Judging Information
Hi! At the OATS we truly love and appreciate our judges! Thank you so much for all you do!
If you're preparing to judge an OATS tournament this week, you should find some helpful guidelines listed below. As always, reach out if you have questions or encounter problems. New Judges, jump to the bottom of the page to find specific information for you!
Pointers/Guides for All Judges
The Link Brings Me to the Wrong Video
As a judge you may click the link on the ballot and be taken to an incorrect video. Sometimes this is the correct student but the wrong event, sometimes it's the incorrect LP video (e.g., Round 2 video instead of Round 1 video), sometimes it's the wrong student. Video link issues happen. Here's what to do:
Email contact your tournament director (julie.walker@smsu.edu or 706-844-2773) to alert about the video issue.
Rank the student as last in the round and submit your ballot.
From here, you have choices.
If the team supplies a corrected video link AND you have time to revisit the round later, you are welcome to revisit the round, add comments to the corrected video, and send Julie an updated rank/rate for each speaker in the round (if an update is needed)
You can choose to rank the incorrect video link last in the round but still provide feedback on the performance you did see (e.g., You ranked last in this round of Info with your Poetry, but here's feedback on your poetry).
Integrity Pledge
Coaches and students value high-quality feedback. Therefore, we request you complete the Judge Integrity Pledge prior to completing judging responsibilities for the tournament.
**Each judge only needs to complete the integrity pledge one time per competition season.**
Judge Integrity Pledge 24-25 Season: https://forms.gle/KWXZG98KpbqxkrN26
Reminder for Schedule
Monday of Tournament Week
Monday @ 8 p.m. CST: Entries and videos due to Speechwire
Monday @ 10 p.m. CST: Fees will be assessed and distributed to teams
Monday @ 10 p.m. CST: Judge dance cards go live on Speechwire (please judge IMP rounds early if possible)
Thursday of Tournament Week
Thursday @ 4 p.m. CST: Preliminary Round judging feedback/scores due
Thursday @ 6 p.m. CST: Semifinals and finals Posted on Speechwire and on the OATS Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/oatsforensics
Friday of Tournament Week
Friday @ 9 a.m. CST: Semi-final Round judging feedback/scores due, finals released (when applicable)
Friday @ 2 p.m. CST: Final Round judging feedback/scores due
Friday @ 4 p.m. CST: Live awards ceremony stream on OATS Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/oatsforensics
Friday @ Evening: Feedback released to coaches via Speechwire
Dance Cards/Your Assigned Rounds
Go to live.speechwire.com to find your judging responsibilities for preliminary rounds. You will receive an email from Julie Walker detailing any semi or final rounds you’ve been assigned for the week. If you’re not sure about what ballots you may have, not a problem, just email Julie Walker (julie.walker@smsu.edu).
Points Scale/Ranking
The OATS uses a 25 point scale. 25 is best in this scale. In prelims, you may have to tie for the lowest rank in the round (e.g., your lowest two scores in the round may be 5-19 and 5-18). In finals, you will rank all the way out (e.g., 5-19 and 6-18).
Content Warnings
Speechwire is a fantastic platform, and we’re grateful to Ben Stewart for integrating Content Warnings into the balloting system for the OATS. Please let us know if you need to be taken off a round to protect your mental health. Email Julie Walker (julie.walker@smsu.edu) to make this change.
That said, we would suggest considering your location for watching/judging speeches. We know some performances get kind of raw sometimes. Given the prevalence of traumatic topics, we would suggest thoughtful processing of where you’ll judge the videos. We recognize secondary trauma is real, and we do not want a particularly powerful performance to link a traumatic memory with a specific location in your home (e.g., the bedroom). Obviously you know your own health better than we do, but we want to encourage you to engage in safe practices.
Blank Ballots
We are very grateful for the time and effort you put in to judging each round at the OATS. We have noticed, however, that more ballots than usual are coming back blank. Please take an extra minute to make sure your ballots contain educationally-focused comments aimed at helping students improve performances. We will continue to contact judges and coaches whose ballots are blank to help address this issue.
Disenfranching Ballot Comments
We’ve had some coaches bring forward concerns about comments written on ballots. It’s not news that the Forensic community is working through ballot comments that disenfranchise members of our communities. Specifically in the last couple of weeks, we’ve heard some students have received ableist comments on ballots in recent tournaments. In an effort to maintain the educational value of the OATS tournaments, please be sure to write educationally-focused ballots. If a student is holding a book in a way you find unusual, consider if the book handling is wrong or just different. If a student is not making sustained eye contact with the camera lens, consider if the student perhaps has limited vision and cannot see the camera lens to direct eye contact to.
Audiences in Videos
Students are allowed to have audience members present while they are recording their videos. Please do not score students down for this practice.
Judging Guidelines
We know judging speeches online is similar to, but also a completely different experience from judging in typical tournament settings. The OATS tournament staff is here to help. If you have any questions or suggestions, especially related to accessibility and equity, please contact tournament staff (julie.walker@smsu.edu).
New Judges
Welcome to the OATS! Whether you've judge in-person tournaments or this is your first time judging a speech tournament ever, we're glad to have you here. We want to make sure you can have a successful week, so we've got some links and information here to help you accomplish that.
E-Ballots
Some of you received an email password from Speechwire today for an account through the platform. If you’re not familiar, Speechwire is our platform for running tournaments. This is where you’ll access your ballots and schemat information. Most of the information is pushed out to you (so you shouldn’t have to go looking for it).
You will log in to www.live.speechwire.com to access your eballots.
Never used an eballot system before? Check out this video! https://youtu.be/YJXxeVS-KgM
Watch from start to 10:45 in the video (they go over to synchronous tournaments after that) The only comment from later in the video you may want to know will be it’s easier and suggested to judge on a computer of some kind.
When you log into your round the first time, it’ll ask you for your phone number. This is to make sure if there’s any issues, we have a number we can use as hosts to reach you.
Dance Cards/Your Assigned Rounds
Go to live.speechwire.com to find your judging responsibilities for preliminary rounds. You will receive an email from Julie Walker detailing any semi or final rounds you’ve been assigned for the week. If you’re not sure about what ballots you may have, not a problem, just email Julie Walker (julie.walker@smsu.edu).
Points Scale/Ranking
The OATS uses a 25 point scale. 25 is best in this scale. In finals, you will rank all the way out (e.g., 5-19 and 6-18).
You're going to notice that when you are ranking your preliminary rounds, the drop down menu will only allow you to rank out to 5th place. If you have 6 speakers in your round, no problem. In prelims, you may have to tie for the lowest rank in the round and show which person earned the higher spot with the points you assign (e.g., your lowest two scores in the round may be 5-19 and 5-18). Please do not list those folks as no-shows.
Writing Comments
As the judge, you get to provide educational ballots for each student in your round. How great is that! To that end, please be sure to provide a robust set of comments. At the very least, aim to include at a minimum 50 words on your ballot. A more robust ballot would include 200-300 words.
Backing Up Your Work
Sometimes Speechwire glitches and loses notes on the ballots. One thing some folks will do is create a separate document (e.g., Word, Google Docs) and copy comments there so if there is any issues, you can find the comments wrote originally. #lifehack