NSDA Middle School National Tournament
2017 — Birmingham, AL/US
Public Forum Debate Paradigm List
All Paradigms: Show HideKathleen Bogen
I am parent of a congressional debater at American Heritage in Boca/Delray Florida. I have judged local, regional and national tournaments. I judge primarily IE and Congressional Debate.
CONGRESSIONAL DEBATE
I like a good speaker and refutation is important. No spreading.
I prefer that debaters be strong in their conviction but not be abusive in their treatment of others.
I DO NOT SHAKE HANDS AT THE END OF A ROUND
PUBLIC FORUM
I like the original intention of this event that it should be a debate that would take place in a public setting and would have ideas and delivery that any person off the street could understand. To this end, I don't want you to be a policy debater. While I do want structure to what you are saying and evidence to support your ideas, it is the PUBLIC approach that I prefer. Are you clear? Do your points make logical sense? Are you able to persuade me that your side is the side that is best for our current population?
I DO NOT SHAKE HANDS AT THE END OF A ROUND
anthonyrbrown85@gmail.com for the chain, I prefer speech drop so we don’t have to wait for the email to reach everyone
Please show up to the round pre-flowed and ready to go. If you get to the room before me or are second flight, flip and get the email chain started so we don't delay the rounds.
*Updates for 2024/25 are in bold*
Background
Currently the head coach at Southlake Carroll. The majority of my experience is in Public Forum but I’ve spent time either competing or judging every event.
General
You would probably classify me as a flay judge. The easiest way to win my ballot is through clear extensions and comparative weighing. Explain why your links are clearer and stronger and how your impacts are more important than those of your opponents. PF has been getting away with 6 second impact scenarios that make no sense lately. Saying “food shortage causes conflict, leads to war” as the entire impact just isn’t going to vibe to me. I need to know why and who.
Speed is fine but if I miss something that is crucial to your case because you can’t speak fast and clearly at the same time then that’ll be your fault. I also won’t flow off of the doc, I’ll only use it to check for evidence if I’ve called to. Don’t assume you can read like 1200 words on me just because you sent a doc.
I do not flow cross so if anything important was said mention it in a speech.
I would classify myself as tech over truth but your tech still needs warrants, I won’t do the logical work for you.
I’m not evaluating prog at a non-bid tournament. If we're at a bid tournament or state, go for it.
Don’t just extend card names and dates without at least briefly reminding me what that card said.
I have a super high threshold for IVIs. If there's some sort of debate based abuse run a proper shell.
Speaking
Typical speaks are between 27-30. I don’t give many 30s but it’s not impossible to get a 30 from me. Actions that will likely doc your speaks: stealing prep, slow evidence exchange, having your partner tell you what to say during your speech, spreading, and then having a lot of time left at the end of speech (like literally what was the need?)
I would much rather you sacrifice your speed for clarity. If you can’t get to everything that you need to say, then it would probably be best to prioritize your impacts and do a great job weighing.
Any comments that are intended (or unintended in certain circumstances) to be discriminatory in any form will immediately result in the lowest possible speaker points.
Kritik
I’m very comfortable with security or IR based K’s, I’m comfortable with topical K’s, I’m going to need you to overexplain non topical K’s.
Theory/Norms
Disclosing is good, bracketing is bad, paraphrasing is bad, round docs make the event accessible to everyone.
I’ll evaluate all shells but if they fall under my norms above you’ll probably have a lower bar to hit.
Cheat sheet (1 is most comfortable, 5 is lowest)
Policy: 1
Topical Ks: 2
Theory: 3
Non-Topical Ks: 4
Phil: 5
Tricks: 5
I’ll understand your policy arguments. I’ll be able to follow your spreading. I can evaluate most K’s but am most comfortable with topical K’s. I will understand your theory arguments but may get overwhelmed if there are more than 2 shells. I would over-explain if you don’t fall into those categories and adjust if possible.
I haven't done debate since I graduated roughly 6 years ago, so if there's any "evolutions" in the practice of LD or PF during the time period, be careful.
Otherwise, I'm generally open to all types of arguments, in other words, "progressive" is fine. Note, if you do choose to run Kritiks, please make it clear how many in the off-time roadmap, and in which order.
