1st and 2nd Year National Championships at Woodward Academy

2015 — GA/US

Policy Paradigm List

All Paradigms: Show Hide

Varad Agarwala Greenhill School

Swapnil Agrawal Johns Creek High School

Last changed on Fri January 25, 2019 at 12:32 PM EDT

Put me on the email chain: swapdebate@gmail.com

I've debated CX for four years at Chamblee High School and four years at the University of Georgia. I will try to intervene as little as possible in debate rounds, so be clear and frame the debate. Don't be rude or offensive - I usually give pretty high speaks but this is one way to to hurt them. I have judged ZERO debates on the immigration topic so I likely have not heard your aff/DA/acronym before. I usually read along with the speech doc, so I will handle clarity/clipping issues.

FW - I think that debate is a game in which the affirmative defends hypothetical enactment of a policy and the other side argues that the policy is bad. I enjoy listening to kritikal affs and think they can be valuable, but I also think they engender a worse model of debate that is unfair to the negative. That being said, I will vote based on what happened in the round. I think you're in a much better position on framework if your aff is at least in the direction of the topic and you answer DAs.

Case/DA - I love these throwdowns. I will vote on presumption if there is no risk of the case, just as I am comfortable assigning zero risk of a link. Relevant impact differentials and turns case analysis are persuasive to me, especially in close debates. I also love a good impact turn debate. No one goes for dedev, heg bad, or china war good anymore... :(

Topicality - It's always a voting issue and outweighs theory unless told otherwise. I think this is an underutilized argument in debate - don't let affs get away with murder via small reforms. Providing a good view of the topic under your interpretation and defending that view is very persuasive, but I am also sympathetic to aff arguments about interp predictability. Lack of effective impact work is why I find myself voting aff on reasonability.

Counterplan - I can be persuaded that most counterplans are legitimate, but winning process or international fiat theory will be an uphill battle for the negative. I will not kick the counterplan for you under unless I'm told that's an option. Unlike some judges nowadays, I can be persuaded that conditionality is bad. Please slow down when you're spreading your theory block.

Kritik - I'm comfortable with some of the K literature that is read often in debate, specifically cap and afropess stuff. However, don't assume I know your specific Baudrillard evidence. Contextualized link analysis and turns case args often persuade me to vote negative. The framework debate is also very important for setting metrics for winning the round. I think a lot of negative teams get away with no solvency explanation on the alternative - aff teams need to press them on what the alternative looks like in practice/why that's relveant. Theory arguments against alternatives are underutilized in my opinion.

Matthew Azimi Hire None

Robert Bacon University of Chicago Lab Schools

Kevin Bancroft Niles West High School

Ian Beier Damien High School

Last changed on Sat March 16, 2024 at 5:02 PM UTC

**Online update: if my camera is off, i am not there**

I think debate is a game with educational benefits. I will listen to anything, but there are obviously some arguments that are more persuasive than others. i think this is most of what you're looking for:

1. arguments - For me to vote on an argument it must have a claim, warrant, and impact. A claim is an assertion of truth or opinion. A warrant is an analytical connection between data/grounds/evidence and your claim. An impact is the implication of that claim for how I should evaluate the debate. debate is competitive and adversarial, not cooperative. My bias is that debate strategies should be evidence-centric and, at a minimum, rooted in an academic discipline. My bias is that I do not want to consider anything prior to the reading of the 1AC when making my decision.

2. more on that last sentence - i am uninterested and incapable of resolving debates based on questions of character based on things that occurred outside of the debate that i am judging. if it is an issue that calls into question the safety of yourself or others in the community, you should bring that issue up directly with the tournament director or relevant authorities because that is not a competition question. if you are having an interpersonal dispute, you should try resolving your conflict outside of a competitive space and may want to seek mediation from trained professionals. there are likely exceptions, but there isnt a way to resolve these things in a debate round.

3. framework - arguments need to be impacted out beyond the word 'fairness' or 'education'. affirmatives do not need to read a plan to win in front of me. however, there should be some connection to the topic. fairness *can be* a terminal impact.

4. critiques - they should have links to the plan or have a coherent story in the context of the advantages. i am less inclined to vote neg for broad criticisms that arent contextualized to the affirmative. a link of omission is not a link. similarly, affirmatives lose debates a lot just because their 2ac is similarly generic and they have no defense of the actual assumptions of the affirmative.

5. counterplans - should likely have solvency advocates but its not a dealbreaker. slow down when explaining tricks in the 2nc.

6. theory - more teams should go for theory more often. negatives should be able to do whatever they want, but affirmatives need to be able to go for theory to keep them honest.

7. topicality - its an evidentiary issue that many people impact poorly. predictable limits, not ground, is the controlling internal link for most T-related impacts. saying 'we lose the [insert argument]' isnt really an impact without an explanation of why that argument is good. good debates make comparative claims between aff/neg opportunities to win relative to fairness.

8. clipping - i sometimes read along with speeches if i think that you are clipping. i will prompt you if i think you are clipping and if i think you are still clipping i will vote against you even if the other team doesnt issue an ethics challenge.

9. 2nr/2ar - there are lots of moving parts in debate. if you disagree with how i approach debate or think about debate differently, you should start your speech with judge instruction that provides an order of operations or helps construct that ballot. teams too often speak in absolute certainties and then presume the other team is winning no degree of offense. that is false and you will win more debates if you can account for that in your speech.

10. keep track of your own time.

unapologetically stolen from brendan bankey's judge philosophy as an addendum because there is no reason to rewrite it:

---"Perm do the counterplan" and "perm do the alt" are claims that are often unaccompanied by warrants. I will not vote for these statements unless the aff explains why they are theoretically legitimate BEFORE the 2AR. I am most likely to vote for these arguments when the aff has 1) a clear model of counterplan/alternative competition AND 2) an explanation for where the

I would prefer that debaters engage arguments instead of finesse their way out of links. This is especially awful when it takes place in clash debates. If you assert your opponent's offense does not apply when it does I will lower your speaker points.

In that vein, it is my bias that if an affirmative team chooses not to say "USFG Should" in the 1AC that they are doing it for competitive reasons. It is, definitionally, self-serving. Self-serving does not mean the aff should lose [or that its bad necessarily], just that they should be more realistic about the function of their 1AC in a competitive activity. If the aff does not say "USFG Should" they are deliberately shifting the point of stasis to other issues that they believe should take priority. It is reciprocal, therefore, for the negative to use any portion of the 1AC as it's jumping off point.

I think that limits, not ground, is the controlling internal link for most T-related impacts. Ground is an expression of the division of affirmative and negative strategies on any given topic. It is rarely an independent impact to T. I hate cross-examination questions about ground. I do not fault teams for being unhelpful to opponents that pose questions in cross-examination using the language of ground. People commonly ask questions about ground to demonstrate to the judge that the aff has not really thought out how their approach to the resolution fosters developed debates. A better, more precise question to ask would be: "What are the win conditions for the negative within your model of competition?"

Jeri Brand Pace Academy None

Kevin Buck Johns Creek High School None

Quang Bui Marist School

Last changed on Wed November 16, 2016 at 9:06 AM EDT

Background: Debated mostly Policy Debate for 4 years at Marist School although I did a couple of PF tournaments here and there.

Email: bnq2658@gmail.com

Last Update 11/16/16

Policy Paradigm

Summary: I usually prefer DA Case CP debate but K's are fine if I can understand it. Really don't want to vote on theory though.

General Things

I don't take prep for flashing or emailing unless the tournament is running behind or tab is nagging me to get done faster
Keep the debate calm and more relaxed
I probably won't look at evidence unless it is specifically indicted or highlighted

China Topic

I haven't had a lot of experience with this topic so please don't use too many abbreviations and acronyms
I don't know much about China policy as of this year but I know a good amount of Japanese politics and policy if that helps you at all

Case

Please don't read an econ impact in front of me if your internal links aren't amazing. I study economics and unless your internal link and solvency cards are by economists with a ton of numbers. I like warming impacts and sciencey impacts like nuclear fusion since they interest me and I would probably more likely to pay attention to them
I'm getting tired of heavy impact debates and overviews. It seems like most of the time the debate boils down to nothing
Solvency debates and debates about the actual aff are the most enjoyable for me since they make the debate less generic. They also have to be explained a lot more in detail since I probably won't know it

I really like DA debates
The DA debate is probably going to be won or lost at the link level so I would probably focus on that

Counterplans

I like CP's but I'm sometimes easily confused about what they do so you have to make it clear in CX or the 2NC as to what it does
I'm fine with judge kicking the CP even if you don't say it, given you extend case

K's

I'm very hit or miss when it comes to K's. Often I get very confused by the barrage of information 2N's introduce in the block. Here's my advice if you decide to go for a K in front of me, slow down when you get to the K flow and explain everything as if I've never debated before
K debates are way too technical and I hate that. Debate the K like how your authors would, slowly and philosophically
The link debate is honestly the only important thing about the K debate. If you run a K, I'm pretty much going to agree that you that you will outweigh the aff. I will, however, give you a much higher threshold to meet for the link so you need to spend about 75% of your time on the link debate
K tricks are stupid and cheap ways to win rounds so I'm probably not voting for them
On the aff the first thing you should do is just hammer that 1NC link evidence. It's usually super generic

I probably won't for T unless it is pretty much obvious that the aff is untopical. I'm probably going to default to reasonability
If it is a questionable aff, then please make the impacts clear and go slow.
If you prove that the aff is untopical but still lose the impact debate then I'll probably still just vote for you

Non-Traditional Arguments

I honestly don't know how I feel about these since I've only encountered a single unorthodox debate. I would prefer it if your argument is topical
If you do something really weird I'm probably going to have this confused look on my face and default to the more orthodox team

Theory

I hate voting on theory. Please don't make it a theory debate and if you do slow down. Theory about one specific argument is a reason to reject the argument.

Word PICs: have to be extremely justifiable
50 State Fiat: stupid but not an immediate reason to reject
International Fiat: good
Consult and Conditions CP's: depends on the solvency advocate
Condo: probably won't vote on unless dropped or perfcon
Multiplank CP's: fine if you have a solvency advocate for each plank
CP Perms: can make the CP go away, not sure about it as an advocacy
K Perms: kind of dumb. Just go for the no link

Liliana Burgess Hire None

Katie Carithers Westminster Schools

Last changed on Fri March 19, 2021 at 2:21 PM EDT

I will do my best to evaluate the debate as fairly as possible despite any of my biases. Debate is a persuasive game and read the arguments that you feel most comfortable reading.

Have fun, enjoy the debate, and respect one another! Respect people’s pronouns

If you have any questions, feel free to email me at katiecarithers@gmail.com

Policy:

Debated policy for 4 years in high school as a 2N and 1 year in college as a 2A

Impact calc is extremely important and often under-utilized—it can decide which team wins or loses a debate.

Topicality: I think really any aff can lose to a t violation if argued well and not utterly ridiculous. Debaters should explain their impacts beyond nebulous ideas like “fairness” and “education” and clearly identify and articulate offense. What the topic would look like under each interpretation should be explained including affs allowed and affs excluded.

Topicality vs. Plan-less Affs: I think fairness arguments are persuasive, especially reasons why fairness should precede education or is a pre-requisite to advocacy/engagement/critical thinking skills. I also coach students who read plan-less or advocacy-based affirmatives and think the neg probably needs to win that a state heuristic is a good model of debate.

Ks: I have gone for Ks and am familiar with general K literature. Leverage your links and make the K as specific to the aff as possible. Explain the alt and why it solves for its impacts and why it solves for or accesses the impacts of the aff.

The aff impacts are powerful tool to leverage vs the K, especially when most alts are nebulous or unexplained

K tricks should always still be answered in the 2AR even if the 1AR drops them with an explanation that they were not articulated in that same argumentative form in the block as in the 2NC – example: “fiat is illusory” said in the 2NC and then blown up in the 2NR.

Theory: Well-debated theory debates can be great – I ran a lot of Process/Agent CPs my senior year.

LD:

I taught at the San Jose Debate Institute this past summer and have judged upwards of 40 LD debates. I have also been coaching LD for the past year.

Tricks: I am less familiar with this style of debate

Theory: I am probably less lenient on theory violations without well-explained and rigorously defendable arguments of reasons to reject the team

Morgan R. Choi Henry W. Grady

Josh Clark Montgomery Bell Academy

Last changed on Fri July 19, 2024 at 4:47 PM EDT

Joshua Clark

Montgomery Bell Academy - 2013 - current

University of Michigan - Institute Instructor (2007 - Current)
Email: jreubenclark10@gmail.com

Past Schools:
Juan Diego Catholic 09-13
Notre Dame in Sherman Oaks 08-09
Damien 04-06

Debating:
Jordan (UT) 96-98
College of Eastern Utah 99
Cal St Fullerton 01-04

Website:
policydebatecentral.com

Speaker Points
Points will generally stay between 27.5 and 29.9. It generally takes a 28.8 average to clear. I assign points with that in mind. Teams that average 28.8 or higher in a debate mean I thought your points were elimination round-level debates. While it's not an exact science, 29-29.1 means you had a good chance of advancing in elimination rounds, and 29.2+ indicates excellence reserved for quarters+. I'm not stingy with these kinds of points; they have nothing to do with past successes. It has everything to do with your performance in THIS debate.

Etiquette
1. Try to treat each other with mutual respect.

2. Cards and tags should have the same clarity
3. Cards MUST be marked during the speech. Please say, "Mark the card," and please have you OR your partner physically mark the cards in the speech. It is not possible to remember where you've marked your cards after the speech. Saying "mark the card" is the only way to let your judge and competitors know that you do not intend to represent that you've read the entirety of the card. Physically marking the card in the speech is necessary to maintain an accurate account of what you did or didn't read.

Overview
My 25 years in the community have led me to formulate opinions about how the activity should be run. I'm not sharing these with you because I think this is the way you have to debate but because you may get some insight about how to win and earn better speaker points in front of me.

1) Conceded claims without warrants - These aren't complete arguments. A 10-second dropped ASPEC is very unlikely to decide a debate for me. Perm, do the CP without a theoretical justification; it also makes zero sense. Perm - do both needs to be followed by an explanation for how it resolves the link to the net benefit, or it is not an argument.

2) Voting issues are reasons to reject the argument. (Other than conditionality)

3) Debate stays in the round -- Debate is a game of testing ideas and their counterparts. Those ideas presented in the debate will be the sole factor used in determining the winning team. Things said or done outside of this debate round will not be considered when determining a winning team.

4) Your argument doesn't improve by calling it a "DA" -- I'm sure your analytical standard to your framework argument on the K is great, but overstating its importance by labeling it a "DA" isn't accurate. It's a reason to prefer your interpretation.

Topicality vs Conventional Affs: I default to competing interpretations on topicality but can be persuaded by reasonability. Topicality is a voting issue.

Topicality vs Critical Affs: I generally think that policy debate is a good thing and that a team should both have a plan and defend it. Given that, I have no problem voting for "no plan" advocacies or "fiat-less" plans. I will be looking for you to win that your impact turns to topicality/framework outweighs the loss of education/fairness that would be given in a "fiated" plan debate. Affirmative teams struggle with answering the argument that they could advocate most of their aff while defending a topical plan. I also think that teams who stress they are a pre-requisite to topical action have a more difficult time with topical version-type arguments than teams who impact turn standards. If you win that the state is irredeemable at every level, you are much more likely to get me to vote against FW. The K aff teams who have had success in front of me have been very good at generating a good list of arguments that opposing teams could run against them to mitigate the fairness impact of the T/FW argument. This makes the impact turns of a stricter limit much more persuasive to me.

I'm also in the fairness camp as a terminal impact, as opposed to an emphasis on portable skills. I think you can win that T comes before substantive issues.

One note to teams that are neg against an aff that lacks stable advocacy: Make sure you adapt your framework arguments to fit the aff. Don't read..." you must have a plan" if they have a plan. If a team has a plan but doesn't defend fiat, base your ground arguments on that violation.

Counterplans and Disads: The more specific to the aff, the better. There are few things better than a well-researched PIC that just blind sites a team. Objectively, I think counterplans that compete on certainty or immediacy are not legitimate. However, I still coach teams to run these arguments, and I can still evaluate a theory debate about these different counterplans as objectively as possible. Again, the more specific the evidence is to the aff, the more legitimate it will appear.

The K: I was a k debater and a philosophy major in college. I prefer criticisms that are specific to the resolution. If your K links don't discuss Intellectual Property rights this year, then it's unlikely to be very persuasive to me.

I also do not think Fiat bad is negative ground. Obviously, that can change based on the debate, but when so many K teams kick their topic-specific links to go for the Fiat K in the 2nr, I can't help but mourn how great the debate would have been actually negating the substance of the affirmative.

Impact comparisons usually become the most important part of a kritik, and the excessive link list becomes the least of a team’s problems heading into the 2nr. It would be best if you won that either a) you turn the case and have an external impact or b) you solve the case and have an external impact. Root cause arguments are sound but rarely address the timeframe issue of case impacts. If you are going to win your magnitude comparisons, then you better do a lot to mitigate the case impacts. I also find most framework arguments associated with a K nearly pointless. Most of them are impacted by the K proper and depend on you winning the K to win the framework argument. Before devoting any more time to the framework beyond getting your K evaluated, you should ask yourself and clearly state to me what happens if you win your theory argument. You should craft your "role of the ballot" argument based on the answer to that question. I am willing to listen to sequencing arguments that EXPLAIN why discourse, epistemology, ontology, etc., come first.

Conclusion: I love debate...good luck if I'm judging you, and please feel free to ask any clarifying questions.

To promote disclosure at the high school level, any team that practices near-universal "open source" will be awarded .2 extra per debater if you bring that to my attention before the RFD.

Robert Clark Stratford Academy None

Tara Cooper Chattahoochee High School None

Coles Cotter Westminster Schools

Last changed on Sat November 4, 2017 at 11:24 AM EDT

I'm a sophomore at Cornell University this year, and I debated for The Westminster Schools in high school.

tl;dr:

1. Speed is fine, but clarity is a must- I’ll say clear but I might give up after a while. I won't dock your speaks as much as other judges because I think if you're smart and work hard you deserve to be rewarded for that, but if I don't flow an argument because I can't understand you I can't vote on it.
2. Disclosure is good- unless it’s a new aff you should always disclose the 1ac or previous 2nrs, and don't lurk outside the round until one minute before the debate starts--that annoys me.
3. Don't steal prep.

Case:

Try to actually engage the case debate--I've watched so many debates where the only case defense was a couple old impact defense cards. Even if you don't have any aff-specific cards, a couple good analytics are easy to throw together and can actually make a difference.

Internal links are usually the weakest part of the aff- exploit that rather than 10 generic impact defense cards

DAs:
Live it love it. I'm a big fan of the politics and elections disads.

Impact turns:
Love them as well! Most of my 1nr’s are disads or impact turns.

CPs:
Explain how the CP solves the aff specifically and answer all solvency deficits no matter how small they sound- a good 2A can (and should) expand on one the 2nr blows off.

I will not kick the 2nr's advocacy for them-- they are stuck with their choice for the final rebuttal.

International fiat: probably ok, because aff should have a USFG key warrant.

50 state fiat: eh, depends on how much the neg cheats by adding different planks to fiat through solvency deficits and if those planks are grounded in evidence.

Consult, conditions, recommend, things that do the entirety of the aff/compete on certainty and/or immediacy and normal means: bad

PICs out of the mandate of the plan: ok if they are based in lit

Word PICs: bad. I think word pics are bad and will not hesitate to vote on it.

Condo: 2 conditional options is probably legit, any less than that is fine, more than 3 makes me want to vote aff. Perfcon also makes me want to vote aff.
Multiplank CPs: must have the same mechanism

If they don’t go for the cheating CP/perm, theory is a reason to reject the argument, not the team.

T
I haven't judged many T debates on this topic so keep that in mind. A good T violation is one that’s explained, supported by good definitions and impacted well. Don’t just read your generic limits disads and what not-contextualize it to the aff! The aff needs to win that the neg excludes some essential group of arguments and explain why that’s bad and they should lose the round. Specificity goes a long way. Talk about what you think are the key topic controversies and explain why the neg excludes those. Reasonability is important to me--I probably think most affs are reasonably t.

K—
I'm not the best person to go for a k in front of. You should actually understand what you’re saying and be able to explain it beyond buzzwords. Affs should just defend their aff! Heg is good, empiricism is good, falsifiability is good etc. Don’t neglect framework! Weighing the aff is probably a god-given right. (It’ll be *VERY* hard to convince me otherwise) Role of the ballot arguments are excuses for lazy debating; instead of making the role of the ballot "vote neg to challenge X" win that challenging X actually outweighs. Util is probably also my default. Floating piks are bad.

K affs:
I strongly believe the aff should defend a topical action by the USFG and topicality is a very persuasive argument, so proving to me your aff is good for debate is a battle you have to win. I obviously won't auto vote neg in a fw debate because I try to be as tabula rasa as possible, but I'm not the best judge for you if you don't read a plan.

Random Theory Things:
ASPEC: not a fan, it MUST be set up in 1AC cx if its to be considered at all
OSPEC etc: please no
I mostly lean aff on theory, but if you clearly explain why something is (or isn't) a voter you should be fine

Random—
If you have any questions feel free to email me at colescotter@gmail.com

Anish Dayal Westminster Schools None

Kaitlin DeFoor Calhoun High School None

Blake Deng Johns Creek High School

Last changed on Sun January 14, 2024 at 12:31 PM EDT

Procedural Stuff

Call me Blake or BD instead of Judge, I don't like feeling old

Email chain: blako925@gmail.com

Please also add: jchsdebatedocs@gmail.com

Add both emails, title the chain Tournament Rd # Your Team vs. Other Team ex) Harvard Round 4 Johns Creek XY vs. Northview AM.

1AC should be sent at round start or if I'm late (sorry in advance), as soon as I walk in the room

If you go to the bathroom or fill your waterbottle before your own speech, I'll dock 1 speaker point

Stealing prep = heavily docked speaks. If you want to engage your partner in small talk, just speak normally so everyone knows you're not stealing prep, don't whisper. Eyes should not be wandering on your laptop and hands should not be typing/writing. You can be on your phone.

Clipping is auto-loss and I assign lowest possible speaks. Ethics violation claims = round stoppage, I will decide round on the spot using provided evidence of said violation

Topic Knowledge

I HAVE ZERO TOPIC KNOWLEDGE.

I HAVE ZERO TOPIC KNOWLEDGE

I debated in high school, didn’t debate in college, have never worked at any camp. I currently work an office job. Any and all acronyms should be explained to me. Specific solvency mechanisms should be explained to me. Tricky process CPs should be explained to me. Many K jargon words that I have heard such as ressentiment, fugitivity, or subjectivity should be explained to me.

Spreading

I WRITE SLOW AND MY HAND CRAMPS EASILY. PLEASE SLOW DOWN DURING REBUTTALS

My ears have become un-attuned to debate spreading. Please go 50% speed at the start of your speech before ramping up. I don’t care how fast or unclear you are on the body of cards b/c it is my belief that you will extend that body text in an intelligent manner later on. However, if you spread tags as if you are spreading the body of a card, I will not flow them. If you read analytics as if you are spreading the body of a card, I will not flow them. If I do not flow an argument, you’re not going to win on it. If you are in novice this probably doesn't apply to you.

While judges must do their best to flow debates and adjudicate in an objective matter that rewards the better debater, there is a certain level of debater responsibility to spread at a reasonable speed and clear manner. Judge adaptation is an inevitable skill debaters must learn.

In front of me, adaption should be spreading speed. If you are saying words faster than how fast I can move my pen, I will say SLOW DOWN. If you do not comply, it is your prerogative, and you can roll the dice on whether or not I will write your argument down. I get that your current speed may be OK with NDT finalists or coaches with 20+ years of experience, but I am not those people. Adapt or lose.

No Plan Text & Framework

I am OK with any affirmative whether it be policy, critical, or performance. The problem is that the 2AC often has huge case overviews that are sped through that do not explain to me very well what the aff harms are and how the advocacy statement (or whatever mechanism) solves them. Furthermore, here are some facts about my experience in framework:

I was the 1N in high school, so I never had to take framework other than reading the 1NC shell since my partner took in the 2NC and 2NR.
I can count the number of times I debated plan-less affs on one hand.
As of me updating this paradigm on 01/28/2023 I have judged roughly 15 framework rounds (maybe less).

All the above make framework functionally a coin toss for either side. My understanding of framework is predicated off of what standards you access and if the terminal impacts to those standards prove if your model of debate is better for the world. If you win impact turns against the neg FW interpretation, then you don't need a C/I, but you have to win that the debate is about potential ballot solvency or some other evaluation method. If the neg wins that the round is about proving a better model of debate, then an inherent lack of a C/I means I vote for the better interp no matter how terrible it is. The comparison in my mind is that a teacher asked to choose the better essay submitted by two students must choose Student A if Student B doesn't turn in anything no matter how terrible or offensive Student A's essay is.

Tech vs. Truth

I used to like arguments such as “F & G in federal government aren't capitalized T” or “Period at the end of the plan text or the sentence keeps going T” b/c I felt like these arguments were objectively true. As I continue to judge I think I have moved into a state where I will allow pretty much any argument no matter how much “truth” there is backing it especially since some truth arguments such as the aforementioned ones are pretty troll themselves. There is still my job to provide a safe space for the activity which means I am obligated to vote down morally offensive arguments such as racism good or sexism good. However, I am now more inclined to vote on things like “Warming isn’t real” or “The Earth is flat” with enough warrants. After all, who am I to say that status quo warming isn’t just attributable to heating and cooling cycles of the Earth, and that all satellite imagery of the Earth is faked and that strong gravitational pulls cause us to be redirected back onto flat Earth when we attempt to circle the “globe”. If these arguments are so terrible and untrue, then it really shouldn’t take much effort to disprove them.

Reading Evidence

I err on the side of intervening as little as possible, so I don’t read usually read evidence. Don't ask me for a doc or send me anything afterwards. The only time I ever look at ev is if I am prompted to do so during speech time.

