AUDL Judging - Frequently Asked Questions

I’ve never debated or judged before. Am I qualified to do this?

Anyone who is able to read, write, and listen can be a great judge at an AUDL tournament. There is judge training before the first round at every tournament, there are additional handouts to help walk new judges through rounds, and students are encouraged to adapt to their judges. Judges with debate experience will be assigned to the most advanced divisions, while judges without experience will primarily be judging novice/beginner students.

There is plenty of helpful feedback that newer judges can provide. One of the skills students develop through debate is communicating across difference and learning to adapt the way they advocate for and against policies to effectively persuade different people. As a community-driven activity, judging is a tremendous way to contribute your time and talent to the AUDL.

Why am I being asked to judge?

Every school competing at a tournament has an obligation to bring judges based on the number of teams they have registered to debate. The number of judges a school is expected to bring is based on the minimum number of judges required to allow all registered teams to debate. By giving your time as a judge, you help your student(s) and their debate program be eligible to participate.

Many other speech and debate tournaments charge fees for registration and to hire experienced judges if the school does not bring enough. We do not require judges to have debate experience or charge per-tournament fees to keep our programming accessible to as many programs as possible. Asking schools to bring parents, alumni, and other volunteer judges helps us keep costs down for everyone.

If you have enough judges, do you still need me?

We cannot confirm if we have enough judges before the tournament. Even if the number of pre-registered judges is enough for the number of registered teams, there are always judges who are registered but not present. There are also a variety of factors determining who can be assigned to judge certain rounds, which can make it harder to set up later rounds with a tight judge pool.

Having more than the exact number of judges needed for the tournament to function also lightens the load on everyone. A larger judge pools makes it more likely for people to not have to judge every round and decreases the risk of the tournament being stalled by judge shortages.

How long is the commitment? How many rounds will I have to judge?

The judging commitment is for the duration of the one-day tournament (up to 2 rounds for elementary tournaments; up to 4 rounds for middle and high school tournaments). Judges should plan to stay until at least 12:30 PM for elementary tournaments and 3:30 PM for middle and high school tournaments (this does not include time for the awards ceremony).

While the judging commitment is for the entirety of the tournament, everyone in the judge pool will not necessarily have to judge during every round. How much people will have to judge depends on factors such as how many judges are available and which rounds someone is eligible to judge based on school affiliation and experience level. The more available judges there are, the more likely it is that people will have rounds off.

I was not assigned a round to judge at the beginning of the day. Does this mean I won’t be needed for the day? Is it okay if I leave to get lunch/run errands/go home?

Please do not leave if you are not assigned a ballot for the first round. We may need to replace a judge who does not show up to their round, and different judges can be assigned for each round. Light refreshments (coffee, breakfast bars, fruit) and lunch (pizza, salad, snacks, etc.) will be provided.

If you do need to leave for some reason, please let an AUDL staff member in the judges’ lounge know so that you will not be assigned rounds that you are not present to judge.

Will I be the only judge in the room? What will happen if I mess something up?

There will be only one judge for every round. The judge cheat sheet will have the speech order and times to use during the round, and if you have any questions after the round ends, you can ask an AUDL staff member questions before submitting your ballot.

Judges are only assigned to judge divisions based on their experience. If you are a parent without debate experience volunteering as a judge for your child’s school, the coach most likely registered you to only judge novice/beginner debates. A skill that students should practice at all levels is adapting to whoever their judge is; feel free to tell students before the round starts if you do not have a background in debate and/or if you are not comfortable with speed reading. A useful piece of feedback for students who do not adjust how they present arguments based on such information is to adapt to their judge.

Do people judging on behalf of middle schools only have to judge middle school rounds? Can I be put in to judge middle school rounds only if I prefer not to judge high schoolers?

Any adults over 18 can be assigned to judge high school or middle school rounds. Only high school student judges are restricted to judging middle school rounds.

We do not allow adults to opt out of judging high school rounds, but judges will still only be able to judge divisions corresponding to their debate/judging experience. If you were originally entered in the system as only being able to judge middle school novice rounds, you would still only be expected to judge novice rounds.