Speed is fine, but I have to be able to hear what you are saying.
I will disclose only if I could make the decision right there on the spot.
Homewood Flossmoor High School 2011-2015
Pomona College 2015-2019 (not debating)
Meta Level
The more work you do, the happier you will be with my decision. By this I don’t just mean that I reward smart strategies, research, etc. (I do), but rather that the better you explain and unpack an argument and tell me how to evaluate it, the less likely my own biases and preferences will affect the decision. With this in mind, there are a couple takeaways
- Framing is important. At a certain point, this seems redundant to say (obviously impact calc is important), but all too often debaters fail to “tie up” the debate in a way that is easy to evaluate. What impacts matter? What arguments should I look to first? How should I think about making decisions? Leaving these calls up to my gut may not work out well for you. Do not assume that I will put together the pieces of your argument in the way that is most favorable to you, or the way that you they should be viewed. Your best bet is to do this for me. As a general rule of thumb, your likelihood of picking up my ballot is directly proportional to the number of “even if” statements you make.
- truth and tech are both important and the divisions between them are far more arbitrary and vacuous than it is usually given credit for. That being said, it is up to you to give me a metric for evaluating what claims are true. What types of evidence should I look to? Should I view that evidence through a certain lens? How should I treat dropped/under covered arguments? Obviously I have some personal proclivities that may be harder to overcome than others
o I will always tend to evaluate dropped arguments far less than extended arguments. This does not mean that dropped arguments are automatically “true” or that truth claims made earlier in the debate are suddenly gone (that may well require more work on my part), but it does mean that I am less likely to give these arguments weight.
o Although they can be important parts of a speech, I am not inclined to give as much weight to solipsistic narratives as evidence. This is not a hard or fast preference, and some smart framing arguments about the way I should evaluate narratives will go a long way, but do not assume I will immediately evaluate a narrative as evidence in its own right sans an evidenced claim that I should evaluate them this way.
o Make smart analytic arguments, these can often be better than reading yet another terrible uniqueness card on the politics disad. The more I see you thinking for yourself and making creative and smart arguments in a debate, the better speaks you will get.
I appreciate creative and innovative strategies, maybe more than others. If you want to bust out that weird impact turn or super cheating counterplan or sweet ass new K, you should do that. You will always be better at doing what you do best. Please don’t feel deterred from reading a strategy in front of me because the community has generally frowned on it (spark, death good, etc.), I’m down to hear things outside of the norm. That being said, I included a few notes about how I feel/debated like in high school, you can take these preferences however you want, they are subject to change within a round.
As a caveat, Debate should be a space where everyone feels welcome. Please do not read racist/sexist/anti-queer/ableist/ or otherwise offensive arguments in front of me.
Please add me on the email chain: Jacob.a.fontana@gmail.com.
Framework
I debated both sides of this extensively in high school. I will not “penalize” you for reading framework; I think it is a smart and strategic argument. Similarly, do not assume that because you read framework you have my ballot, I am very middle of the road on these issues. You should treat this as any other K/CP strategy you have read. Too often teams miss nuance in these debates and read a bunch of state good/bad evidence while neglecting the smaller moving pieces, I tend to think those are important, and the more you address the internal link level of the debate, the better off you will be.
T
Affirmatives should find ways to leverage offense against the negatives interpretation. Playing some light defense and reading some reasonability blacks is not going to win you my ballot. I generally tend to default to competing interpretations. Furthermore, teams need to treat this debate more like disad, you should do impact calc, read impact, link, or internal link turns, explain why your interp solves a portion of their offense, etc. I greatly enjoy smart T debates and will reward you handsomely in speaker points if you execute it well.