This will reward teams that do the better technical debating on dropped/poorly answered scenarios even if they are substantiated by terrible evidence. So if you read a poorly written federalism DA that has no real uniqueness or even specific link to the aff, but is dropped and extended competently, yes, I will vote for without even glancing at your ev.

That being said, this will also reward teams that realize your ADV/DA/Whatever ev is terrible and point it out. If your T interp is from No Quals Alex, blog writer for ChristianMingle.com, and the other team points it out, you're probably not winning the bigger internal link to legal precision.

Case

I love case debate. Negatives who actually read all of the aff evidence in order to create a heavy case press with rehighlightings, indicts, CX applications, and well backed UQ/Link/Impact frontlines are always refreshing watch. Do this well in front of me and you will for sure be rewarded.

By the 2AR I should know what exactly the plan does and how it can solve the advantages. This obviously doesn't have to be a major component of the 1AR given time constraint, but I think there should at least some explanation in the 2AR. If I don't have at least some idea of what the plan text does and what it does to access the 1AC impacts, then I honestly have no problem voting on presumption that doing nothing is better than doing the aff.

Disads

Similar to above, I think that DA's have to be fully explained with uniqueness, link, and impact. Absent any of these things I will often have serious doubts regarding the cohesive stance that the DA is taking.

Topicality

Don't make debate meta-arguments like "Peninsula XY read this at Glenbrooks so obviously its core of the topic" or "every camp put out this aff so it's predictable". These types of arguments mean nothing to me since I don't know any teams, any camp activities, any tournaments, any coaches, performance of teams at X tournament, etc.

One small annoyance I have at teams that debate in front of me is that they don't debate T like a DA. You need to win what standards you access, how they link into your terminal impacts like education or fairness, and why your chosen impact outweighs the opposing teams.

Counterplan

I have no inherent bias against any counterplan. If a CP has a mechanism that is potentially abusive (international fiat, 50 state fiat, PICs bad) then I just see this as offense for the aff, not an inherent reason why the team or CP should immediately be voted down.

I heavily detest this new meta of "perm shotgunning" at the top of each CP in the 2AC. It is basically unflowable. See "Spreading" above. Do this and I will unironically give you a 28 maximum. Spread the perms between cards or other longer analytical arguments. That or actually include substance behind the perm such as an explanation of the function of the permutation, how it dodges the net benefit, if it has any additional NB, etc.

I think 2NR explanation of what exactly the CP does is important. A good 2N will explain why their CP accesses the internal links or solvency mechanisms of the 1AC, or if you don't, why the CP is able to access the advantages better than the original 1AC methods. Absent that I am highly skeptical of broad "CP solves 100% of case" claims and the aff should punish with specific solvency deficits.

A problem I have been seeing is that affirmatives will read solvency deficits against CP's but not impacting the solvency deficits vs. the net benefit. If the CP doesn't solve ADV 1 then you need to win that ADV 1 outweighs the net benefit.

Judge kick is not my default mindset, neg has say I have to judge kick and also justify why this is OK.

Kritiks

I don't know any K literature other than maybe some security or capitalism stuff. I feel a lot of K overviews include fancy schmancy words that mean nothing to me. If you're gonna go for a K with some nuance, then you're going to need to spend the effort explaining it to me like I am 10 years old.

Theory

If the neg reads more than 1 CP + 1 K you should consider pulling the trigger on conditionality.

I default to competing interpretations unless otherwise told.

Define dispositionality for me if this is going to be part of the interp.

Extra Points

To promote flowing, you can show me your flows at the end of a round and earn up to 1.0 speaker points if they are good. To discourage everyone bombarding me with flows, you can also lose up to a full speaker point if your flows suck.

Mahnvee Deo Hire None

Adam Dettelbach Georgetown Day School None

Matt Dlugas Cathedral Prep None

Lauren Donnenfeld Alpharetta High

Last changed on Fri April 12, 2024 at 6:49 AM EDT

Director of Debate at Alpharetta High School where I also teach AP US Government & Politics (2013- present)

Former grad assistant at Vanderbilt (2012-2013)

Debated (badly) at Emory (2007-2011).

Please add me to the email chain: laurenivey318@gmail.com

Top-level, I really love debate and am honored to be judging your debate. I promise to try my best to judge the round fairly, and I hope the notes below help you. Most of the below notes are just some general predispositions/ thoughts. I firmly believe that debaters should control the debate space and will do my best to evaluate the round in front of me, regardless of if you adapt to these preferences or not.

I flow on paper and definitely need pen time; I've tried to flow on the computer and it just doesn't work for me.

Counterplans- I like a good counterplan debate. I generally think conditionality is good, and is more justified against new affirmatives. PICs, Process CPs, Uniqueness CPs, Multiplank CPs, Advantage CPs etc. are all fine. On consult counterplans, and other counterplans that are not textually and functionally competitive, I tend to lean aff on CP theory. All CPs are better with a solvency advocate. If the negative reads a CP, presumption shifts affirmative, and the negative needs to be winning a decent risk of the net benefit for me to vote negative. I am probably not the greatest person for counterplan competition debates.

Disads- The more specific, the better. Yes, you can read your generic DAs but I love when teams have specific politix scenarios or other specific DAs that show careful research and tournament prep. If there are a lot of links being read on a DA, I tend to default to the team that is controlling uniqueness.

Topicality- I find T debates sometimes difficult to evaluate because they sometimes seem to require a substantial amount of judge intervention. A tool that I think is really under utilized in T debates is the caselist/ discussion of what affs are/ are not allowed under your interpretation. Try hard to close the loop for me at the end of the 2nr/ 2ar about why your vision of the topic is preferable. Be sure to really discuss the impacts of your standards in a T debate.

Framework- Framework is a complicated question for me. On a truth level, I think people should read a plan text, and I exclusively read plan texts when I was a debater. However, I'll vote for whoever wins the debate, whether you read a topical plan text or not, and frequently vote for teams that don't read a plan text; in fact, my voting record is better for teams reading planless affirmatives than it is for teams going for FW. However, I also think this is because teams that don't defend a plan are typically much better at defending their advocacy than neg teams are at going for FW. I tend to think affs should at least be in the direction of the topic; I'm fairly sympathetic to the "you explode limits 2nr" if your aff is about something else. Put another way, if your aff is not at least somewhat related to the topic area it's going to be harder to get my ballot. I do think fairness is a terminal impact because I don't know what an alternative way to evaluate the debate would be but I can be persuaded otherwise.

Kritiks- I am more familiar with more common Ks such as security or cap than I am with high theory arguments like Baudrillard. You can still read less common or high theory Ks in front of me, but you should probably explain them more. I tend to think the alternative is one of the weakest parts of the Kritik and that most negative teams do not do enough work explaining how the Kritik functions.

Misc-If both teams agree that topicality will not be read in the debate, and that is communicated to me prior to the start of the round, any mutually agreed previous year's topic is on the table. I will also bump speaks +0.5 for choosing this option as long as an effort is made by both teams. I am strongly in the camp of tech over truth.

I am unlikely to vote on disclose your prefs, wipeout, spark, or anything else I would consider morally repugnant. I also don't think debate should be a question of who is a good person. While I think you should make good decisions out of round, I am not in the camp of "I will vote against you for bad decisions you made out of round" or allegations made in round about out of round behavior. But, I have voted against teams or substantially lowered speaks for making the round a hostile learning environment and think it is my job as a judge and educator to make the round a safe space.

Good luck! Feel free to email me with any questions.

Katie Duval Montgomery Bell Academy

Janet Escobedo Hire

Last changed on Sat September 7, 2019 at 10:40 AM PDT

Preferred E-mail:

janet.esco@gmail.com

Debate Experience:

Georgia State University (Atlanta, GA)3-ish years (Policy)

Bradley Tech High School (in Milwaukee, WI)- 4 yrs (Policy), Assistant Debate Coach - 1Yr (LD & PF)

Current Position: Head Coach at Oak Grove HS, Kipp San Jose Collegiate, and Downtown College Prep-El Primero

I'm only writing this so I don't get fined. J.K.

If I said I'm trying to be as clean of a slate as possible when judging, I'd be lying. I vote on mostly everything as long as there are good arguments made and carried through the final speeches.

Things that will aggravate me and make me want to hurt a puppy (May apply to National circuit LD and PF debates when applicable):

The spray and pray (You just make random args with no content just for the sake of making them) -_-
Race arguments executed badly, ESPECIALLY from someone that has never experienced racial discrimination a day in their lives. You will get stale-faced, and I will make sure my ancestors haunt you in your dreams. -__________________-
When you run topicality when you're constrained to a packet and use abuse as a voter -__-
When you run arguments incompletely, and decide to go for it (i.e. Counterplans with no CP text, DAs with no link or uniqueness or impact, T with no standards or voters)
When you argue with me and you know you're wrong. Don't do it. I'm not the one, I promise you.

I love clash, clash is fun. I can't be mad at a passive-aggresive CX or debate because I was notorious for that, but when you show your whole behind then it gets awkward and I will probably dock your speaks if it's unwarranted.

The one thing I love more than clash is when the debater does the work for me. This is often achieved through good line by lines and impact calcs.

I am okay with speed as long as you're clear. If you know you are an uncler spreader, then don't do it to me or to yourself. I will yell clear twice and stop flowing if it continues and give you the death glare.

K debates, performance debates, T, and weird alts are fine.

Theory and framework debates- I need you to definately slow down on these arguments if you want me to flow everything and get a good understanding of the arguments. These also need an impact calculus.

I will not vote on oncase arguments alone on the neg, I need some sort of off case to go with it.

Lincoln-Douglass:

Same applies. Don't make me want to kick a puppy in your name. I love impact arguments and extending those impact arguments. Whether its extinction, dehum, etc. I need Impacts and I'll love you for using them.

Framework: Will vote on it if you tell me why I should vote on it with clear impacts.

T and theory: same

DA's and CPs: they neeeedd to have impacts and your counterplans need to be mutually exclusive either on their own or through a net benefit.

I value more the quality of the argument than the amount. I like efficiency.

line by lines make me happy.

Dont be condescending in round or when giving my RFD. If you do, I can't promise that I won't embarrass you.

I am a fairly progressive judge, I am open to most arguments and stay as objective as possible.

Matt Fahrenbacher Niles West High School

Mollie Fiero Hire

Last changed on Fri March 23, 2018 at 1:25 PM EDT

College Prep ‘14
Emory ‘18

Woodward 2018 Note: Really excited to judge the budding minds of debate's future! Please make sure that you speak clearly (even if you sacrifice some speed). You really need evidence about your counterplan in relation to the aff. Its super boring listening to a generic CP/DA with no nuance or specific link/solvency analysis.

I do want to be on the email chains: mollie.fiero@gmail.com

Very few rounds on the Education topic - watch your acronyms/assumed topic knowledge, this is ESPECIALLY TRUE in T debates when its difficult to assess what is "core ground"

Re: Trump -- Durable fiat does not include things your solvency cards say but aren't in your plan text. Understand the executive branch and its power. CX should lay out what is within the scope of the plan and what is up for Trump/his cabinet to decide. I do NOT want to vote on a Trump good politics DA. Don't make me.

1. Be smart, engaging, and nice. Debate in a way that makes you and your coaches proud. Respect your opponents and your partner. Be aware of the gendered and racial implications of the way you speak to/interact with your opponents and partner. Trust that I know what I'm doing, and I'll give you the same courtesy.

2. Flex is good
No insurmountable policy or K bias. I went for T and read a no plan aff at my last tournament. Its good to be a games player, but if one side has an affective argument, or reasons why their argument implicates debate itself those are usually things the other side must at least acknowledge. That being said I am highly literate in 'conservative' policy debate (7+ years of big DA and case debates under my belt) and think those debates are super fun.

AFFS WITHOUT PLANS: You need to have a good explanation (in cx) of - why is this being presented in debate? what is the role of the judge? the negative?

3. Explanation wins debates
Whether it’s the link turn to politics, the K alt, or counterplan solvency, the team with better depth and argument analysis usually wins.

4. Evidence isn’t the end-all be-all
Indicts are great and so is comparison, what I really mean is that true analytics are slayer.

5. I take my task very seriously and will work hard to make the right decision. Even after 4 years of judging high school I'm still learning about myself as a judge, but I am determined to continue to work hard because I respect your time and effort in debates. You and your coaches should be conscious of the way you interact with all judges, but especially (younger) women, queer, and POC judges in post-round interactions.

Finally -- have fun and talk to me if you're interested in Emory debate!

Oliver Flint Milton High School

Last changed on Wed October 19, 2022 at 1:46 PM EDT

Debated 4 years at Milton High School (2A/1N)

Debated 3 years at Georgia State University (2N/1A)

Add me to the email chain: my email is t.oliver.flint@gmail.com

For pre-round reading: Do what you want - it's your debate, and I'm here to listen to you. I have not judged policy debate since 2019.

The rest of this paradigm is a collection of my pre-existing beliefs/thoughts about specific issues circa 2019. I kept it in with minimal edits because I still agree with it, but I (try to) evaluate each debate based on how the debaters frame/explain arguments, so everything below is debateable.

Basic Summary:

1. Debate is a game. Consequently, I tend to think that fairness is more important than education etc. However, in order to really weigh the importance of fairness, you have to prove the value of the game, so it's useful to think of fairness as more of an internal link than an impact.

2. I believe that I should evaluate logical opportunity costs to the aff. This means that I'm more likely to be persuaded that neg advocacies that don't use the topic actor don't necessarily disprove the aff (see the section on Agent CPs).

3. I don't like offense/defense. I would much rather vote for a 2AR that clearly explains why a contrived DA doesn't make sense than a 2AR that goes for an equally contrived link/impact turn. I am willing to vote on 0% risk of the case or a DA, but it will require work on your part to explain it to me.

Specific Arguments:

Disads

I like DA/case debates, especially when the neg is investing time and analysis on specific case defense arguments. I read politics throughout high school, so I'll be familiar with it, but I think that it's probably not the best option in most cases. I would rather hear a more case-specific DA that clashes more with the aff.

Counterplans

I generally really like counterplans, but my opinions vary with different types of CPs, so I'll just give my opinions on the different types:

-- Agent CPs: I think the majority of the debate community probably disagrees with me on this, but I tend to think the Agent CPs don't disprove the aff because they don't prove a logical opportunity cost to the topic actor (the USFG). This is not to say that you couldn't win Agent CPs good in front of me, but you will have to prove an interpretation of my role as the judge as someone who has the power to decide between the USFG taking an action and some other actor (States, Other countries, etc).

-- Advantage CPs: I really like these counterplans because I think that they're good at testing contrived aff internal links. I'd say the A+ strategy would be to find advantage CPs in 1AC evidence because it makes for a more compelling CP solvency story.

-- PICs: I love a good PIC debate*. However, the most common way neg teams botch these debates is by either 1.) not properly clarifying exactly what the aff defends in 1AC cross-x, or 2.) not properly writing their CP texts. You can win different theoretical interpretations of what competition means, but it would be best if you could write your CP text so that it is both textually and functionally competitive.

PICs are also a good way to leverage smaller topic DAs, which I like.

*You're unlikely to win that a Word PIC is competitive in front of me.

-- Process CPs: I think that CPs that compete based off of the certainty or immediacy of the plan are generally sketchy but not unwinnable in front of me - I'm more likely to believe that the CP is justified if you have solvency advocate evidence in the context of the aff.

Theory

I'll vote on it if it's well explained and impacted out. The only thing I'll add here is that I tend to think that 1-2 conditional advocacies are defensible, but beyond that I'm more likely to go aff on condo bad.

Kritiks

Kritiks should disprove the affirmative. I think that kritiks tend to fail at this for two reasons: they either don't have an internal link from the aff to their impacts, or they don't present a logical opportunity cost to the aff.

- Internal links: In my experience, the link story of most Ks goes something like plan = capitalism, and then capitalism -> extinction, but it doesn't make the direct connection between the aff and the impacts to the K. I think this vulnerability opens up the K to stronger perm arguments because the aff can more easily prove that the plan is good even if the rest of the status quo is bad.

- Opportunity costs: you can refer to my thoughts on agent CPs here because the same basic logic applies. If the plan advocates an action by the USFG, and the neg advocates a grassroots movement against capitalism, I'm unlikely to think the alt disproves the affirmative/is a logically relevant consideration.

This is where framework debates come in. I think that framework can be used to prove competition for alts that do something about epistemology/ontology/etc. because it proves why the alt's approach is distinct in a way that's important enough for me to consider competitive. However, you're unlikely to win on just FW arguments: the 2NR that just says "epistemology first" and then "the aff's epistemology is capitalist/imperialist/etc." doesn't strike me as a compelling neg ballot because the epistemology arguments are really just defensive indicts to the aff.

- Side note: I tend to think that the neg should have to prove that the alt solves the impacts to the K. This is an important part of the debate that the aff should press on.

Thoughts on specific Ks -

-- Topic Ks - these are my favorite Ks, and most likely the ones that will clash best with the affirmative. However, they're also the Ks that I'm least likely to be familiar with, so they might require extra explanation.

-- Standard Ks (Security K/Cap K/Fem IR/etc.) - I'll be most familiar with these Ks, but they're often very generic and need to be explained in the context of the aff.

-- Identity Ks (Race/Gender/Sexuality/Disability/etc) - Links should be clearly explained and specific to the aff. I'm not very persuaded by links of omission or link arguments that are tied solely to state-based advocacy.

-- Language Ks - if the other team uses slurs, is outwardly rude towards someone's identity, or otherwise tries to invalidate someone's identity, I'm 100% willing to vote on these arguments. However, I think that some language Ks are more persuasive than others, so I would only suggest going for this argument if the language is particularly egregious.

Topicality (vs traditional affs)

I like topicality debates. That being said, I think that your T argument becomes exponentially more persuasive when you can develop a topical caselist or, better yet, a topical version of the aff. The reverse is also true: if the neg can't provide a vision of what their interpretation looks like, I'm more likely to be persuaded by aff characterizations of the neg interp being overlimiting.

I default to reasonability. This means that, absent an alternative framing for the T debate, I'll vote aff if the affirmative is able to win sufficient defense to the negative's interpretation, even in the absence of substantial affirmative offense.

Topicality (vs non-traditional affs)

As I said above, I believe that debate is a game. Therefore, I'll probably find arguments about procedural fairness more persuasive than arguments about changing real-world policy etc. However, the neg also have to prove the value of the game, so that requires the neg to make some claims to educational/skill-based benefits to debate.

Because I think that debate is a game, I also tend to think that rules/limits are good; this means I'd be more persuaded by an aff counterinterpretation that sets a different limit on the topic than an aff argument that we shouldn't have any limits to begin with.

I'm not inclined to think that topicality is a form of violence, but that's mostly because I don't think it's ever been adequately explained to me. I could see myself voting on this argument, but it would require a lot of explanation on the part of the aff.

K vs K aff debates

I'll admit that I have almost no experience with these kind of debates. The depth of my knowledge on this subject does not extend past the phrase "no perms in a method debate", which is a statement I don't understand. In a debate like this, both sides will have to do a lot of explanation of how the aff/alt/perm function and how they relate to each other.

Saul Forman Westminster Schools

Last changed on Sat November 18, 2017 at 5:35 AM EDT

sauljhonathanforman@gmail.com

The #1 tip I can give you is that debate is about comparisons - no matter what you're going for, explain why I prefer your stuff even if they win their stuff

1. Cliff Notes

- Not familiar with the topic

- No preference for the number of issues in a debate.

- An argument isn't dropped just bc there's no ink next to it

- Having to choose from non-specific strategies, I prefer politics/case d, a topic t arg, or a topic kritik to process counterplans and kritiks about death and omissions in the 1ac

- I'm going to try to find any way not to vote on cheap shots, so if you're going for "Neg fiat or perms are a voting issue" close all doors

- K frameworks that change the decision from yes/no policy can be won, but even if you win "the role of the ballot is to form ethical subjectivity" you still need to win why the Aff's subjectivity is bad, which sometimes requires beating the case

- Counterplan competition - I generally think of it as textual / functional competition - CPs that contain all of the words in the plan are usually cheating

- The only relevant question for T is the most predictable interpretation

- Neither "uniqueness controls the link" nor "link controls uniqueness" mean anything - they're both uncertain estimates of the future

- I probably won't vote on reasonability

- I like jokes, but I also like taking speaker points from people who make unfunny jokes at other people that make them feel bad

- An argument has both an explanation of its validity (warrant) and of how it alters the way I think about the rest of the debate (impact)

- Critiques - both teams should debate the alternative - even if it's a critical pedagogy or something, explain how that solves both your and the other team's impacts

2. T-USFG

(Note: these are my gut leanings - I'm not emotionally attached to these and could be convinced to vote the other way)

- The Affirmative should defend a topical plan

- That does not mean the Neg gets a free pass - you should still defend why a more limited topic is more important than their offense

- Still do impact calculus - it's even more important here - why is having a limited topic more important than the existence of a general antagonism outside of the debate

- Fairness/predictability is an impact because debate is a competitive activity centered around argument

- Connect your offense to the ballot - if debate is dead and the ballot is structurally exclusionary then I need to understand why an Aff ballot would then resolve that

- I probably won't think it's a reverse voting issue

- Critiques of the topic are not a reason "being topical" is bad

- Critiques of debate as "Truth forming" are not a reason argument is bad

- You don't need a "Topical Version" of the Aff - just that your model of debate preserves their form of education / subjectivity / whatever

3. Speaker points

- Basic scale – 29.2-29.5: one of the top 3 speakers at the tournament; 28.8-29.1: top 10 speakers at the tournament; 28.4-28.7: very good, expect to break; 27.9-28.3: pretty good, shows some competence, but lacking technical skills in other areas; 27.5-27.8: below average, lacking technical ability in more areas than not; 27.0-27.4: poor, doesn’t fully participate in the debate or exhibits one or two moments of comprehension; 26.9 and below: you were offensive – it doesn’t mean you are a bad person, but something you did was deeply unsettling or hurt someone else in the round

Reid Funston Pace Academy

Last changed on Fri March 23, 2018 at 12:13 PM EDT

Reid Funston
Pace Academy '16
Dartmouth '20

I'm currently a sophomore debating at Dartmouth. I used to go almost exclusively for policy arguments but most of my 2NRs this season in college have been the Cap K or a process counterplan. Read whatever you want, I do my best not to be ideological in judging.

I'm getting real tired of people overusing "conceded" when the other team didn't concede the argument. If you do this excessively, it will be reflected in your speaker points.

Specific argumentative Stuff:

Case debating: Big fan. Impact turns are cool, If they're creative and executed well it's even better. I'm super into the block where the 2NC is all offense on one advantage and the 1NR is defense to the other.

Counterplans: The neg is in a good place on theory if they have evidence in the context of specific to the aff or topic/solid distinctions from the aff. I like creative cheating counterplans.

Theory: I really enjoy good counterplan theory debates. I lean neg on condo.

Topicality: I default to competing interpretations but reasonability is winnable.

"Topicality": To be transparent, I go for T-USFG/framework/parametrics/whatever your preferred term is a lot. That said, I'm not ideologically biased towards it and I don't think I'm bad for the aff on T - I'm pretty familiar with a lot of critical theory and I find it really interesting/like debating and evaluating it. I really like specific impact turns to T in particular. Neg, don't go for deliberation/skills impacts - they're dumb and the aff will probably beat you on "our thing's better/unique for skills/etc." If you have a sweet specific strategy that isn't T I'll bump your speaks a bit.

The K: I like it if it's explained well, I strongly dislike it if it's hyper-generic and not explained well. I get impressed by good specific link debating.

Final Miscellaneous Stuff:
-I'll reward bold moves by either side if they turn out well. Even if they don't, I may still think it was a cool idea and boost your speaks.

Bryan Gaston Heritage Hall School

Last changed on Wed January 31, 2024 at 9:11 AM CDT

*Updated for 2024*
Bryan Gaston
Director of Debate
Heritage Hall School
1800 Northwest 122nd St.
Oklahoma City, OK 73120-9598
bgaston@heritagehall.com

I view judging as a responsibility and one I take very seriously. I have decided to try and give you as much information about my tendencies to assist with MPJ and adaptation.

**NEW NOTE, I may be old but I'm 100% right on this trend: Under-highlighting of evidence has gotten OUT OF CONTROL, some teams are reading cards with such few things highlighted it is amazing they actually got away with claiming the evidence as tagged. When I evaluate evidence, I will ONLY EVALUATE the words in that evidence that were read in the round. If you didn't read it in a speech I will not read the unhighlighted sections and give you the full weight of the evidence--you get credit for what you actually say in the speech, and what you actually read in the round. Debaters, highlight better. When you see garbage highlighting point it out, and make an argument about it---if the highlighting is really bad I will likely agree and won't give the card much credit. This does not mean you can't have good, efficient highlighting, but you must have a claim, data, and warrant(s) on each card.**

Quick Version:

1. Debate is a competitive game.

2. I will vote on framework and topicality-Affs should be topical. But, you can still beat framework with good offense or a crafty counter-interpretation.

3. DA's and Aff advantages can have zero risk.

4. Neg conditionality is mostly good.

5. Counterplans and PICs --good (better to have a solvency advocate than not), process CPs a bit different. It is a very debatable thing for me but topic-specific justifications go a long way with me.

6. K's that link to the Aff plan/advocacy/advantages/reps are good.

7. I will not decide the round over something X team did in another round, at another tournament, or a team's judge prefs.

8. Email Chain access please: bgaston@heritagehall.com

9. The debate should be a fun and competitive activity, be kind to each other and try your best.

My Golden Rule: When you have the option to choose a more specific strategy vs a more generic strategy, always choose the more specific strategy if you are equally capable of executing both strategies. But I get it, sometimes you have to run a process CP or a more generic K.

