debate tournament question

word limits in the debates

  • I competed and I felt that the word limits were just fine

    Votes: 3 33.3%

  • I competed and I felt like we could use a higher word limit

    Votes: 4 44.4%

  • I didn't compete, but I wanted to vote anyway

    Votes: 2 22.2%
  • Total voters
    9
R

retro

Well-Known Member
2 2 2 2 1
15 Year Club Well Known
This question mainly goes out to those that competed in the debate tournament.

How were the word limits? I know that I struggled a ton in trying to fit all of my points into 300-400 words. As I'm going to be running the next one, I'd like to know everyone's thoughts as I set the rules for it. I won't be looking at increasing the limits substantially, maybe 50-100 words, or not at all.
 
It was manageable. I did find having a tight limit meant I had to go back and tie up my loose ends and cut out shit that didn't need to be there in order to fit in the good stuff.

I don't think a 50-100 word increase would be bad either though, especially in the later stages. I liked how in the tournament we just had, the word limit increased on the harder topics.
 
Well...... If anyone knows me.... Word limits are a necessity! :D

...... but adding more words would be fine. That way those that need them will have them. Those that don't.... well.... they won't.
 
Butterfly said:
What I did struggle with was the fact that different rounds seemed to have different limits. Personally I'd have been happy if it was one universal limit.
Click to expand...

That was intentional.

The early rounds were fluffy topics, so the challenge was laying out your position concisely.

The later rounds were more content dense and it was more of a "state your case" thing.



One note... if I participate in the next round, word limits are a necessity. I tend to have diarrhea of the keyboard.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
USF Sam said:
That was intentional.

The early rounds were fluffy topics, so the challenge was laying out your position concisely.

The later rounds were more content dense and it was more of a "state your case" thing.



One note... if I participate in the next round, word limits are a necessity. I tend to have diarrhea of the keyboard.
Click to expand...

Oh we'll definitely still have word limits... they're definitely a good thing. As anyone who has seen me in the debate forum knows, I tend to go on and on.
 
I think the word limit is fine the was Sam had it. Keep in mind that a lot of people don't want to spend a lot of time reading the arguements. One reason why I didn't vote in the first round was because most of the time the debaters lost my interest after more than a paragraph. Since I didn't read through all the arguments I couldn't give a good reason to support my vote so I just didn't vote. I know it's hard for most people to contain an arguement to less than 300 words but people aren't going to read long posts, especially if it's about something they're not interested in.
 
zirconaz said:
I think the word limit is fine the was Sam had it. Keep in mind that a lot of people don't want to spend a lot of time reading the arguements. One reason why I didn't vote in the first round was because most of the time the debaters lost my interest after more than a paragraph. Since I didn't read through all the arguments I couldn't give a good reason to support my vote so I just didn't vote. I know it's hard for most people to contain an arguement to less than 300 words but people aren't going to read long posts, especially if it's about something they're not interested in.
Click to expand...


:nod: Exactly why I didn't vote after the first round. :)
 
Back
Top