JUDGE TRAINING MANUAL

JUDGE TRAINING MANUAL

For taking the time to be trained as a judge. The competitive speaking program is dependent upon having good, knowledgeable adults willing to give of their time to evaluate the talents and skills of the competitors. A perennial complaint that many schools have is poor judging. While that may just be an excuse a student gives for not doing as well in a round as he would like, hopefully, no one will ever be able to complain in that way about (insert name of your school “YS”) judges.

GENERAL INFORMATION

Most speech tournaments take place on Saturdays. They consist of students from many schools competing for individual ribbons in sixteen different events and combining with the other students from their school to compete for sweepstakes or team trophies. Thre preliminary rounds are usually held with the best students being scheduled into a final round to see who wins what prize. Competition generally starts at 8 a.m. and finishes up around 3 p.m.

Competitors are identified by number only. JUDGES SHOULD NEVER ASK A COMPETITOR TO REVEAL HIS NAME OR SCHOOL AFFILIATION!

Materials needed to judge include paper and a pen or pencil. Stop watches are desirable but optional. Most events have time limits. If you do not have a stop watch, don't depend upon classroom clocks for accurate timing. They aren't always reliable.

When (YS) arrives at the tournament site, a coach will check into the office while the team members head for the cafeteria. Some may have to change clothes if we have traveled long distances and "grubbies" were worn on the bus. Good clothes‑‑ties and jackets for gentlemen and skirts for ladies‑‑are appropriate dress for competition. The coach picks up room assignments for the competitors as well as judging assignments and ballots for the judges. Ballots are generally assigned only for preliminary rounds. A judge may be asked to judge additional final rounds. Therefore, it is important for the judges to remain available in areas designated by the host school‑‑usually a judges lounge or the cafeteria. Judges should not leave the building or observe other rounds without first obtaining permission from the tournament host coach. You will never be asked to judge a student from your school unless tournament entries are very small or one of our students has replaced someone from another school in that section by picking up a drop. If you realize that you have a (YS) student to judge, try to check with a (YS) coach first before judging the student. A mistake may gave been made in the office.

Judges should make every effort to arrive at their rounds on time. Many times, ballots are fastened together for a judge, but they aren't always in correct order. When you receive your ballots, look at all of them to see what time you're supposed to be where. After you have judged a round, turn your ballot into the office before going on to your next round. This should be done even if it makes you late for your next round.

Never switch judging assignments with another judge. The office has a chart of who is assigned to judge which events and if you change your ballots with someone else, problems may occur when they are assigning judges for final rounds.

In the room, judges should never smoke, eat, or drink pop or coffee. The host school provides a judges' lounge for those activities. Some schools do not allow smoking in their buildings, even for judges. We must honor their rules.

HOW TO GET A ROUND STARTED

Before entering a room, check to make sure that the previous round is over. If a door is shut, listen for speakers. If a door is locked, send one of the competitors to the office to report the situation.

Upon entering the room, choose a seat toward the back of the room away from where the students are sitting. Make sure that you have a good view of the area that will be used for competition.

Check the numbers of the competitors present. Some students may request permission to go first because they are double entered. These requests should be granted.

Call the number of the first competitor (either the first number listed on the ballot or the number of someone double entered who has requested permission to speak out of order). The contestant will usually announce the title of his selection. Write the title down next to the competitor's number on the ballot. In extemporaneous speaking, the speaker will hand you a small piece of paper with the question he is supposed to speak on written on it. You will give out the topic in impromptu (I'll explain that later). Have your paper handy so you can write down items that you notice. Sit back and prepare to carefully listen to and observe the selection. Following the first selection, call a second number and repeat the process. Continue to do so until all those listed on your ballot have spoken. Those double entered may be excused from the room once they have spoken.

If you call a number and no one responds, go on to the next number. That competitor may be double entered or withdrawn from competition. In most events, a student should not be penalized for being late to a round or having to leave early to compete in another event. If, after you have heard all the competitors present in the room, you still have someone who does not show, send someone to the office with the numbers of the missing competitors to see if they are "drops"‑‑entries dropped from competition. Usually, by the end of Round 1, the office will have prepared a drop list which you can check against the rest of your ballots. Note: the same set of numbers may be used in all events, so when checking for drops, make sure that you check the right event. If a student is not on the drop list, give him a full hour to report to the room. If he still doesn't appear, mark your ballot without ranking the no shows and drops.

