resultswithout the luxury of several hours to check theiraccuracy.

Other details:

Awards Tournaments recognize the differentlevels of skill of different debaters. That does notrequire expensive awards, but it does require at leastreading out the name of the most successful debaters.I encourage recognizing the best student from eachschool if time permits. I think there is a value inpublishing the results on the web, because it is acheap way to offer some enduring recognition.

Billeting I think the headaches associated withbilleting make it an unlikely feature of most events.Apart altogether from the difficulty of finding

families at your school to host a student, a number ofschools prohibit the billeting of their students. Thosethat permit their students to billet have a numberof different (and conicting) requirements frombilleting in pairs, to criminal record checks and so on.By all means, undertake it if you wish and are able,but you can anticipate substantial administrativechallenges. This may be an easier undertaking ina smaller community, or one where a local serviceclub is prepared to undertake the organizationalheadache.

Cost the largest driver of tournament expenseis meals. Ideally, a tournament should have morethan one judge per room, and a separate moderatoror timekeeper for each room. What quickly occursis that there are more personnel who do not payfor lunch than who do pay. (A two person teamof debaters is paying not simply for their ownlunch, but for the lunch for the moderator, one ortwo judges and sometimes for spectators). Evenif lunch costs only $10 per person, that generates ateam registration fee of $45 if there are three judges,a timer and a moderator to feed. If you offer twomeals at $10, that demands a reg fee of $90 per team!You get the idea. The reason some tournamentshave nancial surprises is often because of the largenumber of people who we feed for free. On the otherhand, I dont think it is reasonable to invite someoneto come and judge for the day and not offer them afree lunch.

Date of your event -- Religious holidaysshould be avoided (Easter, Passover, Rosh Hashanahto name a few). A number of important regional ornational tournament dates are set in advance, andwill compete against your tournament for debatersif the dates are close or overlap. (I have a schedulefor Nova Scotia and national events here, which Itry to keep current: https://sites.google.com/site/shshdebate/schedule).

Fund raising I dont raise funds for mytournaments (in part because I dont want to interferewith general school fundraising, and in part becauseI think that is more appropriate when we are sendinga student away somewhere). I know from discussionwith other coaches that some communities are quiteenthusiastic about supporting them, and of courseif you are in a position to do so, it both reduces the

costs associated with the event and involves thecommunity in it.

Hospitality Depending on the scale of theevent, it may be appropriate to organize socialactivities for debaters or adults. In my experience,debaters generally like to talk so a successful socialactivity is one where they can do so. Loud musicwhich interferes with conversation is less successfulhere than with some other audiences.

Hotel arrangements Hotels will frequentlyoffer a group rate, including a free room or two ifyou nd it useful for your purposes. I nd it easierto let each of the teams or schools make their own

hotel arrangements. However, there is a signicantbenet for independent schools if you make all of thearrangements centrally. Your school pays GST andyou are eligible for an input credit for the GST orHST paid to the hotel for the hotel bill. In effect, theschool can give you back the HST on the hotel bill.That refund is a source of free money for fundingthe tournament. In Halifax some hotels decide tosubsidize their undertaking by extravagant chargesfor audio visual and other services. Watch for thatin the pricing.


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Coaching

Invitation and Registration One of thepractical issues, of course, is getting people to cometo your event. Coaches are creatures of habit, and itwill take a few years before they discover that yourevent is being held. Email has greatly simpliedboth the process of notifying coaches and the processof harassing them to ensure they have registered.Recognize that coaches bringing teams to yourtournament suffer from the same practicalshortcoming you do: they work with kids who arenot always able to commit numbers can uctuateuntil the last minute. Indeed, I have had teams leaveduring an event, so expectations that numbers arestable or predictable are unreasonable.

In my experience the easiest and cheapest way todeliver information about a tournament is by puttinga small website up on Google sites. The process isfree, and not particularly difcult. Go here to start:https://sites.google.com/

Once the information is up, you can email people alink to the site. I go a further step and have google

docs handle the registrations. It is much easier thanputting this in a spreadsheet yourself, although itpre-supposes a certain level of computer literacy inyour registrants.

