[eDebate] 50 speaker point scale at Wake

[Christopher Langone]

I'll through out a crazy idea, since people are discussion possible reforms
-- how about a 60 point scale that consists of a summation of two 30 point
scores based on the current consensus on what those scores supposedly mean
-- one for the constructive and one for the rebuttal -- this would also
allow for a way of really indicating when one particular speech bombs and
loses a debate (i.e give a 26 on the 2NR), but the person still might have
gotten a 28.5 on their constructive.  Given the familiarity with the scale,
it would not seem diffucult to assign a number on a speech by speech basis
-- interestingly, one question that always arises is does a 28 mean avarge
for all debators at that level, or average given the quality of the debate
in a particular round? Often people get higher points for being the best in
a round even though the overall quality of the round might have been poor.
As speech-by-speech ranking might have certain educational benefits as well.
That said, and myself having never run or tabbed a tournament I have not
even considered all the practical/administrative problems such an approach
might entail.
I'd love to hear any reasons why the idea would be insane too...

Chris Langone



On 11/2/07, Charles Olney <olneyce at gmail.com> wrote:

>

> Ross suggests the following guidelines:

>

> 49-50: Brilliant. Hard to imagine a better performance.

> 47-48: NDT elim worthy performance.

> 45-47: Powerful but not extraordinary. Workmanlike break round or early

> elim.

> 43-44: Good stuff, but missing what it takes to break into the top

> national level.

> 40-42: Decent. More than one area needs improvement.

>

> This, at most, opens up the range by a couple more points.

>

> 50 = 30

> 49 = 29.5

>

> 48 = 29

> 47 = 28.75

>

> 46 = 28.25

> 45 = 28

>

> 44 = 27.75

> 43 = 27.5

>

> 42 = 27

> 41 = 26.5

> 40 = 26

>

> And it does so at the expense of upsetting a relatively strong

> community consensus about the general spread of points (a consensus

> which admittedly includes a constant upward drift).  We all know what

> a 28 means, even if we have to accept that exactly how that is defined

> by each individual judge is always in question.  We don't know what a

> 48 means, except that it's pretty good.

>

> Someone posted a year or two ago (maybe it was Dr. Larson?) that

> humans really do have a fairly limited capacity to make judgments like

> these.  That the more space you offer, the more people will eventually

> bunch themselves back up in order to eliminate the confusion created

> by gaps between points with no real capacity to discriminate.

>

> Maybe I'm the only one, but I don't really see the current system as

> particularly broken.  As has been pointed out, speaker points are a

> better way to predict who will win a given debate than actual win-loss

> record, which I think is pretty telling.  For myself, I find it

> occasionally difficult to pick between a 28 and a 28.5 or a 27/27.5 or

> something, but I usually don't find it difficult to communicate my

> general thoughts via points.

>

> Frankly, most debaters are pretty good and very few are extraordinary.

> Given that, the range of "needs some serious work" at 26.5 and

> "extremely good" at 29 seems perfectly acceptable.  That's six degrees

> of gradation, which includes some room on the outside for "something

> went terribly wrong" at 26 and "spectacular" at 29.5.

>

> I think to expect a tournament with 100 judges, each making subjective

> decisions on where to draw these lines to ever objectively reflect how

> well a person spoke is impossible.  Adding more gradations only seems

> to encourage community confusion about exactly what distinguishes a

> given speech from another.

>

> This is not to say I'm against the Wake experiment.  I'm curious to

> see if it has a meaningful effect on points, speaker awards, clearing

> teams, etc.  But I don't think it will be any more "correct" than a

> normal tournament, because there's a degree of precision desired here

> that is simply impossible under any circumstances.

>

> As for the season-long judge variance idea, the main problem with that

> is that all things are not equal.  If judging was totally random, it

> would all balance out, but it's not random.  MPJ means judges see

> particular teams, particular styles, and particular levels of quality

> debates more often than others.

>

> This is the same problem with judge-variance over one tournament, so

> of course the bigger the sample size, the less it would be a problem.

> But I have a feeling the sample size will remain FAR too small to

> produce data any more useful than just assessing the points the judge

> decided to assign.  Even the people who judge the most can't have more

> than 80 or 90 prelim rounds over a year.  With MPJ, and a variety of

> tournament contexts (most people adjust their scales depending on the

> general quality of debates they will be hearing that particular

> weekend), I have a hard time believing even that is enough time to

> generate a meaningful sample.  And for the folks who hear 20 prelims a

> year, a few more low-point debates than expected could radically

> affect the rest of their points for the whole year.

>

> Once again, it would certainly be VERY interesting to see this data,

> but I'm skeptical it would produce more "accurate" results.

>

> Charles

>

> --

> And I just can't help believing

> Though believing sees me cursed

> --Johnny Boy

> "You Are the Generation That Bought More Shoes and You Get What You

> Deserve"

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