A Debate Ballot
What does it mean to say that "candidate X" did the better debating? For those of us in the business of judging debates, there is no simple or easy answer to this question which applies to all debates, in all formats, at all times.
Instead, there are many criteria by which debates can be judged and professional debate judges bring a wide variety of perspectives to the art and science of judging debates. In an effort to prepare students to watch and judge this year's presidential debates, and as a means of preparing for in-class debates later in the semester, my argumentation class at the University of Mary Washington designed the following debate ballot to judge this year's debates. For those interested in numerical metrics, a five-point Likert can be adopted to generate a comparative numerical score.
Feel free to add your feedback on our ballot, as well as your own criteria, ballots, and insights for how to judge debates in the comments section.
