Snover,+Michael

Notre Dame High School Easton, PA

I come to the debate judging arena from the perspective of a 20+ litigation attorney. Aside from being well-prepared and following the debate format, here are the things that will gain my approval. 1) There are rules of primacy and recency that should guide your argument order. The theory is that what an audience hears first is most important in their formation of an opinion about you and the side of the argument that you are taking. You never get a second chance to make a first impression. The countervailing theory is that what you hear last will likely stick with you simply because it is the last thing they heard. Studies have shown, for example, that most juries have basically made up their minds after opening arguments and before hearing one shred of evidence. Take advantage of the rule of primacy and make your strongest argument first, and your next strongest argument last, which hopefully can tie in and relate to your first point so that you can remind them again of the most important reason you are right. All other arguments, go in the middle somewhere. Ideally, unless needed for rebuttal, you should not have more than three points that you are going to make, so weigh it out so that you pick the right three. 2) On cross-examination, it is important to not let the opponent squirm out of answering your question. You need to be firm without being rude. Sometimes you will not be able to get a straight answer. If you do the job right, however, you will still have discredited the opponent because the opponent's evasiveness will be obvious such that the opponent looks even worse for not making the damaging admission than he/she would have looked if he had made the admission. Credibility is of paramount importance to maintain. If you lose that, you have lost everything. 3) In defending cross-examination, be willing to admit less important valid points of the opponent that will still allow you to prevail on your argument. You will look unreasonable if you do not admit the obvious, especially on an unimportant point. 4) In rebuttal, try to think of ways to take your weaknesses and make them strengths on some point. Even if you have the losing side of an argument, you will win the debate if you use what you have more effectively than your opponent. 5) Always have authority to back up what you are saying. 6) Engage the audience with eye contact. 7) I am impressed if you are able to think on your feet. Good preparation helps you to be able to do this. 8) Reference to age old philosophical or constitutional principles can be persuasive, but so too are pragmatic common sense arguments.