More to follow at a later time but here is the jist:

I think that the affirmative should do something and have an interpretation that gives both sides equal opporunity to win based on pre round preperation and in round execution. I think negatives should respond to the affirmative and tell me why they are wrong. 

K- I probably haven't read the literature base but I have done debate long enough to see most K's. I think an aff's best opportunity for offense is the alternative and generally find rejection alt's to be unpersuasive, the negative needs to go a step further and say what I'm rejecting in favor of and how that occurs from my ballot.

Theory- For me to vote on it I think the argument must be made coherently originally (Link, warrant, impact) then expanded upon and developed by later speechs. Half sentence theory arg that are shadow extended won't cut it . Conditionality is probably fine to an extent but can be done abusively. I generally don't think perf con is a reason to reject the team rather an excuse for the aff to go wild on the perm debate. Agent CP's are okay. Delay/Consult /Review cp's I'm less a fan of but have run/voted for them. 

DA's- yes please, politics, tradeoff etc. I like them.

Case- Case debate is under utalized and a good block can really do some damage by investing time here.

I'm very middle-of-the-road.

I debated for four years at Richmond. I have coached for Richmond for about three years. I am no longer affiliated with any school. It's been awhile since I've judged rounds. The quality of my flow will not be the greatest, but that does not mean that I'm not following you.

I think I do a good job being indifferent to the framing/vantage point of whatever argument you run, so... do you.

I studied political science and philosophy as an undergrad. I get the nuance of many policy arguments and have likely heard most theory/policymaker frameworks. I am also comfortable with quite a broad range of philosophical/anti-philosophical/theoretical authors. I used to cut many policy arguments for UofR, but more often debated one-off critiques.

I don't care about dropped evidence; I care about dropped arguments. I handsomely reward 1ARs that show careful issue selection.

Counterplans: you should probably have a solvency advocate. Affs should make an issue of counter-plans that are net beneficial but have no solvency advocate—I think it's cheap.

Critiques: yeah you're good. Affs have better odds of winning (me) by impact turning a criticism than a no link/permutation strategy. You’re probably not going to persuade me that your straight-laced plan text doesn't link to a statism critique.

Case Debate: Is it old school to vote neg on a non-inherent aff? I mean, I'll do it.

I am deaf in my right ear. Please enunciate clearly your tags/analytics and please slow down when reading them. Feel free to offer me a digital copy of your speech before beginning (is that still a thing?); to do so would be to your advantage. Besides, I delete everything I receive after the debate ends, without exception. I don't want your grubby templates; get off my digital lawn!

The bomb has already gone off, Guattari is a lobster, and I will not follow you on Instagram.

Courtney Kloepper
University of Miami 2019
3 years of debate at Shawnee Mission West High School in Kansas
Speaker Positions: 1A/2N (Flexible)
*Updated as of 12/4/2015

My experience also encompasses two attendances at KU’s Jayhawk Debate Institute, including a finals appearance. My skills and philosophies have thusly been heavily influenced by the debaters and staffing of this great camp.

“I do my best to judge rounds from the perspective presented by the debaters. I have voted for just about every kind of argument imaginable. […] I try my best to resolve a debate based on what the debaters have said in their speeches. I try not to impose my own perspective on a debate. […] The purpose of my ballot is to say who I think won the debate not to express my personal opinion on an issue or to stimulate social transformation. That said I do have some preferences.” - Dr. Harris

Overview

Plainly stated, I am tabula rasa, but I will default policy maker unless you tell me otherwise. 

I want to watch you debate the round that you want to have. Just be clear, concise, and strategic.

Overall, the most important thing to remember is that the debate is a puzzle, and everything should fit together somehow. Remember the big picture, and try to paint that scene for me. I am largely fond of the line-by-line debate and when in doubt, that is never a poor method. I would rather hear your spin on a piece of evidence than see a solid card poorly developed in round. I don’t need to see your evidence, but if you really think your card is fire and the deciding vote of the round, then I’m open to viewing it. Also, I will not vote on my personal debating style, if you want me to vote on something, you need to make the argument yourself.