Disads
Absolute defense (or defense to the point where I should cease to evaluate the disad outside of the noise of status quo) is a thing and far too few debaters go for. 90 percent of disads are absolute garbage and you shouldn’t be afraid to point that out. More broadly, Offense defense tends to be a heavily neg biased model of debate and contributes to a lot (in my eyes) to the denigration of the activity towards the most reality-divorced hyperbolic impact claims, and I will not default to it. Obviously this is subject to change in a given round, but you should be conscious of the weight I tend to give to defensive arguments. In general, I think link controls the direction of uniqueness, but I can easily be persuaded otherwise
Please, if you have it, read something different than politics. I don’t hate the politics disad, but it is an often overused strategy and I will reward your innovation with speaker points
Counterplans
Any argument is legitimate until it is not, don’t hesitate to read your cheating counterplans in front of me, but be ready to defend them. Theory debates are good and valuable, but I do not want to listen to you read your blocks at 400 words a minute. Slow down, make smart arguments, and go for what you’re ahead on. Less is often more in these situations. I actually very much enjoy good theory debates and find them quite interesting. You should treat these like any other type of debate, you should do impact calc, flesh out internal links, etc.
Kritiks
I have a reasonable familiarity with most mainstream critiques and greatly enjoy these debates. In high school, I would most often read the security or the cap K, but this should not be interpreted as an exclusionary list. You do you and I’ll likely jive with it. I will reward innovation, reading a tailored critique is far more interesting to me than rereading the same Spanos block your team has had for the last 8 years. The one caveat here is that my familiarity with certain “high theory” authors (Bataille, Deleuze, etc.) is rather passing. I am more than certainly open to hearing these arguments and don’t have any prejudices against them (I debated on the same team as Carter Levinson for 3 years), but this does mean that you may need to take extra time to unpack arguments and contextualize them in terms of the debate.
Topic Notes
I have not worked on the China Topic, for you this means you probably want to slow down on, and possibly explain, acronyms the first couple times.
Ethics violations
Ethic violations are deliberate, not accidental. Missing a few words or accidentally skipping a line isn’t a big deal, but repeatedly doing that or doing it in a way that is clearly intentional is. If you believe that someone has committed an ethics violation, please start recording the round, I also reserve the right to do this. If I think you are clipping, I may start a recording of my own, I will also try read along in the speech docs whenever possible. If I do determine you’ve committed a violation, you will lose the debate and receive 0 speaks, I will also speak to your coaches. Clipping is a serious offense and I will treat it with the attention it deserves.
I'm a parent of an experienced debater. I've judged mostly congress for 6 years and some PF as well at fairly high levels.
Ask for my congress paradigm verbally before the round starts. It's pretty simple, I trust that most of you know what to do.
PF:
I am a lay judge. I want to see clearly established links and easy to follow arguments. I do not want to get lost in my flow trying to make sense of your argument. I will still evaluate an argument if I have to make some leaps of logic but I'm less likely to evaluate it to the strength that you intend. As for responses, I want both refutation and weighing. Just because a response exists, doesn't mean it is good enough to take out the argument. I need to buy that your response does what you say. I always want to see weighing, debate is a comparative activity. The side that wins is the side that is better, not the side that is right. For frontlines, I don't want a repetition of your argument, I've heard it already. I want to hear, very clearly, what your response to the refutation is, there's multiple speeches for a reason.
As for speaking, I'm not a huge fan of speed. I'd prefer if you slowed it down a little. Slightly faster conversational is what I prefer. I want fluid speaking for high speaker scores. A little variation always helps me follow a long. If you have any massive fluency meltdowns, unintentional pauses, or just get obviously stumped at any points during your speech I'll deduct speaker points heavily, and depending on how bad it is, it can cost you the round.
Lastly, I highly value adaptability in debate. If your opponent says something that has you completely lost, it's not a good look and it can cost you the round.
Traditional judge - Ask me in round.
I am a flow judge, but I am "truth over tech," as the phrase seems to be.
I did seven years of middle and high school debate, graduating HS in 2014. As such, I do flow but I dislike spreading and tactics that come from policy. So, if you make an extinction/nuclear war argument or something like it, you'll have to do a lot of convincing for me to buy it, even if your opponents don't spend a huge amount of time on it.
As I said, I do flow, but I also appreciate weighing and detailed explanations of why one argument or piece of evidence preempts our outweighs another. That style of argumentation matters much more to me than simply extending evidence or an argument.
I have no background in high school or college debate, but I have been a practicing attorney for more than 35 years and have been judging PF debates for 8 years.
