The Role of the Debate Ballot in the Consistency of Decisions by Inexperienced Debate Judges

Interscholastic debate competition seems to be an important activity in most areas in the county. Membership in the National Forensic League, which emphasizes debate in is membership qualifications, is 228,640. (1) Some debate tournaments have from 25 to 60 schools represented with as many as 100 four-man teams competing. The Estherville, Iowa, High School had 47 students participating in the debate in the 1965-66 school year, and this figure is comparable to the participation in other schools with strongly supported debate programs. Judging debates is a necessity in debate competition. Many reasons have been advanced for the desirability of giving decisions in debates, but the desirability of giving decisions in debates, but the following three reasons rather well summarize the arguments. First, the only reason for debates in real life situations is the necessity for reaching a decision on a problem. Second, the decision usually stimulates the debaters to greater efforts, both in preparation and performance, than they would otherwise make. Third, the decision is valuable because it gives the debater an evaluation of his efforts. If he loses, he should analyze his weaknesses and attempt to remedy them; if he wins, he should continue to find out the reasons for his success so he can continue to use the same methods