My site for the Donahoe Cup is here: https://sites.google.com/site/donahoecup/home - please stealwhatever you wish from the site. The google docsform is here:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/gform?key=0AogTPBfUcKjgdEZxblY5NU5XZlpxSjkxZGtURS02RGc&hl=en_US

which when completed automatically turns into an

online form (there is a place at the bottom to see thepublished form), for example: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?formkey=dE9kMVJVVFV4YWczNGpqRnlNbE9Kd1E6MQ

which when completed automatically turns into thisexcel spreadsheet:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AogTPBfUcKjgdHdtUVM1Mm50dTl6YUxDaGtTVWZHZVE#gid=0

By doing the registration electronically, I dont haveto transfer any information to a central document, itis accessible to me whether I am at home or the ofceor school, and there are no accidental typographicalerrors which change which student spells their namewith a K or is allergic to shellsh. There are otherelectronic forms out there, and of course, emailregistration may be all you need.

It would be splendid if you were provided with thenames of the team members in advance, but it israrely possible for those details to remain unchangedthe day before the event. Im normally delighted if Ijust know the approximate number of teams coming,never mind their exact membership.

Meals I am lucky to have someone else organizethe meals. Her advice: many students have foodallergies or religious reasons to avoid particularfoods. Your food supplier may not be used to thoseissues and some care must be taken. Find out inadvance whether the supplier provides servingutensils, plates and glasses.

Moderators It is quite challenging for ajudge who is new at judging to keep track of eachdebaters speaking time, judge the debate and act asmoderator. My advice is to train your junior debatersor junior high students to act as moderators if thatis possible. (We offer a number of incentives andbribes to secure help from non-debaters). If it isnot possible to have someone else time the debate, atiming device which keeps track of the time for eachspeech, is easier to use than a conventional watch.Sacred Heart and the Nova Scotia Debating Societyhave purchased stop watches (which tend to gomissing after events) but the cost is about $6 perstop watch so I think it is still a worthwhile expense.

Scripts are available for the style of debate pleasehelp yourself to the ones here: https://sites.google.com/site/debateresourcesns/scripts

There is also a document on the Donahoe site whichyou are welcome to use which has the script for thatevent.

Permission & Liability releases In NovaScotia, volunteers are statutorily protected fromliability. However, you will need to comply withthe requirements and protocols of your school orschool board regardless of where you live, and mayneed a liability release or permission form. Thosedocuments are only useful for the risks which are

known and explained when they are signed, so Icaution you against any last minute changes to yourprogram which introduce new risks.

Personnel Many hands make light work. Ittakes a little while as a debate coach to accumulatethe helpers you need for a tournament, and to learnthe strengths each has for a task like this, and ofcourse if youre short handed you need to workwith what you have. The meals and meal clean upnormally take place while everyone is debating, sothat normally needs to be delegated. The tabbingsimilarly happens while other things are going on.Both of those jobs need someone else to run. Othertasks to delegate if you can: brieng and assigning

judges, registering teams and judges.

Results It is faster and easier and cheaper toscan the score sheets and post them to a googlewebsite than it is to make paper copies, sort themand distribute them, but of course, do which everyou please. Debaters desperately want to knowevery comma of their performance and will studytheir scores and comments with an intentness usuallyreserved for neurosurgery. I use these two sites forposting results, which means I can take them down


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and put them back up after everything is checked:https://sites.google.com/site/donahoecupresults/homeandh t t p s : / / s i t e s . g o o g l e . c o m / s i t e /novascotiadebatingsociety/home . It is easy todesign a similar site.

Another alternative is to give every debater adropbox to access and then move the results to

the drop box when the debate results are public:https://www.dropbox.com/. (There are fees formore than ve installations, I believe).

Signage It is in your interest that each roundbegin on time, or as close to time as possible. Thatmeans that it is important that each room be easyto nd, or that you have guides, maps or otherstrategies to ensure people nd their way quickly. Bydenition, the event is one with judges, debaters andperhaps moderators from other schools. Anythingyou can do to reduce the time lost between rounds(including, as a result of lost souls), helps.

Schedule Chris George, one of the nest mindsof Canadian debating, observes that tournamentsdont run late although sometimes the schedule iswrong.

Put differently, you need to build time into theschedule for (a) the initial delay in running thepairings caused by one or two teams or severaljudges arriving late; (b) the time taken to tab eachround if bracketing is employed; (c) the delayafter a particular room has had a judge get lost. Afrequent strategy is to build in a little extra time atthe lunch hour, and at any snack break. If my lunchis scheduled for 12 noon, Ive instructed the caterersto serve between 12.30 and 12.45 and timed theafternoon rounds on that assumption. I assume Iwill be running at least 30 minutes late by lunch time,and try to make up that time then. It is challengingto run more than two rounds in the morning andtwo in the afternoon, unless your tabulator is ChrisGeorge.

