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Re: The Judges Will Have a Lot of Explaining to Do! (fwd)
> Ultimately, it is a debater's job to try and convince critics that
> his/her position is superior. I don't know why anyone would consider what
> I said or what Biza said as offensive. Both are attempts to urge judges
> to set higher standards on arguments, not necessarily as evil attempts to
> intimidate you into a ballot.
>
I disagree. This assumes I do not already have high standards for
arguments. I think that when someone makes the argument "this is
nationals, you should have a high threshold" completely undermines the
critic's ability as well as the ability of the opponent. Why would I
have a high threshold for your argument and not theirs? Because you have
rep? Because you are the higher seed and so "should" advance? Because
you think their argument is stupid? I had the same thing said to me at
Heart. A debater came up to me after the round and apologized for
arguing with me by saying, "I'm sorry, Norah, but this is Heart." So???
Should I vote for you because it is an important tournament and I know
you are a better debater than the other team? In my opinion, that
debater lost that round to an excellent team. I had no reason to have a
high threshold for anything. Heather is right on the money--it is the
debaters job to convince the critic that his/her argument is superior.
If the top seed loses early because they did not do the job the too bad.
I don't believe that any one team should be protected because "its
nationals".
Norah Dunbar
Director of Debate
CSU Chico
References:
Archive created by Jonathan Stanton (jonathan@cs.jhu.edu)
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