East Oklahoma District Tournament
2023 — OK/US
Big Questions Paradigm List
All Paradigms: Show HideHello!
I'm Jayden and I am a prevuous head coach. I coached LD, POL, LEGI, PF, Interp., and Short Prep events. However, I specialize in LD. I was a varsity debater all 4 years of high school. I competed primarily in LD and was fortunate enough to qualify for nationals twice (my junior and senior years). At my junior year nationals, I actually placed in the top 28. I also debate at the collegiate level. Therefore, I am a very knowledgeable flow judge. I keep a detailed flow and will likely give the win to the competitor who wins on the flow (for LD this is very much tied to your value/criterion). Also, one of my pet peeves is sliming (bringing up new evidence or points in the final speech of the round). The only exception to me voting with the flow, is conduct. If you are mean, demeaning, etc. to your opponent, you can expect to lose the ballot. With that said, I will not vote you down for being aggressive or stern unless it crosses the line of being demeaning or mean. However, I highly doubt it will come to that. Speech and debate is an amazing activities, but that can only be true if our competitors hold up to that standard and have a consequence when they don't. Thanks for reading about me and if you have any questions, please ask.
Thanks!
Jayden
LD/PF: I flow diligently, but I want you to speak pretty, too. I'm okay with speed, but not spreading. Don't make warrantless claims, please. I'll listen to any idea, no matter how bizarre, if you have cards for it. Be polite and sportsmanlike, above all else.
WSD: I'm most often a PF/LD judge. I want you to use lots of examples to illustrate claims you're making. This format of debate is 50% longer than the 40-ish minute attention span that PF and LD have cultivated in me as a judge, so I want you to speak engagingly. Command the room.
CX: I'm a traditional judge all the way. I do not care at all for jargon. This is a speaking activity; go slow and be clear and I'll flow it. Explain it to me like I'm 5.
Email : chris.larcade@staff.muldrowps.org
BASIC NEED TO KNOW:
Spreading: Need taglines to be clear. If I can't flow it, I can't use it to vote for you
Argumentation | Rhetoric: I look for debate speaking. I love to see debate falsies being used to disprove arguments.
Topicality: I will vote on it if I feel the NEG proved it to be abusive.
K Arguments- I will vote on "K" if you break it down to an understandable level. The LINK must be clear and offset the impacts of the AFF.
Inherency: If the NEG proves it is already being done, I will vote on it
Things I DON'T like
- Framework: I am not a fan of heavy framework arguments. Your impact should provide the voters for me to make my decision.
- Abuse Arguments: I have heard a lot of these arguments this season. I can determine what is and is not abuse for myself throughout a round. If your entire case is based on abuse, it appears that your case is not solid on its own merit.
- Ignoring your opponent's argument just to extend your own arguments and hope that their argument goes away.
Things I DO like
- Confidence: Don't give me a reason to vote you down. If you show me that you lost an argument with your non-verbals, then you will lose the argument.
- CLASH: I love it! Especially in cross-examination.
- TAGLINES: Once again, if I can't flow it then I will not vote for it.
- Sportsmanship: Don't make personal attacks, be professional and HAVE FUN.
My experience includes 4 years of LD debate throughout high school as well as extemporaneous speaking and congressional debate. In college I competed on a national circuit in parliamentary style debate, LD Policy debate, and extemporaneous speaking. I’ve intermittently judged high school LD, policy, and congressional debate for the past 10 years. I consider my paradigm to be part tabula rasa, part games. I try to let the debaters determine the type of round it will be and I will vote on whatever the best and most logical arguments are. If a debater is able to logically defend their position as the most advantageous or the least disadvantageous, then I will vote on it regardless of how unrealistic or absurd it may be. I enjoy Kritiks, but they need to be well understood and ran with intention. I will listen to pretty much any argument as long as it links and you can defend it. I will vote on topicalities but I prefer to hear attempts at creative argumentation. I don’t mind speed but I prefer articulation over a larger quantity of arguments and my flow will be reflective of how clearly the speaker is communicating their arguments.
please include me on the email chain: hayley.ortwein@outlook.com
Jenks '22, KU '26
I'll vote you down if you're rude or creepy
I debated 4 years of hs and I now debate in college
i have debated both policy and kritical stuff but definitely have way more policy experience, so make sure you explain well. i will listen to any style though
i have mostly been a 2n so i understand reading some weird stuff on neg just don't make a bigoted argument and ill hear it out
judge instruction and impact calc are really important to me
Hi, I'm Taylor. Keep in mind that my thoughts will probably change on specific aspects of debates as I judge more rounds, so I might change some things here and there in my paradigm.
