Last changed on
Fri January 19, 2024 at 7:16 AM PDT
I am a Lincoln-Douglas Debate alumni, having done it all four years throughout high school, and I've been judging since 2018. I want to see clean, well reasoned rounds; this is VALUES debate, and your values should be your highest priority. I care more about how you work within your framework, your opponent's framework, or both, than minor statistical evidence crammed into your contentions. Those matter, of course - evidence matters, it gives your argument teeth - but if you're fixating on that to the exclusion of your framework and the broader scope of your argument, then you are missing the point of the debate form.
So, prove your framework deserves a spot at the table. Show how your opponent fails to uphold it. Prove that either your opponent's framework doesn't deserve consideration or show how you function under it and even uphold it better than them, or demonstrate that your opponent's case/argument doesn't function under their framework.
Other important things:
-I don't like spreading (i.e. excessively fast speaking, to the extent that pauses and emphases are sacrificed in the name of speed). In my opinion, if you're spreading in an LD round, you're in the wrong debate type. LD is about reasoned arguments, not who can cram more into six minutes than their opponent. In addition to the actual argumentation, I am judging you based on your speaking ability, and you abandon all pretense of effective oratory when you spread.
Speaking fast is fine - I can deal with speed, but spreading is a no. I will not flow it. Hustle, don't hurry.
-On a similar note, I am a traditional LD debater/judge. I can keep up with progressive LD to an extent, but if you start spraying jargon you're running the risk that I don't know what you're talking about. I did not do policy debate, where much of it originated from, and so do not assume I am going to know what your jargon means. Explain to me what you are doing, or trying to do, and you'll be fine.
I don't find extinction arguments convincing, both because I find the links tend to be weak at best outside of very specific topics, and because they are overdone and uninteresting. It's the big hammer in impact calculus, and tend to have very little to do with value debate.
Aside from that, speak well, speak with reason, and be polite and kind to one another. Your tournament placing is not worth the enmity of your peers or judges if you are not. Debate is a sport, not a blood sport.