On your ballot, a "1" should be placed in the ranking spot for the competitor you feel was best, a "2” for second best and so on. No two scores should be alike. Sign your ballot and return it to the office before going on to your next round.

Ballots will be posted for the competitors to see after they have been tallied in the office. Students may ask you for a critique. This is where good notes may help you to be able to tell a competitor why he received the ranking he did. If you do not wish to give a critique, that's okay, too, although it is most helpful for the student when we can give a good critique. If you do critique a student, make sure that you comment on the good as well as the bad of the performance. In some meets, students will bring critique sheets to the round. Fill these out and take them to the office after the round with your ballot. A verbal critique is not necessary.

DO NOT LOOK AT THE BALLOTS FOR EVENTS THAT YOU ARE SCHEDULED TO JUDGE LATER IN THE DAY to see how the competitors you're going to judge later have been doing. That is considered unethical.

RULES FOR THE EVENTS

While Indiana currently sponsors competition in sixteen different events, only the solo events will be discussed in this booklet. Cross‑examination debate and Lincoln‑Douglas debating will not be described since those events are rarely contested at the same tournaments as the solo events. It is improbable that you will be asked to judge either of these events.

Broadcasting

At many tournaments, there will be four straight rounds of radio for all contestants. Some tournaments may only have three preliminary rounds and then a final. For this event, the judges are not allowed to see the competitors. You will be judging based upon the sound of the voice alone.

1. Commercial copy should advertise a national product. It should be approximately one minute in length. All participants should receive the same copy from the host school. The student is not permitted to alter the copy.

2. Editorial should be suitable for broadcast. It should not be deliberately selected for its difficult vocabulary. It should be about one minute in length. All participants should receive the same copy from the host school.

3. News program: The student should edit a three minute news program that includes the newscaster's code number (no name should be given), a national sponsor, and tag line. At most invitational tournaments, the students have prepared their news in advance and brought it with them to the tournament.

4. On-the-spot: Some events taken from the previous ten day's news suitable for a remote broadcast should be assigned to all students. The event must be international, national or state‑wide. Such events might be an accident, a fire, the visit of some important person, some political, religious, or social event. It might be an athletic event. The student must assume that he or she is on the spot.

Basis for judging each round

1. Salesmanship, friendliness, fluency, conviction, accuracy, voice, and articulation.

2. Persuasiveness, dignity, accuracy, understanding of content, articulation, voice variety, fluency, authority.

3. Selection of news items for news worthiness, arrangement, transitions, voice variety, articulation, accuracy, sign on and off shows awareness of broadcast techniques, authority, and timing.

4. Awareness of procedure for on‑the‑spot, ability to describe and make vivid, language, directness and friendliness, accuracy, voice variety, conversational pattern, ability to see for the listener, timing. The student should be basically accurate, but should not be held for the accuracy of details.

Congress

At some solo tournaments, a Congress is included as an event. At the beginning of each school year, the IHSFA distributes to all speech schools twelve bills to used for debate in Congresses throughout the year. [These bills are available on web site www.ihsfa.org. A school hosting a tournament selects four of the bills to be debated at its tournament. At least one judge and sometimes as many as three judges are assigned by the host school to listen to the debate on each of those bills.

The judges are given a seating chart of the students speaking in the Congress. A chairman will be responsible for recognizing the speakers and running the debate. As in the other events, all you have to do is sit back and listen. Sometimes, the judge is asked to time speeches. They should be a maximum of three minutes in length. When that maximum is reached, it should be indicated to the speaker by saying "time".

A second task a judge may be asked to take on is to be the scorer. What this involves is assigning "points" to each speech. The scorer assigns from one to six points to each speech after it has been given. The better the speech, the higher the point value it is given. If a student addresses a question to a speaker during his/her speech, that question is NOT given any points, but the speaker's ability to answer the question may be taken into consideration when assigning points.

Following your time listening to debate, you will be asked to rank all the speakers who have spoken. This can sometimes be difficult if you have heard a number of speakers. Therefore, make sure that you take good notes on each speaker, noting the strengths and weaknesses of what has been said. The points assigned to the speeches need not effect your ballot. For instance, if one student speaks three times on a bill and gives three bad speeches which are assigned two points each, but another student gives one good speech which gets five points, the student giving the good speech would probably get a higher ranking. Just as you have done with other ballots, make sure that you sign your ballot and turn it in to the office as soon as possible and definitely before judging any other round.