My email: taylorrafferty22@gmail.com
About me (If you care)
I debated at Jenks High School for four years. I mainly did Lincoln-Douglas Debate and International Extemp. While at Jenks on the state level, I was in 4 state final rounds between Lincoln-Douglas and International Extemp. On the national level, I was a 4x national qualifier in 3 different events, and in my senior year, I took 24th in the nation in Lincoln-Douglas Debate. I now attend ESU and personally coach a few students in LD. Despite my LD experience I find myself judging mostly policy rounds these days but I will see a LD or PF round every now and then.
General Debate Things
1. Tech>Truth; however, my threshold for responding to bad arguments is incredibly low.
2. I like Impact calc a lot. It would help if you did it.
3. Offense will get you further with me rather than defense. I don't think defense should be abandoned but telling me why you win goes much further than telling me why you don't lose.
4. EXTEND YOUR ARGUMENTS. I'm not going to do work for you if you don't extend your arguments through your last speech. I'm not gonna bother weighing it into my decision.
5. Crystalize and summarize your best arguments and why you won them in your final speeches. Generally, going for every argument on the flow is not in your best interest.
6. Time yourself. I'm terrible at it.
7. If you can be funny or sarcastic in a round (not at the expense of actually debating well), then more power to you. I will probably give you more speaks.
Traditional LD
Only Warning
I will NOT hesitate to drop anyone who spreads or engages in debate practices that would not be persuasive or understandable to a reasonable person—this is not negotiable. Please do not see my policy background or circuit LD experience as an invitation to make this round uninteresting for everyone involved. I do not think it's impressive to win the flow while making the debate as inaccessible as possible for your opponent.
General Things
1. If you signpost, extend your arguments, try not to drop stuff, and give an offensive reason why I should vote for you as opposed to a defensive one, you'll be in very good shape. (Offense = why I'm winning, Defense = why I'm not losing)
2. I generally evaluate things sequentially. I use who's value/criterion or framework is winning to determine which arguments and impacts to weigh and, subsequently, who's won the ballot. This means framework in and of itself is not a voter, but it has a massive impact on who wins my ballot. For example, if you're winning the aff leads to extinction but you've conceded a Kant FW, you'll probably lose.
3. Good debaters have consistency between their value/criterion or framework and their contentions. If you're reading Kant and then a bunch of util arguments, I might cry.
4. I prefer more principled and philosophical arguments in trad LD. If the debate does become a question about the consequences of adopting some policy, I prefer empirical studies and examples over random predictions without evidence. This is not to say I don't enjoy analytics with good warrants.
Public Forum Debate
1. If I don't get a framework, I will default to utilitarianism for my framing. If you don't want me to do that, you should give me a framework.
2. DON'T paraphrase evidence. (Unfortunately, this seems to be a big problem specifically in PFD.) For the love of god, please, when you read cards, cite the author properly and read a cut version of the evidence. If I get a paraphrasing of evidence, I will be very inclined to vote you down
3. Don't make PFD complicated. If you cover the flow well, weigh impacts, and crystalize your most important arguments in your final speech. You will be in an excellent position to win my ballot.
Policy Debate
Just a few general things specifics are under my prefs.
1. Please add me to the email chain. My email is at the top of the paradigm.
2. My speed threshold is around 7/10 if that is any help at all (Probably not). I will yell "clear" if you're going too fast for me. If you ignore me I will be very sad. Please SLOW WAY DOWN on the analytics you don't put in the doc. I won't flow analytics if you zoom through them.