I am a great believer in the “citizen judge” roots of Public Forum. The debater’s job is to persuade the man on the street, with no background as to the resolution of the month, that pro or con should win. Thus, clarity and focus are paramount. Your job is to persuade, not confuse, me. Well-structured arguments and effectively utilized evidence are key, but so are articulation, modulation, and engagement. A glance up from your laptop from time to time can work wonders, as can staying in the Zoom frame in a well-lighted room.
I do flow arguments, but not in a very technical way. A dropped argument will only count against you if it is material to your overall presentation and not offset by more meritorious arguments that make it through Final Focus.
Spreading and the pointless acceleration of pacing it engenders are strongly discouraged. You should choose your arguments carefully and deliver them at a pace, and with an energy and focus, that are designed to persuade.
Use your evidence fairly and judiciously. Do not overstate its significance or twist its meaning beyond recognition. I will only ask to see your card if the outcome of a round turns on an evidentiary dispute, but, if it comes to this, you want to be confident that your card can be read as presented. Also, feel free to request your opponent's cards, but do so sparingly and only when necessary to dispute a material contention or buttress a key argument.
Unfortunately, only one team can win; that’s the way it is in real life and in every courtroom I have ever appeared, so try to roll with the punches.
Most importantly, have fun. Few things are as satisfying as a hard-fought win; or as motivating (for the next round) as a too-close-to-call loss.
Rice University Classic - NPDA Paradigm 2024
I debated for and ran the University of Minnesota Parliamentary Debate Team when I was in college and graduated in 2020. When I debated, I primarily read topical affirmatives and went for topical DA/CP strategies and the Cap K most commonly on the negative.
I am now the Director of Speech and Debate at Seven Lakes High School in Katy, Texas. My full time job is speech and debate, but at the high school level, not the college level. My HS team competes in all NSDA and UIL (Texas) events. Our largest squads are doing national circuit HS Public Forum and Congressional Debate. I judge a few NPDA rounds at Rice every year, but haven't been terribly involved in NPDA since I graduated in 2020. At this tournament, I am conflicted against Rice SS (I coached Arjun when he was in high school) and McKendree.
I will do my best to evaluate whatever round the debaters in the room want to have. I will not be upset at, or outright reject, nearly anything you do in a round. If you would prefer to have a round that goes against the below listed preferences, I'm going to appreciate and respect you all the same: I just might view the round differently than you do.
That said, I have preferences for what I like to see and what I think makes for a good round. Here are some of those assorted thoughts, which can be overruled by better technical execution or persuasion during the round:
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Cowardice is a voting issue. Debate to win and be bold. Don't run from clash.
- I generally believe the affirmative should affirm the resolution or defend that the topic is a good idea. Aff teams not defending a topical plan or affirming the resolution should have a robust defense of what their model of debate looks like and be prepared to weigh the benefits of that model versus the negative's limits standards on T-FW. In such a debate, I think I'm more inclined to vote negative.
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Advocacies should defend something material and should clearly delineate what that material thing is - I am more compelled by "you don't do anything, so vote neg on presumption" than many other judges. The litmus test for this is: can I coherently explain what an actor doing the action of the plan text is in no more than 2 sentences? If the answer is yes, you're good. If the answer is no, or "it's more complicated than that," perhaps reconsider your strategy.
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I like debates with fewer sheets of paper and more ink on each sheet of paper. I like LO strategies that spend lots of time on case. I have never seen a good LOC that was more than 3 off. I like MG strategies that do not introduce new sheets of paper. I would like as much direct clash as possible, all things being equal.
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In parli, I like good analytical warrants and examples of those warrants playing out in real life. Examples and a solid understanding of history are great evidence in NPDA - for every claim or logical warrant, you ought to have some example or tangible thing that explains how the thing you say is true has been empirically proven or otherwise validated in real life.
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When making decisions, I primarily decide rounds in terms of which impacts each side best solves. Does the plan or the counterplan solve war with Russia? Does the interp or the counter-interp control the best link into limits? Judge instruction, impact calculus, and link comparison goes a long way in close debates.
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When deciding, I tend to determine easy things first, identifying concessions, etc., and work backwards from there, rather than starting on the largest question of the debate. I will often back into a decision that way. I am generally thinking about who I will vote for for the duration of the round, and consider what the winning MO/LOR or PMR strategy would be well before those speeches are happening.