Discussion

Round table discussion is characterized by the many informal, spontaneous, brief exchanges of views rather than by a series of long prepared speeches. The discussion shall follow the process of logical thinking (definition of the problem, nature of the problem, possible solutions, selection of the best solution) during each round. The contestants shall be judged on their skills in analysis and evaluation, contribution and information, validity of reasoning, integrative and cooperative thinking, relevancy of remarks to the part of the outline under consideration, and presentation.

Approximately five students will be assigned to a table for a discussion. The judge should place himself near the table so that he can hear the exchanges being made by the students. The topics for discussion have been predetermined and the group should know which of the state topics will be used for that round. The group will choose a leader to moderate the discussion. That student should be ranked with the other students except at sectional, and state competition. The judge should not participate in the discussion.

At the beginning of the discussion, definitions should be limited to the terms of the question at hand. Further definitions should be integrated into the discussion at the appropriate times when they are relevant. If the discussion becomes overly hostile or dominated by a few group members, the judge should intervene and attempt to remedy the situation. The offenders should be penalized on the ballot. The number of times a person speaks is not as significant as the quality of what the person says.

While there is no minimum time for the discussion, the maximum time limit is one hour.

Duo Interpretation (Scripted and Memorized)

This is the only event for solo tournaments where two students are allowed to work together. The selection they use may be of dramatic or humorous nature and must meet IHSFA standards and material requirements. Essays are permitted.

In scripted duo participants must read from a script, although it is understood that eye contact with the audience is desirable. Participants must not play to each other. This is interpretation, not acting. No eye or physical contact should occur. Because of this, the speakers will usually be facing the audience during their presentation. In memorized duo no scripts are allowed. Interp material is legal if it is readily available to the public.

No properties or costumes are allowed.

Selection must be from 5-10 minutes. Failure to meet this time requirement shall be a detriment.

A memorized introduction and transitions may be utilized.

Duo participants may portray more than one character.

Extemporaneous Speaking: Foreign and Domestic

This is basically an event to see how much a student knows about current events. The contestants meet in an "Extemp draw room" thirty minutes prior to the starting of a round to select topics that they will speak on. Each student is allowed to draw three topics which are in question form. From these topics, one is selected to prepare a speech on. The student may work for thirty minutes with the materials that he has brought with him to the tournament‑‑usually the three major news magazines (Time, Newsweek, and US News) as well as a clipping file. During that time, he outlines and practices a speech.

When the speaker arrives at the assigned room, he will give you a small piece of paper with the topic written down on it. Record either the question or the topic number by the contestant’s number on your ballot and return the slip to him. Then sit back and listen to his speech. It is not an absolute that he must answer the question; however, he must handle the question in an intelligent way by addressing the issues contained in the question.

There is no minimum time limit. Brevity should be penalized only if it discloses lack of information on the subject. The maximum time limit is 7 minutes. Going over‑time shall be a detriment.

The contestants in extemporaneous speaking should be held accountable for:

1. Strict adherence to the precise statement of the topic he has drawn, and be severely discounted for shifting to some other base of the topic on which he might prefer to speak. In other words, make sure the contestant talks on the topic he has drawn.

2. Well chosen information relative to the subject as presented in current periodicals.

3. Organization of this material according to some logical plan to produce a complete speech within the time allowed.

4. Effective delivery, including all the mechanics of good speech‑‑poise, quality and use of voice, gestures, directness, and the ability to enlist and hold the interest of the audience.

The extemporaneous speech is not to be a memory test of material contained in any one particular magazine article, but rather an original synthesis of current fact and opinion.

Notes may be used, but not to exceed fifty words.

Impromptu

In this event, the speaker is given thirty seconds to prepare a speech about a topic that is given to him by the judge. All sections of the event have the same topic. All speakers in the sections speak on the same topic. Therefore, they are not allowed to leave the room once they have spoken. The judge needs to pick up the topic just prior to the start of the round from the tournament office.

The time limit is five minutes. There is no minimum time limit. Brevity should be penalized only if it disclosed a lack of knowledge of the subject or makes the speech incomplete. Going overtime will be a detriment.

When running a round of impromptu, one speaker comes into the room at a time. When the first speaker has come in, you announce the topic t6 him and allow him thirty seconds to think about the topic. When the preparation time is up, say "time" and listen to what the speaker has to say. Following his presentation, call the second contestant into the room and repeat the procedure. Continue to do so until all the contestants have spoken. When they have all spoken, they may be released from the room.

One round, the speaker is given a word as a topic. The other two rounds use a current event and a quotation as their topics. The current event topic will be in question form.

