Middle School Debate Feb 7
2021 — Online, CA/US
Policy Paradigm List
All Paradigms: Show HideAdd me to the chain nedabahrani16@gmail.com
Please subject the email "Tournament Name -- Round # -- Aff School AF vs Neg School NG"
About me:
She/her/hers… also good with they/them
Hey I’m Neda Bahrani and I am a current Junior at UC Berkeley. I used to debate Lincoln Douglas/Policy Debate with Dougherty Valley for 5 years. During my time on the team I was Policy Captain for DV and mentor our middle school team. I have competed in both LD and policy style debate through out high school as well as attended camps like CNDI and TDI.
I agree with almost all of Julian Kaffour, Magi Ortiz , Savit Bhat’s Paradigm/Judging philosophy
Tl/dr:
Number your arguments PLEASE
Don’t be offensive. Debate is a game, and supposed to be fun, so don’t take yourself too seriously.
Tech > truth. BUT true arguments are better arguments.
Tricks/Spikes - just no. I won’t flow these.
Friv theory - also a no for me
No RVIs
3 + condo = bad (for LD)
5 + condo = bad (for policy)
You can also refer to my teammate, Savit Bhat’s paradigm if you would like more info than this ^.
Top Level Preferences:
I’m good with anything as long as you do link level analysis and impact out everything. Winning the thesis of your K, your aff, your affirmative, or even your violation is not enough for me to vote for you.
1 - Policy/T
1 - K’s/ K affs
2 - Phil (actual phil, ie nc’s)
3 - Theory
4 - Strike for tricks
K’s
1 - Topic Ks
1 - Security
2 - Set Col
3 - Identity Ks
4 - Anthro/Humanism
5 - Cap
6 - Pomo (Pomo’s are 6 for a reason, don’t pref me just bc “she likes Ks”)
I do enjoy a good K debate. On neg the K winning a turns case, solves case, or some impact ow arg is something I usually like to vote for. I dislike when the alt is intangible and cannot be the intricacies cannot be articulated in cross. You should be able to answer the question “What does the alt look like in the real world?”
Straight Up
This was the style of debate I primarily debated throughout high school. I usually went for “edgy” pics like the asteroids pic, womxn pic, etc. So yeh love those. Honestly at the end of the day it comes down to impact calc and whether you did it and answered the line by line. I like GOOD arguments. My team, throughout highschool, has always produced a really high quality of cards and affirmatives, and that is something I have come to appreciate as I start judging. I hate opening the doc and scrolling through and just being like, “oof this is just a bad aff.” Because those bad arguments are just easily beatable.
If Lay:
If your opponent requests a lay round and it's a ggsa tournament or a "usually" lay tournament you should default lay. However, if your opponent requests a lay round and you are entered in Var TOC at an invitational, I am completely okay with you saying "I won't go fast." That is sufficient for me.
If it is a lay round, I look to who does the most impact weighing.
At the end of the day, be nice and have fun. Debate means more than just your wins and loses.
Peninsula Debate 2019-2021
Damien Debate 2021-2022
Top Level Stuff
Tech>Truth but truth doesn't hurt.
Offense/defense - zero risk only exists for theory.
An argument without warrants isn't an argument.
Dropped warrants are true - you still need some explanation to extend them though.
Neg on theory - infinite condo's good, judge kick, etc. Sole exception here is that while perf con obviously isn't a voter, I become very skeptical of certain "epistemology first/reps first" K framework arguments.
Inserts are fine.
Fairness is an impact.
Bias/Ideological Leanings
I'm a lot better for Ks v policy affs than I was a year ago, as they have become my most common 2NR. I especially have a soft spot for psychoanalysis as a security K. I don't have a predisposed opinion on framework (on the aff or neg) that can't be reversed with good debating (if you win that I shouldn't weigh the aff then I shouldn't weigh the aff, and vice versa).
Nevertheless, I always love and am familiar with classic policy arguments.
I'm probably not great for you if you read a K Aff, even simply on a level of familiarity, although I will do my best to adjudicate without bias.
Novice Notes
Try to only use word documents.
Don't say a count down before speeches.
Give an order of what FLOWS you'll be going to (ie "Case in the order of advantage one, then two. The X CP. The X DA").
I'm very tabula rasa and expect the debaters to do the work for me rather than having me trying to piece everything together. Ideally, I'm looking for you to cross the t's & dot the i's rather than having me do it for you – claim, warrant, impact- contextualization, weighing, impact analysis
I am fine with speed.