High schoolers and middle schoolers work from the same set of evidence and rules. The main difference between middle and high school rounds is how much of the evidence they have been given and how much time students have for speeches in the novice and junior varsity divisions. Middle school varsity and high school varsity rounds are completely identical, and anyone qualified to judge one division is able to judge the other.

One team said the other is breaking the rules or making arguments that aren’t allowed. What should I do?

If students say that the other team broke the rules and should lose, please come to one of the tournament help desks to talk to an AUDL staff member to clarify things before finalizing anything on the ballot. Sometimes students insist that a rule has been broken based on a misunderstanding when the other team has not actually done anything wrong.

If there is anything else that is unclear or confusing during the round, you are welcome to come back to the judges’ lounge to talk to AUDL staff.

Am I supposed to tell the debaters who won at the end of the round?

No, please do not tell students which team won. Schools will have access to ballots and overall results after the tournament.

How much feedback do I have to give on the ballot?

We ask that you provide at least one piece of feedback for each team. Having one thing to work on for the next tournament (or one thing to work on and one good thing to continue doing) can help students improve. While you are welcome to provide additional feedback, that is the minimum requirement for students and coaches to be able to learn from ballots.

How are people chosen to judge each round?

There is a pool of priority judges (including volunteers such as high school or college debaters, other students completing service requirements, and AUDL interns) that are always assigned rounds before anyone else. SpeechWire randomly selects someone from the pool of eligible judges for each debate, starting with priority judges.

Am I allowed to watch debates if I’m judging for the day?

You are welcome to watch debates during rounds that you are not judging. Please make sure to double-check that you have not been assigned a round to judge before going to spectate.

While most judges using electronic ballots will get an email notification when they have been assigned rounds, please also check the posted paper pairings to be sure. It is possible that you may have a round even if you did not see an email notification (which could be for several reasons, such as being in a part of the building with bad connectivity, the school network blocking certain email domains, or a technical glitch in SpeechWire).

Can I request rounds off to watch my student(s) or shadow another judge?

We cannot promise anyone that they will not be judging based on requests. Many people ask, and honoring these requests can often be the difference between every student being able to debate and not having enough judges. We will always use our priority judges before anyone else, but if you are assigned a round, we do need you to judge it. If the tournament has a large judge pool, it is more likely that you will not judge every round; if you are needed every round, it is likely because we have no extra judges and cannot give rounds off without having to cancel debates.

You are welcome to watch debates and/or shadow experienced judges if you have not been assigned a round. Talk to a staff member at the help desk in the judges’ lounge if you need help finding your child’s round or for recommendations on rounds to shadow.

People are asking me to submit my ballot as soon as possible, but I’m not done writing feedback. What should I do?

If you are submitting electronic ballots on SpeechWire, you can click “Save Ballot” both to save comments and to submit your decision. Once you have entered which team won the debate, how many points to give each student, and ranks corresponding to those points, please save your ballot before continuing to write feedback. You will be able to continue editing the feedback for the duration of the tournament, and we will have the information needed to continue the tournament.

If you are using paper ballots, we can record your decision while you continue to write feedback. If somebody has come to your room, they can take a picture of your ballot as long as it includes the winning team, how many points to give each student, and ranks corresponding to those points. If you have already left the room and returned to the judges’ lounge, please come to the same table where you picked up your ballot so that we can record your decision while you finish writing feedback.

The schedule says the next round won’t happen for a while. Why am I being asked to start sooner than that?

We typically want judges to start rounds as soon as both teams are present. If you see that you have been assigned a round, you should head to the room immediately (unless you are actively judging a debate, in which case you should go to the new round as soon as you have finished the current one).

The round start times on the schedule are rough estimates that are required by the system we use to assign rounds. Times listed in SpeechWire’s email notifications or on posted pairings are NOT accurate.

What should I do if I have other questions?

You can always ask AUDL staff members for help. We will typically be stationed behind help desks and wearing Atlanta Urban Debate League shirts. Emory students wearing AUDL shirts may also be able to help answer your questions and/or direct you to a staff member.