In the world of debate, Public Forum is a newcomer with its first national competition occurring in 2002. Public forum debate is based on a crossfire type of debate made famous by Ted Turner and CNN. With Ted Turner being on of the first sponsors.
One of the biggest obstacles public forum debate has to overcome is, the common thought of it being "the ordinary man's debate". Debate books, debate coaches and many debate professionals will tell you that it is any one's debate. "You can literally pick anyone off the street and have a well judged debate". I stand in firm negation of this quote. Public forum topics are considered "hot" and "ripped from the headlines" current and highly debated/debatable. With seasoned debaters, you are almost guaranteed an exciting and well informed debate round. I do enjoy judging public forum debate and would like to see more judges understanding this type of debate.
There are numerous things to keep in mind when judging public forum. My biggest contention is that NOT anyone can judge this debate. There is order, there are rules and there is a symmetry that must be followed. I'm not saying you must be an expert in the field, I'm not stating you have to know anything about the topic. I am saying you must know some (and I use this term loosely) debate jargon.
Public forum debate consists of 2 teams of 2 speakers. A coin flip begins with the winner of the flip deciding if they wish to speak first or second and/or take the affirmation or negative side of the debate. Seasoned debaters will chose wisely based on the topic at hand. The second speaker will also be the last speaker in the round. They can take their final focus speech and the last words the judges hear is theirs. There is something to be said for having the last word. However, topic wise, some teams will take the pro (affirmation) or the neg (negate) for their specific reasons. Some topics lend themselves to being easier to argue for or against. See, there is logic in public forum debate.
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