Policy/CX/LD :
Run whatever you want: DA's, CP's, K's, T, Theory
I have no pre determined opinion about certain args such as condo good/bad
Don't worry about coming across as rude in cross
PF:
New args in FF will not be evaluated
Try not to speak over each other in GCX
currently competing in Parliamentary debate
- i care a lot about link level analysis, if you don't have strong links i'm more inclined to buy refutations against your argument
- don't forget to weigh impacts in rebuttal speeches
- please don't expect a single statistic to carry an entire argument
- i'm okay on fast speaking, but if your opponent asks you to slow down, please actually speak slower
- feel free to read theory, if your opponents are making the debate inaccessible to you i'm more likely to buy your shell
- i don't run Ks and i'm not familiar with most literature so keep that in mind if you decide to run a K
- i'm familiar with parli, pf, and congress; if i'm not familiar with the procedures of your event, please clarify anything necessary
- ask me any questions you have before the round starts and have fun :)
I'm a high school policy debater, I've been doing policy debate for almost 4 years now.
I don't have any preferences on speed or specific argument strategies.
Your role as a debater should be making my ballot easy for me -- if you tell me to prioritize an argument or vote off of a specific reason, I will until proven otherwise.
Weighing, especially in the last speech, will get you further than you think.
Coach for Peninsula
My default role in a debate isn't an adjudicator or an educator but an audience that needs to be entertained.
But if you are like me in high school and believed winning is all that matters you should read more below...
Unchangeables
- When going for the K, framework is defense. You need an actual link to win.
- Any argument goes. Death good, racism good, whatever you want. I won't automatically punish you for it. But if they make an arg it's fair game. But hiding borjk = eye roll.
Plz put me on the email chain atStevenyu0923@gmail.com
Tech over truth, but I do find it easier to convince me of args I believe in.
Here few principles on getting my ballot:
Simplicity is good. The more complex an argument is, the more it deserves explanations. So, for the K teams with good link work, please cut out the 10 syllable poetic BS.
Every argument needs a claim, warrant, impact. If it misses one, opponent gets new answers or won't vote on it.
You should debate as if I have 0 understanding of the topic. So, explain acronyms and such which especially matters for intricate process CP debates or T debates.
I find myself somewhat expressive during the debate. Feel free to use that to your advantage.
Speaks
Hiding theory is cowardice. You can and might win but speaks = nuked. The act of hiding theory (reading theory really fast but not in the doc especially in the block) makes you guilty, even if they spot you and answer it. This is my way of trying to deter the practice.
For every min of prep you don't use I will give 0.1 of extra speaks up to a cap of 29.5.
Predispositions:
Fairness is likely an impact. Fairness paradox is likely true.
Condo is good.
Process CPs are bad but likely hard to win absent a good answer to arbitrariness.
Reasonability is bad.
Inserting rehighlightings is NOT ok, but aff needs to say that as a theory arg.
Predictability > debatability
Debates and characterizations of ev > ev quality itself
Timeframe matters, determines directionality of turns case. Turns case is only as probable as the rest of the DA. if DA is 1% and turns case is dropped, it net values to 1% so the aff weighs 99% of the aff vs 1% of the DA.
PIKs are probably bad but likely theoretically justifiable against a K aff. (went for this a decent bit)
Plan text in a vacuum is stupid.
Experience: (policy 2NRs)
Adv CPs + impact turns are my favorite 2NRs in high school. (more than 50%)
Adv CPs + topic generic DA (20%)
Process CP (10%)
Ks/K affs
Fighting against fairness on an impact/impact turn level seems to be an uphill battle. Instead, mitigating fairness with logical internal link indicts or how the aff's FW or how the T interp solves fairness is a much better take. For that exact reason, I tend to think I'm actually better for the K team in these situations. Clash is too defensive and I don't recommend it.
- K v T FW. Subjectivity formation here is important. If voting aff can't change minds, I intuitively believe no matter what impact turns, microaggressions, or whatever the neg has committed doesn't matter. For the K team, I believe an impact turn to legal precision/predictability here (with the ontology args to impact turn "legal credibility" or "academic expertise about the state" are best). I also believe impact turns, PIKs, and counter advocacies are creative ways to negate K affs.
- Policy v K. Middle ground is likely the best interp. Whoever debates with that is likely going to win framework. FW Ks are strategic, but I will respect you more if you debate middle ground as a K team and actually engage substance of case.
LD
God forbid I ever judge LD but if I do, please stay as far away as possible from Phil or Tricks.
Lay debate
Please go fast. I dislike lay debate.
Middleschool:
Clarity > speed
Flow
Don't steal prep