Argumentation

Case: Don’t lose sight of the case. I am receptive of all forms of debate including Kritiks, narratives, and performance styles. Just because the round is not policy, does not automatically mean the case is invalid. I believe that any argument in debate should be able to have its impacts weighed against those of the aff, but that is on you to make that argument on the Role of the Ballot, I will not automatically vote on that for you. Also, impact turns are fun.

Plan: I tend to think that the aff should defend the hypothetical implementation of a topical policy plan, even on Kritikal affs; however, alternative texts and no plan texts are valid if I am persuaded otherwise.

Topicality: Love it- when it’s done well. You are very welcome to have a non-topical aff, just be prepared to debate it. I enjoy the argument very much, but it must be ran correctly or else it has no impact.

CPs: You need to have your plan text typed out/written verbatim for the other team. There should not be any discrepancies in the text, or else I will be very annoyed by it. I generally believe that CPs should be textually and functionally competitive, but that’s for you to argue. I tend to err neg on CP theory, and that most objections are reason to reject the argument and not the team. That being said, delay and consult CPs are begging for a theory response, and I’m not a huge fan of those.

DAs: I like them. Make sure every part of the shell is there. Impact calc is critical to your disad success.

Politics/Midterms: A large part of my neg strategy in high school was XO and Ptx, so I’m down to listen. I think there are very good arguments on both sides, but it can get stale. Just know what you’re reading or else it’s just sad.

Ks: Okay, you can have your Kritik, and the opposing teams framework really shouldn’t say, “You don’t get the K”. Once again, that framework debate is on all of you, but I am all for including all styles of debate. I have read many basic Kritiks on neolib/cap/imperialism/development/Heidegger, ect., I am not as well versed in the Foucault/Baudrillard, ect., sphere, but you are welcome to read them and elaborate on your adaptation of their ideologies. I believe you should be prepared to defend the entire philosophy of your Kritik sponsor; for example, don’t get fussy when the other team responds to your techno-utopianism K with Heidegger is a Nazi, because he is. I am not a fan of severing out of specific parts of ideologies. Overviews are good on Ks, and take the time to elaborate on the solvency of the alt, ect., in overview format as the debate progresses.

Theory: It’s a good time trade-off argument. Take advantage of that, but don’t be ridiculous. I tend to err that conditionality is good, but yes, some teams do and will continue to abuse multiple advocacies to an extreme extent.

Presumption: Yeah, I’ll vote neg on presumption. It can also flip when the neg’s CP is lacking a solid net benefit.

CX: I really do enjoy CX, so please don’t waste my time. This is 3 minutes that you get to make the other team look inferior by your wit. Don’t be a total ass though, and look at me during the time. Open CX is fine, but don’t overstep your partner; that will decrease your speaker points.

Paperless: Flash before the speech. If you have a separate paper copy for the other team to view, that is also surrendered before the speech. Your prep time will end when the flash drive is removed from your computer. Yes, I will be timing myself.

Speed: Clarity is always preferential to speed. I will clear you a couple times at most, and then you’ll just be screwed from there. If I didn’t hear the argument, then it doesn’t make it to my flow, and it doesn’t get voted on. That simple. But the answer is yes, I will be able to keep up. Everything rests on clarity.

Ethics: Don’t clip cards. Don’t insult the other team. This can change my ballot.

Speaker Points: It vexes me greatly that we have 1-30 typically available for points, but we can’t even use the majority of those without screwing over a speaker. Therefore, I will conform and my range will basically be from 25-30.