Things not to do: Don't run T is an RVI, don't hide evidence from the other team to sabotage their prep, don't lie about your source qualifications, don't text or talk to coaches to get "in round coaching" after the round has started, please stay and listen to RFD's I am typically brief, and don't deliberately spy on the other teams pre-round coaching. I am a high school teacher and coach, who is responsible for high school-age students. Please, don't read things overtly sexual if you have a performance aff--since there are minors in the room I think that is inappropriate.

Pro-tip: FLOW---don't stop flowing just because you have a speech doc.

"Clipping" in debate: Clipping in the debate is a serious issue and one of the things I will be doing to deter clipping in my rounds is requesting a copy of all speech docs before the debaters start speaking and while flowing I read along to check from time to time.

CX: This is the only time you have “face time” with the judge. Please look at the judge not at each other. Your speaker points will be rewarded for a great CX and lowered for a bad one. Be smart in CX, assertive, but not rude.

Speaker Point Scale updated: Speed is fine, and clarity is important. If you are not clear I will yell out “Clear.” The average national circuit debate starts at 28.4, Good is 28.5-28.9 (many national circuit rounds end up in this range), and Excellent 29-29.9. Can I get a perfect 30? I have given 3 in 20 years if HS judging they all went on to win the NDT in college. I will punish your points if you are excessively rude to opponents or your partner during a round.

Long Version...

Affirmatives: I still at my heart of hearts prefer and Aff with a plan that's justifiably topical. But, I think it's not very hard for teams to win that if the Aff is germane to the topic that's good enough. I'm pretty sympathetic to the Neg if the Aff has very little to or nothing to do with the topic. If there is a topical version of the Aff I tend to think that takes away most of the Aff's offense in many of these T/FW debates vs no plan Affs--unless the Aff can explain why there is no topical version and they still need to speak about "X" on the Aff or why their offense on T still applies.

Disadvantages: I like them. I prefer specific link stories (or case-specific DA’s) to generic links, as I believe all judges do. But, if all you have is generic links go ahead and run them, I will evaluate them. The burden is on the Aff team to point out those weak link stories. I think Aff’s should have offense against DA’s it's just a smarter 2AC strategy, but if a DA clearly has zero link or zero chance of uniqueness you can win zero risk. I tend to think politics DA's are core negative ground--so it is hard for me to be convinced I should reject the politics DA because debating about it is bad for debate. My take: I often think the internal link chains of DA's are not challenged enough by the Aff, many Aff teams just spot the Neg the internal links---It's one of the worst effects of the prevalence of offense/defense paradigm judging over the past years...and it's normally one of the weaker parts of the DA.

Counterplans: I like them. I generally think most types of counterplans are legitimate as long as the Neg wins that they are competitive. I am also fine with multiple counterplans. On counterplan theory, I lean pretty hard that conditionality and PICs are ok. You can win theory debates over the issue of how far negatives can take conditionality (battle over the interps is key). Counterplans that are functionally and textually competitive are always your safest bet but, I am frequently persuaded that counterplans which are functionally competitive or textually competitive are legitimate. My Take: I do however think that the negative should have a solvency advocate or some basis in the literature for the counterplan. If you want to run a CP to solve terrorism you need at least some evidence supporting your mechanism. My default is that I reject the CP, not the team on Aff CP theory wins.

Case debates: I like it. Negative teams typically underutilize this. I believe well planned impacted case debate is essential to a great negative strategy. Takeouts and turns can go a long way in a round.

Critiques: I like them. In the past, I have voted for various types of critiques. I think they should have an alternative or they are just non-unique impacts. I think there should be a discussion of how the alternative interacts with the Aff advantages and solvency. Impact framing is important in these debates. The links to the Aff are very important---the more specific the better.

Big impact turn debates: I like them. Want to throw down in a big Hegemony Good/Bad debate, Dedev vs Growth Good, method vs method, it's all good.

Topicality/FW: I tend to think competing interpretations are good unless told otherwise...see the Aff section above for more related to T.

Theory: Theory sets up the rules for the debate game. I tend to evaluate theory debates in an offensive/defense paradigm, paying particular attention to each teams theory impacts and impact defense. The interpretation debate is very important to evaluating theory for me. For a team to drop the round on theory you must impact this debate well and have clear answers to the other side's defense.

Impact framing-- it's pretty important, especially in a round where you have a soft-left Aff with a big framing page vs a typical neg util based framing strat.

Have fun debating!

Alex Gazmararian Cambridge High School

Ryan Gorman Jesuit College Prep

Last changed on Sun April 14, 2019 at 10:44 AM CDT

Just to give some context about my debate history: I debated for four years in high school with Dallas Jesuit. I went to Emory, but did not debate while I was there. While in college, I did occasional work for Jesuit and coached/judged at some national tournaments. After graduating, I spent two years coaching and judging at Jesuit before going to law school. I'm currently in my second year and have limited judging experience on this topic (several rounds at the Texas state tournament in March 2019).

Stylistic Preferences
Framing is good - explain why your links supersede the link-turns, why the solvency deficit on the counterplan means you win on disad mitigation, etc. Tell me how you want different parts of the flow (and different pages of the debate) to interact.

I get annoyed by bad highlighting - that is, highlighting that reduces sentences into fragments and phrases that don't coherently fit together. If your opponent reads a card that is severely under-highlighted, and tries to extend warrants that weren't actually in the highlighting, point that out - I'll be receptive.

My speaker point range is usually 28-29 - I find myself going above that more often than I do going below that. If you want good speaks: line-by-line, clash, and be fast but clear (and smart, but that should go without saying).

I like to be included on email chains. I don't scroll/read through the docs during speeches, unless I get worried about clipping cards.

Theory
Slow down. No, really. Slow. Down. Conditionality is probably good – multiple conditional worlds that contradict each other are probably less of a good thing. Most other theory arguments are probably a reason to reject the argument and not the team (yes, even if those blippy theory arguments are conceded) - maybe you can convince me otherwise. You should be talking about the impacts to your theoretical objection (or counter-interpretation) just as you would for any other argument.

When schools break a truly new Aff, they should not have to disclose anything about the substance of that Aff to the Negative before the round. I think that is a powerful incentive for people to innovate. It will be almost impossible for you to convince me otherwise. An Aff that is new to a particular pairing but that has been previously broken by another team from the same school is not "new."

Topicality
At the end of the year, against Affs that have been run for awhile, Neg teams might need to focus more on why the particular Aff's un-topical-ness is bad (not necessarily in-round abuse, but a reason their Aff, and not necessarily what they justify, makes it harder for you to debate). Links and impacts should be discussed just as they would any other argument. I do not think that the limits debate is necessarily the most important standard. I default to competing interpretations (unless a compelling argument against that default can be won), so it is important that you talk about what other debates (not just your own) would look like under your interpretation (my earlier caveat about end-of-the-year debates changes this a bit). Evidence on topicality can be very useful and strategic, but is by no means necessary.

Counterplans
PICs and agent counterplans are usually okay – agent counterplans that play fast-and-loose with excessive amounts of fiat may be less okay. States counterplans are probably okay, especially if you have a solvency advocate.

I’m not the biggest fan of process counterplans, unless those counterplans come with evidence/a solvency advocate (preferably specific to the Aff). That said, a solvency advocate isn't a death knell to the Aff - if you think their process counterplan is bad for debate, tell me why.

All of the above is debatable. I'll vote for a counterplan I don't like if the Aff doesn't win.

Kritiks
As far as framework goes, Aff’s probably get to weigh the action of the plan. Links and impacts should be discussed (and labeled as such) just as they would for any other arguments. It’s probably important that the link is specific to the Aff – even better if you have multiple links specific to the Aff. It’s also probably important that your alternative solves the Aff harms, or at least makes some attempt to. The Negative should bring up and defend what they think the role-of-the-ballot should be.

Thoughts on "non-traditional"/"performance" Affs: Here's my starting point: I think plan texts are probably good, and that the Aff should probably engage (at least some of) the specifics of the topic/resolution. That said, I’m sympathetic to the need to have discussions in the debate space that don't necessary follow those criteria. But I’m also sympathetic to the Neg’s need to, frankly, have something predictable to debate against. Debate isn't just a platform for advocacy, and it isn't just a game - it's a little bit of both combined to make something else entirely. I think that Negatives going for framework or topicality against these types of Affirmatives can get a lot of mileage out of arguing either that there is a "topical" version of the Aff, or that switch-side debate solves. That said, I don't want this to dissuade you from running these Affs in front of me - but if your access point is something other than a plan text, and the pref sheet doesn't prevent me from judging you, I want you to know my usual leanings and still be able to win. I'll judge what gets debated in-round - if you win that your type of advocacy is needed (that your education is uniquely good and uniquely a product of what you're doing in the debate round) and not all that bad, you'll win the round (especially if the Neg isn't doing a good job contesting those points). Tell me why the topical version of the plan doesn't do the trick, tell me why the discussions the Neg wants us to have aren't important/useful, read some great literature that backs up your point of view, etc. Teach me something new - I'm here to learn, too.

Email: ryan.gorman.p@gmail.com

Naman Gupta Westminster Schools None

Tiffany Haas Hire

Last changed on Sat January 26, 2019 at 6:24 AM EDT

Wayzata (MN) '15

Emory University '19

tiffany.s.haas@gmail.com

Things that might be important:

Topicality -

Against no-plan affs: I generally think that defending the hypothetical implementation of a policy action is good. Fairness is definitely the truest arg, and if you can find a topical version of the aff, you basically won my ballot. That being said, I can also be easily persuaded to vote against framework, as I have been on both sides of the debate and can respect different types of arguments. Framework against a "high theory aff" is particularly persuasive, whereas framework against an identity aff is not.

Against plan affs: I'm a 2A and I've been frustrated the most by losing to T, especially because my aff is my baby and being told it's "not topical" after months of reading it is always a heartbreaking experience. Negative teams will have a hard time going for T in front of me unless you can specifically point out the violation and how that effects limits/ground and what that means for the topic/debate.

Kritiks -

I view the K more as a DA - explain the impact and how it interacts/turns the aff. Do that and you're good.

I find the perm persuasive if the K doesn't actually provide an opportunity cost to the aff. Reading a bunch of links on the perm debate can make sense if they're well-applied and explained, but I'd rather you explain why the perm itself is nonsensical (why the K and the aff are mutually exclusive).

High theory K's are less likely to make sense to me, as I'm not familiar with the lit - don't say "not our baudrillard" because it's probably your baudrillard.

Case - please do it - should be around 4 minutes of the 1NC and a large focus of the block

Politics/DA's - This is a good and bad thing - I'm pretty well-informed on what's going on with 'tix every weekend, so if you're bs-ing I'll be able to tell and your speaks will be punished. It's better to go for what you want, rather than to overadapt and become a politics debate just because I'm in the back.

Jokes are well appreciated (puns, or jokes about Kate Gehling) - add a cat gif to the email chain and <3 <3 <3.

Harrison Hall Westminster Schools

Last changed on Fri February 4, 2022 at 2:51 PM EDT

Michigan '21

Westminster '17

Add me to the email chain- thelasthall@gmail.com

*PF Version

I debated & judged in Policy for about 10 years- this is the first time I have experienced Public Forum debate. Please bear with me as I learn the procedures and rules.

I value well-reasoned arguments that can account for, overcome or dismiss the opponents' arguments. Evidence/cards are good, but need to be explained within the context of your argument.

I'm fine with speed, as long as I can understand what you're saying. Flowing/note-taking is good, I will be doing it. Argument wins debates, style is fun.

I will enter all debates with an unbiased perspective on the arguments.

* Policy Version

NDCA Update

I am the judge to read risky arguments in front of. Some arguments I miss hearing and weirdly have a lot of experience with: dedev, co2 good, anthro, buddhism, t substantial (Neg: do the math, Aff: say math is arbitrary), International fiat. Maybe someone reads Malthus. Keep it interesting.

But there's a caveat. Here are some arguments I never understood and would rather not judge: Heg Bad, Courts Disads, the generic Security K, high food prices good/bad. Basically anything relating to IR...

Read what you want, just don't be rude. Plan or no plan, just win it, champ. I've gone for most arguments. I like bold strategies (think 8 minutes of politics, or just an impact turn, etc.)

Teams can win either side of Framework in front of me. I've read plans (most years), I've read no plan (2 years). That said, my voting record might show a bit of Neg leaning on Framework. Affs trying to beat that: win the TVA is bad and doesn't solve your offense, win the impact debate.

While I hope nobody prefs me, I'm a good* judge for nearly anything.

- *I don't like to use my noggin very much, so go for the easy win. I prefer teams going for the path of least resistance than necessarily taking the core of their arguments head-on (I'd rather judge a pic than a big deterrence good/bad debate). But if that's your thing, then by all means.

General Notes

- I'm very flow-centric. Dropped arg is true, but you gotta give me some semblance of a warrant for it to actually matter. I'm not big on judge intervention, but keep in mind that if neither team explains how I should evaluate some arguments/their implications, I'm probably gonna have to sort that out myself.

- Don't be mean to your partner or opponents.

- I don't know what the high school resolution is, and won't know beyond a surface understanding. Don't make assumptions about community consensus or acronym usage.

Theory

- Win your impact outweighs/turns theirs, and deal with the line-by-line.

- I want to reject the argument, not the team for all theory except Conditionality.

- I lean Neg instinctually on all theory, but, again, if you win I should vote Aff on Conditions CPs bad, then you win. Shooting your shot won't affect your speaks too, if there was good reason to do so.

- Perms are tests of competitions - don't advocate the perm in the 2AR unless they've dropped a normal means argument or something and it's actually useful.

CPs

- Goes hand-in-hand with theory, I never liked judges imposing their own views here. If you win it's legit, then it's legit.

- I've always been a big fan of the CP/DA 2nr. I almost always recommend that over DA/Case.

- I always view a CP through sufficiency framing. If the Neg wins that the CP solves most of the Aff, and that the net benefit outweighs the small risk/impact of a solvency deficit, I vote Neg.

- For the Aff, make all the arguments in the 2AC. Links to net benefit, perms, solvency deficits, etc etc. I know I said I'm Neg on theory, but I also will vote Aff on an intrinsic perm if the Neg fails to win that intrinsicness is bad. To beat sufficiency framing, you've gotta really explain and impact the solvency deficit - why is this more important than the net benefit?

Disads

- Usually filter it through the link primarily, but obviously uniqueness is important too.

- Impact calc is huge, especially turns case.

K (read: Planless) Affs

- I'm pretty familiar with most of the lit/arguments read in these debates.

- Framework isn't an auto-ballot for me. Neither is framework-bad.

- Teams should establish and win why I should give them the ballot.

Ks on the Neg

- Please don't just read pre-scripted blocks. This applies to all arguments, but I see it most frequently with these debates. I don't like big overviews because they incentivize teams to forego line-by-line debating.

- Whatever your big piece of offense is, explain why it matters. If you win framework, what does that mean for the rest of the flow? Same for the links.

- I'm not a great judge for Ks that rely on framework for winning. It's really hard to convince me not to weigh representations/assumptions in the context of the plan. I also rarely hear solid explanations for what it means for the Neg to win framework, and how that implicates the rest of the debate. If I can, I will deprioritize framework in my decision

- Link debating is also really important. Specific lines from 1AC cards will go a lot farther than generic reform-bad links. If possible, every link should have its own impact.

- I think Affs should get perms. Just like with a CP, the perm means the Neg has to prove exclusivity.

- I don't know what the word "Semiotics" means.

- If you read the Lanza card and give a warrant, I'll give you +.2 speaker points.

Ks on the Neg vs K Affs

- I will probably vote Aff on the perm. Obviously this depends on how the debating happens (including what the links and alt are), but this is my first instinct. Neg needs to win exclusivity.

- If the Neg wins that the Aff shouldn't get perms, then there ya go. But I hope the Aff can actually debate why they should get perms because I want to vote Aff on the perm.

- I don't like authenticity testing. There are always competitive incentives in debate that at least play some role.

Framework

- First, win why your impacts outweigh theirs.

- TVA is really useful for dealing with a lot of Aff offense, as are switch side, ballot not key, and whatever other tricks you got up your sleeve.

- Fairness can be an impact, it can not be an impact. Up to how the debate goes down. If you wanna win fairness as a terminal impact, you gotta be heavy on explaining that and why I should care.

- Been a while since I threw down on T. See earlier note- I don't know this resolution.

- Be clear about what the topic looks like under your interpretation.

- Neg needs a caselist, clear interpretation and violation, and most importantly: impact work.

- I've never understood the requirements for an Aff to beat T. If you win We Meet, then you don't need to win a counter-interpretation. If you win overlimiting, you also have to win why that's more important than the Neg's impacts.

Joe Hall Jesuit College Prep None

Kevin Hamrick Montgomery Bell Academy

Last changed on Wed January 3, 2024 at 4:58 AM CDT

KRHAMRICK@GMAIL.COM

I've been judging debates for a long time. I prefer listening to debates wherein each team presents and executes a well-researched strategy for winning. The ideological flavor of your arguments matters less to me than how you establish clash with your opponents’ arguments. I am open to most anything, understanding that sometimes “you’ve got to do what you’ve got to do” to win the debate.

At the end of the debate, I vote for the team that defends the superior course of action. My ballot constitutes an endorsement of one course relative to another. To win the debate, the affirmative must prove their course is preferable when compared to the status quo or negative alternatives. That being said, I interpret broadly exactly what constitutes a plan/course of action. An alternative is proven a superior course of action when it is net beneficial compared to the entirety of the plan combined with part or parts of the alternative. Simply solving better than the affirmative is not enough: the alternative must force choice. Likewise, claiming a larger advantage than the affirmative is not enough to prove the alternative competitive. A legitimate permutation is defined as the entirety of the "plan" combined with parts or parts of the alternative. Mere avoidance of potential or "unknown" disadvantages, or a link of omission, is insufficient: the negative must read win a link and impact in order to evaluate the relative merits of the plan and the alternative. The 2AC saying something akin to "Perm - do the plan and all noncompetitive parts of the counterplan/alternative" is merely a template for generating permutation ideas, rather than a permutation in and of itself. It's your job to resolve the link, not mine.

I believe there is an inherent value to the topic/resolution, as the topic serves as the jumping off point for the year's discussion. The words of the topic should be examined as a whole. Ultimately, fairness and ground issues determine how strict an interpretation of the topic that I am willing to endorse. The most limiting interpretation of a topic rarely is the best interpretation of a topic for the purposes of our game. The topic is what it is: merely because the negative wishes the topic to be smaller (or the affirmative wishes it bigger, or worded a different way) does not mean that it should be so. An affirmative has to be at its most topical the first time it is run.

I don’t care about any of your SPEC arguments. The affirmative must use the agent specified in the topic wording; subsets are okay. Neither you nor your partner is the United States federal government. The affirmative is stuck with defending the resolutional statement, however I tend to give the affirmative significant leeway as to how they choose to define/defend it. The affirmative is unlikely to persuade me criticisms of advocacy of USFG action should be dismissed as irrelevant to an evaluation of policy efficacy. I believe that switch-side debating is good.

All theory arguments should be contextualized in terms of the topic and the resultant array of affirmative and negative strategies. Reciprocity is a big deal for me, i.e., more negative flex allows for more aff room to maneuver and vice versa). Conditional, topical, and plan inclusive alternatives are presumptively legitimate. A negative strategy reliant on a process counterplan, consultation counterplan, or a vague alternative produces an environment in which in which I am willing to allow greater maneuverability in terms of what I view as legitimate permutations for the affirmative. I’ve long been skeptical of the efficacy of fifty state uniform fiat. Not acting, i.e., the status quo, always remains an option.

Debate itself is up for interrogation within the confines of the round.

I tend to provide a lot of feedback while judging, verbal and otherwise. If you are not clear, I will not attempt to reconstruct what you said. I tend to privilege the cards identified in the last two rebuttals as establishing the critical nexus points of the debate and will read further for clarification and understanding when I feel it necessary. Reading qualifications for your evidence will be rewarded with more speaker points. Reading longer, more warranted evidence will be rewarded with significantly more consideration in the decision process. Clipping cards is cheating and cardclippers should lose.

I value clash and line-by-line debating. Rarely do I find the massive global last rebuttal overview appealing. Having your opponent's speech document doesn't alleviate the need for you to pay attention to what's actually been said in the debate. Flow and, for god's sake, learn how to efficiently save/jump/email/share your speech document. I generally don't follow the speech doc in real time.

"New affs bad" is dumb; don't waste your time or mine. When debating a new aff, the negative gets maximum flexibility.

I believe that both basic civil rights law as well as basic ethics requires that debaters and judges conduct themselves in rounds in a manner that protects the rights of all participants to an environment free of racial/sexual hostility or harassment.

Ashwin Haritsa Chattahoochee High School None

Bennett Harrison Jesuit College Prep None

Alan Hesu Alpharetta High

Taylor Johnson Berkeley Prep

Last changed on Wed April 3, 2024 at 1:25 PM EDT

2024 TOC update:

I have exclusively been coaching/judging college debate for the last 2 years and have done almost zero research on this year's high school topic. Please keep this in mind if I am judging you and err on the side of over-explaining.

General things:

Please add me to the email chain.

tayjdebater@gmail.com , dukesdebate@gmail.com

Currently the Interim Director of Debate at JMU. I debated on the local Missouri Circuit as a high school student and debated for 3 years at UCF when they still had a policy team (2011-2014). I coached Berkeley Prep for 2 years while in college, coached JMU as a grad student, took some time off to finish my PhD, and have recently returned to debate.

My MA thesis was about Indigenous anti-nuclear movements and I've spent a fair amount of time researching the intersections of settler colonialism, environmental justice, and nuclear testing/uranium mining/radioactive waste storage, so I have a higher-than-average amount of topic knowledge on that end of the topic, but probably a lower-than-average amount of knowledge on the various weapons systems/tech/military strategy side of the topic.

If I seem crabby in the round, there's a high probability it's not your fault. The later in the tournament it is, the higher that probability gets - my ability to mask my crabby faces/moderate my vocal tone is inversely related to my tiredness/hunger/stress levels, so I'm probably not actually mad at you, just irritated at the world.

My decision-making process/how I approach debates:

I tend to prioritize solvency/links first when evaluating a debate. I think it's totally possible to win zero risk of an impact and I'm definitely willing to vote on presumption (but if that's your strategy I expect you to do the work to make it explicit).

I like well-explained, smart arguments. I would rather hear you explain something well with good examples than read a ton of cards that all say the same thing. I'll stick as close to the flow as I can and judge the debate based on how the debaters tell me to judge.

An argument has a claim, warrant, and impact. Dropped things only matter if you make them matter. It is your job to frame the voting issues in the round for me and make it clear how I should weigh arguments against one another.

I prefer to minimize how much evidence I read after the round. I expect you to do more than shadow extend things. If all I have on my flow by the end of the round is an author name, I'm not hunting that card down to figure out the warrant for you.

I flow on paper and line things up on my flow. Please give me sufficient pen time on analytics, signpost, and keep things organized. If I am unable to get something on my flow because you did not do these things or because you were not clear, that's a you problem. I will always do my best to get everything written down, even if it's in the wrong place, but it will make it more difficult for me to meaningfully weigh arguments against each other, which means longer decision times and probably worse decisions.

I don't flow CX, but will pay attention throughout CX and jot down notes if something particularly important/eye-catching seems to be happening. If something occurs in CX that you want me to vote on, it needs to make it into a speech.

I do not follow the speech doc while flowing. I may have the document open and refer to specific cards if they are referenced in CX, but I won't be flowing from your doc or reading your evidence along with you during your speech.

Stylistic things

Prep ends when you hit send on the email, and unless you're planning to ask questions about the extra cards they added, please don't make us wait to start CX until they send them. I will keep as close to a running clock as possible - we all have a role to play in making sure the tournament runs on time, and we all want a chance to get a halfway decent amount of sleep.

If you play music/videos/etc. while you are speaking, please ensure the volume of the music is substantially quieter than the volume of your voice. I have some auditory processing issues that make it extremely difficult for me to understand people's voices while there is any kind of background noise. I want to flow and evaluate your arguments, but I can't do that if I can't process your words.

I vote on things that happened during the debate. I do not vote on things that the other team (or their friends, coaches, squad-mates, acquaintances, enemies, etc.) did during pre-round prep, in the hallway yesterday, at the bar last tournament, this morning at the hotel, etc. I will not attempt to adjudicate interpersonal events I was not present to witness.

I generally think debate is good. That doesn't mean I think debate is perfect. There are absolutely valid critiques of debate that should be addressed, and I think there is value in pushing this activity to be the best version of itself. However, if your arguments rely on the assumption that debate is irredeemably bad, I'm probably not the right judge for you. I think you need a model of debate that you think is desirable and achievable within the confines of an activity in which two sides argue with each other and at the end one side is selected as a winner.

Most debaters would benefit from slowing down by about 20%. Not because speed is bad, but because few debaters are actually clear enough for the average judge to get a good flow when you're going at 100% speed.

Examples, examples, examples. If you take one thing away from my paradigm, it is that I like to be given examples. What does your theory look like in practice? What kinds of plans are included/excluded under your T interp? Etc.

Please do not assume I know what your acronyms/etc mean. If I don't know what the bill/organization/event you're talking about is, I'm not sure how I'm supposed to evaluate your link story.

I will open the speech doc, but will not necessarily follow along. I may look at a card if something spicy happens in CX, if you're referring to a card in a rebuttal, etc., but I do not look at or flow from the doc. If you are not clear enough for me to flow without looking at your doc, I will not fill in gaps from the doc.

Ethics Violations:

I take ethics challenges extremely seriously. I consider them to be an accusation of academic dishonesty equivalent to plagiarism. Just like any other instance of academic dishonesty, ethics violations can have serious consequences for debaters and programs, and the perception that our activity condones such behavior could have serious repercussions for the survival of our activity. If an ethics challenge is issued, that is the end of the debate. If the tournament invitation includes a protocol for handling ethics challenges, I will follow the tournament rules. If the tournament does not have a clear set of protocols, I will clarify that an ethics challenge has been issued, make a determination in regards to the challenge, and either vote for the team issuing the challenge or for the team against whom the challenge was issued.

