For Judges

The success of the Donahoe cup is largely attributed to the generosity of volunteer judges. We are grateful to parents, friends and the wider debate community for helping out by judging at our tournament.

Please fill the online form to sign up for judging. We have scheduled the debates so there will be four rounds in the morning, and (in some cases) five in the afternoon Saturday. For that reason, we suggest that you sign up only for morning, or afternoon, not both:

  • Saturday, April 28, 2017 morning (8.30am-1.00pm)

  • Saturday, April 28, 2017 afternoon (1.00pm to 6.00pm)

We offer a briefing session at the tournament, in addition to the video and the written briefings below.Please use the link to sign up electronically

VIDEO BRIEFING

Alternately, there is a sample debate available for new judges to watch (about 7 minutes long)

The debates you will see at the Donahoe Cup feature two debaters on each team; to keep the sample debate short, the debate on the video has only one debater for each team. The sample debate shows a well-delivered Prime Minister's speech (which is mainly assertion, not well supported by examples or argument) and a very badly delivered Opposition speech, which has much stronger content.

Score Sheets will be provided for use during the tournament.

how would you rate this debate?

In our terms, the Prime Minister's speech probably rates a 75-77 and the Opposition speech an 80-81. If the Prime Minister's speech had better content, it might well be a 83-85; if the Opposition speech had better delivery, it might well be a similar score. The sample does a good job of illustrating the importance of content, and the fact that strong speaking skills are only part of debating success.

Our thanks to a very fine Manitoba debater, Steven Kryger, who plays both roles, and to John Robinson for making the video available.

WRITTEN BRIEFING

If you are unable to attend our briefing sessions, please read at the Written Briefing PDF file below.