Point of Information

Presentation Basics

JUDGES

Each round is decided by a judge or a panel of judges (a panel always has an odd number of judges, so that there is a clear majority that decides the winner, no ties are allowed). Some judges have debated themselves, and are thus familiar with the debate structure and jargon; they are known as flow judges. At the tournaments we will attend, however most judges will be the parents of the debaters at the tournament (everyone who signs up commits to bringing an adult who can cover their judging commitment, but only about a quarter of the judges actually get selected to judge). Those judges are known as lay judges.
A lay judge does not know all technicalities of debate, and thus his presence requires judge adaptation. That means that first, you should avoid running arguments that you don’t think your parent would agree with (such as arguments with extreme impacts). Second, you need to explain the judge the structure of the round if you are at a structural advantage. For example, if your opponents forgot to have a standard, “no standard, thus our opponents can’t impact” would suffice for a flow judge, but a lay judge needs to be explained what a standard is and why its absence matters.

ETIQUETTE

Points of Information
- To ask a POI, stand up and wait for your opponent to acknowledge you. Say “Point of Information” if you have reasons to believe your opponents might not notice you or chose to ignore you. A formal parliamentary point of information includes placing you left hand on your head (holding an imaginary wig) and stretching out your right hand; nowadays, some debaters find this custom silly and don’t use it.
- When accepting a POI, remember that it is being asked during your speech time, so you don’t have to take it right away, or even take it at all.  If you don’t want to take a POI, just say “No, thank you” or “Sorry, not this time”.  You should always finish your thought before taking a POI, but if you make your opponents wait for too long, some judges might consider this rude.  However, if you have a judge that doesn’t care, you can have your opponents stand there for a at least a minute.
- If you are forced to stand for a POI for too long, remember three things. First, don’t stop flowing and thinking of responses. Second, do not forget your question; write it down if needed. If it so happens that you did forget your question, make it up when called on (such as “could you reexplain your previous argument”). Third, after you have ensured that your opponent and the judges noticed you standing, just be cool and don’t get irritated.
- A POI should be well delivered (think of what are you going to ask before standing up) and should last no longer than 15 seconds.
- Unless you have a reason to believe your judge would like it otherwise, do not accept over 3 POIs per a constructive speech, try to average at 2. If rebuttals allow POIs, do not take more than 1, 0 is also a good number.

Thank-you’s
- Once you are more experienced, you can start having weird introductions, but for now, just use a set intro that goes like this: “Before my time begins, I’d like to thank everybody for being here and making this debate possible”.  You can then chose to thank each person in specific:  “First of all, I’d like to thank my partner for supporting me, my opponents for giving me the pleasure to debate them, and, of course, my judge, for taking time of their weekend and judging.  The resolution that we are presented today is…”.  Depending on how much your judge seems to like the thank-you’s, you can give them in the beginning of every speech or only in the beginning of the first constructive.
- Some debaters believe think that “thank-you’s” can be delivered before time starts and that there is a grace period after you speech to let you finish up your idea. This is true, but parent judges don’t know that, so keep your speech 7 minutes exactly.

- Establish all the rules that might be disagreed upon (which speeches allow POIs, are POOs allowed etc.) before the round.

- Ask the judge about their judging preferences before the round.

- If you like an argument that your partner made, don’t applaud.  Instead,  knock on your desk.

- Refer to your opponents as “our opponents” not “they”. Refer to yourself as “my partner and I” or “we” not “I”.

- After you are done with debating, say “Good debate” and shake hands with your opponents and the judge.  Although if the judge looks like he would rather not shake hands, don’t force him to.

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