If you become aware of something you think might be an ethics violation prior to the round (you notice a card that is cited incorrectly, etc.) I would STRONGLY PREFER that you reach out to the team/their coach before the round and let them know/give them a chance to fix it, rather than initiating an ethics challenge in the round.

Because of the seriousness of ethics challenges, I consider it the responsibility of the team issuing the challenge to 1) prove that a violation (defined as card clipping or intentionally manufacturing or mis-representing the source or content of evidence) occurred and 2) provide a reasonable degree of evidence that the violation was intentional or malicious (i.e., I do not consider someone mumbling/stumbling over words because they were tired to be the same thing as intentional card clipping, and do not think it should have the same consequences).

That said, I understand that proving intent beyond a reasonable doubt is an impossible standard. I do not expect you to prove exactly what was going on in the other team's mind when the event happened. However, you should be able to show that the other team reasonably should have known that the cite was wrong, the text was missing, etc. and chose to engage in the behavior knowing that it was unethical. I do not think we should be accusing people of academic dishonesty as a strategy to win a round. I also do not think we should be engaging in cheating behavior to win rounds. No one debater's win record is worth more than the continued health of our activity as a whole. If we would like this activity to continue, we must have ethical standards, including not cheating and not frivolously accusing people of cheating.

Speaker Points:

These are relative for each division (e.g., what I consider an "average performance" that gets a 28.3 in novice will be different from what I think of as an "average performance" that gets a 28.3 in varsity)

29.5-30: You should be in the top 3 speakers at the tournament. I can count the number of times I have given above a 29.5 on one hand.

29-29.5: This was an incredible performance. I expect you to be in late out rounds at this tournament and/or to win a speaker award

28.6-29: This was an above-average performance. Something about your speeches/CXs impressed me. Keep this up and I anticipate you will clear.

28.3-28.6: This was an average performance. You had some good moments, but nothing incredible happened.

27.5-28.3: I like your attitude. Some rough things happened during this round. Maybe you dropped an off-case position, only read blocks, were extremely unclear, etc.

Below a 27.5: Something majorly wrong has happened in this round. You failed to participate meaingfully in the debate and/or failed to demonstrate basic human decency toward other people in the room.

Case debate

Yes, please. I love a good case debate, particularly when it is grounded in specific and detailed analysis of what the aff claims their plan/advocadcy does vs what their cards actually say.

T/Framework

I judge a lot of these debates, and enjoy them. Ultimately, these are debates about what we think debate should be. Because of that, I think you need a clear description of what your model of debate looks like, what it includes/excludes, and why that's a good thing.

Debate is an educational activity unlike any other, and I think that's a good thing. I generally default to believing education is the most important impact in these debates, but can absolutely be persuaded that something else (i.e. fairness) should come first.

Despite what I just said, I think the competitive nature of debate is also good, which means there should probably be at least some parameters for what the activity looks like that allows both sides a reasonable shot at winning. What that looks like is up for debate.

I prefer affirmatives with some clear tie to the resolution. That doesn't mean you have to fiat a topical plan text, but I do think it means debate is better when the affirmative is at least in the direction of the topic and/or about the same general content as the resolution.

Your TVA needs to actually access whatever offense the aff is leveraging against T. Lots of TVAs fail this test. I think a good TVA can be super important, but a bad TVA is typically a complete waste of time.

Against policy affs, I think giving me specific examples of ground you lost (not just "we lost some DAs" but "We specifically couldn't read these 2 core DAs and this core CP") is important. If you can show in-round abuse via spiking out of links, that would be ideal.

Please give me pen time.

Counterplans

If your counterplan has a bajillion hyper-specific planks, you need to slow down enough for me to at least get an idea of what they are in the 1NC.

I like counterplans that are specific, well-researched, and have a clear basis in a solvency advocate. I don't love counterplans that have a million planks that are not clearly explained until the block or the 2nr and are not grounded in some kind of solvency advocate/literature.

You should be able to clearly articulate how the implementation of the CP works. I think most aff teams should spend more time articulating solvency deficits based on the negative team's inability or refusal to articulate what the implementation process of the CP looks like in comparison to the aff.

I think conditionality is good, within reason. I think PICs are good, within reason. I think multi-actor fiat, counterplans with a zillion planks, etc. are probably not great, but generally are reasons to reject the argument, not the team. I can be convinced that any of the above opinions are wrong, given the right arguments by either team.

Disads

Please make clear what your acronyms mean, what your specific link story is, etc. early in the debate. I don't spend a ton of time judging giant big-stick policy rounds, so I'm probably not as versed in this literature as you. Please don't make me spend 20 minutes after the debate trying to decipher your impact scenario. Give me a very clear explanation in the 2nc/1nr overview.

Kritiks

I think the aff gets to weigh their impacts if they prove that the ideas underwriting those impacts are good and accurate. I think the neg gets links to the aff's reps/discourse/etc. I think the negative needs to win a specific link to the aff (i.e., not just to the status quo) and also either that the links are sufficient to undermine the aff's internal links (i.e. I should vote on presumption) or that the alternative can resolve the links. I don't think any of those statements are particularly controversial.

The role of the ballot is to decide who did the better debating in this round. Always. How I should evaluate what counts as "better debating" is up for debate, but I am pretty unsympathetic to obviously self-serving roles of the ballot.

If you say the phrase "vote aff to vote neg" or "vote neg to vote aff" in a round I am judging, you owe me $10.

Sachin Kasibha Alpharetta High

Last changed on Sat December 3, 2022 at 3:14 AM EDT

I am a former debater for Alpharetta Highschool (2012-2016). I was a 2N

email - sachin.kv.98@gmail.com add me to the email chain but know that I will not be following along the document during the speeches and only am going to look at the doc after the round if I need to.

In terms of which arguments to read in front of me, you should just do you. I do have some predispositions which are outlined below. i do tend to lean policy, but can easily be convinced otherwise and have voted more for kritiks than I thought I would in the past.

Topicality - I think that T debates can easily get messy but enjoy a good T debate when it is impacted well on both sides. Fairness, education, and deliberation arent impacts by themselves and you need to explain why each of these are important. Topic size, breadth and depth are also not impacts, they are internal links to deliberation and education.

Kritiks - I usually find myself voting for the team that talks about the aff more. This means that links need to be contextualized to the aff and the turns case arguments should talk about the aff as well. This applies for K's like antiblackness and meta weird K's. I am not familiar with a lot of the literature besides cap. security, and other basic K's, so talking about the aff and explaining the link is especially important if you like to read these arguments.

Framework - Make sure to explain what the negative's vision of debate would look like and why that would be bad and viceversa for the aff. Like on Topicality, limits and grounds are internal links to deliberation and education. But why are deliberation and education important? I tend to lean Neg on framework vs non-traditional affs, but can easily be convinced otherwise.

DA's & Case - love a good ptx vs case throwdown. Make sure to do clear impact comparison. DA's that access the internal links to the aff area awesome and vice versa for affs. impact calculus is good. Carded turns case args are important.

CP's & Conditionality - Really like specific counterplans that are based off of the other teams evidence. Even though i was a 2n, i tend to lean Aff on competition especially with process counterplans. I really like creative and multiplank counterplans. I believe conditionality should be debated like any other T debate. Explain the internal links and use your counter interpretation to solve the other sides offense.

- Tech > truth

- I like jokes

- I will not under any circumstance vote for morally repugnant arguments such as racism good or death/suicide good.

Evan Katz Westminster Schools

Tom Keane Jesuit College Prep

Last changed on Wed March 11, 2015 at 6:04 AM EDT

Tom Keane
Number of YEARS Judging: 15

With a few glaring exceptions, I attempt to adapt to the debaters rather than forcing the debaters to adapt to me. However, I do have a few predispositions that are nearly set in stone and there are a few other things about how I approach a debate that I think you should know:

Evidence: You only get credit for the parts of the card that you actually read. It doesn’t matter if the unread part of the card provides a great warrant for your claim if you didn’t actually read that part of the card. In my view, a strong analytical argument with a good warrant is a lot better than a short unwarranted card.

The Resolution and Debates About Debate: I firmly believe that the educational benefits of debate are at their highest when there is some degree of predictability regarding what the debate is going to be about. That puts the burden on the affirmative team to defend the resolution or a specific example of a resolutional action. It’s going to be very hard for an affirmative to win my ballot while claiming they don’t have to defend the resolution. However, I do think that issues of style and the types of evidence that we privilege are fine for discussion within the context of a debate about the topic, but that's where that discussion should take place. The negative obviously is going to have much greater leeway to critique the topic or debate itself.

Topicality: I love a good topicality debate, and the affirmative needs to be topical. I lean a bit more towards the view that topicality is a game of competing frameworks for debate. As such, each team would need to articulate how debate on the topic would be better under their interpretation. That being said, I could easily be convinced to view it another way if a team argues it well enough.

Fiat and Constitutionality of Plan/CP Action: This is the other area where my views probably become highly out-of-step with the debate community, and where my approach in-round is not likely to be swayed by the debaters. My view of fiat is that the plan or CP will not be overturned/revoked by the actor that passes it. That means if the plan is done via legislation, Congress won’t undo it, the President won’t revoke an executive order, and the Court won’t overturn its ruling. In my view, fiat does not protect you from having the plan/CP overturned by another branch of government. My approach to fiat is based on two things: (1) How other branches respond to the actions of the others is an important facet of policy making in the real world. In the debate context, I don’t want that discussion limited to the politics DA; and (2) I think my approach creates more ground to oppose the plan/CP. A team can now legitimately argue that the plan/CP doesn’t solve because it would get undone by one of the other branches of government. Whether that would happen is typically up to the other team to prove, but if you run a plan or CP that is blatantly unconstitutional (e.g., a CP to have the President unilaterally modify or abrogate a statute), then I’ll vote on it, with our without evidence, as long as the other team makes the argument. I've done it before, and I have no problem with doing it again. And, just to be clear, do not think you can get away with writing “the Supreme Court will not strike down the counterplan” into the text.

Theory: Theory is one area where I am very unhappy about how things have developed over the last few years, and I completely expect that my views are likely to get me struck by many, but so be it. I’ve never been entirely comfortable with the idea of the negative getting conditional or dispositional counterplans, and I probably tend to err a bit towards the affirmative on those issues. But the thing that really bothers me is how multiple conditional counterplans has become a common negative strategy. If your negative strategy hinges upon running multiple conditional counterplans, then I’m probably not the right judge for you.

Disads: I love a good DA, and they're a core part of any negative strategy. But it’s important to tell a link story that is as specific as possible. In general, I’m pretty receptive to strong analytical arguments, and weak generic link stories are particularly susceptible to being carved up by the other team, even if they don’t have a single card. But a more specific link story makes that harder for the affirmative. Also, while it is obviously beneficial to have offensive arguments against a DA, it is not essential. I have no problem assigning no risk to a DA based on pure defense, especially on the link level. A negative team doesn't get rewarded just for having read a weak argument. That means that it is not all about the uniqueness debate in a link vs. link turn scenario, especially in a politics debate.

Kritiks: As a debater, I almost never ran them, but that doesn't mean that I have a problem with them as a judge. So, if you win the argument I'll vote for it. But, there are a few things you might want to know. First, I am not well read on the prevailing K literature of the era, so don't assume I know what your author's thesis is. For example, if I'm going to need to have read the collected works of Zizek to understand your K, you might want to try something else. That means you’re going to have to spend some time explaining the argument and its implications. Second, I am open aff framework arguments against the K, but I’m certainly not going to knee-jerk in favor of them either. Finally, Ks are at their most persuasive when you can provide a coherent link and impact that are specific to the plan. I find generic Ks to be much less persuasive.

Impact Analysis: I cannot overstate how vitally important this is. Don’t just throw out terms like “nuclear war” or “extinction” without telling me how to compare impacts, both in magnitude, likelihood, and timeframe, and how I am to evaluate the impacts when magnitude, likelihood and timeframe don’t all go in the same direction. If you don’t do that, I’ll do it myself, and there’s every chance that you won’t like the decision that I make. Additionally, this is not something that you should be ignoring throughout the debate until the 2NR or 2AR. If you leave all your impact analysis until then, things are not going to go well for you, since those speeches are not the time for new arguments. Also, if you read an impact in the 1AC or the 1NC and never mention it again, don't expect that I'll give any weight to it at the end of the debate. Finally, you should be scrutinizing the other side’s impact evidence. They may say “nuclear war” or “extinction,” but 9 times out of 10 their evidence probably won’t come close to saying that, so point that out!

Other random thoughts:
-You will be punished for stealing prep time, it is cheating. The first violation will result in lost speaker points, further violations will likely result in a loss. â€¨
-I will protect the 2NR against new 2AR arguments, but in any other speech, its the job of the other team to point out new arguments and why those should be rejected (though it won’t take much work)
-It's better to specify your agent.
-Big impact turn throwdowns are always fun (and good for your speaker points too!)
-Don't neglect the case debate. Spending time making solid defensive arguments against the solvency and harms is probably better spent than reading another weak DA in the 1NC.
-Rudeness means that your speaker points will suffer!

Colin Kolodziej USN

Last changed on Mon January 25, 2021 at 3:29 AM CDT

University School of Nashville Class of 2015

Debated on national/TOC circuit for four years

Last updated 1/25/21 Prior to Golden Desert Add me to the e-mail chain so I can make sure you are not clipping: colinkolodziej4@gmail.com

Rounds judged on CJR: 16. I have some knowledge of the topic because I judged at camp and at UK this year, but I am not an expert so avoid acronyms and explain terms of art.

CLIFF NOTES VERSION

Do you.

Please slow down and be clearer than you would be in person. I find zoom makes flowing much harder than in person debate. I will reward clarity with better speaker points.

An argument is a claim and a warrant. "They conceded the disad is non intrinsic" is not an argument.

I don't like calling for evidence. When I do call for evidence, it is to resolve awesome comparison and spin over it. I filter my reading of ev through spin.

Be respectful to the wonderful people who take part in this activity at all times when I'm judging.

Don't make arguments that are offensive to any reasonable person like death good, racism good, etc because my threshold for voting against these arguments is extremely low and your speaker points will be terrible.

Good debaters make arguments, great debaters resolve arguments.

I love and flow crossx. I'm not a fan of people speaking out of turn in crossx.

Be funny if you are.

I think debaters should make more choices in rebuttals and impact arguments in a comparative way more.

The last tournaments I debated my 2NRs were an Egyptian Ports Economy DA and case, Afro-pessimism K, Advantage CP and DA, a T argument stemming from a counterplan competition debate, and the Neolib K. Rest assured I'm game to listen to pretty much any argument under the sun as long as you love it.

Clipping, scrolling ahead in speech doc, stealing prep, and other forms of cheating are frowned upon and will result in a loss or loss of speaker points depending on the severity of the crime.

Have fun or spontaneously combust.

LONG VERSION

Debate is an awesome, intellectually-challenging game. My role as a judge is to provide a respectful environment for competition and to, as objectively as possible, decide who won the debate based on the arguments verbally articulated by both teams. This means two things about the way I make decisions.

1. Tech over truth. As a debater, I hated two types of decision. The first type is the decision where the judge calls for all the ev and says something along the lines of "I read this one unhighlighted part of your card so I completely disregarded the fact that you were way ahead on evidence comparison on that issue." The second is where a judge's predisposed opinion on a particular argument influence their decision. In other words, I will rarely call for evidence and I have opinions, but I actively will strive to disregard them when making my decision.

2. I provide a respectful environment to all people in a debate. I have no tolerance for personal attacks or discrimination of any kind. As jon sharp says "We must love each other or die." Arguments like genocide good, death good, racism good fall under this standard. Also, don't steal prep, clip cards, etc.

If you follow the above stuff, you'll do fine. The rest of this is a rant about my thoughts on debate arguments that will likely not influence my decision if you make arguments countering my opinions.

Topicality

I generally think limits are good. I can be convinced otherwise. Good neg teams will provide a comparative description of the aff and neg ground under their interpretation and why those are good for debate and why the counter-interpretation is worse for debate based on a similar description. Good aff teams will explain why the aff under their interpretation are necessary to good debate and why they provide sufficient neg ground for the other team or are sufficiently limiting. I hate hearing the terms "in round abuse" and "potential abuse". I don't think child services has ever had to be called to a debate round because someone read an untopical aff.

In the absence of argumentation, I view T in terms of competing interpretation unless arguments are advanced for reasonability. Reasonability is a question of whether the aff’s counter interpretation and not the aff itself gives the neg reasonable ground for negation or is sufficiently limiting. Debaters should do more impact calculus on topicality. Why does loss of topic education outweigh loss of aff ground? Why does education outweigh fairness?

K Affs

I generally think that defending a plan is good, but will do my best not to let that influence my decision and evaluate framework debates in term of who won the arguments in the debate. Neg teams should go for fairness and less of the silly Steinberg and Freeley deliberation key solve extinction impacts because I think the link threshold for solving portable skills is absurdly low. Aff teams should explain why their type of debate is better and cannot be solved by the neg’s interpretation and why the neg has sufficient ground under their interpretation.

I think neg teams should read cps or ks against these affs or impact turn because more often than not that is the more strategic option. But if going for T is your thing, more power to you. If you are a K aff that defends a plan, then awesome.

Ks

Do you. I’ve gone for these a good bit because affs are terrible at answering them. Stop making silly framework arguments. “We get to Weigh the aff” vs a K that indicts the epistemology of the aff and thus reduces the weight of the aff is non-sensical. That’s like if I said your first card is from Dick Cheney who lies all the time and shot someone in the face and should be rejected, then you responded with “That’s unfair we get to weigh the aff”.

Instead, ditch the framework argument unless their framework is something self serving like “Judge=resistance to capitalism” . Don’t beat around the bush. If you’re aff against the security K and say heg is good, then defend why realism is an accurate understanding of the world and based in empirical social science which is a preferable epistemology to constructivism. Generally, win your aff is true and the K doesn’t solve it. I’m familiar with most types of Ks, but that doesn’t mean you should use a bunch of buzzwords without explaining anything because that makes me sad face and harms your speaker points.

Disads

I like these. I despise the politics disad generally, because I think that there is a better disad to basically every aff if you are willing to do the research, but again most people are bad at pointing out the logical fallacies in these so if this is your best option, I won’t hate you for making a good strategic choice. Turns case arguments are appreciated and are best when made farther up the internal link chain i.e. “Commercial crew is key to access to the International Space Station which is vital to disease research so the link turns the aff’s internal link into disease” is a better argument than “we can’t prevent disease if a nuke war happens”. Debaters should assess the magnitude of things other than the impact more. Assess the magnitude of the link. For example, “The plan costs 7 billion and the program on the chopping block costs 15 billion so the plan would cut half of the program’s budget which would make it impossible to complete, while the aff’s advantage is largely solved in squo (insert warrant here)”

There is a thing as zero risk of a disad. There is also a thing as zero risk of an advantage. Smart analytics against the politics disad like “No link—their PC key card for TPA is about Obama needing to lobby democrats and their link ev is about angering the republicans who ideologically support free trade anyway” will get you farther than “won’t pass—card”.
I enjoy smart case debating. This can be done with investing time in intelligent analytics or by picking a few key arguments and reading a ton of cards with different warrants to back up that claim and comparing evidence in the block.

Counterplans

They’re good. I’m pretty agnostic when it comes to theory except I think conditionality is pretty good. Aff’s going for conditionality should stop making arbitrary interpretations with no offense like 1 condo and just go for all conditionality is bad or dispositionality is good and have disads to conditionality.

Negs should do more than just explain why the solvency deficits aren’t solvency deficits and contextualize counterplan solvency to each of the aff’s solvency mechanisms for their advantages and explain why the cp accesses those internal links.

I enjoy multiplank weird monstrosities paired with innovative disads or case turns as net benefits.

Counterplans link to the net benefit more often than most would think, but the aff fails to point this out most of the time.
Speaker points

I tend to stay in the 27.5-29 range. 29 and above go to top 10 speakers at a tournament. 28.5-28.9 go to someone who is really good and will likely clear or I think should clear. 28-28.4 average will go 3-3 maybe 4-2 if a few breaks go their way, but will miss clearing by a little. 27.5-27.9 someone who showed some promise, but needs to improve to be in contention to clear. 27.4 and below—you were mean, cheated, or I was having a rough day.

Best of luck, have fun, and work hard!

Hannah Ku Calhoun High School

Last changed on Thu September 27, 2018 at 4:51 AM EDT

Calhoun 2017

University of Pittsburgh 2021

Current School Affiliations - Unionville (2017-)

Put me on the email chain - hku426@gmail.com

1) Everything is debatable. “Either defend it, or don’t say it. Defend everything.”

2) You should frame the debate at the end of the 2NR and 2AR. If you don’t, it will make the debate incredibly frustrating to resolve and inevitably lead to some form of judge intervention.

3) Any specific thoughts I have about debate are my opinions and will not influence the round as much as you think it will. I am a flow-oriented judge so it’s up to you what you do with my time.

4) If you have any questions about college debate or possibly attending the University of Pittsburgh, talk to me after the round

General Gripes about Debate:

First and foremost, stop saying “T not FW.” It’s a waste of your time. Just call it framework because there is no meaningful distinction that you will make that will convince me otherwise.

That being said, framework is incredibly strategic when done correctly and I enjoy being in clash debates. Fairness should be an internal link to education not as an impact in itself. Oftentimes I find explanations of fairness being tautological, however, that does not mean you can’t go for fairness as an impact. This means that your explanation of fairness should be better than usual.

The normative interpretation of fiat is based on a hypothetical implementation of the plan and I default to this interpretation unless told otherwise. Just because this is a normative standard in debate does not mean it should be the sole interpretation of debate.

I am generally unhappy with the trend of teams reading 6/7-minute overviews then leaving 1 minute for the line by line. Engagement is non-negotiable – You have to answer the aff. It is, in fact, harder to answer nuanced criticisms of the aff versus more of your generic K cards so you should take the opportunity to maximize your offense.

Teams should almost never sacrifice their clarity for speed. Being a fast debater means that it should not be the literal speed that matters, but rather the number of arguments clearly communicated to the judge. This is especially true for theory, topicality, and k debates. I don’t have the best hearing so it is in your best interest to slow down.

Edward Lee Hire

Last changed on Wed January 3, 2024 at 10:53 AM EDT

Ed Lee

Judge Philosophy

Emory University

ewlee@emory.edu

Revised: November 2013(Remixed by KRS One)

My Philosophy

KRS-One (My Philosophy) Let's begin, what, where, why, or when / Will all be explained like instructions to a game / See I'm not insane, in fact, I'm kind of rational / When I be asking you, "Who is more dramatical?"

KRS-One (Stop The Violence) I want to be remembered as the ghetto kid to jump up for world peace, because the stereotype is that all ghetto kids want to do is sell drugs and rob each other, which isn’t fact. I came from the heart of the ghetto — there ain’t no suburbia in me.

1. We are playing a game and there is nothing wrong with that. I love games. I play a lot of board games with my partner. It is our primary form of entertainment. Collecting board games has actually become a little hobby of mine. Gaming teaches conflict negotiation, winning and losing with honor, and proper ways to respond to adversity. However, all of that is lost if we unfair, disrespect others at the table and turn the game into something it is not. Play hard. Play by the rules. Ignore the wins and losses. Do those three things and you got of a decent shot at your debate career and life turning out pretty well.

2. Competitive debate cannot be the cure all for everything that plagues us. It has a very limited range of things that it can do well and its incentive structures can actually be quite harmful to creating productive conversations over our most intransigent social ills.

I strongly believe that debate educators and students should use our skills to help move our communities to a place where we can engage difference without being divisive. A large part of my job has become the facilitation of conversations on Emory’s campus that encourage students to civilly and civically engage controversy. I wholeheartedly support the effort of the Barkley Forum to provide every student on Emory’s campus with the opportunity to meaningfully engage. Debate educators have the capacity to present an alternative mode of politics and deliberation that is not motivated crisis and inundated in vitriol. Unfortunately, I do not think competitive debate with its uncompromising zero-sum outcomes and time limits will serve us well in our attempt to negotiate interpersonal differences. I see the current crisis in intercollegiate debate as proof of that.

I would prefer that we allow competitive debate to do the few things it does well and utilize our collective expertise to develop other forms of deliberation to address these vastly more important issues. I look forward to talking to anyone who will listen about The Barkley Forums efforts to us debate in partnership with the content experts on our campus to address racism, sexual assault and religious intolerance and a myriad of other social ills. I am sure that the other Emory coaches and students will appreciate it if I had a larger audience for this conversation.

3. One of the unique values of competitive debate is its ability to train students to quickly assess and evaluate information from various sources. I do not think there is a better pedagogical tool for providing this much-needed skill. This has become critically important as the Internet has made information dissemination and access uncontrollable.

4. Competitive debate is a laboratory for experimenting with ideas and identities. It can only function as long as we are not beholden to or damned by every idea we put forward to test. I believe this type of space is essential for our personal and cultural development.

Judging

KRS-One (Know Thy Self) Sometimes you gotta go back to the beginning to learn.

KRS-One (My Philosophy) See I'm tellin', and teaching real facts / The way some act in rap is kind of wack / And it lacks creativity and intelligence / But they don't care 'cause the company is sellin' it

1. While I am a huge fan of quality evidence, my decisions will privilege a debater’s assessment of an argument over my reading of a piece of evidence. I do not believe that every argument needs to be evidenced. I routinely vote on un-evidenced arguments that are indictments of the opposition’s evidence or a defense of one’s claims based on historical analogies, counterinterpetations of political theories, and assessment of an author’s qualifications.

2. Topicality exists to protect the guiding principles articulated above. It will be very difficult to convince me that affirming the reading of 1acs that is outside the bounds of the resolution is more academically beneficial than topically affirming the resolution. While I am not certain, I sense that I am less hesitant to vote on topicality than many others in the judging pool.

I think that we should have topics where the Neg has the ability to and is incentivized to prepare a coherent set of argument strategies that are topic relevant. I don’t think that a model of debate that encourages the AFF to defend truisms is a productive way to utilize this intellectual space.

