Lay Judge

Limited experience judging PF. No experience judging LD.

Speak slowly and clearly.

Your job is to persuade me, and that requires effective communication. I strongly disfavor spreading, pressured speech, and fast-paced speaking characteristic of the progressive debate style.

You know your arguments. Put the computer down and speak to me like a normal person. Do not read your case to me. Make eye contact. Educate me on your worldview using the speaking style you would with a real person and persuade me!

General: I am an 'old-school' former LDer so I judge rounds based on the values and substance of the arguments. Evidence is important but I am not going to be swayed if all you can say regarding an opponent's contention is "they only presented two cards of evidence but i clearly have three" or "my evidence is clearly better because it came from this scientific journal as opposed to this one." Unless the source of the evidence is clearly unreliable, I expect debaters to address the substance of the underlying arguments. At the end of the day, LD is about value propositions not plans or statistics and that is what I will base my decisions on. In other words, LD should prioritize the WHY not necessarily the HOW.

Pacing: You may speak as fast as you need to but please be understandable. If you go so fast that I cannot understand what you are saying, I will not flow it and if I do not flow it, I will not be able to judge you for it.

Roadmaps: I do allow off-time roadmaps - just be clear you are offering one before you start so I don't trigger my speech timer. Once that timer begins, I do not stop it. Similar to my comment about pacing, it's important that you are clear about where on the flow your comments/arguments/rebuttals are being directed. If I have to guess at what you are responding to, I may put in the wrong spot on my flow. This can lead to situations where arguments appear dropped or don't appear to truly rebut what it was flowed with. Providing clear signposts during your speech can save everyone a lot of headaches here.

End of Speech Cut-offs: When I tell you time, you may finish your sentence quickly. If you attempt to abuse this by stretching out your sentence or quickly fitting in more than the end of your sentence, I will suspend this privilege and, depending on how egregious the attempt, dock speaker points.

Who to Address in Speeches: Remember that you should be addressing me (ie the judge) during your speeches, NOT your opponent. At the end of the day, your arguments are being presented to me for judging so avoid things like "You said..." during your speeches.

I am new to judging LD, but I am not new to arguments. I've been an attorney for twenty years. Prior to law school, I also was on my college debate team at Furman University.

Pacing: No spreading. If I cannot understand you, I cannot judge you.

General: Enunciate and speak loud enough for me to hear you.

I do not care if you stand or sit, but I personally think students perform better when they stand.

I thought it went without saying, but I have learned I need to be explicit. Never argue with the judge about the rules or timing. If you did that in a courtroom, you would automatically lose the case for your client.

End of Speech Cut-offs: When I tell you time, you may finish your sentence quickly. If you attempt to abuse this by stretching out your sentence or quickly fitting in more than the end of your sentence, I will suspend this privilege and, depending on how egregious the attempt, dock speaker points.

Good luck, and have fun!

Email Chain: megan.butt@charlottelatin.org

Charlotte Latin School (2022-), formerly at Providence (2014-22).

Trad debate coach -- I flow, but people read that sometimes and think they don't need to read actual warrants? And can just stand up and scream jargon like "they concede our delink on the innovation turn so vote for us" instead of actually explaining how the arguments interact? I can't do all that work for you.

GENERAL:

COMPARATIVELY weigh ("prefer our interp/evidence because...") and IMPLICATE your arguments ("this is important because...") so that I don't have to intervene and do it for you. Clear round narrative is key!

If you present a framework/ROB, I'll look for you to warrant your arguments to it. Convince me that the arguments you're winning are most important, not just that you're winning the "most" arguments.

Please be clean: signpost, extend the warrant (not just the card).

I vote off the flow, so cross is binding, but needs clean extension in a speech.

I do see debate as a "game," but a game is only fun if we all understand and play by the same rules. We have to acknowledge that this has tangible impacts for those of us in the debate space -- especially when the game harms competitors with fewer resources. You can win my ballot just as easily without having to talk down to a debater with less experience, run six off-case arguments against a trad debater, or spread on a novice debater who clearly isn't able to spread. The best (and most educational) rounds are inclusive and respectful. Adapt.

Not a fan of tricks.