Things that will help you:
1) Strategic decisions
2) Technical proficiency
3) Bold argumentation decisions
4) Jokes (or a solid pun will guarantee at minimum a point increase)

Things that will hurt you:
1) Unethical behavior
2) Insults and disrespect
3) Dropping arguments
4) Not-funny jokes

If you're reading this right before a round here's the summary: affs should generally support the topic. I'm enjoy kritical and performance arguments. CP's and DA's are fine. I find it hard to win a round by winning a politics scenario. K's are good, but you need to understand what you're saying and be explaining it as you go. T and Theory are important tools for debate but there has to be real in round abuse and the 2nr/2ar needs to be spending just about all of the 6 minutes on it if you want me to vote on it.

now for details:

I debated for four years in high school and then 1 year for USF and 2 years for FSU. During that time, I was primarily a K debater. I have been judging and coaching on and off since 2012. In my time coaching, I have found that I have become more middle of the road and generally acccept any argument, provided you tell me why I'm voting on it.

GHG Topic Specifics: On Warming, I beleive that if your advantage is going to solve for extinction, you have to also won the leadership advantage. If it is a mitigation scenario, you have more leway and I can weigh them separately. Carbon Tax is probably not topical

Affs need to be related to the topic but I don't necessarily feel they should have to be resolutional. K affs and performance affs are good, though you need to have a reason for doing so. A lot of novice teams will forget to keep their aff in the round- make sure its in every speech! I believe the Aff wins if they prove they are better than the status quo and any alternative plans. Bonus points if you use this to evaluate the round in your rebuttals!

CP's are a good way to test the affirmative. If you plan on defending the actions of the CP and have it be more than a test, you need to have your net benefits clear from the beggining. Generally, I feel that perms should be a test of competition. If you are the Aff, please explain to me why your perm is now a legitimate "world" that you can win.

DA's are good however in order to win the round, you need to be winning more than the DA flow- case takeouts or another DA. Which brings us to impact calculus. This should be utlized in every speech in every round. The less work you make me do, the happier I'm going to be. Tell me why your impacts matter in the round not just the typical timeframe/magnitude/probability. 

T/Theory. They both can be used for gaining offense on other flows. For topicality, unless the team is horribly untopical, I'm not likely to vote on T. For theory, I feel condo is legitimate until there are 3 or more conditional advocacies. Both sides need to spend time on this flow and actually answer your opponents arguments. Too much theory debate is just reading blocks you didn't actually write. If you want to win on t/theory, it must be the entire 2NR with proven in round abuse.

K's are my favorite but I think they need to specific to the topic and not some generic "government bad." This is where I spent most of my time as a debater. My favorite K was by far Foucault's Biopower. Just because I'm familiar with the lit, doesn't mean you shouldn't explain it. Please take the time to explain the K (overview/underview) and not just read cards. I think I am one of the view judges who believes that Kritikal DA's are legitimate. AKA your K doesn't have to have an Alt. If this is a strategy you plan on using, look back over my notes on DA's. If you  do plan on using an Alt, please make it specific; 'reject the aff', 'reject the topic', 'vote neg' are not enough.

Performance debate I think is an important part of debate. I prefer when performance is either about the topic or about the debate space. If you plan on kritiking debate and the rules, make sure you factor in what that means for the judge. Should I be flowing or taking notes in a different way? What does my vote actually mean? Why am I here? The earlier you set up these rules, the easier my life will be, and the happier I will be to listen to your performance. If you are facing a performance team, please don't use arguments such as "do speech events instead" "this bad for debate." I generally support that performances should be listened too, even if you choose to utilize framework instead of engaging in their argument. Silencing the performance is probably abusive.

Framework is where some of my favorite debates take place. Role of the ballots should be established early. 1AC if you are a kritical aff, 2AC if the Neg offers a ROB, and the 1NC if you're neg. Adding ROB's later in the debate is messy and can shift how the entire round plays out, which is probably abusuve. I think that arguing about the rules of debate is an important part of debate. Please include impacts to your framework.

