Lincoln Park High School '2024

Loyola University Chicago (currently not debating)

Email: tatiana.arg12@gmail.com

tldr:

Don't be racist, homophobic, sexist, transphobic, etc

I come into the round voting on a policy unless told otherwise during the debate

I am currently coaching at Senn High School, so I am familiar with the topic

specifics:

While most judges say they are unbiased and we all know that is not true. I definitely think I am more on the non biased side as I've run a mixture of k affs and policy affs during my debate career. I will not come into a round with any other standards besides tech>truth, so if it is a policy v k debate my role in the round will be based on which team wins on the framework flow.

specific arguments and how you win on tech with them:

da: I think you need to win every component of a da, so if you lose only the impact on the da you will not get my ballot. I also think it is crucial to flesh out a story of the da. uq - link - il - impact w/ impact calc and framing, extending cards and doing simple line by line is not enough to show me the story of the da. And very crucial to win the da either 1. da outweighs case 2. da turns case 3. cp solves aff with nb of the da

cp: if I am being entirely honest I am most familiar with agent and adv cps. I will probably not be the best judge for process cp and competition debates given my background, so if this a likely 2nr strat u should probably not pref me high because I will not be able to technically assess it as well as I would like to.

t (for policy affs): sigh the most boring arguments in debate. over limiting makes me mad in general, but like I said before ill still vote on tech. interp - violation - standards - internal links - impacts, you have to win all 5 to get my ballot.

k on the neg: similar to das in the aspect of how I want a story fleshed link - il - impact - alt. I have a very technical viewpoint when I view a k, but I do not think you need to win the alt bc as long as you win the other 3 parts plus framework is enough of a reason to not weigh the aff. dont expect me to know your lit. I am more familiar with cap, security, biopolitics, set col, and hispanic critical literature bc thats what I focused on, so please KNOW YOUR LIT well enough to clearly explain it.

k aff: I love k affs, but I prefer when they are specific to the topic. Your method and its solvency are so important, you do NOT NEED spillover as long as you are challenging the squo of the resolution or the norms debate, bc in short words it it better than not doing anything. You cannot just read an analytic to why your method has solvency, I need a card that warrants historical ev. Win your theory of power is bad bc of xyz impacts, and that your method has some form of solvency to get my ballot, but obviously this ballot comes along with beating the neg strat.

t & fw (for k affs): As much as I hated having a heavy fw debate while running k affs it is a totally great way to beat a k aff. Like with normal t you need to win, interp - violation - standards - internal links - impacts. Firstly on how I view clash and fairness. I think both can be impacts but I need that impact scenario drawn out for me, or I will flow them as internal links. I think clash and fairness are best used as internal links to the skills impacts i.e. advocacy skills and decision making skill. I also do not think they are strong impacts bc they are heavily non uq, if anything there is less fairness and clash in policy rounds where teams drop new affs and read 8+ off, so these are not specifically uq to a k aff. Lastly, I do believe in the small schools impact, not bc I feel empathy, but because it is completely true. Coming from a small team with little to no funding it took me a long to time figure out the k and how to go against them even with working very hard, which means it is even harder for a small school to understand and engage with every lit base at a tournament with 20+ different k affs (if you are a small school I will 100% vote on this impact, just win the other components of t).

(stole this from Gianna, love her)

Hi, I'm Natalee.

She/They pronouns

Currently a college student so if I'm remote in my dorm apologies in advance (I prefer in-person WAY more but I'm at UIUC so what can I do)

ADD ME TO YOUR EMAIL CHAINS PLEASE: nataleemburkat@gmail.com

I don't really care what you run as long as you know about what you're talking about and can debate successfully. (I have no preferences and am comfortable with most if not all policy debate arguments)

Remember confidence is key, so if you think you suck just fake it til you make it. I promise you, you will do just fine :)

BE NICE TO EACH OTHER!!- I will not hesitate to give you a 25 if you are rude to your fellow debaters and/or me. ALSO, Debate should be educational and a safe space for any and all students, so any hateful and discriminatory language will not be tolerated and will result in a 25, an automatic loss, and a report to your coach in speaker notes or in person if I know them.

