By Coach Jackson Earnest
One of the most frustrating experiences a debater can have is dealing with a witness who simply will not answer the question. No matter how the question is phrased, the witness finds some squirrely way to deny giving the answer that is desired.
This is probably a situation that many of you have probably been in before. Unfortunately, when dealing with a witness who will not answer your question, one of two negative outcomes generally happens. 1) the questioner moves on to the next question. Since the witness seems to not want to answer the question, many will just move on to their next line of questioning. This is usually because the questioner does not know how to follow-up on the witness’s uncooperative answer. This is bad because the debater fails to capitalize on a good question that can lead to a key admission in the round. 2) The questioner tries to force the witness to answer the question by re-wording the same question over and over again. This is bad because it wastes time, makes the judge bored, and makes the questioner seem like they are not in control. Although both of these outcomes are not desirable, they happen often when dealing with an uncooperative witness.
So, how do you deal with an uncooperative witness? It starts with a changed mindset:
Cross-Ex ought to be reactive not proactive.
This idea may sound foreign to many of you because it goes against what most people are taught about asking questions. Most people are taught to lead the witness to the answer that you want, much like a lawyer in the courtroom. The issue with this mindset is that it makes the questioner feel obligated to get an admission that a lot of times they simply will not get. The witness can answer however they want, and if they decide they do not want to give you an admission then you will fail your goal. The witness should not hold the power in cross-ex. The questioner needs to hold the power. The solution seems counterintuitive, but to be in control of cross-ex the questioner should react to whatever the witness says rather than trying to proactively force them to answer in a certain way. Instead of leading the witness towards a certain answer you are letting them choose the path of destruction they want to take.
By doing this you will avoid wasting time by asking the same question over and over, and you will also start to have follow-up questions that can lead to key admissions that can help you later in the round. The next post in this series will give comprehensive steps to ask effective follow-up questions no matter how the witness decides to answer.