Taking Notes During a Debate
The Notes tab on the ballot is your flow — the running record of what each side argued and how it was answered.
Who can see them
Nobody but you. Your notes are not shown to the speakers, their school, the other judges on your panel, or the tab team. They exist so that your reason for decision is grounded in what was actually said.
They save as you type
Notes save continuously to the device you are using. You do not need to press anything.
If your phone dies, your browser crashes, or you close the tab by accident, reopening the ballot restores your notes exactly as they were. This works with no internet connection.
Suggested approach
Keep one column per team and write across the debate rather than down it, so a rebuttal sits beside the argument it answers. What matters is that when you reach the Winner tab you can see which arguments survived.
Note the time an argument arrived. An argument first made in the third speech is worth less than the same argument made in the first, and a judge’s memory of ordering is unreliable.
Using them for your decision
When the debate ends, read down each column and ask which arguments were still standing. That is your reason for decision, and your notes are the evidence for it.
Do not score as you go and then work backwards. Marks written during the first speech tend to anchor everything after it — a real bias, and one iRank’s feedback check will flag if it shows up in your written comments.