3. Topic rotation is good. We should encourage students to explore and unearth the unique set of arguments that are germane to each individual topic. I strongly discourage argument strategies that that create disincentives for topic explorations. Counterplans that compete based on immediacy and certainty and narrow interpretations of the topic that deny the Neg opportunities to generate offense are examples of the type of strategies that I find academically lacking.

4. 2As need to reign in the Neg’s counterplan power. They should be more aggressive about launching objections to certain types of counterplans. I am particularly concern with those distort the literature base to such a degree that an informed debate can’t happen because scholars have never entertained the possibility of the counterplan.

5. My weakness as a judge is my ability to flow very quick technical debates. This is particularly true for theory debates that occasionally evolve into a string of unsupported claims with very little engagement with the opposition’s args. Please keep in mind that cards provide enough pen time for judges to catch up even when they miss an arg. We do not have that luxury with theory debates. This also tends to happen in the 2ac on the case. I am a huge fan of efficiency. However, there are some forms of embedded clash that has has made it extremely difficult for judges (at least this one) to follow.

I tend to make up for this shortcoming by paying close attention to every aspect of every debate judge, staying on top of the evolution of a topic and having a pretty decent memory of things even when I fail to write to them. I will put in as much work listening and evaluating your arguments as you put in preparing and delivering them.

I will not vote on evidence/arguments I do not have explicitly extended through the block and contextualized in some way. This tends to hurt some hyper technical tag-liney debaters.

Specifics

KRS-One (South Bronx) “Many people tell me this style is terrific/It is kinda different, but let’s get specific.”

KRS-One (Step Into A World) I'm 'bout to hit you wit that traditional style of cold rockin' / Givin' options for head knockin' non stoppin' / Tip-toppin' lyrics we droppin' but styles can be forgotten

Topicality

1. Topic anarchy is unproductive. I truly believe we need some stasis in order to have a productive conversation. To be honest, I am not sure if that means you have to defend the state or you gotta have a plan. However, I do believe that it is much easier to encourage a clash of ideas when those things are present. Debates can’t happen unless the AFF is willing to defend something.

2. The most limiting interpretation is rarely the best. I can be easily persuaded that a larger topic is better because it incentivizes AFF creativity while preserving core Neg ground. Far to often the AFF fails to push back on the limits debate and allows topicality to be a referendum on which team has the most limiting interpretation.

3. Topicality is about guiding future research endeavors. That makes source qualification an important aspect of the discussion. Who is defining and for what purpose is worth evaluating.

4. I tend to lean towards “competitive interpretations” over “reasonability” because it feels less interventionists. However, I think there are ways to craft “reasonability” arguments to change the direction arrow on this.

Counterplans

1. I find some theory objections more persuasive than others. It is hard for me to get overly excited about counterplan status debates. While I have and will vote on conditionality, I just don’t consider it that great of an offense when there is only one counterplan. I have some concern about multiple conditional counterplans because of their ability to pervert 2ac strategic choices. It is such a rare occasion that a debate was improved with the addition of a 2^nd or 3^rd counterplan. I will go on record to say that I have never seen a debate with multiple CPs that would not have been improved by reducing the number of CPs to 1.

2. I think counterplans that compete by excluding a part of the plan text is good for debate. They encourage both the AFF and the NEG to research topic mechanism instead of focusing on impact debates that rarely change from one topic to the next. They also create opportunities for a more nuanced impact framing that is not oriented towards maximizing one’s magnitude.

3. I think Perm “Do the CP” is persuasive against counterplans that compete off of things that are not written in the plan. Neg research that supports the necessity of a particular action to do the plan will resolve this debate in their favor. However, the bar is one of necessity and not possibility.

4. I am not a big fan of States or International Actor CPs. They have each effectively narrowed the range of AFFs we can talk about to those that access US hegemony or a set of actions that can only be formed by the military. I am occasionally persuaded by the arg that they are necessary to functionally limit the size of the topic. Aff should keep in mind that topicality exist for that same reason.

5. We need to do a better job telling judges what to do with theory objections. The statement “vote against the arg – not the team” is not an argument. It is claim. Teams need to be more aggressive about telling me the impact of my decision in either direction.

6. My default is to stick the Neg with the CP if go for it in the 2nr. I do not think it is fair to force the 2ar to have to do impact assessment for a world that includes the counterplan and one that doesn’t. The “judge kick” model discourages the 2n from making choices, discourages the development of a coherent 2nr based on that choice and undermines the ability for the 2ar to properly compare relevant impacts.

7. I am starting to toy around with the notion that the AFF should be able to advocate permutations to compensate for the multitude of CP options we have created for the Neg. AFF needs to more creative. The vast majority of argument innovation since I have been around has occurred on the negative.

Critiques

1. The more germane you can make this set of arguments the better. The major problem is that I rarely find the grand sweeping totalizing claims of inevitability and the necessity of radical response to social problems persuasive. I am quite suspicious of claims that are grounded in an indictment of “all” or “every.” I tend to opt for permutations that prove that the AFFs reformist pursuits are in the same direction as the alternative.

2. 2. What is that alt again? I would be a much better judge for the neg if I understood what the alt was and its functionality. AFFs that exploit this weakness by carving out solvency deficits for the case impacts and the squo tend to win these debates. The best 2As highlight the internal links to the advantages and identify those as reasons the Alt can’t solve.

3. The Neg would get much more mileage with this category of arguments if they treated them like ethics/ontology/method DAs with an impact that was more important than the AFF utilitarian impacts. Many will think that is overly simplistic. Keep in mind that I spend most of my life thinking that I am a simple man living in an overly complicated world.

4. 4. The Aff is too dependent on framework args. The plea to weigh the 1ac is not a substitute for engaging the criticism. I kinda agree with the Neg that Aff framework args are arbitrary in their self-importance and exclusion of the Negs link args. A little research on the educational value of talking about your AFF gets you to the same place without appearing dogmatic.

5. The most persuasive critiques are those that challenge the way the 1ac encourages us to understand others and ourselves. They challenge the pedagogical force of the 1ac. These types of arguments are appealing to Ed Lee, the teacher.

Disadvantage

1. My general dispossession is that most impact claims are highly unlikely and the block gives the negative a structural advantage in the competition of lies. All other things being equal, I think a DA+Case strategy is the best path to victory. Keep in mind that the amount of DA you need to win is directly related to the amount of the case that the AFF is winning. You don’t have to win much of your DA if you are sufficiently beating up the case.

2. I believe uniqueness operates on a continuum where the terminal impact of the DA is more or less likely to occur in the squo. Both sides should be more sophisticated in assessing the probability of whether or not the impact will happen and why gradual shifts along the continuum are worthy of a judge’s evaluation.

3. “Turns the case” rarely means turns the case. Neg usually has uniqueness issues with winning this line of arument. A better direction to go in is to explain why the DA impact short-circuits the ability of the Aff to solve the advantage. It gets you to the same place and doesn’t have the uniqueness burden.

4. 2a should invest more time in reading the Negs DA ev. There are usually a goldmine of alt causalities, uniqueness args and impact takeouts. This is a place where you can get a lot of mileage out of witty analytics. I am wmore than willing to vote unevidenced assessment. Don’t just read. Debate.

5. Don’t ignore the internal link debate. Most debates seem to boil down to a limited number of impacts – Hegemony, Trade, Climate, Economy. The better teams will invest time winning that they have a stronger internal link to these impacts then their opposition.

6. 1nc should generate some offense on the case. Impact turns are useful because they force the 2a to read ev on the case and you usually have a counterplan (or 2) that makes this a risk free proposition for you.

Speaker Points

KRS-One (Tears) While you lay the flowers on the grave, let's talk about how you behave. Do you come out the neighborhood or out of the cave?

KRS-One (Health, Wealth, And Self) I'll give you the gift, but use the gift to uplift.

Criteria - Things I Like and will give the gift of points

I will start this discussion by identifying some of the styles/skills I like and tend to reward with high speaker points. It is easier for me to talk about specific people. Some of these folks are still in our community. Others you may find some videos of. All were exemplary in one form or another of what I think great debaters do and what I want to honor them with high speaker points.

Kacey Wolmers (Emory) – Fast, technical and clear. I actually find some beauty in this presentational style. Her 1ncs were artwork. I must emphasize the clarity component. She was one of the few extremely fast debaters that I had no problem following. That had a lot to do with her clarity. She also made arguments and not a random assertion of claims.

Martin Osborn (Missouri State) – Efficient and driven. Martin is a testament to fact that you don’t have to choose between being fast or being a "policy" debater. He was one of the most efficient debaters I ever judged with superb in-round argument selection skills. Words were never wasted and he rarely extended an argument in the final two rebuttals that were not necessary.

Julie Hoehn (Emory) – Dedication to preparation. I never judged Julie. I was her coach. However, I saw how her dedication to prepare won numerous debates. It created a situational awareness that was vast superior to most. Julie was rarely caught off guard and it never happen twice. She had the capacity to quickly diagnose and dismiss trivial and inconsequential arguments.

Gabe Murillo (Wayne State) – Argument Explanation. Some people ask me how they can get me to vote on critiques. I tell them to debate like Gabe. I know very little about most of his arguments. However, Gabe was fantastic at identifying my limitations and biases and developing argument strategies that resolve them. I distinctly remember the times that I voted against him and the post-round being a series of questions about repackaging the argument and ways to alter phrases. Gabe was constantly trying to figure out ways to connect with me as a judge. That was true even he disagreed with my decisions. Most people would be extremely shocked by how often I voted for him.

Naveen Ramachandrappa (UGA) – Research. The stories about his evidence production are absurd. Talk to Hays Watson about it. Much more impressive was that he demonstrated it debate. Naveen was a master at debating evidence and not just reading it. He understood not only the strength and weaknesses of his evidence but his opponents.

Seth Gannon (Wake) – Humor. Humor can stand in for any gift of persuasion you have. Be yourself. Have fun. I never judged Seth and didn’t look like he was having fun. Even during the stressful final round of the NDT, he looked like he enjoyed being there. That makes judging so much easier and pleasurable. The judge is your audience. Connect with them.

Debbie Lai & Varsha Ramakrishnan (Michigan State) - Hard workers. This is my favorite debate team of all time. They were two regional debaters who worked hard to become the best debaters they could be. It was and honor and pleasure to watch them growth and develop. I wanted to vote for them. They were not a first round team and didn’t clear at the NDT. However, they had a genuine love for the activity and were willing to invest a tremendous amount of time an energy to get better even though the odds were long and they started college debate at an experience deficit. I look forward to rewarding those who work hard and value the process.

Criteria - Things I don’t like and will reduce points

I implore you hold Emory’s debaters to the same standard. They should be expected to play fair, be clear and conduct themselves with respect and humility even if you don’t expect it from other debaters. Help me help them to be better people and debaters.

Cheating – Cross-reading, card-clipping, using disclosure/speech doc to gain an fair advantage. Your honor and integrity is far more valuable than winning the game. I don’t play games with cheaters and I will not reward them. I am a guardian of the integrity of this activity and will not wait for others to ask me to perform that role.

Lack of clarity – This is a communication activity. If I don’t understand it, I will not evaluate it. I don’t like the model of debate where students incomprehensibly read at me and then ask me to read a litany of cards after the round to determine who wins. Debate. Persuade. Analysze. Don’t just read.

Creating a hostile environment – Respect is a non-negotiable for me. It always has been. It is the primary reason I go out of my way to be civil and cordial to everyone I interact with. I know that there is no chance that we will have a productive conversation unless you are willing to speak to me in a way that acknowledges my humanity. I not only have that expectation for the way you communicate with me but the way you communicate with each other. It is not healthy for me or anyone else in the room to watch you verbally assaulting your opponent. If you are engaging your opponent in a way that you would not if you were in front of one of your professors or the president of your university then you should not do it in front of me. I am more than willing to have a conversation with anyone about where this line should be drawn. That conversation is long overdue.

My scale

I will the scale established by the tournament. Grandma taught me to never show up to someone's home and not eat the casserole. that's just rude.

29.6 -30: I think you are debating like a Top 10 debater at a national tournament.

29.3 – 29.5: I think you are debating like an Octos debater at a national tournament

28.8 – 29.2: I think you are debating like a 5-3 double octofinalist

28.5 – 28.7: Debating like you are 4-4 and on the verge of clearing at a national tournament

28 – 28.4: You are working to get better

Revised 2-16-94
NAME __Ed Lee_____________________ INSTITUTION __University of Alabama ___
POSITION _Director of Debate ___ YEARS OF COACHING ___5__________
NUMBER OF TOURNAMENTS THIS YEAR ___10____________________
I am a very flexible critic. Win a link and explain why the impact is more important than what the other team is winning. This holds true
regardless of what artificial box we decide to place the argument in - harms, critiques, disads, and theory.
Topicality
I consider topicality to be a discussion about the best way to interpret the resolution so that we create the fairest debates possible. I think about
topicality the same way I think about a plan vs. counterplan debate. Each side needs to explicitly discuss the benefits of their interpretation that
can not be co-opted by the counter interpretation.
Counterplans
Solve for the case harms and win a disad. It sounds like a decent strategy to me. Affirmative needs to offensive in this debate. It is more likely
that I will vote on a disad to the counterplan than theory. Don't take that to mean that you can't win the counterplan theory debate in front of me.
I think this statement stems from the difficulties I some times have flowing quick blippy theory arguments. (Bydaway: Tell me what you want
me to do if you when the theory debate and why. My default is that the line of argument should be evaluated. Winning theory is not an
automatic victory.) Not only are grounded claims easier to flow but they make better arguments. The best affirmative theory arguments use the
negative’s stance to justify a set of affirmative offensive arguments. I operate under the assumption that the negative must make a choice
between advocating the status quo and or the counterplan(s) in the 2NR. I think that it is your argumentative responsibility to stabilize your
position of inquiry.
Disadvantages
I do not believe in the risk of a link. One must first win a link and risk assessments are made when evaluating the probability of the impacts.
Critiques
What is the link and why is it more important than the affirmative? Why does it doom the entire affirmative's project (plan) just because one
piece of evidence uses “nuclear” “terrorism” etc? The affirmative should force the negative to articulate how the criticism interacts with the
1AC and why it is wholly cooptive. The negative needs to be explicit about the opportunity costs of not voting for the criticism. At times, I am
at a lost for what the impact is to the criticism even after the 2NR.
Affirmative needs to be more offensive at the impact level of these debates. Unlike disads, I think that the negative has an advantage at the link
level of this debate and the best Affirmative attacks come at the impact level. The most persuasive 2ACs have been those who turned the
alternative, counter-critiqued, and been generally offensive.
Speaker points
CX should be used for more than gathering cards and talking about tidbits of nothingness. CX is a powerful tool that can be used to setup future
arguments and provide the critic with a filter for evaluating the debate. I listen to CX.
My average speaker points are between 26-27. 28 is reserved for those performances that "wow" me. These debaters are usually able to make
my decision easy even when there are no conceded voting issues. Arguments no longer exist as disparate, isolated blocks on a sheet of paper
but live and interact. 28s are able to competently discuss argument relationships and consistently make link and impact comparisons. 29s are
performances of brilliance. It is a presentation that allows me to forget that I am judging a debate round. The presenter is on and everyone
knows it. I think that it is a measurement of near-perfection that I reserve for only the most amazing speeches. A 30 allows me to temporarily
forget that another speech in the round was worthy of a 28 or 29.
ed lee
Director of Debate
Alabama Forensics Council
University of Alabama
bamadebate@yahoo.com

Nico Leis Cambridge High School

Last changed on Thu March 19, 2015 at 9:56 PM EDT

Varsity High School Debater

Cambridge High School (Milton, GA)
Email – nicoleis8383@gmail.com

Last Updated — 3/20/15

For a full version of my wiki (comments on more specific things) - visit http://judgephilosophies.wikispaces.com/Leis%2C+Nico

"Please have fun. Debate is good because we love it." - Maggie Bertiaume

Overview

1. Be Nice - this is really important to me - high school debate is a community because of the great people in it, and you should reflect that in how you carry yourself in and outside of debates. Being slightly aggressive about arguments and in CX is fine, there's a line.
2. Debate how you want to debate - it doesn't matter what the arguments are, what matters is how you frame them and explain them. As a judge I believe my job is to evaluate the arguments debaters would like to discuss. I try to be as clean-slate as possible, with some specific preferences discussed below.
3. Framing is key - creative and concise 2NR/2AR framings will be rewarded. Clear explanations and comparisons are necessary. The best rebuttals go beyond simple impact calc and form a more cohesive strategic approach.
4. Explanation is often more important than what the card says - what matters is how you explain it and compare the evidence. I'm less likely to call for cards if the 2NR/2AR explanation is just a tag. If I deem that evidence does need to be called, then I'm going to give more weight to the arguments actually made during the speech on that particular part of the debate. I'm not a fan of calling up tons of evidence and reading into it more than was done in the speeches.
5. Be interesting - I believe the best debaters have developed a sense of what they're good at, no matter what that is, and use it to their advantage.
6. Flashing - I DO take prep for flashing – prep time stops when the flash drive leaves the computer. If you’re using the Verbatim macro, it should take you exactly 0 seconds to save the speech onto the flash drive, all because the great Aaron Hardy created a little button that looks like this: external image 106268b17c.png . Additionally, I will keep track of how long it takes for the non-speaking team to pull up the document on their computer. If it goes over 3 minutes before any given speech, I will start that team’s prep time.

Influences:
Since I am new to judging (this is my first year), I think it might be more helpful for me to outline the two people who have had a profound influence on the way that I debate, the way that I carry myself in the debate community, and the way that I will strive to judge.

[These two influences are basically the short version of my judging philosophy].

1. Tucker Boyce - http://judgephilosophies.wikispaces.com/Boyce%2C+Tucker — Former debater at Alpharetta HS (GA) and current debater at UGA. It might be more useful to read Tucker’s judging philosophy than it is to read mine, and if you do so, you will certainly notice many similarities between mine and his. Tucker essentially created me as a debater, and he is the only reason why I continued debating after my first year. His judging style is essentially this: “You should read arguments you're most comfortable with and feel free to debate in whatever style you like, just do it well. Aff and strategy choice matter much less than the skills you use to execute arguments. Trickery and sketchiness are never a replacement for good strategy and coherent argumentation, no matter what arguments you choose to read.” I hope that I can be as objective about my decisions as Tucker is able to be, but I’m certainly going to make a huge effort to eschew all preconceived dispositions for or against any given argument, and use whatever is presented to me during the debate as the basis of my decision. Lastly, Tucker has taught me THE MOST IMPORTANT THING IN DEBATE: be nice.

2. Nick Miller – This has less to do with Nick’s style of judging, and more to do with his style of debating. I try to emulate this as much as I can, and I think that the way Nick debates is the way that everyone should debate. Nick is one of the most persuasive speakers I’ve ever heard in policy debate, and his obsession with ethos should be modelled by the entire debate community. When I’m judging a debate, I want to be persuaded. Some tips: look up during speeches and make regular eye contact, use humor if appropriate, don’t rely too much on your cards – effective explanation is always more important, and lastly, don’t sacrifice clarity for speed (or the perception of speed).
Here are some Nick Miller quotes which illustrate how you should strive to debate:
-“Eye-contact can get baboons laid, and it can win you debates.”
-“The ability to bullshit… we’ll call that persuasive speaking.”
-“Your evidence is a pogo stick, not a crutch.”

Arielle Levin Pace Academy None

Ben Levy Georgetown Day School None

Dan Lingel Jesuit College Prep

Last changed on Thu January 25, 2024 at 4:53 AM CDT

Dan Lingel Jesuit College Prep—Dallas

danlingel@gmail.com for email chain purposes

dlingel@jesuitcp.org for school contact

"Be smart. Be strategic. Tell your story. And above all have fun and you shall be rewarded."--the conclusion of my 1990 NDT Judging Philosophy

Updated for 2023-2024 topic
30 years of high school coaching/6 years of college coaching
I will either judge or help in the tabroom at over 20+ tournaments

****read here first*****
I still really love to judge and I enjoy judging quick clear confident comparative passionate advocates that use qualified and structured argument and evidence to prove their victory paths. I expect you to respect the game and the people that are playing it in every moment we are interacting.

***I believe that framing/labeling arguments and paper flowing is crucial to success in debate and maybe life so I will start your speaker points absurdly high and work my way up (look at the data) if you acknowledge and represent these elements: label your arguments (even use numbers and structure) and can demonstrate that you flowed the entire debate and that you used your flow to give your speeches and in particular demonstrate that you used your flow to actually clash with the other teams arguments directly.

Some things that influence my decision making process

1. Debate is first and foremost a persuasive activity that asks both teams to advocate something. Defend an advocacy/method and defend it with evidence and compare your advocacy/method to the advocacy of the other team. I understand that there are many ways to advocate and support your advocacy so be sure that you can defend your choices. I do prefer that the topic is an access point for your advocacy.

2. The negative should always have the option of defending the status quo (in other words, I assume the existence of some conditionality) unless argued otherwise.

3. The net benefits to a counterplan must be a reason to reject the affirmative advocacy (plan, both the plan and counterplan together, and/or the perm) not just be an advantage to the counterplan.

4. I enjoy a good link narrative since it is a critical component of all arguments in the arsenal—everything starts with the link. I think the negative should mention the specifics of the affirmative plan in their link narratives. A good link narrative is a combination of evidence, analytical arguments, and narrative.

5. Be sure to assess the uniqueness of offensive arguments using the arguments in the debate and the status quo. This is an area that is often left for judge intervention and I will.

6. I am not the biggest fan of topicality debates unless the interpretation is grounded by clear evidence and provides a version of the topic that will produce the best debates—those interpretations definitely exist this year. Generally speaking, I can be persuaded by potential for abuse arguments on topicality as they relate to other standards because I think in round abuse can be manufactured by a strategic negative team.

7. I believe that the links to the plan, the impact narratives, the interaction between the alternative and the affirmative harm, and/or the role of the ballot should be discussed more in most kritik debates. The more case and topic specific your kritik the more I enjoy the debate. Too much time is spent on framework in many debates without clear utility or relation to how I should judge the debate.

8. There has been a proliferation of theory arguments and decision rules, which has diluted the value of each. The impact to theory is rarely debating beyond trite phrases and catch words. My default is to reject the argument not the team on theory issues unless it is argued otherwise.

9. Speaker points--If you are not preferring me you are using old data and old perceptions. It is easy to get me to give very high points. Here is the method to my madness on this so do not be deterred just adapt. I award speaker points based on the following: strategic and argumentative decision-making, the challenge presented by the context of the debate, technical proficiency, persuasive personal and argumentative style, your use of the cross examination periods, and the overall enjoyment level of your speeches and the debate. If you devalue the nature of the game or its players or choose not to engage in either asking or answering questions, your speaker points will be impacted. If you turn me into a mere information processor then your points will be impacted. If you choose artificially created efficiency claims instead of making complete and persuasive arguments that relate to an actual victory path then your points will be impacted.

10. I believe in the value of debate as the greatest pedagogical tool on the planet. Reaching the highest levels of debate requires mastery of arguments from many disciplines including communication, argumentation, politics, philosophy, economics, and sociology to name a just a few. The organizational, research, persuasion and critical thinking skills are sought by every would-be admission counselor and employer. Throw in the competitive part and you have one wicked game. I have spent over thirty years playing it at every level and from every angle and I try to make myself a better player everyday and through every interaction I have. I think that you can learn from everyone in the activity how to play the debate game better. The world needs debate and advocates/policymakers more now than at any other point in history. I believe that the debates that we have now can and will influence real people and institutions now and in the future—empirically it has happened. I believe that this passion influences how I coach and judge debates.

Logistical Notes--I prefer an email chain with me included whenever possible. I feel that each team should have accurate and equal access to the evidence that is read in the debate. I have noticed several things that worry me in debates. People have stopped flowing and paying attention to the flow and line-by-line which is really impacting my decision making; people are exchanging more evidence than is actually being read without concern for the other team, people are under highlighting their evidence and "making cards" out of large amounts of text, and the amount of prep time taken exchanging the information is becoming excessive. I reserve the right to request a copy of all things exchanged as verification. If three cards or less are being read in the speech then it is more than ok that the exchange in evidence occur after the speech.

Stephanie Mann Little Rock Central High School None

Tracy McFarland Jesuit College Prep

Last changed on Tue January 2, 2024 at 11:54 AM CDT

Updated Sept 5, 2022

Tracy McFarland

Jesuit College Prep - for a long while; back in the day undergrad debate - Baylor U

Please use jcpdebate@gmail.com for speech docs. I do want to be in the email chain.
However, I don't check that email a lot while not at tournaments - so if you need to reach me not at a tournament, feel free to email me at tmcfarland@jesuitcp.org

Reason for update - I have updated my judging paradigm not because my fundamental views of debate have changed, really. BUT , as one of my labbies put it this summer, apparently the detail of my previous paradigm was "scary". So, I have tried to distill down some of the most important ways I evaluate debate.

Clash - it's good - which means you need to flow and not script your speeches. LBL with some clear references to where you're at = good. Line by line isn't answer the previous speech in order - it's about grounding the debate in the 2ac on off case, 1nc on case.

Dates and "real world" matter - with WMD after 9/11 and immigration during Trump as close rivals, this topic seems one of the most current event influenced debate topics I've experienced. Obviously I mean this in terms of Russia invasion on Feb 24, 2022 - but I also mean in the sense of Madrid Summitt and new Strategic Concept as it relates to the areas; new president in the US as of 2021 with very different policies about NATO and IR; etc. You do not need evidence to integrate current events into your argument - you do need an explanation about why dates matter - ie what's happened that the other team's arguments don't assume. But these arguments can go far in my mind to reduce risk of a DA or an advantage - so you should make these arguments and use as indicts of the other team's evidence as appropriate. . I am persuaded by teams that call out other teams based on their evidence quality, author quals, lack of highlighting (meaning they read little of the evidence

Process CPs and other neg trickeration - it's such a good topic that I would definitely prefer to see topic specific arguments. This means that there are some process CPs or other debates grounded in the lit that are really good debates; there are some that are not. Particularly as the season progresses, I would expect a discussion of what normal means is - both on the aff and the neg to justify process-y cps.