I'm more of a tech judge, so when it comes to arguments, if the debate is close I will tend to rule on who dropped the least amount of arguments (for aff it'd be dropping case+off, and for neg it'd be dropping case)

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE use all your time. Especially if it's the 1/2NC and 2AC, there is always something you could be adding to your argument/addressing to fill up time.

Also, don't hesitate to ask me any questions-- I am always happy to help at any time >:)

By the way, I will always time you, BUT I would massively prefer if you also timed yourselves as I am terrible at giving 5,3,1 warnings, and then you can pace yourself accordingly: so it's a win-win for both of us :)

DEAR JV/VARSITY: PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE STOP SAYING "# OFF" TELL ME WHICH OFF (K,T,ETC)

If you really feel like knowing my personal thoughts on specific argument types you can take a look here, but don't let my opinions stop you from running what you like running:

(take this with a huge "old-person" grain of salt because I was a 2017-2019 debater and that cemented my opinions significantly)

K affs- Back in my day (you will hear this a lot), K affs were a joke and you'd run them strictly for funsies. K affs of today's age deal with more important topics, so I always enjoy listening to them. HOWEVER, I will not vote on a K aff if you stray far from your base argument. K affs are about committing to the bit--- if you don't bring up the point of your K aff in every speech, you're not going to win. Also, my opinion on K affs is they don't really mesh well in the Policy format, so to be voter they must be done with the utmost strategy to not get bombarded by T for 2 hours and lose. Also, you will not be getting phenomenal feedback on K aff structure because I was strictly policy back in my day and I feel like my opinions on structure are probably outdated and unhelpful unless you have a policy aff.

Ts- A good T or two are fun to run as a neg, however, if you drop everything and go strictly T in the end (disregard if you're neg against a K aff), I will not vote for you. Ts are the weakest neg argument in my opinion because it's just an "Ummm actually" arg and there isn't much depth to it to be a significant voter.

Counterplans (CPs)- I love a good counterplan. It is arguably my favorite neg argument type. If you have a good counterplan you are golden in my eyes, as I feel like logically this makes the most sense to do as a neg. In recent years, CPs have kind of fallen off and people are using Ks as a replacement--- don't use a K like a CP, get a good CP and run it and I'll be overjoyed and you'll probably win, assuming the rest of your argument is sound.

Every other argument I have no strong negative or positive thoughts on.

Issues I constantly see in JV and Varsity:

Aff:

• Remember you are the aff, don't let the neg's arguments run the debate, and make sure you are always putting the aff at number one importance and impact calc that with whatever neg throws at you.
• Don't drop your own arguments and make sure to pay attention to EVERYTHING the neg says and address it. This sounds like common sense, but it is not.
• Something that annoys me: make sure your Solvency has a dedicated Solvency section. I'm an oldie and this new structure throws me off every time I judge and you'll hear me complain about it in feedback every time. Make my life easier and just get a dedicated section so I know for sure you solve.
• Make sure to utilize your 2AC well--- the 1NC is probably going to pull whatever they can pull, if something doesn't make sense in regards to your aff, read some answers if you have time, but if not just be like "This doesn't apply" and explain why and I'll give it to you. Valid neg args should always be the main focus of your off section.

Neg:

• Treat neg like a stock portfolio--- diversify your arguments, the more the merrier. Overwhelming the aff is the best strategy as neg, because the more time you waste for them the less time they have for their arguments and will probably drop more, which results in a win for you.
• Controversial opinion: debate (specifically Policy debate) is a game. As a neg, I encourage you to have as many arguments as possible even if they don't make sense in the 1NC to overwhelm the aff. As long as you have some sound arguments, throw in whatever you want.
• Never concede an argument until the end. Keep aff on their toes, even if that won't be your end argument. I recommend keeping your discard argument in smaller and smaller doses so you can get the important stuff read and then concede it in the 2NR to waste the optimal amount of aff time.
• Impact calc is your bestie--- if the aff is more harmful than helpful and you have valid arguments to back that up, as long as you push this argument, you will win.