Paperless debate, I have accepted as the new normal, even though I long for the days of paper and tubs. While I understand there are a lot of benefits to paperless debate, there are also a lot of new problems. First and foremost, if you are having technical difficulties, talk to me, talk to your opponents, and talk to your partner. So that we are all on the same page and can get it resolved quickly. Then start talking about the weather, traveling, funny youtube videos, anything that shows no one is stealing prep. This should also be applied when you are transfering speeches. Once upon I time, i would say preptime stops when you remove the jump drive, now that we are in a world of email/pocketbox/speechdrop/etc., it is harder for me to know when you're actually done prepping. I do not want to be included on the email chain. Debate is primarily about communication; I expect all speeches to be clearly spoken, and taglines and authors to be pronounced. I have found that debaters (especially in the first constructives) while spread it all together since "everyone is looking at the evidence." I think this is a bad practice to get in to and is less effective in communicating your arguments. If I need a specific card, I will ask for it after the round.

At the end of the day, this event is all about you. Do what you do, do what you love!
If you have any other questions, just ask!

My default position:
I will judge the debate how you tell me. If I’m supposed to believe that I’m every citizen in America then I will. I really don’t care. Please be clear.


Counterplans:
All cp’s are legit until the aff prove otherwise. Cheat how you feel and the aff should be making as many theory arguments as they can.

Kritiks:
I ran the K for the majority of my college time. Explain your link story, how it turns the aff, how your alt functions and how it interacts with the aff. If not, I’ll have to vote on “case outweighs, perm solves residual links”. For the aff answering the k, be smart please. Don’t just say framework and the perm double bind. Diversify your arguments and cross apply your aff scenarios to mess with the k story.

Non-traditional debate/performance:
Do what you gotta do. I’m in no position to tell you how or how not to debate. However, you probably should explain why your performance is important and how it relates to debate, the rez, the other team, me, etc. Don’t just dance or play a song and expect me to vote for you.

DA/Case:
Nothing wrong with that. If your DA is tricky then explain it. If not, keep it simple and make sure to do the proper impact analysis. In fact, start that asap.

Theory:
Conditionality is probably good. T is probably a voter. However, this and every other theory question is up for debate. Chances are I won’t flow the 6th subpoint on your theory blocks because you’re probably just speeding through it. Slow down and make your arguments as needed.

Speaker points:
Be funny, be smart, and don’t be arrogant. Debates happen too early in the morning for me to have to deal with people’s ego.

I am a pretty open-minded judge. Analysis, framing, and a hint of ethos will win you the debate. A few general comments and then onto my specific feelings about arguments.

General

-CX is important and binding, use it well

-One well highlighted and warranted card is better than three low quality one liners

-Flashing does not count as prep time

DA

-The more specific the better, explain how the link works

-Defend the impact well, the affirmative can often subsume a DA with their impacts

-If you can please read something which is not a Politics DA

CP

-Give me a good solvency debate, why is this a preferable idea?

-Make them clever, I will entertain all manner of odd solutions

-Constitutional Conventions will increase speaker points

K

-I like these arguments

-That being said please explain your arguments, don't read a bunch of postmodern philosophy and expect me to make sense of it

-Run a cap K with a reject alt and you will probably loose

-Run a cap K with a historical materialist alternative and you might win

-I am not persuaded by ridiculous alternatives, I will usually view the alternative as vote for the status quo because the K is a prior question to policymaking

-Do good link work and impact framing and you will be able to sell me on the alternative better

-Winning a prior question framework is important

T

-I generally default affirmative if they are reasonably topical

-If there is a blatant violation which is well explained I could be persuaded to vote negative

Framework

-Negative's best weapon against advocacy and no plan affirmatives

-If framework is questioned it becomes very important for me. A question of what we are debating about comes before the debate itself.

Theory

-Condo is probably not a voter as long as there is not blatant contradiction or extreme abuse of multiple worlds

-PIKs might be cheating

-Floating PIKs are definately cheating

Performance 

-Not a huge fan, but I will evaulate it how you tell me to

-If your strategy is to make the other team uncomfortable by using offensive or loaded terms please do not do this. Debate is a location where everyone should be able to participate and learn, don't make the other team feel inferior or threatened. 

