National Speech and Debate Tournament
2024 — Des Moines, IA/US
Matthew McGrath Paradigm
Policy
Policy Debate Judge Philosophy
Your experience with Policy Debate (check all that apply)
Coach of a teamHow many Policy rounds have you judged this year?
0-10Which best describes your approach to judging Policy Debate?
Stock issuesRATE OF DELIVERY
5/91 = slow and deliberate9 = very rapid
QUANTITY OF ARGUMENTS
5/91 = a few well-developed arguments9 = the more arguments the better
COMMUNICATION AND ISSUES
7/91 = communication skills most important9 = resolving substantive issues most important
TOPICALITY: I am willing to vote on topicality:
8/91 = often9 = rarely
COUNTERPLANS
2/91 = acceptable9 = unacceptable
GENERIC DISADVANTAGES
1/91 = acceptable9 = unacceptable
CONDITIONAL NEGATIVE POSITIONS
2/91 = acceptable9 = unacceptable
DEBATE THEORY ARGUMENTS
8/91 = acceptable9 = unacceptable
CRITIQUE (KRITIK) ARGUMENTS
5/91 = acceptable9 = unacceptable
Additional remarks:
I am used to traditional debate rather than cases that are run in radically "progressive" styles and our team primarily does LD. If you do not have a reasonable basis for linking your contentions to your final impacts & outcomes, your argumentation points will not hold (i.e. your outcomes must be reasonable consequences of the contentions rather than slippery slopes and not every proposal on the AFF will lead to nuclear war, mass starvation, and other ridiculous outcomes).
If you are unintelligible and I cannot understand you, I will say "clear" once. If the rapid rate persists, I will begin to dock speaker points. I am more concerned with pragmatic analysis, thinking on one's feet to highlight their own evidence, and QUALITY of contentions.
Attempting to misuse or abuse the wording of a resolution in an absurd fashion, such as running "squirrel" cases, misses entirely the purpose of a good faith debate where quality or argument and analysis should always trump quantity, "spreading," and speed.
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