DAs - it's possible to win zero risk that the DA is an opportunity cost to the aff.

Ks - specific links are good. You should have a sense on the aff and the neg what FW is going to get you in a debate.

K affs - should be tied to the topic in some way. If they aren't, then neg args with topical versions or ways to access the education the K aff offers through the resolution are usually persuasive to me. If the aff has a K of the topic, that's great offense that negs need to have an answer. I don't think that debate is just a game. Its a competitive activity that does shape our political subjectivity.

T - if you have a good violation and reasons why an aff should be excluded, by all means read it. If you are just reading it as a "time suck" then, meh, read more substance. And, an argument that ends in -spec is usually an uphill battle unless it's clever [this cleverness standard does preclude generally a- and o-]

Impact turns - topic specific one = good; generic ones - more meh

New affs are good - and don't need to be disclosed before a debate if it's truly the very first time that someone at your school has read the argument. But new affs may justify theoretically sketchy args by the neg - you can integrate that into the theory debate, you don't need a new affs bad 1nc arg to do that.

Be nice to each other - it's possible to be competitive without being overly sassy.

Modality matters - when you are debating in person, remember that people can hear you talk to your partner and you should have a line of sight with the judge. If you are online, make sure that your camera is on when possible to create some engagement with the judge.

Saisha Mediratta Northview High School None

Speer Mike Berkeley Prep None

Bruce Miller Bishop Guertin HS None

Sanat Mohapatra Milton High School

Last changed on Sun October 23, 2016 at 11:56 AM EDT

Sanat Mohapatra

I am currently a freshman on the Dartmouth policy debate team. I previously debated for Milton High School for four years. I qualified to the TOC my senior year.

sanat117@gmail.com -- Please add me to the email chain.

I'm fine with anything you want to do in the debate round, so do what you like. I will try to intervene as little as possible in debate rounds, so be clear and frame the debate. Prep stops when you save your file.

Framework/K Affs - I went for framework most rounds against critical affirmatives but have also defended K affs, so I am open to voting for either side. For the neg, be sure to make your analysis specific to the affirmative. I am fine with any impacts to framework as long as they're well-explained.

Case/DA - I I will vote on presumption if there is no risk of the case, just as I am comfortable assigning zero risk to a DA. Relevant impact differentials are better than telling me why you have extinction magnitude, 100% probability, etc.

Politics - I went for the Politics DA a ton in high school, so I enjoy these debates. That being said, the DA usually has many logical holes, and the evidence is usually pretty bad.

Topicality - It's always a voting issue and outweighs theory unless told otherwise. Providing a good view of the topic under your interpretation and defending that view is very persuasive. Lack of effective impact work is why I find myself voting aff on reasonability.

Kritik - I'm fairly comfortable with most K literature. Regardless, explain your arguments well. Contextualized link analysis is persuasive, reading your generic war k is not. The alt is the part of the debate the neg usually does the worst one so please explain it. Good framework arguments will win the negative the debate -- make the affirmative justify their claims.

Theory - I like a good theory debate. I love a good condo debate. I hate bad condo debates. Line by line argumentation and clear impact analysis make these debates fun. Throwing out random buzzwords makes these debates painful.

Nicole Moxley Alpharetta High None

Nasir Nanjee Hire None

Nate Nys Hire

Last changed on Mon October 21, 2019 at 6:43 AM CDT

Nate Nys
Affiliations: Blake and Wake Forest

Yes, I want to be on your email chain: nate.nys@gmail.com

Quick update for the Wake High School Tournament:

I haven't been as involved with debate recently so please explain any acronyms or other specifics related to the resolution. I did very little topic research so it is very important for you to give me context throughout the round.

I am no longer as adept at evaluating policy vs policy and theory debates. My lack of topic knowledge and lack of time spent flowing these debates makes me uncomfortable judging them. This does NOT mean that I am biased against policy or theory-based arguments - just that your level of explanation needs to be much higher for me to have an understanding of what's going on.

General Information (useful if you're checking this 5 minutes before the round starts)

- I'm relatively apathetic to styles of argumentation within debate. You should not be dissuaded from a particular strategy because I'm judging.

- Yes, I'll listen to aff's that don't defend the hypothetical enactment of a federal policy. I will also listen to some variation of a topicality argument in response to such aff's.

- Debate is a game, you should play to win. I'm not terribly invested in how you accomplish that goal.

- I've predominantly debated critical arguments, however, I do have a strong background in policy v. You shouldn't pref me because you think I'm an automatic ballot on the K.

How I View Debate

I see policy debate as a game and approach it as such. I believe both teams want to win a ballot and will attempt to do so through varying argumentative strategies. I have very little interest in taking strong ideological positions on the functionality of debate and the strategies employed within the activity. Debate presents a unique opportunity to adopt and defend a myriad of positions with varying epistemological backgrounds against an opponent who has a strategic incentive to argue against you. If your arguments meet my admittedly subjective understanding of what "strategic" means, then you're far more likely to win than an opponent who hasn't engaged with the core argumentative tenants within the round.

Critical vs Policy

In my opinion, this subjective divide is bad and contributes to large amounts of dogmatism on both sides of the binary. Critical theory, political science, identity studies, environmental issues, and a litany of other theoretical positions all hold at least some relevance to the world. As such, the exclusion or prioritization of any of these lenses is against what I believe to be "good" debate. If you're defending a position that requires a federal policy be implemented, then actually defend your theory. "Extinction is bad" is a very persuasive argument under that theoretical frame and should be advanced through the debate. Yes, engaging with an opponent's theoretical frame of the world is necessary, however, having offense is exceptionally important and should be prioritized before engaging with the micro-details of an opponent's theory.

Strategy

I'm ambivalent toward what you want to read in debate, whether that's a multi-planked process counterplan, an identity-centered performance, or a DA with seven internal links. It should go without saying that large blocks of topicality, counterplan, and kritik extensions should be communicated in a way that I can flow. Although I don't have many opinions set-in-stone, I would say theory is a slightly uphill battle when I'm judging, mostly because I see it as an aversion to the substance of the debate itself. Substantive theory debates are obviously more persuasive and easier to vote on.

Other Things

- Speaker points and speech lengths aren't up to the debaters.

- Zero risk is possible and presumption is under-utilized.

- I appreciate intense debating where I can see everyone in the round has a vested interest in winning the debate.

- CX is supremely important. I appreciate when debaters make their opponents look incompetent. This does not mean you can/should be a horrible person.

Ana O'Hara University of Chicago Lab Schools None

Shivali Pandya Northview High School None

Sahil Patel Hire None

Sheila Peterson Wayzata High School None

Scott Phillips Milton High School None

Jenny Post Johns Creek High School None

Robbie Quinn Montgomery Bell Academy

Last changed on Wed May 9, 2018 at 7:04 AM CDT

Robbie Quinn, coach at Montgomery Bell Academy, mucho judging on this topic, which is the one with ASPEC, Consult NATO, and the Death K.

I have no prejudices toward any argument type. I do have prejudices to people who don't have fun. You have to have fun. I'm a librarian, so at the very least you can have fun making fun of that.

I determine which way to evaluate any argument based on who most convinces me of the superiority of a certain way to evaluate it.

I like humor, stories, and creative uses of historical examples. Cross-ex is very important to me and I watch it closely. I think it sways my thinking on key issues. What judge won't admit to actively monitoring who seems to be winning? Cross-ex, to me, is a powerful barometer of that.

Things I've been telling debaters lately that make me feel like I am incredibly awesome but are really just things that everybody knows that I rephrased into something snappy and I'm taking credit for:

1. Don't unnecessarily cut people off in CX. The best CX questions are the ones they can't answer well even if they had all 3 minutes to speak.

2. Be a guardian of good debate. Yes, debate's a changing network of ideas and people, and winning a debate on bad arguments isn't a crime punishable by death. But I reward debaters who seek to win on good arguments. I love good debates. I don't like making "easy" decisions to vote on bad arguments, even though I often do.

3. The most sensible kritik alternatives to me are the ones that defend the idea of a critical-political resistance to the assumptions of the plan and how that idea works in real-world situations. Even if an alternative isn't as cleanly recognizable or linear as the passage and enforcement of a piece of legislation, that doesn't mean that it can't be something concrete. I watch so many bad kritik debates that are bad because both sides never give the alternative any sensible role in the debate. I will reward debaters that give up on gimmicky and irrelevant defenses and attacks of kritik alternatives.

Reasons why my judging might mimic the real world:

1. I might be consciously and unconsciously swayed against your arguments if you're a mean person. Humans are good judges of sincerity.

2. I appreciate style. Rhetorical style and the style of your presence. There's a big difference between going-through-the-motions and having presence in a debate.

3. I like endorsing and praising passionate debaters. Lots of people who articulate that "this debate and the discourse in it matter" don't really energize their discourse to make me feel that. On the other hand, lots of people who don't think that "this debate round matters" often sway my thinking because they speak with urgency. I love listening to debates. If you want to speak, I want to hear you.

Me and cards: I'm very particular about which cards I call for after the debate. If there's been evidence comparison/indicts by one side but not the other, that's usually reason for me not to ask for either side's evidence on that question since one team did not engage the evidence clash.

William Rains Marist School None

Erin Rawls Pace Academy None

Javi Reyes Damien High School

Last changed on Fri March 13, 2015 at 11:56 AM PDT

Damien High School Class of 2014
Emory University Class of 2018

I am a college policy debater for Emory. I care most about clarity, clash and argument comparison.

Debate is about competing ballots and that's how i will make my decision. I know you all have put in a lot of work, and I will put a lot of work into judging.

Debating - it matters more than the cards (obviously cards still matter -- if you read terrible uniqueness cards and go for politics the chances you win is very very low, if your cards don't make an argument that i can repeat back to the other team and tell them why i voted against them i'll vote against you). I'm generally a flow centric judge, unless you're making an argument that is patently false, then it's going to be hard to get me to vote for you.

Meta - There can be 0 risk of a DA from absolute defense, and existential risk doesn't necessarily mean i ignore how much you solve existential risk.

Topicality - Always a voting issue, I generally default to competing interpretations, but I can be persuaded otherwise. T is an underutilized tool. Unfortunately most T debates get really muddled as debates go on. This makes evaluating it extremely difficult and results in a lot of intervention on my part to try to understand what is going on. So make sure your argument is constructed extremely well.

Framework - T v. framework distinction is very persuasive to me. The Framework debate should be about limits, procedural fairness, argument testing. The 1AC shouldn't get lost in the debate by either team; using framework args to implicate aff solvency is sweet. I have debated both sides of framework. I can be persuaded by either side.

Disads - Impact comparison + smart link / uniqueness args about the aff. Use your generic evidence but apply it specifically. Disad turns case arguments are more persuasive with explanations than just with a bunch of cards.

Counter Plans - I'm all for techy process CPs with well thought out competition blocks, I generally think process CPs are competitive, but I don't think they're legitimate. I can be persuaded in either direction.

Critique - I can dig. Explanation of why the alternative solves the links and impacts is important. Pulling links from the 1AC, or giving example of how the critique is the cause of the harms, or explaining how it would turn the aff in real world terms also helps.

LD - I am extremely familiar with most arguments made in LD. But I have yet to become accustomed to all of LD norms.
Critiques - I have probably come across most critiques while I have been in debate, so I probably have some understanding of the argument you would like to go for. That does not mean that your argument does not have to be explained well. I like critiques that interact with the content and performance of the affirmative and you should feel encouraged to read them in front of me as long as the argument is not too far out there.

Theory/T - I usually default to competing interpretation, but I can be convinced that reasonability is a good way to evaluate debates. These types of arguments are my favorite when I debate, so feel free to do so when I am judging. This does not mean that I will automatically vote for you if you go for these types of arguments. It just means I can understand the debate being held.

Nathan Rice Roswell High School

Last changed on Sat November 12, 2022 at 7:56 AM EDT

I debated at the University of Georgia from 2015-2019. I coached at Berkeley from 2019-2020. I am currently a 3L in law school.

nlrice333@gmail.com

Top Level---

Evidence quality matters a lot. Nuanced analysis matters even more. In good debates, I have to resolve a lot of small issues in a relatively short period of time. The more judge instruction you do, the better.

I really enjoy when a team demonstrates that they're thoroughly prepared and well researched. A team who spends 40 hours/week researching sounds very different than a team who was just handed a file.

Passion is great. There is nothing I like more than a 2AR given by someone who is genuinely upset that the Neg team decided to showed up. That said, if that's not you, a technically proficient beatdown makes me happy too.

Inserting a re-highlighting is fine if it serves as a visual aid to actual analysis. "Their card goes Neg, I promise. Inserting a re-highlighting, next" will get you nowhere.

I am quicker to conclude an advantage or DA is zero/very low risk than most.

Planless Affs---

I am a good judge for framework---meaning when debated well, I often find myself more persuaded by the Neg.

Fairness matters. I am very skeptical that debate solves huge impacts or results in major structural changes in society. If Aff, a well-developed and predictable (define words, please) counter-interpretation is a must.

I have never really understood what it means to give the Neg "X" topic DA. If I suspend disbelief and assume it links, it is hard to fathom how extinction outweighs interacts with an Aff that allegedly fiats nothing.

"No perms in a method debate" is incoherent.

Topicality---

I'd definitely rather hear a substantive 2NR, but I'm decent for the Neg.

Limited topics are great, but predictable limits are what really matter to me. Qualified evidence that intends to include or exclude certain Affs goes a long way.

If the Aff's interpretation is reasonable (i.e., I conclude it will not make debate meaningfully worse for the Neg), then I do not care that the Neg's interpretation is a little better.

Theory---

As with topicality, I would certainly rather hear both teams debate substance. When equally debated (to the extent that can ever happen), here are my general dispositions:

It's Good---PICs

Undecided---Condo, 50 State Fiat

It's Bad---Certainty/Immediacy CPs, International Fiat, Private Actor Fiat

I default to judge kick the CP, but this is not a strongly held belief.

Kritiks---

It is going to be hard to convince me that the Aff shouldn't get to weigh the plan.

Affs should really figure out what the alternative is trying to do. If it is everything (or if it does the Aff), then a perm and/or a coherent theory argument usually works well. If it is nothing, then perhaps that could implicate any non-unique links.

Alt causes are not link arguments. Read links to the plan and weigh your impacts vs. the Aff.

I often vote for the K in one of two scenarios: (1) Aff team drops and/or mishandles major parts of the K, or (2) Neg wins that the K turns all of the Aff's impacts and/or outweighs the Aff.

DAs---

Turns case is overrated and only really moves the needle in very close debates. Often, the relative risk of the DA v. the Aff is what matters.

An Apple News subscription and a general understanding of the American political system can sometimes be enough to reduce the risk of politics DAs to (almost) zero. That said, "the filibuster exists" won't beat out 5 good "will pass" cards.

James Roland Hire

Last changed on Fri February 21, 2014 at 9:52 AM EDT

James Roland

Emory University

13+ years coaching debate

You can plan for the picnic, but you can’t predict the weather.

-Outkast

Debate is AWESOME! It is the best vehicle I have found to date for learning. I did quite a bit of debating, and judging back in the day, but not so much now. This means I know little about the topic, but I work hard to listen to the debate in front of me and evaluate it on its own merits. Let me share a metaphor that might help. I feel my role as a “critic of argument” is not to foreclose your opportunity to eat off the grand buffet of argument, but to let you “fix” your plate. A good debate will provide me with the explanations, links, impacts, etc. for why I should eat off your plate versus your opponents. But understand once the debate is over, I am totally comfortable with my role as a “food”/argument critic. So just because you fix the plate doesn’t mean I will automatically eat it.

Regardless, I will honestly listen to pretty much anything, and as a result I have judged just about every type of debate imaginable. Despite providing such argumentative latitude, I am still big on respect in all its forms. Debate is a laboratory to explore argument in both form and content, but the educational and social benefits of debate lessen when we lessen our commitment to “doing” debate that is build upon a foundation of respect and love.

Here is how I see some specific areas of the debate:

Theory

Do whatever you like, as long as you thoughtfully weigh the impacts of the competing interpretations of any given theory debate. Most theory debates tend to be each side just reading blocks at each other – contextualize the debate. Explain why in the context of this debate why you are right and your opponent is wrong (or less right). Explain what values or goals are furthered by your theoretical framework. Like just about every type of argument in the debate – be clear about the link(s) and impact(s).

Topicality/Framework

See the section on theory. As a reminder, you should focus on the implications of your interpretation as a whole, compared with the other team’s interpretation (or lack thereof).

Counterplans

See the section on theory. I am open to all types, but most of the debates I have judged - the perm tends to be the part that becomes the most important to my decision, so take that bit of info for what it is worth.

Critiques, Performance, etc.

Make sure to get to the core questions as early as possible in the debate. For example, I usually see the core questions as; the link; establishing frameworks for how the case and the alternative for the K interact, etc. Still want to see the link and impact to your critique/performance/etc. Open to hearing new and creativity things, but just because I will listen doesn’t mean I will automatically vote for you. Each debate must/should be debated on its merits.

Cross-X

Make them meaningful. Few things are better that a strategic and purposeful c-x. Many debates can be won (and lost for that matter) with an effective cross-x.

Evidence

Open here too. I believe evidence can come in multiple forms (cards, music, spoken word, etc.). Regardless of the form I want to see good evidence comparison by both sides. Don’t take it for grant I know what you want your evidence to mean or be applied.

Style

Do you! I like funny, but if you are not – guess what? This is not the time to practice your stand up routine. I am cool with fast, slow, or in between. That is for you to decide. I will let you know if you are unclear. Be comfortable in your skin, and passionate about your arguments. Remember you are participating in one of the coolest activities on the planet – appreciate the moment!

Sure I am missing something you really want to know, so feel free to ask.

Much love!

Rohan Sadagopal Wayzata High School

Last changed on Tue March 17, 2015 at 8:39 AM CDT

I updated my judge wiki more often than this, so it might be the better thing to check - http://judgephilosophies.wikispaces.com/Sadagopal,+Rohan

TL:DR - I'm fine with most things. Go slower if you're not super clear in card text (you probably aren't clear enough). I'm a questionable judge for framework. If you want to know general thoughts about debate, they're organized under random thoughts in order of recency. If you want to read a philosophy more conventionally organized, it's at the bottom.

I'm a total debate nerd, and am always happy to talk about all sorts of debate theory/history/randomness. You should always feel welcome to email/message me/find me at a tournament if you want to talk about a round or debate. I think this document is entirely irrelevant to my judging, but some people asked to see it - Judging Stats

My old judging philosophy wasn't really useful, because it was a lot of my thoughts on debate and not reflective of how I end up evaluating the debate. Judging is often subjective, and too often, the questions of how I should evaluate certain arguments, or the round as a whole, aren't addressed. I've tried to provide random thoughts below that might help illustrate how I evaluate a debate when these issues aren't questioned.

Random Thoughts

2015

- I'm told I look grumpy/mad when I judge a lot. I promise I'm not. Same thing for if I'm yawning, I do it a lot, it's not because I'm bored. I'm probably just tired.
- I like to get the speech docs when they're jumped, primarily for the purpose of cross-x. I don't read along/still am fairly unlikely to read many cards in relation to my decision.

2014

- Despite my area of experience, I'm honestly not a great judge for framework based on my track record . In framework debates, I tend to vote Neg when the Aff fails to adequately answer arguments related to limits. I tend to vote Aff when the Neg does not adequately answer arguments about the harms of the Affirmative. I especially find myself voting Aff when I find myself unable to answer the question of what the world of framework does to address the harms or when the Aff wins a question of who particular standards benefit.
- slow down.
- no really, slow down. in order to incentivize this, I am severely limiting my reading of evidence after the debate, and as much as possible will be replacing this by flowing/listening more closely to evidence text when it is initially read.
- I still think of debate as a game (not just a game), though I may understand that statement/how it functions different from many. I think it's an educational game, and the way the game is played matters. How this changes things, I'll leave up to you. It's also definitely notpractice
- Judge kick things - Unless the 2NR tells me to, I won't revert to the status quo for the negative team. The exception to that is if I reject the counterplan but not the team, I will evaluate the remainder of the debate vs. whatever is left (probably the status quo). I am not likely to be persuaded by new 2AR theory arguments about the 2NR going for multiple worlds unless the Neg at some point
- I mostly flow on my laptop. I sometimes flow on paper. How I flow the round varies greatly based on which method I'm using. When flowing on computer, I tend to write down far more, at times basically transcribing the speech. When I flow on paper I am far more selective with what I write down, recording arguments as I understand them and based on what I perceive as key warrants as opposed to the exact words used. As a result, clarity/coherence of argument becomes even more important to my ability to flow when I'm on paper.
- This is especially true if I'm on paper, but there are limits to how fast I can write/type. I'm pretty happy with how fast I can type, but your top reading speed is almost certainly faster than how fast I can type. This is especially true with rapid analytical arguments such as theory or arguments arranged via numerical or alphabetical substructure. Frontloading your arguments helps me out
- The phrase "Perm do the counterplan/alt" means very little to me without more explanation. In several debates, the 2AC has said these 4 words, the block has dropped it, and I still haven't voted on it because it made no sense/isn't an argument by itself.

2013

- I have judged very few debates on this topic. I have been debating in college and coaching a high school team so I am not completely out of the loop, but on Solvency/T questions, you should be wary of assuming I know what you're talking about.

2012

- I think I judge the K differently from when I first started judging. A lot of this has to do with the lack of specificity. I - If the tournament doesn't explicitly prohibit it, I'm cool with you being on the internet during round, mostly because I think it's the least enforceable rule ever. I definitely think you shouldn't be talking to coaches/people outside the round and getting help, but partner communication over email/chat is fine. I also find that emailing speeches instead of jumping is faster and safer virus wise.
- I default to reject the argument not the team - the reason something is bad is a reason why that argument is bad, not why I should vote for you. It is possible for me to vote on theory not related to status (conditionality/dispo), but the burden is on you to provide a reason why rejecting just the argument is insufficient, and why rejecting the team is necessary
- If you are marking cards, you need to say "marked". I'll probably write down the last word I heard you say before that. Failure to declare during your speech that you marked a card will hurt your points
- Just because a team I coach runs an argument doesn't mean I think that argument is true
- I find that I am reading less evidence lately. I think research is very important and one of the most important skills to take out of the activity, but it also matters how you use it. Even when I end up reading evidence, I find that it ends up often not affecting my decision. I think good evidence greatly helps an argument, but I default to the debating that is done in the round. Sometimes I just find it extremely difficult to resolve a debate without evaluating competing evidence, but I try and avoid this. If you want my reading of evidence to matter, make evidence comparisons/indicts. The evidence many teams read is atrocious, but I don't feel like it is my responsibility to determine that. Make these comparisons and your odds of winning go up, as will your speaker points.
- My judging record has been somewhat Aff leaning this year. I'm not entirely positive why this is, but my best guess is that it's partly because the average 1AC scenario is better constructed than the average disadvantage, partly because 2NRs fail to provide a method/basis on which I should evaluate the debate (often times this is a question of impact evaluation, but not always). I think this is lacking in most 1ARs and even in many 2ARs, but the 2NR failure to debate this makes it more likely the 2AR gets leeway on providing this framing
- One factor that does help offset this bias is that I tend to hold the 1AR to a higher standard than most judges. Impact calculus and important framing issues should probably be started in the 1AR. The burden for how in depth a 1AR argument needs to be is often going to be determined by the depth/warrants of the corresponding Neg block argument. If the 2NC is going deeper on a given issue, the 1AR probably needs to give more warranted analysis than they might otherwise.

2011

- Saying something is a d-rule without a warrant is not going to make me vote on it just because it's a d-rule. In order to win your "d-rule", you need to actually give me a reason why I should prefer it over the utilitarian calculus I would normally default to when evaluating impacts
- From a truth standpoint, I think 1 CP + 1 K (test in/test out) is fair. Obviously I can be convinced otherwise, but this just seems to solve a lot of both sides offense while still giving the Neg some flexibility. I've always felt theory debates are a bit more subjective than other issues, and this might be an argument I am slightly more persuaded by than the average judge.

I'm willing to experiment with alt use time if it doesn't contradict other tournament rules and both teams agree. For national/regional tournaments that don't specify prep time, that will mean 14 minutes of "alt use" time. If a tournament specifies prep time, just add 6 minutes to that. You (both teams) should be sure to tell me before the debate if you want to do this

Edit: The "alt use" section probably should have been clearer. You would receive the 14 minutes, but there would not be the normal cross-x times. Instead, after constructives, you can cross-x someone for as long as you have available out of your 14 minutes. If either team has any reservations about using this, you should feel completely free to veto it.

Actual Philosophy

I think about debate a lot, and I have been thinking about what I wanted my judge philosophy to say recently. I wrote the part below recently and I think it should give you some insight into how I will evaluate the round. I often end up skipping right to what I consider the nexus point of the debate, so please do ask me questions afterwards if you think I ignored something or are confused. I also put my email on my ballots, so please do email me if you want to discuss the round.

