Hello, my name is Denise Hiracheta a former 4-year debater at Olathe East Sr. High School. This is my first official year judging. I have competed in Novice, JV, Open, and KDC. I also competed in Congress at local, state, and national as well.

Policy:

Novice: The thing I look for in a novice debate is not just a person reading off of their computer but someone who is invested in the debate. I will not accept any rude, racist, or derogatory behavior from any debater. If you do show any of this type of derogatory behavior it will affect your ballet negatively. Now let's move on to the content of the debate...

Inherency: What I expect out of an inherency card is not only just to state that your case is related to the status quo but to have it as the basis of your arguments. Starting your case with a minor argument makes the debate harder to keep track of. Inherency is one of the most underestimated cards in the debate and should be taken more seriously.

Plan: If you don't have a clear plan it will be hard to debate negative arguments. If the plan in context is poorly worded having an entire debate just on the wording of the plan will take away from all the impact and DA arguments. (PLEASE DO NOT FORGET TO READ YOUR PLAN IF YOU HAVE NOT READ A PLAN THERE IS NO POINT IN THE DEBATE)

Topicality: If you are going to run topicality make sure that it makes sense. If you run topicality on a case that relates to the resolution the affirmative team will have the upper hand. I don't mind a good topicality debate, as long as it makes sense and has valid arguments to go along with it.

CP: If you are going to run a counter plan make sure to have your arguments in order from - how the affirmative team is wrong to how your plan solves the affirmative teams better. I love counter-plan debates and will always consider the arguments in each. When it comes to perms explain to me why you are perming. Prove to me that both the federal government and the opposition plan can work together.

Forensics:

I competed in OO, INFO, Impromtu, and congress

What I look for in any piece is to number one have a strong presentation. It does not have to be perfect because I know sometimes it just happens but if you show me that you know your piece and that you made an effort to convey the information then that right there is what matters. The second thing I look for is the overall communication. That simply means, getting my reaction. Did you make me interested in the piece? Did you get a strong reaction out of me? Those kinda things. When it comes to the overall piece selection it would be nice to get a trigger warning before you get started because I would like to be warned if I am going to hear a piece about something dark at like 8 am. I will try to put in as much feedback as possible on the ballot some might be on paper but the majority would be online just because you have access to it faster than that of a paper ballot. If you have any questions or concerns I would be more than happy to answer them before and or after the round.

Overall:

The debate around should go smoothly and steadily with no interruptions unless it is urgent or a technological issue. I will try and give as much feedback as possible on the ballot but if you would like more feedback please feel free to talk to me after the round is over for a more one on one response.

Don't forget to have fun!!!

Good Luck Debaters!!!

Shawn Lawson

lawsondb8@gmail.com

he/they

Debated at Olathe East (2020 - 2023)

Assistant Coach for Olathe West (2023 - Present)

Attending KU but not debating there at the moment

Important

Call me by my first name if you really want to but I'd prefer if you just call me judge

If you’re just reading from your computer your speaks won’t be great.

Don’t be racist, sexist, any -ist, or clip. If you do you will lose with the lowest speaks I can give you.

Have fun. Both of us are sacrificing our free time to be here so if you aren’t having fun then I’m probably not having fun, and why are we here if we’re all miserable?

Top Level

I will listen to anything. If it matters, I mostly ran affs without a plan and Ks on the neg my last year of high school and its what I’m most familiar with.

Buzzwords and long overviews frighten and confuse me, and make it very hard to flow and vote for you.

Tech>truth unless I’m really confused and can’t make a decision otherwise.

Speed is fine as long as you are clear. If you’re unclear I will do my best to let you know. If I clear you multiple times and still can’t understand you, I’ll just stop trying to flow arguments I can’t hear.

Clear ending rebuttals that extend the best arguments from the round with good impact calc are the best way to my ballot.

Please give a roadmap and sign post or else I will literally start sobbing.

Prep

Time your own prep please.

It shouldn’t take you 2 minutes to send a document.

The other team sending out a doc doesn't mean that you get free prep time. I thought this went without saying but apparently it doesn't.

Stealing prep will hurt your speaks a lot.

Speaks

I don’t know how most judges do speaks but I think that an average debater on the TOC or DCI circuit should get 28.5. Higher means that I think you’re good, lower means there’s room for improvement. If you get lower than a 20 that means you did something seriously wrong.

NOVICE SPEAKS: Since novice speaks are on a scale of 1-4, there's less of a benchmark on what good speaks are. Just... do better than the other people in the round??? See below for what I think a good speaker looks like.

Ways to get higher speaks:

-Being clear

-Looking away from your computer

-Slowing down when you're saying something really important

-Giving rebuttals without your computer (I don't expect this for the 1AR but will be impressed if you give a good 1AR with no computer)

-Making jokes

-Strong cross x

-Ending your speech with "and that's how the cookie crumbles" (Lets me know you read my paradigm)

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