Hi Debaters,
My email if you decide to start emailchain for evidence sharing

drneeruagarwal@gmail.com

I have judged elementary , middle school, Novice High School and Junior Varsity debate last year. I make unbiased decision even if I have some background knowledge of topic and always open to listening and learning. I believe with time information changes and affects our decision. It's always fun to see how new and pro debaters benefit with the rounds.

I will give points based on what you presented , how well you presented, did you have real content or just tried to pass time with some nonintelligent tricks. I will not hold you responsible for what you did not cover about topic.

I am particular about debate rules:

1. Manage time wisely
2. Do not expect me to intervene during crossfire
3. During cross fire do not try to waste opponent time by beating around the bush, ask precise clear questions
4. Use signposting as your strength and also makes judges job easy
5. I will take speaker points off if any arguments are conceded or if new arguments are brought up later than first summary.
6. Come prepared, decide how you want to share the evidence. Do not assume other team may share evidence the same way (ex. google doc vs chat)
7. I strive to start rounds timely and be respectful of everyone's time and effort.
8. Low point wins are possible, but it has happened once only so far for me (so be confident but not rude).

I can follow decent speed but will prefer someone not to rush to put more in given time and not explain their case /argument properly or have unused time on hand. So pace yourself.

I am looking forward to honest, respectful debates from which both the debaters and I will learn debating and the topic. I am fairly easy going person but particular about respectful debates. I am getting familiar with debate jargons but not a master yet. I prefer to give immediate oral feedback as that may help debaters to improve for next round as well as may be looking at all feedbacks later may not give as much clarity and satisfaction. I do not mind debaters asking questions about my decision as long as it's done in respectful way.

I am learning and evolving with debaters. I debated a little during high school and college and love it now also. So let's keep the fun going. Enjoy the topic and debate process do not focus on winning and loosing. Every round you will learn and get better irrespective of outcome.

Thanks,

Neeru

I am a parent judge. No Jargon please.

Please speak clearly, email: hua.chen.debate@gmail.com.

I will post the results to Tabroom for the prelim rounds.

Be respectful and good luck!

Nice to meet you! I'm Keira, call me Keira. I go by she/they.

Ask me anything before the round starts. I am reasonable!

Quick tips:

- Jokes + analogies = I am entertained = more speaks for you

- Don't be rude asdlkf

- Time yourselves, run the round so that I don't need to call on the next speaker for you. No need to ask "is the judge ready?" before every speech; I am always ready unless I say otherwise!

Add me to the email chain if there is one: kyraximin@gmail.com

About

I'm still a student. I'm still figuring out what debates/styles I prefer over others. That means you can run whatever you want!! :D

That being said, I'm NOT a lay judge. I flow. If you have them, explain K/T/Theory thoroughly.

Speed

haha I do policy

If we're online, be aware of your background noise/not-so-great mic/spotty Wi-Fi/etc., and adjust your speed to accommodate for those things, because it's up to you to clearly get your messages across to your opponents and me.

Speaks

You'll get high speaks (28-30) UNLESS you're egregiously bad or doing something stupid (being rude, racist, sexist, homophobic, anything along those lines)

Might as well put this here too: ask questions, but don't argue with my decision at the end of the round. You can be salty, just don't be a [insert bad word here].

Policy

People like talking fast in this debate style but please be clear if you decide to do so. I'll try to clear twice before giving up on flowing. Giving the order before starting your speech helps a lot.

Explain your links and cards at least a little when you extend them. Just saying "extend Bob '22" doesn't cut it, I need to know why.

I don't flow cross, but being mean in cross probably costs speaker points.

Yes theory is the highest layer but if you do not explain standards/voters properly then it doesn't work. Also, if you're going for theory, you collapse on theory ONLY.

Rhetoric is great.

It greatly pains me to vote for extinction impacts just because "oh no everyone's going to die." Please explain it compellingly- respond to the probability argument.