Score sheet There are a number of scoresheets in general use. While I would make anargument for using my score sheet, I think the scoresheet in general use in your debate communityprobably trumps bringing one in from elsewhere.The purpose, after all, is to provide judges in yourcommunity with a score sheet, and one they arefamiliar with will probably produce better resultsthan trying to get them to use one they have not seenbefore. The one I use at the Donahoe is availableon that website (https://sites.google.com/site/donahoecup/score-sheet), and you are welcome touse it if you like.

General advice

- Have a spare resolution in case disaster strikes andsomeone has recently used your topic elsewhere,or because of some problem you need to drop aprepared topic

- Have a few extra rooms available, just in case

- I find it easier to foresee problems if I have adetailed, minute by minute schedule of exactly whatwill happen on the tournament day

- Have a list of emergency contact information

- Have a list of the allergy information with you

- Have a list of the teams that owe you money andreceipts for those who have paid

- Think about the following details as you approachthe tournament:

Train moderators

Print scripts for Moderators

Prepare resolutions (and power point slides, or

whatever announcement process you will use)

Advance judges brieng

People to handle the registration table Packages for the debaters (name tags, receipts,

etc)

Someone to brief judges and debaters on the

day

Someone to run the tab room

Someone to set up the classrooms

Someone to set up the IT required

Scrap Paper for Judges

Runners to collect score sheets

Someone to set up snacks and food

Someone to register judgesSomeone to regjster moderators

Mechanical information for debaters

(Where to go after each round, whether adjudicationis open or closed, any details about washrooms,whether electronic devices are prohibited, timing ofthe break announcement)


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Coaching

At some point, you may be pressed into helpingin the tab room or running one yourself. Ithought it might be in order to talk about thepractical aspects of tabbing, apart from a particularprogram.

Tabbing has a practical purpose: to ensure thatinitially debaters face teams from different schools,and thereafter debate against debaters of nearlyequal ability.

(I appreciate that some tournaments run randomlypaired rounds, but I presume you are not reading thisto learn how to generate random numbers).

The nuts and bolts

If the tournament is bracketing teams, the essentialpiece of information is to record and track wins andlosses. Apart from some of the specialized programsidentied later, a simple excel program (when youassign a 1 to the team that wins and a 0 to theteam that loses) can do that for you. At the end ofeach round, you can simply sort the teams based onthe number of wins.

As a second step, you will likely need to track thespeaker points for each team (so the highest ranking2-0 team can face the lowest ranking 2-0 team). If youcan use a spreadsheet to sort the teams in a particularbracket, you are then set.

For a small event, thats all you need.

Programs to assist with tabbing

There are of course a variety of programs whichpair teams, assign judges and produce a draw for adebating tournament. In Canada, the pre-eminentprogram for pairing two person teams is ChrisGeorges CG tabs. For those who wish to run a BPtournament, Tabbie is a web based draw software.Finally, if your objective is to rank individualspeakers, you can use an excel spreadsheet.

All of the programs are linked here: https://sites.google.com/site/debateresourcesns/tabbing

Decisions

There are some decisions to make in deciding how

to tab a tournament. Let me canvas the choicesbriey.

(1) Points or win loss record? Most Canadiantournaments bracket based on win loss record.Because judges are not perfectly consistent inidentifying a speech which deserves an 82,bracketing on points may simply identify whichdebaters had the more generous judges. It is believedthat generous and stingy judges might agree on

which team won the debate, and therefore, it is morereliable to bracket based on win loss.

(2) Low point wins?Some tournaments allow a teamwhich has lower speaker points to win the round,

others require that the higher pointing team win theround. The problem normally arises when one teamhas the 1stand 4thbest speaker on it, and the other hasthe 2ndand 3rd. In that case, regardless of who wonthe argument a particular team may have higherindividual point totals. It is tidy to prevent low pointwins (because then win loss and point totals match).However it means that the best debater in the roundhas his or her score lopped to correspond to the factthat his partner lost the round for the team. If weare awarding individual scores and recognizingindividual performance, I am uncomfortable witharticially altering the number that would otherwisebe appropriate for that individual performance.

(3) Ties? It is possible to allow ties, or to prohibitthem. The arguments are that ties are untidy andmess up the correspondence between win loss andspeaker points, and that if the debate is a tie, theteam bearing the burden of proof loses. In real life,trials do not end in a tie. On the other hand, mostbracketing systems function ne if both teams aregiven the win.

(4) Folding the bracket. At most tournaments, thebracket is folded (which means that the best teamin the bracket debates against the weakest team inthe bracket). If the bracket is not folded, then the 2ndbest team at the tournament may be beaten by thebest team (or vice versa) and drop down into a lowerbracket, where they are dominant. Folding does a

better job of ensuring that the teams which move toa higher bracket really are stronger.