There are a couple things that might be helpful to know before you debate in front of me
1. I am kind of obsessed with debate. And sports. People who know me love to make jokes about how I have packets memorized and how I know peoples debate careers better than they do. I enjoy thinking about things like sports and debate from a strategy perspective (see number 2), and I just have a weird desire to know things. I'm not really sure what that means for you debating in front of me, I might be more likely to get/enjoy obscure debate references, though if I don't get it I'll probably just think you're weird.
2. I still think of debate as a game to some extent, though I may understand that statement different from some. I think it's an educational game, and the way the game is played matters. How this changes things, I'll leave up to you.
3. October 2014 Edit Despite my area of experience, I'm honestly not a great judge for framework based on my track record, likely because Neg teams fail to properly engage the arguments made in the 1AC. In framework debates, I tend to vote Neg when the Aff fails to adequately answer arguments related to limits. I tend to vote Aff when the Neg does not adequately answer arguments about the harms of the Affirmative. I especially find myself voting Aff when I find myself unable to answer the question of what the world of framework does to address the harms or when the Aff wins a question of who particular standards benefit.
4. I generally think that framework debates when the Neg reads a K are about the wrong thing. It's very unlikely I'm going to decide that one team doesn't get their impacts on the grounds of fairness or education. I believe the better debate should be about impact framing, and reading evidence about reasons to prioritize certain impacts or not evaluate certain impacts. Now, this doesn't mean reading "method outweighs" means the Aff doesn't get their impacts, It just means I should evaluate their method as a prior question - it's up to you to prove that their method is flawed, and that that implicates whatever solvency/impact claims they make
5. Impact analysis. I'm a hack for it. I often see 2NCs doing it and then it getting lost in the 2NR, and 2ARs going heavy on these questions when there are very little in the 1AR. I think these questions from the Aff side should start as early as the 2AC, but probably need to be in the 1AR. I've given 2ARs impact analysis that was just not in the 1AR before, but that often is a result of the negative not making any comparative impact claims, or the 2NR impact comparisons being new.
6. I flow pretty well, I use my computer and I can type pretty fast, so speed is normally not an issue, though clarity might be. I will yell clear once if needed. I am fine with time-saving measures like saying "9" instead of "09" or "2009", or tagging cards simply as "Extinction" for impacts where it makes sense. I am/was slow and can appreciate measures designed to increase speed and efficiency. That's also all I would probably flow of the tag anyways
7. October 2011 Edit: Still enjoy impact turns, but overall strategy outweighs, and this part of my philosophy was resulting in some silly decisions to impact turn in bad ways. It's probably more accurate to say "I like bold strategic decisions" than just "I like impact turns". These kind of things tend to get rewarded in speaker points, assuming they are a good decision.
8. My speaker point scale is fairly average. An average speech is a 27.5, a good speech is a 28. If I think you should be getting a speaker award or something close, you're probably a 28.5. If I think you should be a top 5 speaker, you've got a 29.

Ben Schultz Johns Creek High School

Last changed on Sat January 27, 2024 at 11:16 AM EDT

Debated 4 years Marquette University HS (2001-2004)

Assistant Coach – Marquette University HS (2005-2010)

Head Coach – Marquette University HS (2011-2012)

Assistant Coach – Johns Creek HS (2012-2014)

Head Coach – Johns Creek HS (2014-Current)

Yes, put me on the chain: bencharlesschultz@gmail.com

No, I don’t want a card doc.

Its been a long time since I updated this – this weekend I was talking to a friend of mine and he mentioned that I have "made it clear I wasn’t interested in voting for the K”. Since I actually love voting for the K, I figured that I had been doing a pretty bad job of getting my truth out there. I’m not sure anyone reads these religiously, or that any paradigm could ever combat word of mouth (good or bad), but when I read through what I had it was clear I needed an update (more so than for the criticism misconception than for the fact that my old paradigm said I thought conditionality was bad – yeesh, not sure what I was thinking when I wrote THAT….)

Four top top shelf things that can effect the entire debate for you, with the most important at the top:

11) Before I’m a debate judge, I’m a teacher and a mandatory reporter. I say this because for years I’ve been more preferred as a critical judge, and I’ve gotten a lot of clash rounds, many of which include personal narratives, some of which contain personal narratives of abuse. If such a narrative is read, I’ll stop the round and bring in the tournament director and they will figure out the way forward.

22) I won’t decide the debate on anything that has happened outside of the round, no matter the quality of evidence entered into the debate space about those events. The round starts when the 1AC begins.

33) If you are going to the bathroom before your speech in the earlier speeches (constructives through 1nr, generally) just make sure the doc is sent before you go. Later speeches where there's no doc if you have prep time I can run that, or I'll take off .4 speaks and allow you to go (probably a weird thing, I know, but I just think its stealing prep even though you don't get to take flows or anything, just that ability to settle yourself and think on the positions is huge)

44) No you definitely cannot use extra cross-ex time as prep, that’s not a thing.

55) Finally, some fun. I’m a firm believer in flowing and I don’t see enough people doing it. Since I do think it makes you a better debater, I want to incentivize it. So if you do flow the round, feel free to show me your flows at the end of the debate, and I’ll award up to an extra .3 points for good flows. I reserve the right not to give any points (and if I get shown too many garbage flows maybe I’ll start taking away points for bad ones just so people don’t show me horrible flows, though I’m assuming that won’t happen much), but if you’ve got the round flowed and want to earn extra points, please do! By the way you can’t just show one good flow on, lets say, the argument you were going to take in the 2nc/2nr – I need to see the round mostly taken down to give extra points

Top Shelf:

This is stuff that I think you probably want to know if you’re seeing me in the back

· I am liable probably more than most judges to yell “clear” during speeches – I won’t do it SUPER early in speeches because I think it takes a little while for debaters to settle into their natural speed, and a lot of times I think adrenaline makes people try and go faster and be a little less clear at the start of their speeches than they are later. So I wait a bit, but I will yell it. If it doesn’t get better I’ll yell one more time, then whatever happens is on you in terms of arguments I don’t get and speaker points you don’t get. I’m not going to stop flowing (or at least, I never have before), but I also am not yelling clear frivolously – if I can’t understand you I can’t flow you.

· I don’t flow with the doc open. Generally, I don’t open the doc until later in the round – 2nc prep is pretty generally when I start reading, and I try to only read cards that either are already at the center of the debate, or cards that I can tell based on what happens through the 2ac and the block will become the choke points of the round. The truth of the debate for me is on the flow, and what is said by the debaters, not what is said in their evidence and then not emphasized in the speeches, and I don’t want to let one team reading significantly better evidence than the other on questions that don’t arise in the debate influence the way I see the round in any way, and opening the doc open is more likely than not to predispose me towards one team than another, in addition to, if I’m reading as you go, I’m less likely to dock you points for being comically unclear than if the only way I can get down what I get down is to hear you say it.

Argumentative Stuff

Listen at the end of the day, I will vote for anything. But these are arguments that I have a built in preference against. Please do not change up your entire strategy for me. But if the crux of your strategy is either of these things know that 1 – I probably shouldn’t be at the top of your pref card, and 2 – you can absolutely win, but a tie is more likely to go to the other side. I try and keep an open mind as much as possible (heck I’ve voted for death good multiple times! Though that is an arg that may have more relevance as you approach 15 full years as a public school DoD….) but these args don’t do it for me. I’ll try and give a short explanation of why.

1. I’m not a good judge for theory, most specifically cheap shots, but also stuff seen as more “serious” like conditionality. Its been a long long time since anyone has gone for theory in front of me – the nature of the rounds that I get means there’s not usually a ton of negative positions – which is good because I’m not very sympathetic to it. I generally think that the negative offense, both from the standpoint of fairness and education, is pretty weak in all but the most egregious rounds when it comes to basic stuff like conditionality. Other counterplan theory like no solvency advocate, no international fiat, etc I’m pretty sympathetic to reject the argument not the team. In general, if you’re looking at something like conditionality where the link is linear and each instance increases the possibility of fairness/education impacts, for me you’ve got to be probably very near to, or even within, double digits for me to think the possible harm is insurmountable in round. This has come up before so I want to be really clear here – if its dropped, GO FOR IT, whether alone or (preferably) as an extension in a final rebuttal followed by substance. I for sure will vote for it in a varsity round (in novice rounds, depending on the rest of the round, I may or may not vote on it). Again – this is a bias against an argument that will probably effect the decision in very close rounds.

2. Psychoanalysis based critical literature – I like the criticism, as I mentioned above, just because I think the cards are more fun to read and more likely to make me think about things in a new way than a piece of counterplan solvency or a politics internal link card or whatever. But I have an aversion to psychoanalysis based stuff. The tech vs truth paragraph sums up my feelings on arguments that seem really stupid. Generally when I see critical literature I think there’s at least some truth to it, especially link evidence. But

3. Cheap Shots – same as above – just in general not true, and at variance with what its fun to see in a debate round. There’s nothing better than good smart back and forth with good evidence on both sides. Cheap shots (I’m thinking of truly random stuff like Ontology Spec, Timecube – stuff like that) obviously are none of those things.

4. Finally this one isn’t a hard and fast thing I’m necessarily bad for, but something I’ve noticed over the years that I think teams should know that will effect their argumentative choices in round – I tend to find I’m less good than a lot of judges for fairness as a standalone impact to T-USFG. I feel like even though its never changed that critical teams will contend that they impact turn fairness, or will at least discuss why the specific type of education they provide (or their critique of the type of education debate in the past has provided), it has become more in vogue for judges to kind of set aside that and put sort of a silo around the fairness impact of the topicality debate and look at that in a vacuum. I’ve just never been good at doing that, or understanding why that happens – I’m a pretty good judge still for framework, I think, but youre less likely to win if you go for a fairness impact only on topicality and expect that to carry the day

Specific Round Types:

K Affs vs Framework

Clash rounds are the rounds I’ve gotten by far the most in the last 5-8 years or so, and generally I like them a lot and they consistently keep me interested. For a long time during the first generation of critical affirmatives that critique debate/the resolution I was a pretty reliable vote for the affirmative. Since the negative side of the no plan debate has caught up, I’ve been much more evenly split, and in general I like hearing a good framework press on a critical aff and adjudicating those rounds. I think I like clash rounds because they have what I would consider the perfect balance between amount of evidence (and specificity of evidence) and amount of analysis of said evidence. I think a good clash round is preferable than almost any round because there’s usually good clash on the evidentiary issues and there’s still a decent amount of ev read, but from the block on its usually pure debate with minimal card dumpage. Aside from the preference discussed above for topicality based framework presses to engage the fairness claims of the affirmative more, I do think that I’m more apt than others to vote negative on presumption, or barring that, to conclude that the affirmative just gets no risk of its advantages (shoutout Juliette Salah!). One other warning for affirmatives – one of the advantages that the K affords is that the evidence is usually sufficiently general that cards which are explained one way (or meant to be used one way) earlier in the round can become exactly what the negative doesn’t need/cant have them be in the 2ar. I think in general judges, especially younger judges, are a little biased against holding the line against arguments that are clearly new or cards that are explained in a clearly different way than they were originally explained. Now that I’m old, I have no such hang ups, and so more than a lot of other judges I’ve seen I’m willing to say “this argument that is in the 2ar attached to (X) evidence is not what was in the 1ar, and so it is disallowed”. (As an aside, I think the WORST thing that has happened to, and can happen to, no plan teams is an overreliance on 1ar blocks. I would encourage any teams that have long 1ar blocks to toss them in the trash – if you need to keep some explanations of card warrants close, please do, but ditch the prewritten blocks, commit yourself to the flow, and listen to the flow of the round, and the actual words of the block. The teams that have the most issue with shifting argumentation between the 1ar and the 2ar are the teams that are so obsessed with winning the prep time battle in the final 2 rebuttals that they become over dependent on blocks and aren’t remotely responsive to the nuance of a 13 minute block that is these days more and more frequently 13 minutes of framework in some way shape or form)

K vs K

Seems like its more likely these days to see clash rounds for me, and next up would be policy rounds. I’d actually like to see more K v K rounds (though considering that every K team needs to face framework enough that they know exactly how to debate it, and its probably more likely/easier to win a clash round than a K v K round on the negative, it may be more strategic to just go for framework on the neg if you don’t defend the USFG on the aff), and I’d especially love to see more well-argued race v high theory rounds. Obviously contextualization of very general evidence that likely isn’t going to be totally on point is the name of the game in these rounds, as well as starting storytelling early for both sides – I’d venture to say the team that can start telling the simple, coherent story (using evidence that can generally be a tad prolix so the degree of difficulty for this is high) early will be the team that generally will get the ballot. The same advice about heavy block use, especially being blocked out into the 1ar, given above counts here as well.

Policy v policy Rounds

I love them. A good specific policy round is a thing of beauty. Even a non-specific counterplan/DA round with a good strong block is always great. As the season goes on its comparatively less likely, just based on the rounds I usually get, that I’ll know about specific terminology, especially deeply nuanced counterplan terminology. I honestly believe good debaters, no matter their argumentative preference or what side of the (mostly spurious) right/left divide in debate you’re on, are good CASE debaters. If you are negative and you really want to back up the speaker point Brinks truck, a 5+ minute case press is probably the easiest way to make that happen.

Individual argument preferences

I’ll give two numbers here – THE LEFT ONE about how good I think I am for an argument based on how often I actually have to adjudicate it, and THE RIGHT ONE will be how much I personally enjoy an argument. Again – I’ll vote for anything you say. But more information about a judge is good, and you may as well know exactly what I enjoy hearing before you decide where to rank me. 1 being the highest, 10 being the lowest.

T (classic) --------------------------------------- 5/4

T (USFG/Framework) ------------------------ 1/1

DA ------------------------------------------------ 3/2

CP ------------------------------------------------- 4/2

Criticism ----------------------------------------- 1/2

Policy Aff --------------------------------------- 2/2

K Aff ---------------------------------------------- 1/3

Theory ------------------------------------------- 8/9

Cheap Shots ------------------------------------ 10/10

Post Round:

I feel like I’ve gotten more requests lately to listen to redos people send me. I’m happy to do that and give commentary if folks want – considering I saw the original speech and know the context behind it, it only makes sense that I would know best whether the redo fixes the deficiencies of the original. Shoot me an email and I’m happy to help out!

Any other questions – just ask!

Max Shapiro Chattahoochee High School

Priya Sharma Alpharetta High None

Jacob Shelton Chattahoochee High School

Last changed on Wed March 13, 2019 at 6:47 PM EDT

Chattahoochee High School 2015
University of Michigan 2019
Assistant Coach --- Wayzata High School (2015-Present)

Personal Information

I debated for four years at Chattahoochee High School on the national circuit, and three-ish years at the University of Michigan. As a debater, most of my experience involved reading policy-oriented arguments (my most frequent 2NRs included DA/Case or DA/CP strategies, T, and the Security K). As a judge, I've voted for arguments at pretty much every point on the argumentative spectrum. Judging is a privilege, and I'll work hard to make the best decision I possibly can.

Thoughts About Debate

I reward smart debaters who control the spin of the debate with quick, technical comparisons and intuitive analytics because, as a debater, I've always disliked judges that I felt were overly interventionist or reppy. I penalize debaters who tell me to "read 'X' flaming hot card" instead of comparatively explaining its warrants during their speeches. It's your job to make arguments within the debate, not mine to do so during the RFD.

With that said, I (like all judges) have some personal preferences about specific arguments that are likely to shape my decisions at the margins:

Counterplans: Obviously I prefer them to be specific, but I'm better than most judges for process CPs because most affirmative teams are bad at contesting their theoretical legitimacy or competitiveness.

DA/Case Debate: It's your job as debaters to tell me how I should weigh different components of these debates. Is winning the link more important than winning uniqueness? How does turns case analysis impact aff solvency? The team that better responds to these kinds of general framing questions within their speeches tends to be the one I end up voting for in close rounds.
Well-developed case defense is an incredibly under-utilized weapon, especially when people read bad affs that can be beaten with logical analytics.

Kritiks: The best critique debaters I've seen contextualize their links to the specificity of the aff and it's advantages and don't rely on random dropped K tricks. When I was asked "how far left is too far left" before a debate, my response was "if you can't explain your argument in a coherent fashion, you've gone too far". Take that as you will.

Theory: The most likely theoretical violation to result in me rejecting the team is conditionality. Many theory debates are difficult to adjudicate because they lack impact analysis. Explain why what your opponents have done is a reason to reject the team and explain the consequences of not doing so in a persuasive manner. I'm not likely to vote on blippy theory arguments like vague alts or multiple perms that are minimally articulated early in the debate, but these are useful as reasons to reject arguments.

Topicality: I generally default to competing interpretations. Many 2N's lack impact analysis or comparison between interpretations, which makes general aff arguments for their interpretation relatively convincing. Caselists for your interpretation and your opponent's are useful for helping me conceptualize and compare competing visions of the topic.

Planless Affirmatives: My voting record reflects a fairly even split of aff and neg ballots in framework debates, which some may find surprising given my personal inclinations towards reading plans and defending American hegemony. Maybe this just means teams are really bad at going for framework, but I hope it's more of a reflection of the fact that I care a lot more about what you say in the round than what I personally believe. Teams that win these debates in front of me tend to control the overarching framing of the round --- while technical debate is important, don't miss the forest for the trees. Impact-wise, procedural fairness has historically been more successful in front of me than skills and education-based arguments, but it requires better defense given the inherently smaller scale of the impact.

Pranav Shenoy Wheeler High School None

Karthik Srinivasan Hire None

Wyatt Strother Mount Vernon Presbyterian School

Johnnie Stupek Mount Vernon Presbyterian School

Last changed on Fri January 5, 2024 at 11:20 AM EDT

Head Debate Coach - University of Georgia

jstupek8@gmail.com

Top Level

- Clarity and flowability are the strongest qualities that drive my speaker points. I encourage debaters to adopt speaking practices that enhance their flowability such as: structured line-by-line, slowing down when communicating plan or counterplan texts, emphasizing particularly important lines in the body of evidence, and descriptively labeling off-case positions in the 1NC.

- Arguments do not always need cards to be impactful. I care about logical analytic arguments, particularly those that are set up well in cross-examination.

- Plan and counterplan text vagueness is an under-exploited issue. As such, I'm likely more amenable to specification arguments than your average judge.

- While no judge is a true blank slate, I have and am willing to vote on basically anything.

Disads

- I begin resolving these debates by comparing the relative risk of the internal link chains of the disadvantage and the advantage(s) the 2AR went for. All things being equal, I frequently resolve these debates without turning to questions of impact comparison or impact interaction. The advice I often find myself giving after debates is that second rebuttalists should spend less time on traditional impact calculus or turns case arguments and more time making sure you win your advantage or disadvantage. Of course, all things are not always equal and second rebuttalists should point out when there's a tangible timeframe or magnitude distinction between impacts.

- Brink + link uniqueness is not an adequate substitute for traditional uniqueness and link claims.

- Always been a fan of agenda politics, probably always will be.

- For affirmatives reading framing arguments, your time is almost always better spent making substantive answers to the disadvantage rather than meta arguments about the complex nature of disadvantages.

Counterplans

- Please stop starting your counterplan 2ACs with consecutive permutation arguments delivered at top speed. This is the single most difficult thing to flow properly in my experience. The easiest fix here is to read cards in between each different permutation and slowing down when communicating perm texts.

- I have no inherent aversion to process counterplans. I think that at times these debates can be really interesting, especially when contextualized to the topic.

- I still believe in an abstract academic sense, that the benefits of conditionality outweigh its costs. This issue, however, is so rarely evenly debated that more affirmative teams should consider going for conditionality bad.

- My default view is that counterplan theory arguments that are not conditionality bad are reasons to reject the argument rather than reasons to reject the team. This presumption can be overcome, but the bar is high.

- My default view is that I will judge kick the counterplan and compare the aff vs. the status quo. I can and have been persuaded not to do so when the affirmative team advances that argument.

Topicality vs. Policy Affirmatives

- Including resolutional language in your plan text does not in and of itself persuade me the aff is topical.

- Caselists are incredibly useful for articulating just how under or over limiting a particular interpretation is.

- For affirmative teams, I would rather hear impacts about the benefits of a broader topic for affirmative innovation and flexibility than appeals to education about the affirmative's content. I am unlikely to be persuaded that I should reject a negative topicality interpretation because the affirmative would have a difficult time constructing solvency deficits to a particular counterplan under said interpretation. That argument seems to be a theoretical objection the counterplan rather than a topicality standard.

- Teams articulating a "precision" standard should take care to clearly explain what their threshold for a "precise" interpretation is, why their interpretation meets that threshold, and why the opposing team's interpretation does not.

Kritiks On The Neg

- I care about the alt quite a bit. Teams that have persuaded me to vote for kritiks have often done so on the basis of strong alt debating.

- The way "framework" arguments are currently deployed is somewhat puzzling to me. Most aff/neg framework standards seem to get more at the question of "how much" weight I should give to a particular impact than to whether I should consider a particular impact in the first place. I've never been persuaded that framework means I don't consider the merits of the 1AC. I've equally never been persuaded that framework means the alt has to be policy.

- Kritiks that derive their offense from the affirmative not doing enough or being too incremental are vulnerable to permutations.

- Alt causes are not link arguments. Link arguments are not "disads."

Planless Affirmatives

- I have been persuaded that the aff doesn't have to read a plan or say USFG should, but I have not encountered a situation where I have been persuaded that the aff doesn't have to be topical. Having some sort of counter-interpretation, even if it's just "resolved means to analyze," is important for how I ground and resolve aff arguments about the neg's interpretation. I want to hear in detail about what the affirmative's model of debate might look like. I would rather hear one or two conceptual impact turns to the negative's model, than eight different "DA's" that are difficult to distinguish between.

- For the negative, I would rather hear arguments about the value of procedural fairness than than some of the more "substantive" framework arguments.

- The vocabulary of "internal link" and "impact" is not particularly useful in a debate about theory. Certainly the negative needs to explain why fairness is a valuable concept, but that explanation does not have to involve the same kind of cause and effect logic chain we encounter in advantages or disadvantages. The "just an internal link" pejorative often applies just as well to arguments forwarded by the affirmative. As a whole, these debates would be so much better if no one used the words "impact," "internal link," or "disad."

Speaker Points

- I hesitate to offer some sort of static scale for speaks because I think that speaker points are relative and I am constantly reflecting on whether my speaker point distribution is in line with the rest of the judging community.

- Debaters who debate technically and make good strategic decisions will receive good points.

- Debaters who debate with style (humor, passionate rebuttals, exceptional clarity) will receive good points.

Closing Thoughts

If you've made it this far, I want to take a moment to express my sincere gratitude for the work you do as debaters and coaches. I know how hard everyone works to prepare for debates and I strive to provide judging and feedback that lives up to that standard.

"As I look back at the contours of my own life, many things about it I would change if I could. But not this. The long hours, the demanding schedules, all that goes into effective debating and effective coaching, the lost weekends. I would do it all again. I would do it all again not for any particular tournament or trophy, not for the specifics of any topic, not even for the intellectual benefits debate bestows upon its participants, critical thinking and the like. I would do it all again for the chance to work with hard-working, dedicated, and committed students like those assembled in this room." - Scott Deatherage

Blake Tanase Riverwood International Charter School

Derek Tang Johns Creek High School None

Nicholas Tilmes Georgetown Day School

Last changed on Sun February 18, 2024 at 11:00 AM EDT

I coach for NYU and used to debate for Cornell University and Georgetown Day School. While I almost exclusively ran Ks, I'll vote on anything. Run whatever you're good at and I'll adapt to you.

Please add me to the email chain - my email is ntilmes@gmail.com.

General Info:

I am a technical, flow-centric judge and aim to intervene as little as possible. The more I have to extrapolate and cross-apply your arguments, the less likely I am to vote for you. Tech over truth, but that often depends in part on how well the 2NR closes doors and how the 2AR frames the truth; a handful of well-developed arguments and smart analytics often trump mountains of shoddy ones. While this is the default way I evaluate debates, you can convince me to do so differently.

When coming to a decision, I try to identify the central questions that frame the debate, which often hinge on impact assessments and warrant comparisons, and then work outwards from those questions. I’m a fan of high-quality evidence, re-cuts of the other team's cards, and historical examples.

Racist, sexist, ableist, etc. behavior will result in a loss. Please honor accessibility requests.

The K vs. Policy:

In-depth knowledge of your theory is not a substitute for historical examples. Tailor your offense to specific lines from aff evidence instead of relying on jargon. Lots of debates boil down to weighing the aff against the K, but don't delve into how I should do so.

It's fine to jettison the alt and just go for framework and a link or two, but then you need to flesh out the links as case turns or find some other way to generate uniqueness. That said, Ks need not be DAs, and you shouldn’t shy away from defending your alt.

Policy vs. The K:

Explain what the perm looks like early and often, don’t just wait until the 2AR. K teams often assume their impacts come first and don’t do enough framing; I’m a solid judge for stock policy arguments (e.g., pragmatism, extinction first) and clever impact turns.

Too many Ks contain multiple divergent literature bases, so exploit those tensions. Internal non-contradiction is a low bar, but failing to clear it is devastating. Similarly, 2ACs that contain every generic K answer and don’t engage specifics are disappointing to watch.

K Affs v. Policy:

I don't care whether you're topical or not, but you should have some relation to the topic and depart from the status quo. The more your aff looks like it could be read on any topic, the more likely I am to vote on T.

Whether you argue your aff is contestable and articulate a model of debate with a clear role for the neg or just impact turn framework, your 2AC should explain why the topic is irredeemable. Frame your offense in ways that makes it difficult for the 2NR to kick flows.

Policy v. K Affs:

Debate might be a game, but it also has aspects that go beyond the room. As such, fairness can be an impact, but your impacts should be contextualized to the room, activism, organizing, etc. Limits tend to matter more to me than ground, all else equal.

It is difficult to convince me not to weigh the aff against framework, so don't neglect the case page, especially as most K affs don't solve their impacts. Ideally, TVAs should speak not just to the aff's stakeholders, but also to their theory of power.

K v. K Debates:

Affs should have an advocacy statement and depart from the status quo, or they risk being vulnerable to presumption. Distinctions can collapse quickly in method debates, so find some metric or parameter by which I should evaluate advocacies.

I have a higher threshold for the perm in debates where the aff doesn't have a plan, so warrant out what it looks like. I’m not convinced that "perm do the aff" and "perm we do us, you do you" are real arguments.

Policy v. Policy:

I often read more evidence than I otherwise might after the round in these debates, and in-depth comparisons are important. That said, smart analytics can also go a long way.

You’re more likely to persuade me of the direction of link or uniqueness questions than convince me about them in absolute terms, though I suppose you could do so.

