Judging Philosophy Statement

(You must include a typed philosophy statement for every judge to have a

complete entry).

Please use a copy of the form on the reverse side of this page for each of

your judges to send a judging philosophy statement for the booklet. The

statement MUST be confined to one page using standard size type and margins,

not reduced. After supplying the demographic information at the top of the

page, these questions might be helpful to you in preparing your statement.

1. What is your role as a judge? Does any paradigm or combination of

paradigms reflect your judging philosophy?

2. Affirmative Approaches: What are the argumentative burdens of an

Affirmative team in a debate? Are there Affirmative arguments or strategies

that you particularly like or dislike?

3. Negative Approaches: What are the argumentative burdens of the Negative

team in a debate? Are there Negative arguments or strategies that you

particularly like or dislike?

4. Presumption: What role, if any, does presumption play in debates on this

topic?

5. Topicality: Is this an absolute issue? What factors help you decide

topicality arguments? Do such arguments belong in particular speeches?

6. Evidence: How do you evaluate evidence? What form should source citations

take? Do you read evidence after a round? How do you decide challenges to the

accuracy or authenticity of evidence?

7. Cross-Examination: What is the role of cross-examination in a debate? Are

answers binding? Do you flow cross-examination? Do you object to tag-team

cross-examination?

8. Style and Delivery: How important are delivery and persuasive speaking

skills in a debate? How do you react to rapid rates of delivery? How fast is

too fast? What characteristics of a speaker will result in high speaker

points?

9. Other: Do you like theory arguments? Critiques? Do you have other likes or

dislikes not addressed above?

A TYPED PHILOSOPHY STATEMENT FORM FOR EACH JUDGE MUST BE INCLUDED WITH YOUR

TOURNAMENT ENTRY BY CERTIFIED MAIL POSTMARKED BY FEBRUARY 25, 2000.