Any questions just ask me!

Patrick Waldinger 

Assistant Director of Debate at the University of Miami

Assistant Debate Coach at the Pine Crest School 

10+ years judging 

Yes, please put me on the speech doc: dinger AT gmail

Updated 9.2.14

Here are the two things you care about when you are looking to do the prefs so I’ll get right to them:

1. Conditionality: I think rampant conditionality is destroying the educational aspects of debate slowly but surely. You should not run more than one conditional argument in front of me.

Reading a K without an alternative and claiming it is a “gateway” issue doesn’t count. First, it likely contradicts with your CP, which is a reason that conditionality is both not educational and unfair. Second, there are no arbitrary “gateway” issues – there are the stock issues but methodology, for example, is not one of them the last time I read Steinberg’s book.

I also think there is a big difference between saying the CP is “conditional” versus “the status quo is always an option for the judge”. Conditional implies you can kick it at any time, however, if you choose not to kick it in the 2NR then that was your choice. You are stuck with that world. If the “status quo is always an option” for me, then the negative is saying that I, as the judge, have the option to kick the CP for them. You may think this is a mere semantic difference. That’s fine – but I DON’T. Say what you mean and mean what you say.

The notion that I (or any judge) can just kick the CP for the negative team seems absurd in the vein of extreme judge intervention. Can I make permutation arguments for the aff too? That being said, if the affirmative lets the negative have their cake and eat it too, then I’ll kick CPs left and right. However, it seems extremely silly to let the negative argue that the judge has the ability to kick the CP. In addition, if the negative never explicitly states that I can kick the CP in the 2NR then don’t be surprised when I do not kick it post-round (3NR?).

Finally, I want to note the sad irony when I read judge philosophies of some young coaches. Phrases similar to “conditionality is probably getting out of hand”, while true, show the sad state of affairs where the same people who benefited from the terrible practice of rampant conditionality are the same ones who realize how bad it is when they are on the other side.

2. Kritiks: In many respects going for a kritik is an uphill battle with me as the judge. I don’t read the literature and I’m not well versed in it. I view myself as a policymaker and thus I am interested in pragmatics. That being said, I think it is silly to dismiss entirely philosophical underpinnings of any policy.

Sometimes I really enjoy topic specific kritiks, for example, on the immigration topic I found the idea about whether or not the US should have any limits on migration a fascinating debate. However, kritiks that are not specific to the topic I will view with much more skepticism. In particular, kritiks that have no relation to pragmatic policymaking will have slim chance when I am judging (think Baudrillard).

If you are going for a K, you need to explain why the PLAN is bad. It’s good that you talk about the impact of your kritik but you need to explain why the plan’s assumptions justify that impact. Framing the debate is important and the frame that I am evaluating is surrounding the plan.

I am not a fan of kritiks that are based off of advantages rather than the plan, however, if you run them please don’t contradict yourself. If you say rhetoric is important and then use that same bad rhetoric, it will almost be impossible for you to win. If the 1AC is a speech act then the 1NC is one too.

I believe that the affirmative should defend a plan that is an example of the current high school or CEDA debate resolution. I believe that the affirmative should defend the consequences of their plan as if the United States or United States federal government were to actually enact your proposal.

The remainder:

“Truth over tech”? I mull this over a lot. This issue is probably the area that most judges grapple with, even if they seem confident on which side they take. I err of the side of "truth over tech" but that being said, debate is a game and how you perform matter for the outcome. While it is obviously true that in debate an argument that goes unanswered is considered “true”, that doesn’t mean there doesn’t have to be a logical reason behind the argument to begin with. That being said, I will be sensitive to new 2AR arguments as I think the argument, if logical, should have been in the debate earlier.