Public Forum

Clarity > Tech > Truth. If it sounds like your case doesn't matter to you, it doesn't matter to me either. Explain all your stuff, explain why it matters and sound at least kind of dedicated to it. Don't be mean to people with less experience. Actually, just don't be mean, thanks

I don't flow cross-ex but I do listen. Bring those points up in the next speech.

Do weighing whenever you want, but make sure you have something you can actually weigh- I'm not going to vote for a half-developed argument.

Explain why I should prefer your evidence.

Prove that you're better, not that they're worse- have offense.

On dropped arguments- tell me that they dropped the argument and if that is true in my flow, I'll be less likely to consider it.

Thank your opponents at the end of the round :)

Hi, I'm Miria (she/her)

If you have any questions: miriayc26@gmail.com

I am from Taiwan, so due to the significant time difference, I might look a bit tired.

I am very understanding when it comes to tech problems, so don't worry if any techy issues happen.

FLOW. SIGNPOST. IMPACT CALC. Honestly, I might not know your topic very well so do explain your arguments clearly. I won't vote on any arguments that aren't extended. What is said in the final focus must be included in the summary, or else, I will not evaluate it.

I am pretty generous with speaks, just don't say anything rude, racist, sexist, homophobic...

Hi my name is Edalene. I am a student judge. I did MS Public Forum for 2.

Some Other Notes:

I will be keeping time, but feel free to do so too.

Don’t bring up new information in the summary/ final focus

Weigh your argument. Why is what you said important? Why should I vote for you?

I will not judge based of crossfire, so if any important points were brought up mention them in your speech.

I appreciate signposting

Be respectful to one another

Bring through your argument to your final focus, otherwise I will consider it dropped and will not consider it towards your overall argument, even if th opponent never addresses it.

I am not going to judge based of speaking but please speak clearly and not too quickly so that I can understand.

Good luck and have fun!!

I am a parent judge with limited previous judging experience.

My preferred rate of delivery is a 2-3 out of 5. If you are unclear, I will not flow your arguments even if they are true. This helps me understand your arguments and better allow me to evaluate the round.

Substance debate and contention level debate under the resolution is most important. Framework is important as well, but you should make the best argument as I will vote for the most persuasive speaker.

It is very important to have strong evidence to back up your claims. If you make assertions without good authors/sources/credentials to support your position, that is not a strong case.

It is recommended that you include voting issues at the end of the round that crystallize your position and your speech so that I, as the judge, know what to vote on and who to vote for.

When judging a debate, there are a few important things that I look for. The first thing that I look for is good sportsmanship. All debaters should show respect to one another and encourage each other. Next, it is important that each debater has a clear understanding of their topic which should be supported by reliable sources. Lastly, it is important that the debaters are able to rebut their opponents points. 

Thank you,

Alana Itkin

Hi! To give some background, I'm a college student with previous HS debate experience. During High School, I competed in Varsity PF and qualified for TFA State. While I will be flowing and am comfortable with common debate terminology (turns, extensions, etc), I'm not very familiar with technical LD debate (ie. theory, kritiks, etc).

I'm a three year varsity debater. I did PF and now speech.

I will flow the round and will vote off the flow. This means that I will not consider crossfire in the round unless the questions and responses in CX are brought up in speeches. 

To have arguments and responses considered, debaters should extend their evidence from rebuttal to FF. If something isn't extended in summary but shows up in FF, I will consider it dropped in the round. If there is no response to an argument or response made in the round, I will consider it conceded. 

Evidence should be open and available for both teams to access. I prefer email chains and will not count the time it takes to send evidence as prep time. If their is an email chain, please include my email davidkleinrock23@marist.com

In terms of timing, I expect debaters to time themselves and the other team. I will also time, and going over the limit for each speech will result in a deduction from your speaks at the end of the round.

PLEASE frontline rebuttal and weigh your impacts so I don't have to do it for you. Framework does not matter to me at all.

In terms of speaks, I'll start with a 28.5, as long as you do nothing egregious you'll end with that score. To boost it, you should focus on organization, detailed interactions between evidence, and well-thought out weighing. (Being good in CX will help you here, but not in the overall round decision)

I am a parent judge with my two girls enrolled in debates.