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While I think that what you say in a debate round matters and that debate trains some cool skills that you can and should take with you, I find the technical aspect of the game more interesting and I'm more concerned about you making good strategic decisions to try to win the debate. That said, you should obviously and always be kind and respectful to others that are playing the game with you, regardless of how they choose to play.
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The affirmative may always read a permutation.
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By default, I assume the status quo is always an option. If I think the CP or K is less desirable than the plan, I will evaluate the status quo/DA versus the plan unless the PMR instructs me otherwise. This is not a strong opinion -- I have no real predispositions regarding the presumption debate in the event that the neg reads a CP or a K. That said, in most of the rounds I watch, the MO/LOR only really articulate why the CP is preferable to the aff, and not the status quo explicitly, which makes much of this bullet point moot.
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If a team wins some "we meet" articulation on theory, it's terminal defense and the rest of the sheet of paper almost certainly does not matter. I do not understand the concept of a "risk of a violation."
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I am willing to vote on terminal defense to an interp or offense based on poorly-worded interps.
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I am willing to vote on terminal defense in general. Zero risk exists. This would mean the round has gone very sideways indeed.
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I'm fine with you calling points of order and indeed would prefer you do if you think an argument is new. Unless I'm on a panel and another judge would prefer I not rule, I will rule on the point of order.
- Unless instructed otherwise, each of the following positions will get their own sheet of paper: plan text/solvency, advantages, disadvantages, counterplans, theory interpretations, framework arguments (not impact framing), kritiks minus the alternative in the order of framework, links, impacts, and kritik alternatives themselves. I'd prefer you give the order with this in mind - i.e., don't say "the aff," say "plan text, advantage 1, advantage 2"; don't say "the K," say "the alt, then the rest of the K".
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Please read all plan texts, interpretations, etc. slowly and twice, and provide a written copy for both opponents and myself. I would prefer you do this during flex before your speech, but I'm fine with this happening before the beginning of flex immediately at the end of your speech. I will use the written text of the plan/CP/interp to decide arguments based on what the plan/CP/interp is, not what was said. If I think there is a discrepancy between what I have flowed and what has been written down, I will verbally clarify before starting flex/the next speech.
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The lack of a backside rebuttal in NPDA = the MO should probably not be making new arguments. New MO arguments = new PMR golden answers, including golden turns, offense, theory.
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I will almost certainly flow the LOR on a new sheet of paper. I will flow the PMR on each sheet of the debate, next to the arguments the MO made. The LOR's framing claims will inform and break ties between the MO and the PMR.
I have my full high school paradigm below, should you care to read more. Ask me other questions before the debate and I am happy to answer them, provided they were not answered above.
General Information:
he/him
I am conflicted against Seven Lakes (TX), Lakeville North (MN), Lakeville South (MN), Blake (MN), and Vel Phillips Memorial (WI).
I've been involved in competitive speech and debate since 2014. I am the Director of Speech and Debate at Seven Lakes High School in Katy, Texas. I competed in PF and Congress in high school and NPDA-style parliamentary debate in college at Minnesota.
I now coach and judge every event throughout the season across tournaments that align with UIL, TFA, TOC and NSDA norms and expectations. I have great respect for all formats and styles of speech and debate across the ideological and stylistic spectrum. I try to meet competitors where they are when I judge.
I spend more time every year in tab rooms and doing administrative work rather than judging and coaching. I stay as active as I can, but I can feel myself becoming a dinosaur with every passing year.
Debate is a competitive research activity. The team that can most effectively synthesize their research into a defense of their plan, method, or side of the resolution will win the debate. I would like you to be persuasive, entertaining, kind, and strategic.
My paradigm is geared more towards national circuit style Public Forum, because that's what I'm judging most often. I have notes on other events towards the bottom, but everything in my paradigm generally applies to everything I judge.
Email Chains: Yes, please.
Put me on the email chain. Please flip and get fully set up before the round start time. My email is my first name [dot] my last name [at] gmail.com.