Both sides:

• Pay attention to clash. If you are only focused on your argument and not the other teams, it'll be a bad debate and no one will be happy. You always want to directly counter and extend the previous 2 speeches as a rule of thumb. (For example: I'm the 2NC so I'm going to pull my arguments against the 2AC with respect to our extensions of the 1NC and make sure everything is addressed from both flows.)
• Stay on track--- the amount of times when a minor argument gets turned in the whole debate appalls me. If you are making arguments, that are not strategic, that don't make sense to link to the aff, don't make them. The 1AC sets the precedent, if the rest of the debate strays, it is not an effective or good debate.
• The most important one: quality > quantity. When we get to rebuttals, I often get bombarded with hundreds of random statements about the debate at hand. If those are stand-alone statements, I won't consider them voter. You need to say them, and then apply them to the debate, because arguments are useless without depth. Think about the ICE paragraph structure and apply it to every rebuttal you make.
• If you are switching between analytics and cards, announce it. It's much more helpful because it signals to everyone when they need to intently listen, as there's no doc to help with comprehension. That being said, if you do read anything that is not sent in a written and readable format, make sure it is clear and concise, especially the important parts. If I don't hear it, it didn't happen--- so make sure the important parts are extremely clear and distinct.

Den (She/They) - dnisecarmna@gmail.com
AmeriCorps Member for Chicago Debates
Coach at Thomas Kelly

Work in debate full-time coaching policy debate (CX) and teaching public forum (PF) to middle schoolers in the Chicagoland area. Routinely, I have topic knowledge working at debate camp(s) throughout the summer. During the season, I accumulate over 60+ rounds judged on the urban debate and national circuit.

Default towards a tech over truth style of judging unless stated otherwise in-round. I will operate on the parameters the debaters assign to me. Good practices in the debate space such as disclosure are non-voting issues. However, if your arguments are descriptive in its explicit/graphic content, please provide a trigger warning pre-round. Let's avoid going to tab at all costs. I will stop the round if the other team deems the environment as uncomfortable.

The non-negotiables:
[1] adherence of resolutional discussion
[2] order of speeches given
[3] speech times.

My broader thoughts on debate:

Counterplans----Affirmative teams should be able to defend against process counterplans. If your solvency mechanism is strong, you should be able to beat them. Multiplank counterplans and if the negative gets to kick out of individual planks is up for debate. Affirmative teams should be prepared to answer counterplans based on the proposals their 1AC authors write out that's distinct from the plan.
I will need hand-holding on the competition debate. Questions of severance and/or Intrinsicness permutations should not be glossed over. Especially, if the affirmative wants to win perm do the counterplan.

Topicality---For the negative to win Topicality, they must [1] provide a model that best adheres to the topic, [2] exclaim why the affirmative fails to meet that model, [3] flesh out why the negative's model of debate is preferable, [4] evaluating the flow through competing interpretations is best. For the affirmative to beat Topicality, they must [1] explain why they meet the negative's model and/or [2] provide a counter-model that's better for the topic, which leads to [3] more educational and fair debates moving forward. [4] Frame the debate through reasonability.

T-USFG---Prefer the debate to be framed similar to topicality (better model of debate). However, teams going for the impact turn(s) are welcome to do so. Affirmative teams running an advocacy statement tend to go for "the negative's model of debate is inherently worse, therefore by default the judge should vote for the affirmative's model". Definitely, the best approach when 1ACs are built to counter FW by embedding claims on the game of debate and how to best approach the topic. However, I have seen my fair share of critical affirmative's that.. could be read on any other topic. Negative teams, emphasize switch side debate. Provide TVA(s) under your model of debate. Explain the affirmative's burden and the negative's role in this game. Convince me that the negative should be the one reading all these different theory of powers against teams defending a policy. If they break structural rules such as going over speech time, call it out. Procedural fairness leads to better education. Don't rely too heavily on portable skills.

------

Hall of Famers

Rats: Kelly Lin, Lisa Gao, Ramon Rodriguez

Learned From: Armando Camargo, Juan Chavez, Jocelyn Aguirre, Leobardo Ramos, Scott Dodsworth

I have about one year of high school debate experience (2012-2013). This is my first year and first time taking on a coaching role at a brand new school. I have no prior judging experience either. Prefer me at your own risk. I am brand new to all of this!