- No spreading, speak loud and clear at a reasonable pace. If you speak too quickly, I may not get all of your arguments down and understand what you are saying. Quality of arguments/evidence over quantity.

- Respectful to each other and present yourself well. Do not talk over your opponent. Discourtesy will result in deducted speaker points.

- Always have a framework or prove that your case supports the opponent's framework better.

- Use credible evidence and logic to back up your claims and attack an opponent's case. Explain why your impacts matter more than your opponent's. Your rationale should be clear so that your opponent can adequately address your points. Don't just attack, you need to defend.

- Signpost your arguments/rebuttals

- Your summaries should be to clean up anything vague or muddled, and final focus to make me vote for you. Everything in the final focus must also be in the summary speech. If something isn't in summary, don't bring it up in the final focus.

- Please track your time. You may finish a thought after time ends, but do not abuse this by adding multiple sentences or thoughts when I call for time should end.

- I value the time and energy you have invested in debate and will make sure to be a thoughtful, attentive judge. Just debate and have fun.

- For the virtual tournaments, my decision is not influenced with the issue of technical difficulties debaters might have during the round. However, please try to resolve technical issues during the tech check before the round. My decision-making and comments are related only to the content and quality of the presentation or speech itself.

NSDA’s Online Tournament Guide

Hello everyone! I am a university student studying Criminology at Simon Fraser University.

I am currently a PF coach, but my main focus of teaching is younger students in PRO-CON debate.

Tips on receiving higher points and winning the round:

1. I personally like off-time road map for easier flow.

2. Please have your camera on AND time yourself. It is important for you to get in the habit of timing yourself and being able to adjust to the timer.

3. I am HEAVY on frontlining (reconstruction) during second rebuttal AND summary. If I don't hear a frontlining in the second rebuttal, I will be disappointed.

4. I like clear weighing mechanism and USE the weighing mechanism terms in your speech. (ex. we outweigh on ____).

5. If your case is a sole contention, make sure to emphasize the subtopics AND impact and terminal impact.

6. Make sure your contention title is related to your argument and what you are talking about.

7. I highly favour quantifiable evidence over ANYTHING ELSE. So, use numbers!

Not Do's :

Any type of racism, sexism, discrimination, rude comments and negative behaviour will give you very low speaker points. So please be polite to one another :)

Do not talk over people OR cut people off during crossfire. I care a lot about mannerism and etiquette during the rounds. It is important to get your idea addressed, but please let others talk.

Lastly, Have Fun:)

Email: tynews2001@gmail.com

I participated in four years of policy debate in high school and I debated four years at Western Kentucky University.

I am open to anything and I try to be as tab as possible. Just use warrants in your argumentation, even if it is theory. If an argument has absolutely no warrant and is just a claim, there is a chance I still won't vote on it even if it is 100% conceded. That is to say, if you just say conditionality is bad because of fairness and education, that is a series of claims without warrants, and thus is unpersuasive even if the other team doesn't address it. However, if a poorly warranted claim goes conceded, then I will not necessarily adjudicate the strength of the warrant as it is the other team's obligation to defeat this warrant, and as such I will take the warrant as true unless it is unintelligible or utterly absurd. I will default as a policymaker if you don't put me in a competing paradigm.

When adjudicating competing claims, it is my hope that debaters will engage in evidence comparison. However, if two contradictory claims are made, and no one weighs the strength of the internal warrants of the evidence, then I will likely call for the evidence to adjudicate which claim is more strongly warranted (assuming the argument may be part of my reason for decision). Same goes with topicality. I am 50/50 in voting for topicality, and I default competing interpretations.

If you are running critical/performance arguments, please be familiar with the argument and able to intellectually defend it. My personal preference when I debate is usually policy-oriented discussions and my personal bias is that switch-side policy debate is good, but I don't let this inform my decision in the round. At the same time, I think that non-traditional forms of debate are an important component of the community and have an important message to broadcast, and as such, I have voted for performance affs in the past.