Solvency advocates are ideal but not necessary for CPs. I don't have strong opinions about what constitutes an abusive number of advocacies. I dislike voting on theory over substance, but will do so, with one exception: disclosure theory can support links or abuse claims, but is never a voting issue on its own.

Aaron Timmons Greenhill School

Last changed on Mon June 17, 2024 at 5:39 AM CDT

Aaron Timmons

Director of Debate – Greenhill School

Former Coach USA Debate Team - Coach World Champions 2023

Curriculum Director Harvard Debate Council Summer Workshops

Updated – April 2024

Please put me on the email chain – timmonsa@greenhill.org

Contact me with questions.

General Musings

Debate rounds, and subsequently debate tournaments, are extensions of the classroom. While we all learn from each other, my role is a critic of argument (if I had to pigeonhole myself with a paradigmatic label as a judge). I will evaluate your performance in as objective a method as possible. Unlike many adjudicators claim to be, I am not a blank slate. I will intervene if I see behaviors or practices that create a bad, unfair, or hostile environment for the extension of the classroom that is the debate round. I WILL do my best to objectively evaluate your arguments, but the idea that my social location is not a relevant consideration of how I view/decode (even hear) arguments is not true (nor true for anyone.)

I have coached multiple National and/or State Champions in Policy Debate, Lincoln Douglas Debate, and World Schools Debate (in addition to interpretation/speech events). I still actively coach and I am involved in the strategy and argument creation of my students who compete for my school. Given the demands on my time, I do not cut as many cards as I once did for Policy and Lincoln Douglas. That said, I am more than aware of the arguments and positions being run in both of these formats week in and week out.

General thoughts on how I decide debates:

1 – Debate is a communication activity – I will flow what you say in speeches as opposed to flowing off of the speech documents (for the events that share documents). If I need to read cards to resolve an issue, I will do so but until ethos and pathos (re)gain status as equal partners with logos in the persuasion triangle, we will continue to have debates decided only on what is “in the speech doc.” Speech > speech doc.

2 – Be mindful of your “maximum rate of efficiency” – aka, you may be trying to go faster than you are capable of speaking in a comprehensible way. The rate of speed Is not a problem in many contemporary debates, the lack of clarity is an increasing concern. Unstructured paragraphs that are slurred together do not allow the pen time necessary to write things down in the detail you think they might. Style and substance are fundamentally inseparable. This does NOT mean you have to be slow; it does mean you need to be clear.

3 – Evidence is important - In my opinion debates/comparisons about the qualifications of authors on competing issues and warrants (particularly empirical ones), are important. Do you this and not only will your points improve, but I am also likely to prefer your argument if the comparisons are done well.

4 – Online Debating – We have had two years to figure this out. My camera will be on. I expect that your camera is on as well unless there is a technical issue that cannot/has not been resolved in our time online. If there is an equity/home issue that necessitates that your camera is off, I understand that and will defer to your desire to it be off if that is the case. A simple, “I would prefer for my camera to be off” will suffice to inform me of your request.

5 – Disclosure is good (on balance) – I feel that debaters/teams should disclose on the wiki. I have been an advocate of disclosure for decades. I am NOT interested in “got you” games regarding disclosure. If a team/school is against disclosure, defend that pedagogical practice in the debate. Either follow basic tenets of community norms related to disclosure (affirmative arguments, negative positions read, etc.) after they have been read in a debate. While I do think things like full source and/or round reports are good educational practices, I am not interested in hearing debates about those issues. ADA issues: If a student needs to have materials formatted in a matter to address issues of accessibility based on documented learning differences, that request should be made promptly to allow reformatting of that material. Preferably, adults from one school should contact the adult representatives of the other schools to deal with school-sanctioned accountability.

6 – Zero risk is a possibility – There is a possibility of zero risks of an advantage or a disadvantage.

7 – My role as a judge - I will do my best to judge the debate that occurred versus the debate that I wish had happened. I see too many judges making decisions based on evaluating and comparing evidence after the debate that was not done by the students.

8 – Debate the case – It is a forgotten art. Your points will increase, and it expands the options for you to win the debate in the final negative rebuttal.

9 – Good “judge instructions” will make my job easier – While I am happy to make my judgments and comparisons between competing claims, I feel that students making those comparisons, laying out the order of operations, articulating “even/if” considerations, telling me how to weigh and then CHOOSING in the final rebuttals, will serve debaters well (and reduce frustrations on both our parts0.

10 – Cross-examination matters – Plan and ask solid questions. Good cross-examinations will be rewarded.

11 - Flowing is a prerequisite to good debating (and judging) - You should flow. I will be flowing your speech not from the doc, but your actual speech..

Policy Debate

I enjoy policy debate and given my time in the activity I have judged, coached, and seen some amazing students over the years.

A few thoughts on how I view judging policy debate:

Topicality vs Conventional Affs:

Traditional concepts of competing interpretations can be mundane and sometimes result in silly debates. Limiting out one affirmative will not save/protect limits or negative ground. Likewise, reasonability in a vacuum without there being a metric on what that means and how it informs my interpretation vis a vis the resolution lacks nuance as well. Topicality debaters who can frame what the topic should look like based on the topic, and preferably evidence to support why interpretation makes sense will be rewarded. The next step is saying why a more limiting (juxtaposed to the most limiting) topic makes sense helps to frame the way I would think about that version of the topic. A case list of what would be topical under your interpretation would help as would a list of core negative arguments that are excluded if we accept the affirmative interpretation or model of debate.

Topicality/FW vs critical affirmatives:

First – The affirmative needs to do something (and be willing to defend what that is). The negative needs to win that performance is net bad/worse than an alternative (be it the status quo, a counterplan, or a K alternative).

Second – The negative should have access to ground, but they do not get to predetermine what that is. Just because your generic da or counterplan does not apply to the affirmative does not mean the affirmative cannot be tested.

Conditionality

Conditionality is good but only in a limited sense. I do not think the negative gets unlimited options (even against a new affirmative). While the negative can have multiple counter plans, the affirmative will get leeway to creatively (re)explain permutations if the negative kicks (or attempts to add) planks to the counterplan(s), the 1ar will get some flexibility to respond to this negative move.

Counterplans and Disads:

Counterplans are your friend. Counterplans need a net benefit (reasons the affirmative is a bad/less than desirable idea. Knowing the difference between an advantage to the counterplan and a real net benefit seems to be a low bar. Process counterplans are harder to defend as competitive and I am sympathetic to affirmative permutations. I have a higher standard for many on permutations as I believe that in the 2AC “perm do the counterplan” and/or “perm do the alternative” do nothing to explain what that world looks like. If the affirmative takes another few moments to explain these arguments, that increases the pressure on the 2nr to be more precise in responding to these arguments.

Disadvantages that are specific to the advocacy of the affirmative will get you high points.

Lincoln Douglas

I have had students succeed at the highest levels of Lincoln Douglas Debate including multiple champions of NSDA, NDCA, the Tournament of Champions, as well as the Texas Forensic Association State Championships.

Theory is debated far too much in Lincoln – Douglas and is debated poorly. I am strongly opposed to that practice. My preference is NOT to hear a bad theory debate. I believe the negative does get some “flex;” it cannot be unlimited. The negative does not need to run more than four off-case arguments

Words matter. Arguments that are racist, sexist, transphobic, homophobic, etc. will not be tolerated.

I am not a fan of random; multiple sentence fragments that claim to “spike” out of all of the other team’s arguments. At its foundation, the debate should be about argument ENGAGEMENT, not evasion.

I do not like skepticism as an argument. It would be in your best interest to not run it in front of me. While interesting in a philosophy class in college, training young advocates to feel that “morality doesn’t exist” etc. is educationally irresponsible.

I do not disclose speaker points. That seems silly to me.

Dropped arguments and the “auto-win” seem silly to me. Just because a debater drops a card does not mean you win the debate. Weighing and embedded clashes are a necessary component of the debate. Good debaters extend their arguments. GREAT debaters do that in addition to explaining the nexus point of the clash between their arguments and that of the opposition and WHY I should prefer their argument. Any argument that says the other side cannot answer your position is fast-tracking to an L (with burnt cheese and marinara on top).

It takes more than a sentence (or in many of the rounds I judge a sentence fragment), to make an argument. If the argument was not clear originally, I will allow the opponent to make new arguments.

Choose. No matter the speech or the argument.

Cross apply much of the policy section as well as the general musings on debate.

World Schools

Have you chaired a WS round before? (required)

Yes. Countless times.

What does chairing a round involve? (required)

How would you describe World Schools Debate to someone else?

World Schools is modeled after parliament having argumentation presented in a way that is conversational, yet argumentatively rigorous. Debates are balanced between motions that are prepared, while some are impromptu. Points of Information (POIs) are a unique component of the format as speakers can be interrupted by their opponent by them asking a question or making a statement.

What process, if any, do you utilize to take notes in the debate? (required)

I keep a rigorous flow throughout the debate.

When evaluating the round, assuming both principle and practical arguments are advanced through the 3rd and Reply speeches, do you prefer one over the other? Explain.

These should be prioritized and compared by the students in the round. I do not have an ideological preference between principled or practical arguments.

The World Schools Debate format requires the judge to consider both Content and Style as 40% of each of the speaker’s overall score, while Strategy is 20%. How do you evaluate a speaker’s strategy? (required)

Strategy (simply put) is how they utilize the content that has been introduced in the debate.

World Schools Debate is supposed to be delivered at a conversational pace. What category would you deduct points in if the speaker were going too fast?

Style.

World Schools Debate does not require evidence/cards to be read in the round. How do you evaluate competing claims if there is no evidence to read?

Students are required to use analysis, examples, and interrogate the claims of the other side then make comparative claims about the superiority of their position.

How do you resolve model quibbles?

Model quibbles are not fully developed arguments if they are only questions that are not fully developed or have an articulated impact.

How do you evaluate models vs. countermodels?

I utilize the approach of comparative worlds to evaluate competing methods for resolving mutual problems/harms. The proposition must defend its model as being comparatively advantageous over a given alternative posed by the opposition. While many feel in World Schools a countermodel must be mutually exclusive. While that certainly is one method of assessing if a countermodel truly ‘forces a choice,” a feel a better stand is that of net benefits. The question should be if it is desirable to do both the propositions model and the opposition countermodel at the same time. If it is possible to do both without any undesirable outcomes, the negative has failed to prove the desirability of their countermodel. The opposition should explain why doing both would be a bad idea. The proposition should advance an argument as to why doing both is better than adopting the countermodel alone.

Josh Vasil Johns Creek High School

Kevin Wei Greenhill School

Last changed on Fri August 27, 2021 at 5:30 PM EDT

Greenhill CX '16, Columbia '19

Last update: 09/29/2019

Overview: I was a CX debater/2N at Greenhill for four years; I was a CP/DA debater but will vote on any argument except offensive args as long as you can win it. I'm very familiar with cap k and security k literature but not most other k lit. Tech over truth, extend warrants, do impact comparisons and line-by-line, etc. I'm fine with speed, but be very clear on taglines, theory, analytics, etc; if I don't flow it, I'm not judging it. Flashing is not prep, flex prep is OK, open CX is OK, disclosure on wiki and/or verbally within a reasonable amount of time before the debate is critical. You will get extra speaks if you have well-researched args (e.g. AFF-specific strats, sneaky AFFs, etc; see below)

Add me to the email chain and/or feel free to email me with questions at ghskwei@gmail.com

CX Theory: I default to thinking a couple conditional positions are justified, neg gets fiat, no wholerez, 99% of CPs are theoretically legitimate, etc. but can be convinced otherwise. Fairness is an impact only when you can articulate how I can compare it to other impacts (see 3). I think judge kick makes perfect sense but will only do it if you tell me to since judge kick is not the default in high school debates. I will vote on framework vs. k's/k affs, but I personally hate these debates - go for an AFF-specific PIK or something more interesting for bonus speaks.

LD debaters: everything above applies. I'll happily judge your framework, theory, etc. other non-CX style rounds. If you are going to read a huge block of text from your laptop: slow down and number/label your arguments, otherwise nobody will be able to flow them. I won't evaluate an argument that I can't flow.

Also, I think that silly theory violations such as "interp: opponent must flash permutation texts before reading them" are bad for debate, and I really hope you can go for/win on better args. You will get higher speaks if you go for substance when given the option between winning on substance and winning on silly theory (this does not apply if you're not winning substance, of course).

Speaks: I believe that speaks are a way of rewarding/punishing debaters for actions/performances outside of the win/loss decision on the ballot. Speaks will be adjusted to consider factors such as speaking ability, speaking clarity, research and argument quality, performance during CX, strategy/what you go for, courage, and decorum (e.g. offensive args/language, rudeness to opponents, etc are bad.). I will disclose speaks if asked.

Average tournament-adjusted speaks will be roughly 28.0 for policy debates, higher for LD debates

+.1 for making a batman joke, which tells me that you at least skimmed my paradigm

+.5 if you have a well-researched, aff-specific strat (I especially like seeing this vs k affs)

Spencer Weiser Chattahoochee High School

Whit Whitmore Pace Academy

Last changed on Thu January 4, 2024 at 3:39 AM EDT

add me to the email chain: whit211@gmail.com

Do not utter the phrase "plan text in a vacuum" or any other clever euphemism for it. It's not an argument, I won't vote on it, and you'll lose speaker points for advancing it. You should defend your plan, and I should be able to tell what the plan does by reading it.

Inserting things into the debate isn't a thing. If you want me to evaluate evidence, you should read it in the debate.

Cross-ex time is cross-ex time, not prep time. Ask questions or use your prep time, unless the tournament has an official "alt use" time rule.

You should debate line by line. That means case arguments should be responded to in the 1NC order and off case arguments should be responded to in the 2AC order. I continue to grow frustrated with teams that do not flow. If I suspect you are not flowing (I visibly see you not doing it; you answer arguments that were not made in the previous speech but were in the speech doc; you answer arguments in speech doc order instead of speech order), you will receive no higher than a 28. This includes teams that like to "group" the 2ac into sections and just read blocks in the 2NC/1NR. Also, read cards. I don't want to hear a block with no cards. This is a research activity.

Debate the round in a manner that you would like and defend it. I consistently vote for arguments that I don’t agree with and positions that I don’t necessarily think are good for debate. I have some pretty deeply held beliefs about debate, but I’m not so conceited that I think I have it all figured out. I still try to be as objective as possible in deciding rounds. All that being said, the following can be used to determine what I will most likely be persuaded by in close calls:

If I had my druthers, every 2nr would be a counterplan/disad or disad/case.

In the battle between truth and tech, I think I fall slightly on side of truth. That doesn’t mean that you can go around dropping arguments and then point out some fatal flaw in their logic in the 2AR. It does mean that some arguments are so poor as to necessitate only one response, and, as long as we are on the same page about what that argument is, it is ok if the explanation of that argument is shallow for most of the debate. True arguments aren’t always supported by evidence, but it certainly helps.

I think research is the most important aspect of debate. I make an effort to reward teams that work hard and do quality research on the topic, and arguments about preserving and improving topic specific education carry a lot of weight with me. However, it is not enough to read a wreck of good cards and tell me to read them. Teams that have actually worked hard tend to not only read quality evidence, but also execute and explain the arguments in the evidence well. I think there is an under-highlighting epidemic in debates, but I am willing to give debaters who know their evidence well enough to reference unhighlighted portions in the debate some leeway when comparing evidence after the round.

I think the affirmative should have a plan. I think the plan should be topical. I think topicality is a voting issue. I think teams that make a choice to not be topical are actively attempting to exclude the negative team from the debate (not the other way around). If you are not going to read a plan or be topical, you are more likely to persuade me that what you are doing is ‘ok’ if you at least attempt to relate to or talk about the topic. Being a close parallel (advocating something that would result in something similar to the resolution) is much better than being tangentially related or directly opposed to the resolution. I don’t think negative teams go for framework enough. Fairness is an impact, not a internal link. Procedural fairness is a thing and the only real impact to framework. If you go for "policy debate is key to skills and education," you are likely to lose. Winning that procedural fairness outweighs is not a given. You still need to defend against the other team's skills, education and exclusion arguments.

I don’t think making a permutation is ever a reason to reject the affirmative. I don’t believe the affirmative should be allowed to sever any part of the plan, but I believe the affirmative is only responsible for the mandates of the plan. Other extraneous questions, like immediacy and certainty, can be assumed only in the absence of a counterplan that manipulates the answers to those questions. I think there are limited instances when intrinsicness perms can be justified. This usually happens when the perm is technically intrinsic, but is in the same spirit as an action the CP takes This obviously has implications for whether or not I feel some counterplans are ultimately competitive.

Because I think topic literature should drive debates (see above), I feel that both plans and counterplans should have solvency advocates. There is some gray area about what constitutes a solvency advocate, but I don’t think it is an arbitrary issue. Two cards about some obscure aspect of the plan that might not be the most desirable does not a pic make. Also, it doesn’t sit well with me when negative teams manipulate the unlimited power of negative fiat to get around literature based arguments against their counterplan (i.e. – there is a healthy debate about federal uniformity vs state innovation that you should engage if you are reading the states cp). Because I see this action as comparable to an affirmative intrinsicness answer, I am more likely to give the affirmative leeway on those arguments if the negative has a counterplan that fiats out of the best responses.

My personal belief is probably slightly affirmative on many theory questions, but I don’t think I have voted affirmative on a (non-dropped) theory argument in years. Most affirmatives are awful at debating theory. Conditionality is conditionality is conditionality. If you have won that conditionality is good, there is no need make some arbitrary interpretation that what you did in the 1NC is the upper limit of what should be allowed. On a related note, I think affirmatives that make interpretations like ‘one conditional cp is ok’ have not staked out a very strategic position in the debate and have instead ceded their best offense. Appeals to reciprocity make a lot sense to me. ‘Argument, not team’ makes sense for most theory arguments that are unrelated to the disposition of a counterplan or kritik, but I can be persuaded that time investment required for an affirmative team to win theory necessitates that it be a voting issue.

Critical teams that make arguments that are grounded in and specific to the topic are more successful in front of me than those that do not. It is even better if your arguments are highly specific to the affirmative in question. I enjoy it when you paint a picture for me with stories about why the plans harms wouldn’t actually happen or why the plan wouldn’t solve. I like to see critical teams make link arguments based on claims or evidence read by the affirmative. These link arguments don’t always have to be made with evidence, but it is beneficial if you can tie the specific analytical link to an evidence based claim. I think alternative solvency is usually the weakest aspect of the kritik. Affirmatives would be well served to spend cross-x and speech time addressing this issue. ‘Our authors have degrees/work at a think tank’ is not a response to an epistemological indict of your affirmative. Intelligent, well-articulated analytic arguments are often the most persuasive answers to a kritik. 'Fiat' isn't a link. If your only links are 'you read a plan' or 'you use the state,' or if your block consistently has zero cards (or so few that find yourself regularly sending out the 2nc in the body rather than speech doc) then you shouldn't be preffing me.

LD Specific Business:

I am primarily a policy coach with very little LD experience. Have a little patience with me when it comes to LD specific jargon or arguments. It would behoove you to do a little more explanation than you would give to a seasoned adjudicator in the back of the room. I will most likely judge LD rounds in the same way I judge policy rounds. Hopefully my policy philosophy below will give you some insight into how I view debate. I have little tolerance and a high threshold for voting on unwarranted theory arguments. I'm not likely to care that they dropped your 'g' subpoint, if it wasn't very good. RVI's aren't a thing, and I won't vote on them.

Catherine Williams Alpharetta High None

Lisa Willoughby Henry W. Grady

Last changed on Sun February 18, 2024 at 8:30 AM EDT

Judge Philosophy

Name: Lisa Willoughby

Current Affiliation: Midtown High School formerly Henry W. Grady High School

Conflicts: AUDL teams

Debate Experience: 1 year debating High School 1978-79, Coaching High School 1984-present

How many rounds have you judged in 2012-13: 50, 2013-2014: 45, 2015-2016: 25, 2016-17 15, 2017-2018: 30, 2018-19: 30, 2019-20:10, 2020-21: 40, 2021-2022: 35, 2022-2023:6

send evidence e-mail chain to quaintt@aol.com

I still view my self as a policy maker unless the debaters specify a different role for my ballot. I love impact comparison between disadvantages and advantages, what Rich Edwards used to call Desirability. I don’t mind the politics disad, but I am open to Kritiks of Politics.

I like Counterplans, especially case specific counterplans. I certainly think that some counterplans are arguably illegitimate; for example, I think that some international counterplans are utopian, and arguably claim advantages beyond the reciprocal scope of the affirmative, and are, therefore, unfair. I think that negatives should offer a solvency advocate for all aspects of their counterplan, and that multi-plank cps are problematic. I think that there are several reasons why consultation counterplans, and the States CP could be unfair. I will not vote unilaterally on any of these theoretical objections; the debaters need to demonstrate for me why a particular counterplan would be unfair.

I have a minor in Philosophy, and love good Kritik debate. Sadly, I have seen a lot of bad Kritik debate. I think that K debaters need to have a strong understanding of the K authors that they embrace. I really want to understand the alternative or the role of my ballot. I have no problem with a K Aff, but am certainly willing to vote on Framework/T against a case that does not have at least a clear advocacy statement that I can understand. I am persuadable on "AFF must be USFG."

I like Topicality, Theory and Framework arguments when they are merited. I want to see fair division of ground or discourse that allows both teams a chance to prepare and be ready to engage the arguments.

I prefer substance to theory; go for the theoretical objections when the abuse is real.

As for style, I love good line-by-line debate. I adore evidence comparison, and argument comparison. I am fairly comfortable with speed, but I like clarity. I have discovered that as I get older, I am very comfortable asking the students to "clear." I enjoy humor; I prefer entertaining cross-examinations to belligerent CX. Warrant your claims with evidence or reasoning.

Ultimately, I demand civility: any rhetoric, language, performance or interactions that demean, dehumanize or trivialize fellow debaters, their arguments or judges would be problematic, and I believe, a voting issue.

An occasional interruption of a partner’s speech or deferring to a more expert partner to answer a CX question is not a problem in my view. Generally only one debater at a time should be speaking. Interruptions of partner speeches or CX that makes one partner merely a ventriloquist for the other are extremely problematic.

Clipping cards is cheating. Quoting authors or evidence out of context, or distorting the original meaning of a text or narrative is both intellectually bankrupt and unfair.

There is no such thing as one ideal form or type of debate. I love the clash of ideas and argumentation. That said, I prefer discourse that is educational, and substantive. I want to walk away from a round, as I often do, feeling reassured that the policy makers, educators, and citizens of the future will seek to do a reasonable and ethical job of running the world.

For Lincoln Douglas debates:

I am "old school" and feel most comfortable in a Value/Criterion Framework, but it is your debate to frame. Because I judge policy frequently, I am comfortable with speed but generally find it is needless. Clarity is paramount. Because of the limited time, I find that I typically err AFF on theoretical objections much more than I would in a policy round.

I believe that any argument that an AFF wants to weigh in the 2AR needs to be in the 1AR. I will vote against new 2AR arguments.

I believe that NEG has an obligation to clash with the AFF. For this reason, a counterplan would only be justified in a round when the AFF argues for a plan; otherwise a counterplan is an argument for the AFF. The NEG must force a decision, and for that reason, I am not fond of what used to be called a 'balance neg.'

Bill Wilson USN

Last changed on Fri March 22, 2024 at 8:21 AM CDT

Background:

USN head coach 2012-present

MBA assistant coach 2000-2002

The stuff you are looking for:

email chain: bwilson at usn.org

K Aff: Defend a hypothetical project that goes beyond the 1AC.

Framework: My general assumption is that predictable limits lead to higher quality debates. Aff, how does your method/performance center on the resolutional question in a way that adds value to this year's topic education? Why does the value of your discussion/method outweigh the benefits of a predictable, topic-focused debate?

Topicality: I am agnostic when it comes to the source of your definitions. Just tell me why they are preferable for this debate. Aff reasonability defense must be coupled with an interpretation, and RTP that interpretation. I will be honest, when it's a T round against an aff that was cut at workshop and has been run all year, I have a gut-check lean to reasonability. Competing interps becomes more compelling when there is significant offense for the interpretation.

Theory: Other than condo, a theory win means I reject the argument unless you do work explaining otherwise. For condo debates, please have a clear interpretation and reasons to reject. I am more open to theory when it is about something particular to the round and is not read from pre-written blocks.

CP's: I prefer CP's that have a solvency advocate. I think a well articulated/warranted perm can beat most plan plus, process CP's.

Politics: I like it better on topics without other viable DAs, but I am fine for these debates.

DAs: I find "turns the case" analysis more compelling at the internal link level.

Cheating: If you are not reading every word you are claiming through underlining or highlighting, that is clipping. If it seems like a one time miscue I will yell something, and unless corrected, I'll disregard the evidence. If it is egregious/persistent, I will be forced to intervene with an L.

If the other team raises a dispute. I will do my best to adjudicate the claim and follow the above reasoning to render a penalty either to dismiss the evidence in question or reject the team. I think I have a fairly high threshold for rendering a decision on an ethics challenge.

RIP wiki paradigms, or how my paradigm started for years but is now showing its age:

I like it when debaters think about the probability of their scenarios and compare and connect the different scenarios in the round. If it is a policy v critical debate, the framing is important, but not in a prior question, ROB, or "only competing policy options" sense. The better team uses their arguments to access or outweigh the other side. I think there is always a means to weigh 1AC advantages against the k, to defend 1AC epistemology as a means to making those advantages more probable and specific. On the flip side, a thorough indictment of 1AC authors and assumptions will make it easier to weigh your alternative, ethics, case turn, etc. Explain the thesis of your k and tell me why it it is a reason to reject the affirmative.

Ben Zeppos USN None

Alice Zhou Chattahoochee High School None

Login to Tabroom

1st and 2nd Year National Championships at Woodward Academy

2015 — GA/US

Policy Paradigm List

My Philosophy

Judging

Specifics

Speaker Points

Varsity High School Debater

Random Thoughts

2015

2014

2013

2012

2011

Actual Philosophy

Judges