LD:

Run what you want and I'll be open to it. I tend to be more traditional, but can judge "prog lite" LD -- willing to entertain theory, non-topical K's, phil, LARP, etc. Explanation/narrative/context is still key, since these are not regularly run in my regional circuit and I am for sure not as well-read as you. Please make extra clear what the role of the ballot is, and give me clear judge instruction in the round (the trad rounds I judge have much fewer win conditions, so explain to me why your arguments should trigger my ballot. If I can't understand what exactly your advocacy is, I can't vote on it.)

PF:

Please collapse the round!

I will consider theory, but it's risky to make it your all-in strategy -- I have a really high threshold in PF, and because of the time skew, it's pretty easy to get me to vote for an RVI. It's annoying when poorly constructed shells get used as a "cheat code" to avoid actually debating substance.

CONGRESS:

Argument quality and evidence are more important to me than pure speaking skills & polish.

Show me that you're multifaceted -- quality over quantity. I'll always rank someone who can pull off an early speech and mid-cycle ref or late-cycle crystal over someone who gives three first negations in a row.

I reward flexibility/leadership in chamber: be willing to preside, switch sides on an uneven bill, etc.

WORLDS:

Generally looking for you to follow the norms of the event: prop sets the framework for the round (unless abusive), clear intros in every speech, take 1-2 points each, keep content and rhetoric balanced.

House prop should be attentive to motion types -- offer clear framing on value/fact motions, and a clear model on policy motions.

On argument strategy: I'm looking for the classic principled & practical layers of analysis. I place more value on global evidence & examples.

I am a parent judge with two years judging LD. While I prefer that you don't talk too fast or spread, that's your decision, but keep in mind if I cannot track what you're saying, that won't be to your advantage. In fairness, I need to be able to understand what you're saying in order to judge its merits.

I take a lot of notes and will be heads down - but I will be very engaged. Please make it clear what's important to your case or detracts from your opponent's. Please don’t run progressive debate.

By your final focus or last speech, you should have made a convincing case why your impacts or value out-weigh your opponent's. And in keeping with the rules of debate, do not bring up any new arguments in the second half of a round, or they will be disregarded.

You can sit or stand, either are fine.

If time approaches, I usually let you finish your thought up to about :10 seconds. If you start a new thought after time has elapsed, I'll end that segment. I will not take points off for that.

If you ask for X minutes for prep time, I'll let you know when that time has elapsed. However, it's your time, so if you want to keep going that's perfectly fine.

Unless we're in higher levels of competition with multiple judges, I won't reveal my decision or give feedback after the round, but I do make every effort to leave notes in tabroom for the round and each individual.

I very much enjoy the competition of debate and look forward to judging your round. Good luck and have fun!

Traditional LD judge. This is not policy. I look for a solid clash of values throughout and would prefer that you avoid jargon as much as possible. A thoughtful and well-supported value structure is more important to me than individual cards.

I prefer that when you are speaking you speak clearly. If you are talking too fast and I miss some of your information I consider that to be your fault.

I do not mind if you sit or stand.

I would prefer everybody to be respectful, and enjoy information driven arguments over being fast and overly persuasive

I am pretty new to judging and have primarily judged LD and PF. I enjoy a spirited debate but clear speaking and enunciaton are paramount. I believe that it is the responsibility of the debaters to watch their clocks and won't manage them unless it's overtime by a good margin.

(updated 10/4/22 for Duke)

Hi, I'm Rohit. I'm a junior at the University of Pennsylvania, and debated in LD for NCSSM and Ardrey Kell in high school. Feel free to ask me specifics on what I'm comfortable evaluating, but here are some general notes:

****************** for lay rounds ******************

time yourself and your opponent's speeches/prep, I'll also be keeping track but mainly for if time disputes come up

good analytics > poorly explained evidence

explicit extensions of args/contentions in 1AR and 2NR

Please signpost. Make it very clear which argument you are responding to, and under which contention it falls.

2NR should include explicit voters, 2AR should be almost all voters and weighing

DO NOT make me listen to a value debate. There is no meaningful difference between morality and justice, and 90% of the values ran. Just agree on value and debate the value criterion

***************************************************

If you're spreading, add me to the email chain (rohitjagga02@gmail.com). Don't take up >5min of the round setting up the email chain, do it before the round if possible

I like LARP (cp, disads, etc) and theory/T, and feel comfortable judging those debates. Cx checks please.