Topicality: Topicality is always a voting issue and never a reverse voting issue. I default to reasonability on topicality. It makes no sense to me that I should vote for the best interpretation, when the affirmative’s burden is only to be good. The affirmative would never lose if the negative said there is better solvency evidence the affirmative should have read. That being said, I understand that what “good’ means differs for people but that’s also true for what “better” is: both are subjective. I will vote on competing interpretations if the negative wins that is the best way to frame the debate (usually because the affirmative doesn’t defend reasonability).

The affirmative side has huge presumption on topicality if they can produce contextual evidence to prove their plan is topical. Specific examples of what cases would be/won’t be allowed under an interpretation are important.

People think “topical version of the aff” is the be all end all of topicality, however, it begs the question: is the aff topical? If the aff is topical then just saying “topical version of the aff” means nothing – you have presented A topical version of the aff in which the affirmative plan is also one.

Basically I look at the debate from the perspective of a policy debate coach from a medium sized school: is this something my team should be prepared to debate?

As a side note – often times the shell for topicality is read so quickly that it is very unclear exactly what your interpretation of the topic is. Given that, there are many times going into the block (and sometimes afterwards) that I don’t understand what argument you are making as to why the affirmative is not topical. It will be hard for me to embrace your argument if I don’t know what it is.

Counterplans: It is a lot easier to win that your counterplan is theoretically legitimate if you have a piece of evidence that is specific to the plan. And I mean SPECIFIC to the plan, not “NATO likes to talk about energy stuff” or the “50 states did this thing about energy one time”. Counterplans that include all of the plan are the most theoretically dubious. If your counterplan competes based on fiat, such as certainty or timeframe, that is also theoretically dubious. Agent counterplans and PICS (yes, I believe they are distinct) are in a grey area.  The bottom line: the counterplan should not be treated as some throw away argument – if you are going to read one then you should defend it.

Theory: I already talked a lot about it above but I wanted to mention that the only theoretical arguments that I believe are “voting issues” are conditionality and topicality. The rest are just reasons to reject the argument and/or allow the other side to advocate similar shenanigans. This is true even if the other side drops the argument in a speech.

Other stuff you may care about if you are still reading:

Aspec: If you don’t ask then cross-examination then I’ll assume that it wasn’t critical to your strategy. I understand “pre-round prep” and all but I’m not sure that’s enough of a reason to vote the affirmative down. If the affirmative fails to specify in cross-examination then you may have an argument. I'm not a huge fan of Agent CPs so if this is your reasong to vote against the aff, then you're probably barking up the wrong tree. 

**Addendum to ASPEC for "United States"**: I do think it is important for the aff to specify in cross-ex what "United States" means on the college topic. The nature of disads and solvency arguments (and potentially topicality) depend on what the aff means by "United States". I understand these are similiar arguments made by teams reading ASPEC on USFG but I feel that "United States" is so unique and can mean so many different things that a negative team should be able to know what the affirmative is advocating for. 

Evidence: I put a large emphasis on evidence quality. I read a lot of evidence at the end of the debate. I believe that you have to have evidence that actually says what you claim it says. Not just hint at it. Not just imply it. Not just infer it. You should just read good evidence. Also, you should default to reading more of the evidence in a debate. Not more evidence. More OF THE evidence. Don't give me a fortune cookie and expect me to give the full credit for the card's warrants. Bad, one sentence evidence is a symptom of rampant conditionality and antithetical to good policy making. 

Paperless: I only ask that you don’t take too much time and have integrity with the process, e.g., don’t steal prep, don’t give the other team egregious amounts of evidence you don’t intend to read, maintain your computers and jump drives so they are easy to use and don’t have viruses, etc.

Integrity: Read good arguments, make honest arguments, be nice and don’t cheat. Win because you are better and not because you resort to cheap tricks.

Civility: Be nice. Debate is supposed to be fun. You should be someone that people enjoy debating with and against – win or lose. Bad language is not necessary to convey an argument.