The following is a preference and not a requirement. It is common for me to judge teams running non-traditional forms of arguments and personally be unfamiliar with the literature base. Thus, it is probably in your interest to ask if I'm familiar with a non-traditional argument prior to the round unless you plan to explain it extensively in the round. An argument is inherently less persuasive when the messenger also does not fully understand it, and the debate is probably less educational for everyone involved as a result. In general, I think you should be familiar with any argument you read before you deploy it in-round, but I've found this is more frequently an issue when high school debaters deploy the critical literature base. If I don't think you are familiar with your argument, I won't hold it against you in my RFD (although it will inform my speaker points), but it will probably influence whether you are able to effectively deploy the argument on the flow, where I will vote.

Finally, you should tell me explicitly how the RFD should be written if you win so I can understand your vision of the round. If you do not have ballot directing language, I will use my own judgment to write the RFD, so it is in your interest to write the RFD for me.

My name is Sameeha Saleem. I’m a student judge. I’ve been doing debates in many different formats but specifically, I did public forum debates for two years during middle school.

Important things to consider:

• get to the round as soon as you can

• Be respectful and considerate of your fellow debaters (no discriminatory remarks)

• Before starting, please tell me your name, what speaker you are, and your pronouns

• try to be as clear as possible

• Everyone has their own speeds of speaking and understanding so try to speak at a reasonable speed

•  Will always keep time, but just as a recommendation debaters should also keep time.

• Cards might be called if felt that they are necessary. 

• Always state where you got your evidence for.

• Try to weigh in your summaries and definitely in your final focuses.

• I won't count anything that happens during crossfires unless someone brings it up in their speech. 

• No new points should be brought up during the summary or final focus. 

• Verbal feedback will be given if asked, as well as written feedback on tabroom

Hello, my name is Ayrah and I am a sophomore student in high school. I have debated public forum for three and a half years, and this is my second year of judging debates. That being said, here are a few of my preferences/tips for when it comes to a round:

1) I don't take crossfire into consideration unless you bring up what was said in your speeches. So, if you managed to get your opponent to slip up during a crossfire or perhaps you answered/rebutted their questions/points cleverly and really want to showcase that to me, you should include it in your summaries, final focuses or rebuttals. Be weary not to drop any arguments.

2) I don't mind if you talk fast, just don't spread. I will time you but I also recommend you time yourself to be able to know when and how to pace yourself.

3) Weighing is very important to me, because your weighing is pretty much selling your arguments to me. I would like to see weighing in the summary and especially final focus, and I wouldn't mind seeing it in rebuttal speeches as well. But don't make your weighing just one sentence such as "We win on scope because we affect more people because [insert basic response]" etc. I'd like to see you elaborate on your weighing because again, that is a big part of what sells your arguments to me. In addition, when you state your contentions during your first speech, I need to know why your reason for or against an argument matters because again, you want to emphasize that your contentions matter (impact) and aren't just a list of pros or cons. Also, make sure you don't have any defensive arguments or else you have little to no impact.

4) I prefer the use of a framework but make sure it isn't anything like "If we prove to you that the pros outweigh the cons we win" because that's rather obvious and so it ends up being a waste of a few crucial seconds.

5) I recommend you use your prep time wisely and not let it go to waste because it is given to you for a reason. Writing on the spot can be very stressful (trust me, I'd know), but if you learn to maximize your prep time, it will gradually make things easier for you.

I hope this doesn't come off as intimidating! I am no perfect debater and I've definitely had my moments both in the spotlight and in moments I wish I could forget when it comes to debate. Just because I might be older or have debated longer doesn't necessarily mean that I am much better than you. I am just using my debate experience over the course of the past few years to try and provide any insight I can to help you improve, and of course, to try to be a fair judge. With all that said, I wish you good luck!

My child has been in public forum for a couple years. I have some experience in judging public forum. I make my decision based on the contentions, evidences and logic. I don't put much weight on the delivery.

I would appreciate it if the students can speak clearly and not too fast.