Add one of the following emails to the chain if you're in an event where email chains are expected:
sevenlakespf@googlegroups.com -- PF
sevenlakesld@googlegroups.com -- LD
sevenlakescx@googlegroups.com -- Policy
The subject of the email chain should clearly state the tournament, round number and flight, and team codes/sides of each team. For example: "Gold TOC R1A - Seven Lakes CL 1A v Lakeville North LM 2N".
How I decide rounds: I will vote for whatever argument wins on the flow. I want to judge a small but deep debate about the topic. I am capable of judging whatever round you want to have.
My preference is that you demonstrate mastery of the topic and a well-thought-out strategy during the round and that you're excited to do debate and engage with your opponents' research. The best rounds consist of rigorous examination and comparison of the most recent and academically legitimate topic literature. I would like to hear you compare many different warrants and examples, and to condense the round as early as possible. Ignoring this preference will likely result in lower speaker points.
I flow, intently and carefully. I will stop flowing when my timer goes off. I will not flow while reading a document, and will only use the email chain or speech doc to look at evidence when instructed to by the competitors or after the round if the interpretation of a piece of evidence is vital to my decision. There is no grace period of any length. I will not vote on an argument I did not flow.
There is not a dichotomy between "truth" and "tech". The sooner that you realize that they are two sides of the same coin, the faster you’ll get better at debate. Obviously, the team that does the better debating will win, and that will be determined by arguments that I've flowed and technical skill. However, you will have a much more difficult time convincing me that objectively bad arguments are true than convincing me that good arguments are true. Between two evenly matched teams on a technical level, I am far more likely to vote for the team that has done better research and has more “true” arguments than a team reading arguments that are poorly researched and constructed. In other words, an argument's truth often dictates its implication for my ballot, because debaters are more persuasive when they make good arguments.
I will not vote for arguments that I cannot explain back to both teams during my RFD – whether that be because a) they did not make sense when presented in the round, b) they were not clearly signposted or articulated by the team introducing that argument, or (often) c) both.
Most debate rounds are decided by mere seconds of argumentation, and spending more time identifying and comparing the most significant arguments in the debate will probably improve your odds of winning my ballot.
Zero risk exists. I probably won't vote on defense or presumption, but I am theoretically willing to.
An average speaker in front of me will get a 28.5. I generally keep most of my speaker points between a 27.5 and a 29.5.
Critical arguments: sure, but I’m not the best.
Theoretically, I am a decent judge for critical strategies that are well thought out, related to the topic, and strategically executed. I am happy to vote to reject a team's rhetoric, to critically examine economic and political systems of power, etc. if you explain why those impacts matter.
Practically, however, especially in PF or LD, I often think these arguments struggle with not being fleshed out enough because of the short speech times of these events. If you don’t care much either way, I’d lean towards you picking strategies that lean more towards the policy than the K side of the spectrum, especially in PF or LD.
I am not a good judge for strategies that ignore the topic entirely. I am an even worse judge for strategies that rely on in-round "discourse" as offense, and a terrible judge for arguments that debate is unequivocally bad. I generally do not think that these strategies solve an impact or outweigh disadvantages to their method. I've voted for these arguments several times, and I still find them unpersuasive - I just found the other team's defense of debate worse.
Theory: it’s generally boring and I rarely want to listen to it without it being placed in a specific context based on the current topic. But, I know how to evaluate theory debates.
I would strongly prefer not to listen to debates about setting norms. Disclosure is generally good. Paraphrasing is generally bad.
If you’re reading some kind of procedural that is specific to the current topic (e.g., Topicality, specification shells with carded evidence, etc.), I’ll probably be more interested in evaluating your position. In PF, zero teams have ever read such a position in front of me.
Here is a list of arguments which will be very difficult to win in front of me: violations based on anything that occurred outside of the current debate, frivolous theory (defined as procedural arguments with no bearing on the question posed by the resolution), trigger warning/content warning theory, anything categorized as a trick or meant to evade clash, anything that is labeled as an IVI without a warranted implication for the ballot.
I recognize the strategic value of theory and that sometimes, you need to go for it to win a debate. If you decide to do that, you might get very low speaker points, depending on how asinine I think your position is. I will be persuaded by appeals to reasonability and that substantive debate matters more than your position, assuming the abuse story is as silly as I think many of them are.