Truth > Tech

No plan no win!

I will also not understand if you're speaking fast, so no spreading.

As a debater: 4 years HS debate in Missouri, 4 years NDT-CEDA debate at the University of Georgia

Since then: coached at the University of Southern California (NDT-CEDA), coached at the University of Wyoming (NDT-CEDA), worked full-time at the Chicago UDL, coached (and taught math) at Solorio HS in the Chicago UDL

Now: Math teacher and debate coach at Von Steuben in the Chicago UDL, lab leader at the Michigan Classic Camp over the summer

HS Email Chains, please use: vayonter@cps.edu

College Email Chains: victoriayonter@gmail.com

General Thoughts:

1. Clarity > speed: Clarity helps everyone. Please slow down for online debate. You should not speak as fast as you did in person. Much like video is transmitted through frames rather than continuous like in real life, sound is transmitted through tiny segments. These segments are not engineered for spreading.

2. Neg positions: I find myself voting more often on the "top part" of any neg position. Explain how the plan causes the DA, how the CP solves the case (and how it works!), and how the K links to the aff and how the world of the alt functions. Similarly, I prefer CPs with solvency advocates (and without a single card they are probably unpredictable). I love when the K or DA turns the case and solves X impact. If you don't explain the link to the case and how you get to the impact, it doesn't matter if you're winning impact calculus.

3. K affs: Despite my tendency to read plans as a debater, if you win the warrants of why it needs to be part of debate/debate topic, then I'll vote on it. As a coach and judge, I read far more critical literature now than I did as a debater. My extensive Tabroom voting history is on here. Do with that what you will.

4. Lying: Lying is bad. If your "troll" or "strat skew" involves blatant lying about out of round actions, don't do it. Weaponizing blatant lies about your opponent's actions as a strategy to try to win debates make this space makes this space exclusionary and problematic. This is different than my stance on truth vs tech. I vote off the flow. I'll vote on all sorts of arguments that don't pass the truth test (I will, however, make faces. But those faces neither impact my decision nor my speaker points so it's fine). I think the only thing I haven't voted on is death good/wipeout. Everything that is an argument is fair game. Knowingly lying about what your opponent did or didn't do is deplorable and where I draw the line.

5. Warrants: Don't highlight to a point where your card has no warrants. Extend warrants, not just tags. If you keep referring to a specific piece of evidence or say "read this card," I will hold you to what it says, good or bad. Hopefully it makes the claims you tell me it does.

6. Cross-x: Don't be rude in cross-x. If your opponent is not answering your questions well in cross-x either they are trying to be obnoxious or you are not asking good questions. Too often, it's the latter.Questions about what your opponent read belong in cross-x or prep time. You should be flowing.

7. Equity: I care a lot about equity in this activity. As a debater, I was a disabled woman from a disadvantaged circuit. As a HS coach, I've spent my whole career at Title-I urban debate league schools. Try to recognize your privilege and be kind to all. Feel free to ask me questions about this or for ideas about how to support equity in debate.

8. Random Conversation: While we are waiting for speech docs to appear in our inboxes, I will often fill this time with random conversation for 3 reasons:

i. To prevent prep stealing (stop typing during dead time! Typing = prep. Only buttons required to send and receive an email, and download and open a speech doc are allowed during dead time);

ii. To get a baseline of everyone's speaking voice to appropriately assign speaker points and to appropriately yell "clear" (if you have a speech impediment, accent, or other reason for a lack of clarity to my ears, understanding your baseline helps me give fair speaker points);

iii. To make debate rounds less hostile (we're people, not robots).

High School LD Specific:

Values: I competed in a very traditional form of LD in high school (as well as nearly every speech and debate event that existed back then). I view values and value criterions similarly to framing arguments in policy debate. If you win how I should evaluate the debate and that you do the best job of winning under that interpretation, then I'll happily vote for you.

Ballot Writing: LD speeches are short, but doing a little bit of "ballot writing" (what you want me to say in my reason for decision) would go a long way.

Public Forum Specific:

I strongly believe that Public Forum should be a public forum. This is not the format for spreading or policy debate jargon. My policy background as a judge does not negate the purpose of public forum.