3. Open cross is fine.
4. If you have questions about my policy paradigm, please ask before the round.
Prefs
1. Policy- Easily what I feel the most comfortable judging. I like seeing a topical aff against a competitive cp and some dis ads. I enjoy case debates, something that needs to be done way more. When you are reading your perms explain how it functions within the certain perm you read .
2. Topicality- Topicality is fun..... Until it's not. T feels more like a throwaway off-case position, especially as the violations continue getting increasingly ridiculous. I'm not saying you have to go for it if you read it, but I would like to feel like I know your T might be a legit way to the ballot rather than knowing it's just gonna be a time suck within the first 5 seconds you're into reading the T. With all that being said, winning the links to why the violation is legit is going to be way more important to me than harping on the impacts of the T. Sure, impacts are important, but if you're not going to put any effort into proving the T violation than why spend all that time impacting it out.
3. Theory- I find theory to be super boring mostly because it just turns into both teams reading their generic block files that I have heard for the thousandth time. That's not to say I won't vote on it. At some points, I have voted for speed theory and condo (It's been nearly a year, though), although I usually prefer to drop the argument and not the team. I'm very iffy on out-of-round theory violations being read I.E (the opposing team did something bad before the round started, so you are now reading theory). Once again, not that I wouldn't vote on it, but I don't have an objective view on what happened because likely I wasn't there ofc this isn't considering screenshots for a disclosure shell or something like that. I will reiterate what has been said about T previously: prove the violation first, then impact out.
4. K's- My experience with Ks has grown over the years. I generally feel comfortable with them. Explain how the alt functions and have a clear ROB; you should be fine. If you are reading something really abstract, you are going to have to explain it more to me, but I can catch on pretty fast. K affs have gotten more enjoyable for me as well just make sure it can compete and I will weigh it vs anything.
5. Performance- I am not gonna be your guy for this.
I do flow, but only what I hear.
I do time, but that's addressed later in the paradigm.
I am ready before each speech so just debate like I'm not there.
I WILL VOTE ON THE FRAMEWORK MOST OF THE TIME.
My LD paradigm is super simple. I'm okay with all types of arguments as long you can prove a strong value/criterion link. I'm a traditional LD Judge, I won't knock progressive but I do ask that you are clear in your argumentation. I flow and I expect arguments to not be dropped and extended throughout the round. Besides that, I enjoy a fun round so don't be rude but don't be passive. Again I'm open to whatever just make sure that your arguments are clear, logical, and have a strong Value/Criterion Link. Please don't say your card names, say the argument. I do not flow card names if you say "refer to my john 3:16 card" I will have no clue what you're talking about, but if you say "refer to x argument" I'll be on board. As a traditional judge, I like hearing some philosophy. I am not a philosophy expert but I do know the major points of the more used arguments and I wont count it as part of the RFD unless your opponent calls it out. If they don't then run with it I guess.
PF is very similar, hit me with your creative arguments. I generally vote for winners based on which team can either give me the bigger impacts or who can give me a good amount of strong arguments. IF YOU SPREAD IN PUBLIC FORUM I WILL NOT FLOW. I AM A PF PURIST. DO NOT SPREAD I WILL TRULY LOOK AT YOU AND MAYBE WRITE ONE THING. IF YOU ARE A PFER AND SAY USE A PHILOSOPHY FRAMEWORK I WILL NOT APPRECIATE IT. PF IS FOR THE LAY JUDGE. TREAT ME LIKE A LAY JUDGE.
Also if you are reading this, just an FYI please TIME yourselves so I don't have to interrupt you. Again I'm super laid back so just make sure that arguments are very clear and logical.
CX is not my favorite so I have no real paradigm for it. Just tell me why your arguments are good. I like Ks but I hate nukes(extinction).
As you can tell by this paradigm that I'm somewhat lazy. So if you have any specific questions feel free to ask before the round AND do not be afraid to ask me what you can improve AFTER (LIKE IN THE HALLWAYS) the round or for advice.
If you try to post-round or debate me because of the results of the ballot, I will shut it down immediately but feel free to ask for critiques.