Evidence ethics arguments/IVIs/theory/etc. will not be treated as theory - I will ask the team who has introduced the argument about evidence ethics if I should stop the debate and evaluate the challenge to evidence to determine the winner/loser of the round. The same goes for clipping. This is obviously different than reasons to prefer a piece of evidence or other normal weighing claims. I reserve the right to vote against teams that I notice are fabricating evidence during the round even if the other team does not make it a voting issue.
LD/Policy:
I don't judge these events as often as PF, but please don't read PF as "this man is an idiot". Everything from above applies. I am agnostic on almost all theoretical claims made in LD/CX rounds (e.g., 1AR theory in LD, conditionality, etc.). Frivolous theory and tricks are still silly.
You'll probably want to start and stay slower than the average national circuit judge. I need a little bit to get warmed up to your speed, and I'm out of practice enough that I probably can't get to your top speed. I won't look at the document to fill in my flow - only to evaluate disagreements over what evidence says that are initiated by the debaters in the round.
I'm going to be most comfortable in the back of a round where the aff reads a topical plan. I'm not ideologically against any style of debate, but I will have less experience evaluating these arguments in this context compared to somebody judging these events more frequently, which will likely harm the affirmative more than the negative in rounds where the aff does not defend the topic in a reasonably predictable way. Fine to vote on topicality, T-FW, or other similar positions.
Read good evidence. Evidence quality matters a lot to me. Read more of good pieces of evidence rather than blips of lots of bad evidence. The more specific you are when warranting arguments and doing impact calculus, the more likely I am to vote for you.
I generally think about debates in terms of which side solves the most significant impact - so when making a decision, I start on the impact/weighing level of the debate and generally work backwards from there.
Topicality is generally a question of limits/ground as an internal link to fairness and education. The further you get from a clear in-round abuse story on theory, the less likely I am to vote on theory.
Congress:
Actively participate and use good evidence to engage in the most clash that you possibly can. Where in the cycle you speak does not matter to me nearly as much as whether you advanced debate on the item on the floor - though, in my experience, most competitors in Congress are best at giving speeches that are earlier rather than later, because most competitors seem more uncomfortable or less skilled engaging in direct refutation during the round and grouping arguments later on in the debate. The PO will start as my 5 and go up or down depending on how effectively they facilitate debate and how good or bad debaters in the chamber are. Competitors that ask more questions tend to be more engaged in the debate, and therefore are more likely to rank well (though pure quantity of questions asked does not matter to me). Compared to other judges, prioritize content over delivery, though both matter.
Speech/Interp:
You do you. If you've put in a lot of work to get your piece ready for competition, you'll probably do well in front of me. I tend to look more at technical execution and how well-practiced you are rather than big picture things like how your piece made me feel. I come from a debate background, which means I'm less concerned in finding your truth, telling your story, or authenticity than I am excellent technical execution, especially compared to people who more regularly judge (and are more qualified to judge) these events or an average parent.
Extemp:
Everything above, but you really do need to answer the question that is written. You aren't giving a speech about the idea of the question, or the topic area of the question: you need to answer the question. I probably want you to give me more context around the question in the introduction compared to other judges, and each body point should link back to your thesis statement. Compared to other judges, prioritize content over delivery, though both matter.
Other/Misc:
I am Co-Director of Public Forum Boot Camp (PFBC) in Minnesota with Christian Vasquez, Assistant Director at the Blake School. If you do high school PF and you want to come to PFBC, let me know. Last year, we were able to offer ~$50,000 in financial assistance to make sure that everyone that wanted to attend PFBC could.
I strongly believe that every debater and coach is partially a product of their environment. If you're at the bottom of this paradigm, please make sure that you take some time to express gratitude to anybody who has shaped your career.
Tradiational debate judge with an overall lay appeal. I will keep a flow of arguments, but expect clear signposting and warranting of arguments. Avoid spreading, I can keep up but if you don't make it digestible it will be missed.
I debated public forum throughout high school and judge in local circuits. I just finished my freshman year at Vanderbilt University.
