Guidelines for your Decision and your Oral Critique - Boston Debate ...

Guidelines for your Decision and your Oral Critique
1. The debaters are the center of your next 90 minutes. Give your entire
attention to them. No cell phones, texting, reading, iPods, etc… Even
during prep.
2. The question the debaters are trying to answer is…. Is the plan a good
idea Vote for the team that made stronger arguments in answering that
question.
3. Do not disclose your decision.
4. Affirm. Affirm. Affirm. For every constructive criticism, make three
positive comments.
5. We would like you to talk about the following during your oral critique.
These are the skills we are currently focusing on with our students, and it
would be helpful if you would reinforce them when talking with the
debaters after the round.
Flowing- ask to see the debaters notes. Show them yours if you have a
good flow. Explain why they would have a better chance of winning
debates once they improve their flowing (note-taking). The basic
reason is that each debater must answer the arguments made by their
opponent in the speech before- and they need to write them down so
they remember all of them.
Clashing- encourage debaters to answer each argument made by their
opponent. They should say… Their first argument was… my response
is… their second argument was… my response is….
Debating the big picture- how do the arguments answer the question…
Is the Plan a Good Idea Tell the debaters that is the question you are
going to consider when you decide who wins, and they should explain,
in their rebuttals, how their arguments prove the plan is or is not a
good idea.

Some Specific suggestions you can talk about in your oral
critique after the round….
For JV
The 1AC should be flowed on 3
sheets of paper
The 1NC should make 4
arguments against each part of
the aff (the two problems and the
solution)- total of 12 arguments
Two of those arguments should be
analytical and two should be
evidenced
The rest of the debate should be
based off of those 1NC numbersstudents
should clash and refer to
arguments by number
For Varsity
Same as JV except…
1AC should be flowed on 4 sheets
of paper
The 1NC should have 16
arguments- still 2 analytical and
two evidenced arguments against
each part of the aff
The 1NC should also read one
disadvantage
Please discourage talking too fast
The end question students should
be answering at the end of the
debate is…
“Is the plan a good idea”