The speaker should be judged for his or her ability to think under pressure. He should be judged for the continuity of the speech and the material that he is able to recall on the spur of the moment and mold that information into a logical speech. The speaker should also be judged on the mechanics of speech‑‑poise, quality and use of voice, body action, and the ability to hold the attention of the audience. The student should be penalized if he exceeds the time limits.

Interpretation: Drama and Humorous

While dramatic and humorous interpretation are two separate events, because of the similarity of the rules, they will be discussed together. The selections used in both events must be memorized sections from a play, short story, essay or novel of "recognized literary quality" which has been published in a book or magazine. It may be either prose or poetry. Interp material is legal if it is readily available to the public.

The selections used for these events should be between five and ten minutes in length. Failure to meet these time limits shall be a detriment.

The art of interpretation is to be an attempt to recreate the characters in the story presented and make them living and real to the audience. Selections should be judged for the appropriateness as contest material and its suitability to the particular contestant using it.

This is a contest in oral interpretation, not solo acting. Although gestures and pantomime are not barred, they should be used with restraint. The contestant should be graded on poise, quality and use of voice, inflections, emphasis, pronunciation, enunciation, and especially the ability to interpret characters correctly and consistently

Narrative should be vivid and animated so as to be interesting and integral part of the story rather than just "filler" between portions of dialog.

No costumes, properties (hand or stage) or character make‑up is permitted.

Oratorical Interpretation

Oratorical interpretation is the delivering of a speech that was presented by someone else other than the speaker. The author may or may not be an expert speaker. Any subject matter appropriate for a contest of this sort may be used. The speaker must deliver the oration from memory.

Speeches should be at least five minutes in length, but not exceed ten minutes. Failure to meet the time requirement shall be a detriment.

Within the introduction, the contestant should set forth the original time, place and circumstances of the speech's original presentation.

The mechanics of speech must be observed faithfully‑‑poise, quality and use of voice, effectiveness and ease of gesture, emphasis, variety, and enunciation. No particular style of delivery should be demanded by every speaker; rather he should be free to select or develop an individual style and then be judged according to his effectiveness in influencing the audience addressed.

Original Oratory

In this event, the student writes a speech and delivers it himself. The choice of the subject is wide open, but it should be appropriate to the speaker and to the audience. It should be between five and ten minutes in length. Not more than 150 words of the oration may be direct quotation from any other speech or writing.

When judging this event, you must consider both the composition (thought and content) as well as delivery. However, as this is a contest in speech rather than essay writing, the emphasis should be placed on the speech aspect.

The orator is not expected in any way to solve the great problems of the day. Rather he or she should be expected to discuss intelligently, with a degree or originality, in an interesting manner, and with some profit to the audience, the topic chosen. The composition should be considered carefully for its rhetoric and diction. The use of appropriate figures of speech, similes, and other rhetorical devices to make the oration more effective should be noted especially. English usage should be correct.

Delivery should be judged for the master of the usual mechanics of speech‑‑poise, quality and use of voice, and bodily expressiveness: and for the use of qualities of directness and sincerity which impress the oration upon the minds of the audience.

Poetry Interpretation

The student should prepare a program of poetry that is at least five minutes in length and no longer than ten minutes. At least two selections shall be used. The poetry selected should have some common theme that is established by the student in his introductions and transitions. The poetry selections must be of recognized literary quality taken from a published book or magazine.

The poetry must be read from a script. Introductions and transitions should be memorized. The judge's decision should be influenced mainly by the reading of the poetry rather than the introductory material.

Prose Interpretation

For this event, the student prepares a selection of prose that is at least five minutes in length and no longer than ten minutes. It may be from one short story, from a longer work that was not originally in script form, or an essay, either fact or fiction, taken from a book, magazine or newspaper. The focus of the piece should be on narration as opposed to dialogue. Emphasis should be placed on literary quality.

While eye contact is important, it should be remembered that this is a reading event. The presentation itself is not to be memorized but interpreted from the script.

An introduction should include the title of the work and its author as well as any other background material essential to the audience's understanding. Introductions and transitions should be memorized. The judge's decision should be influenced mainly by the interpretation of the selection rather than the introductory material.

AFTER THOUGHT

There are as many different techniques for judging as there are judges. Each judge looks for some items that are different from what another judge would look for. It is very subjective. Whatever you decide should be based upon the rules as put forth in the IHSFA Constitution and the principles for sound speech performance. The more judging you do, the more confident you will be as a judge. Feel free to ask questions whenever something happens that you don't understand or are unsure of .