Preferences
My preferences are pretty standard across the board. I don't have any strict policies regarding what you must do inside the debate and I'll weigh everything throughout the round. I typically won't vote off technicalities; Public forum should encourage well-rounded, persuasive debating. My final decision comes down to the impacts of both cases.
Some Considerations:
Links should be clear/well-supported.
When a question is asked during cross-fire, I expect a direct, clear response.
Strong impacts are extremely important to me in order to weigh arguments as offense for each side.
Final speeches of any debate should emphasize voting issues. Tell me how I should weigh the round and explain which key arguments I should vote for.
Hey guys and galls,
I've done LD, PF, and Policy, so I am pretty open to your interpretation of debate. Kritiks, sure. Frameworks, please. I value creative arguments greatly and if you are running stock you better know the intricacies of the argument. Cross-fire is mainly for your clarification. If you want to make a point in CX make it obvious. Try to extend Offense and Defense in summary. I will value the team that does this over the team that only extends offence or defence. All things I vote on MUST be in FF, and all things in FF must be in summary. Speed is fine. If you make evidence an issue I will look at it at the end of the round. Pretty lenient on speaker points, one thing I don't like is blatant bullying and stuff, but confrontation is fine.
xoxo lol
I debated for Loyola High School for 4 years (policy), Wake Forest University for a semester (policy), and El Camino College for two years (parli). I now coach PF at the Harker School.
I've debated both traditional and nontraditional forms of debate. There really isn't an argument that I won't hear. I have a higher threshold for theory, and rarely vote on potential abuse. But beyond that I do not have any serious predisposition to any arguments you read. Or at least I shouldn't... Blatantly offensive arguments, like impact turning racism or etc, probably will lose you the round though. Just be smart.
Speaker point break down - I'm pretty fair about speaker points (though I don't think there will be a judge who will tell you they aren't fair about speaker points) but I'm quick to catch on to things on general impoliteness vs sass (love sass). Just be a good person and speak well etc etc. Y'all should be mature enough to know what that means.
PF -- "paraphrasing" your evidence is not evidence and will result in a loss.
sophiewilczynski at gmail dot com for email chains & specific questions.
I debated for UT austin from 2014-17 & have remained tangentially affiliated with the program since. my degree is in rhetoric, and as a debater I read a lot of big structural critiques and weird impact turns.
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tldr: I have been doing this for a while. I don't really care what you say as long as you engage it well. do what you do best, make meaningful distinctions, & don't be rude while you're at it!
clarity matters, esp in the age of virtual debate. as long as I can understand what you are saying I shouldn’t have trouble getting it down - that being said, debaters have an unfortunate tendency to overestimate their own clarity, so just something to keep in mind. slowing down on procedurals, cp/alt texts, & author names is very much appreciated.
topicality - fun if you're willing to do the work to develop them properly. I think evidence comparison is a super under-utilized resource in T debates, and a lot of good teams lose to crappy interps for this reason. as with anything else, you need to establish & justify the evaluatory framework by which you would like me to assess your impacts. have a debate, don't just blast through ur blocks
disads/CPs - fine & cool. i find that huge generic gnw/extinction scenarios often don't hold up to the scrutiny and rigor of more isolated regional scenarios. will vote on terminal defense if I have a good reason to do so. pics are usually good
K debates - make a decision about the level at which your impacts operate and stick to it. and talk about the aff. this applies to both sides. the neg should be critiquing the affirmative, not merely identifying a structure and breaking down the implications without thorough contextualization. the mechanics of the alternative & the context in which it operates have to be clearly articulated and comparatively contextualized to the mechanics of 1AC solvency. i think a lot of murky & convoluted perm debates could be avoided with greater consideration for this - impact heuristics matter a lot when establishing competition (or levels of competition). likewise, blasting through thousands of variants of "perm do x" with no warrants or comparative explanation does not mean you have made a permutation. will vote on links as case turns, but will be unhappy about it if it's done lazily.
framework - i think it's good when the aff engages the resolution, but i don't have any particularly strong feelings about how that should happen
theory - if you must
misc
case matters, use it effectively rather than reading your blocks in response to nothing
i find myself judging a lot of clash debates, which is usually cool
prep ends when doc is saved
be nice & have fun