If you're running some dense phil or an uncommon K, don't assume I know it and err on the side of overexplaining.

Don't be rude or act obnoxiously

Besides that, feel free to debate in the way you prefer. If you have any questions, you're welcome to email me at rohitjagga02@gmail.com or ask me at the beginning of the round.

I am new parent judge,I would like speaker to avoid spreading.

Do the best. Good luck!!

I am now an experienced parent judge. You may debate any way that you prefer. I am impressed with debaters who really understand their research and can organize their positions in a coherent way. I am less impressed with debaters who use words they don't understand or appear to be reading off the page something that someone else wrote. However, I applaud the efforts of all debaters and think this activity is an admirable use of your time.

Amy Love Klett

I am a parent volunteer judge. I prefer that you do not talk too fast or spread, so that I am able to fully understand what you are saying. Thank you and good luck!

I am a relatively new parent judge. I will probably take a lot of notes.

I have been speaking professionally in the corporate and academic spaces for 15 years, and I've taught rhetoric and argument for over a decade at both the university and high school level.

With that background, my focus is on actual debate of ideas through well-formed, well-delivered arguments. Rhetoric is the art of persuasion, and I expect to be persuaded, not bombarded with as much information as possible.

I do not want to hear spreading. I will drop you for attempting it, or simply attempting to speak as fast as possible. Having more arguments does not equate to having a better argument. You don't have to speak slowly--I can keep up--but there should be no speed talking.

Similarly, I have no patience for debating about debating. We participate in Speech and Debate because we believe people can arrive at consensus and solutions through expressing and debating ideas in the real world. We should, therefore, debate about the real issues. I will easily recognize and drop you for debate tricks or arguing the theory of debate/theory shells.

I want to hear clear warranting and impacting from evidence that establishes a logical progression, logic which avoids tautological traps, reductive debater math, and slippery slope/post hoc/complex cause fallacies (PFers, enough nuclear holocaust). I weigh on soundness of cause and effect, not the effects themselves.

I can judge off flow and of course expect weighing, but I'm much more focused on you proving your argument is stronger, not proving to me that your opponent didn't respond correctly, or why it is that I shouldn't choose their argument, so avoid focusing solely on the flow.

Feel free to run k and bring in critical theory, but please know that I have a PhD in critical theory, so if you run it you better be able to prove you know the theory itself and not just some reductive version of it. Proof that you're running a frame you don't understand will get you dropped.

Finally, I expect each competitor to treat their opponent with respect and decency. Any aggressive tactics or bullying (cutting off, talking over in cross, verbal reactions during opponent's speech, etc.) are frowned upon and can lose you the round.

I am relatively new to judging high school debate so will take my time to really think about the scoring and it would be most helpful if you can speak clearly and concisely.

I will take a lot of notes and arguments that cause me to think about the topic in a unique or new way will stand out to me as long as they are credible and well-supported. Any cockiness or rudeness to your opponent will detract from the merits of your argument so please be kind and speak respectfully. I have appreciation for the debater that can take a deep breath and proceed calmly when the debate is getting heated.

You should be polite, but you should also know that being obsequious will not gain you extra points.

Please don’t use debate-world jargon. The people judging are not debate team members, so using words that mean something totally different in their world (the real world) is not effective.

Don’t be overly pedantic. If your argument is premised on a word game (e.g. "It depends on what the meaning of the word 'is' is.") it just seems silly.

Hyperbole (e.g. "Half the human population will die if you don't vote for AFF!") can be viewed as insulting to a judge’s intelligence.

As a judge I can't see your cards, so getting into an argument with your opponent about cards is kind of meaningless to me.

The best debates are about articulating ideas and presenting evidence to back up those ideas. Focus on persuading your audience—in this case, the judge—not each other.

Make it a debate that would impress Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas.

This is my first year as a parent debate judge. I am a quantitative analyst with PhD in engineering. These are some of the things you should do if I am judging you.

1. Speak clearly and at a reasonable pace.
2. I appreciate solid evidence or logical reasoning.
3. Proper eye contact and gesture can deliver your speech more efficiently.
4. Show your respects to the judge, your partner, and other competitors.