(5) Pull ups. Bracketing pre-supposes that an evennumber of teams occupy each bracket. Otherwise,you need to pull up (or pull down) a team from adifferent bracket. If that is done, you then need todecide who the pull up debates against. Does thepull up face the strongest team in the bracket? Ora team in the middle? Most of the tournamentsfeature a pull up hitting the team in the middle ofthe bracket.

PRACTICALTABBING


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New debaters sometimes nd the pairings at debating tournaments mysterious. Let me try to shed somelight.Tournaments are either bracketed (which means that teams with a similar win-loss record are matched againsteach other) or randomly paired. Random pairings of course are easier and can be done in advance of thetournament.

The attraction of bracketing is that it allows teams of nearly equal ability to debate against each other. Thathas two benets it should produce a better debate because the teams are evenly matched, and it should helpdetermine which team is better. Instead of wondering whether one team simply had slightly more generousjudges, pairing the close teams against each other allows a winner to be decided unambiguously. The judgemay be wrong, but since the same judge or judges saw both teams, we know that someone doing so preferredone team over the other.

In a Canadian Parliamentary style tournament (CP), the bracketing is based on win-loss: for example, theteams with four wins are matched up. In a British Parliamentary tournament, bracketing is done based on pointtotals. The teams with 12 points are matched up. More on that in a moment.

Assuming there are no ties, and all rounds after round 1 are bracketed, this is the result of a 5 round tournamentwith 32 teams in CP style:

Assuming the tournament has quarter nals, the top eight teams advance, which means that the team with 5wins, the teams with 4 wins and 2 of the teams with 3 wins advance. A table like this can be used to calculatehow many teams with each win-loss record will break. In this example, the teams which have four wins afterRound 4 are certain to advance to the quarters regardless of what happens in Round 5. (A round in which theteams are certain to advance regardless of outcome is called a Brahmin round).

Back tabbing is the name given to trying to gure out the top teams by looking at the pairings. Typically, thebracket is folded: after round 1 there are sixteen teams with 1 win, and 16 teams with no wins. The team withthe highest point totals with 1 win is paired with the team with 1 win with the lowest point totals.

Different policies are pursued when there are an odd number of teams in the bracket. For example, if 5 teamshave the same win-loss record, they cannot be paired against each other. Another team must be pulled up;often the pull up is put against the middle team in the bracket, but some pairings will put the pull up againstthe best team.

If you put this information together with what you know from an open adjudication for a round or two it ispossible to calculate quite precisely what is happening. For instance, if you had one win and one loss in thetwo rounds with open adjudication and you dont know the result of round three, but in round four you arepaired against a team with two wins in the open adjudication, you can anticipate that you won round three orwere the pull up in round four.

Similarly, by watching whether the team you faced is against a tougher team in the next round, or an easierone, you may be able to determine whether you won or lost. You can take comfort in your record if you drawa very strong team, because it means you are probably both doing very well.

TABBINGANDBACKTABBING

After Rnd 1 After Rnd 2 After Rnd 3 After Rnd 4 After Rnd 5 Wins

1 5

2 5 4

4 8 10 3

8 12 12 10 2

16 16 12 8 5 1

16 8 4 2 1 0


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Coaching

British Parliamentary

A BP tournament assigns a point total, based on your rank in the room. The reasons for awarding a particularranking are dealt with in the essay on BP style. The ranks have the corresponding point total shown:

1stplace 3 points2ndplace 2 points3rdplace 1 point4thplace 0

Bracketing still occurs, but round two should put all of the 3 point teams against each other, all of the 2 pointteams against each other and so on. The result is that teams quickly start facing teams of similar ability. This ismore apparent than real, however; the difference between being on 6 points and being on 4 points may havenothing to do with your own debating in the round and everything to do with mistakes made by the other teamon your side of the house.

To make the spread of teams more predictable, I have done the draw here with 256 teams. (You will likely neverencounter a 256 team tournament). Even at that size, round ve is an approximation, because it is not possibleto forecast which team will win when a pull up occurs):

After Rnd 1 After Rnd 2 After Rnd 3 After Rnd 4 After Rnd 5 Points

14

1 131 3 12

4 8 11

10 16 10

4 20 25 9

12 31 34 8

24 40 39 7

16 40 44 39 6

32 48 40 34 5

48 48 31 25 464 64 40 20 16 3

64 48 24 10 10 2

64 32 12 4 4 1

64 16 4 1 1 0

Coaching debate in Canada

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