Last changed on
Sat March 16, 2024 at 5:05 AM EDT
email me for questions/add me to the chain: tara.gill.527@gmail.com
tl;dr:
Me: "Do you know why I'm such a laid-back judge?"
Y'all: "Why?"
Me: "I go with the flow"
(creds to @Debate Memes on Facebook haha)
- yes I will vote off the flow
- honestly just debate well enough to make me care enough about the round (which means focus on the bolded text below)
- warrant, extend your full link story and impact, and weigh and you're doing really well
- I don't think most debaters truly spend time explaining warrants or weighing
- things you want me to vote on have to be in every speech after first rebuttal
- I want the round to be chill and educational and fun so please make that happen
quick disclaimers
i'm now old and grumpy and care a bit less about debate than i used to so please don't assume i have extensive topic knowledge
novices:
it's so cool that you're trying out this activity even though it's probably kind of scary. If you don't understand some of my preferences in the long version, the tl;dr should be fine. Just know that you're probably doing great and that you got this :)
feel free to ask me any questions before/after the round.
Longer Version:
hi! I did 2 years of Public Forum at Lexington but I started out my debate career in policy which influences how I judge!
- i'm more tech than the average tech judge so please clash to avoid judge intervention, or at the very least weigh a lot on both link and impact levels :)
- in later speeches, please give quick narrative style overviews at the top of your own case then frontline/line by line (i still don't know what frontline means but just don't drop stuff) if u want me to vote on your contentions otherwise dropped defense will mitigate your impacts. this also means u should frontline in second rebuttal and extend defense in first summary.
- i will vote off most arguments including theory/k if they are debated well (my threshold for these being run well is pretty high lmao so try at your risk) and not used just to be exclusionary (check the bottom of my paradigm)
- do a lot of weighing/impact calc and logical analysis (not just for me, it is also strategic if you're lost/confused and I would know first hand oops)
- once again please weigh weigh weigh. really make the force of gravity a lot here (i'm sorry i'm a physics nerd)
- start collapsing by first summary because depth>breadth in terms of giving quality arguments in short PF speech times
- crossfire shouldn't be three minutes of extra debating please ask and answer questions in a non-aggressive and CIVIL manner or I will be frustrated, get a headache and probably dock speaks.
- if you want to take off a jacket or shoes in round feel free to do so because i almost never debated with shoes. this will not affect speaks or the result :)
- feel free to ask me questions about my decision if you're confused, I will not dock speaks and I feel like it usually helps you learn how you can improve in the future
- i am fine w speed if you do all of the following: prioritize clarity, make sure your opponents are ok too, slow down on tags, authors, and analytics, signpost clearly, offer speech docs if necessary
- lastly, debate is a game: this means that you should not be exclusionary, follow the rules or warrant why you shouldn't, and let me know if there is anything I can personally do to make the debate more accessible to you, and HAVE FUN!!!!!
Extra:
- fist-bump instead of shaking hands haha
- I'll default to a slightly above a 28 if it's by 0.1 and 28.5 if it's by 0.5
- i am also happy to talk after round, show you my flows, and answer questions about either debate or life :)
LD (MSDL States 2024):
i am fairly confident in my ability to flow a debate and understand arguments that are clearly explained to me, however, I also understand there are certain thing specific to LD that I am not familiar with.
- focus on weighing your arguments against your components, basic frameworks (util, structural violence) I am familiar with and are good for providing that comparison
- not sure about other "value criterion" that's a term i've heard but i don't know what that means so just explain to me clearly
- not super used to nat circuit LD speed anymore, but a little speed is fine
- rest of the paradigm applies