I currently teach Theater Arts, African American / Latinx American Literature, and English I at Pinole Valley High School. I am looking into teaching Speech and Debate and appreciate the invaluable experience I gain when judging competitions. I tend to defer to the competitors in regard to the pace of the debate and I do not appreciate coaches coaching during the actual debate. Other than that, I think that I am an unbiased, open-minded judge that allows for students to shine by demonstrating their knowledge on the topics being debated.

Occupation: Firmware director at Roku

Dougherty Valley High School judge

I have judged LD at 3 lay tournaments.

I deduct speaker points from thirty in increments of 0.2 based on multiple filler words, pauses (more or fewer deductions depending on length), bad enunciation, unprofessionalism, etc. Please do not spread, and talk at a moderate speed.

At the end of the debate, the winner must have done these better than their opponents: refuted opponent's arguments, defended their own case using evidence and logic, conducted a good cross-examination (will weight pretty heavily!), answered questions well during opponent's cross-examination, evaluated framework, and weighed impacts. I also will know exactly what to look for if you provide voting issues (why I should vote for you) in the last speech.

I try to take notes as much as I can, but I am relatively new to judging debate and won't rely 100% on my notes. I write down the framework and main points with refutations as well.

From 1-10 in importance:

"Appearance/Clothing" is 3

"Use of Evidence" is 8 (if attacked by the opponent in refutation, importance increases)

"Real World Impacts" is 9 (weigh against opponent's impacts under framework)

"Cross Examination" is 7 (delivering and answering both)

"Debate Skill over Truthful Arguments" is 6 (If the opponent doesn't attack a claim/argument for being improbable, I will not consider it as improbable unless it's not supported by evidence at all and it's 100% conjecture, and etc.)

College Prep (2015-2019), Wake Forest (2019-2023)

Coach at George Mason & Harker

anadebate07 at gmail

I make decisions based on complete arguments, which require claims, warrants, and impacts/implications.

My favorite debates to judge are the ones in which teams do what they do best. I appreciate in-depth preparation and high-quality clash more than anything.

I prefer to judge debates in which the Affirmative is about the topic, and the Negative disagrees with the Affirmative's proposed change from the status quo.

I prefer not to judge a debate about an issue that would best be resolved outside the constraints of a competitive debate.

I auto judge-kick.

Theory debates aren't fun to judge, but I understand the strategic utility on both sides. 1 reason condo is good & impact calc >> spending a certain amount of time

If util and/or consequentialism are bad, you have to say how I should evaluate impacts otherwise. I won't fill in the blanks for either side.

Don't need to read a plan for me to vote AFF.

Fairness is an impact, but you gotta do impact calc & can't skip out on warrants. I struggle to see how clash is an external impact but am open to hearing otherwise.

Will vote on presumption

T debates aren't my favorite to judge but Limits ---X--------------- AFF Ground

Gotta take prep for flow checks

Will let you know if I need a card doc - probably won't.

You must read the re-highlighting aloud if the other team did not read those same words in the card.

I try to flow every word said in speeches & cross-ex unless instructed otherwise.

Speaker Points? I try to default to this table's scale

[Speaker point scale link broke:

30 = nearly impossible to get/seniors at last tournament

29.9-29.7 = fabulous & expect to be in deep elims

29.6-29.4 = excellent & elim worthy performance

29.3-29.1 = good & expect to break

29-28.7 = median

28.6-28.4 = room for improvement

28.3-28 = some hiccups & things to work on

27.9-27.6 = room to improve and there is some debate stuff to learn

27.5 -27 = there is a lot of room to grow

26.9 and below = something went pretty wrong]

Not great for LD nonsense unless you want to explain things to me with an emphasis on impact calc & judge instruction. I'm not a great judge for Phil because I just don't understand the implications of a lot of arguments so you have to fill in the blanks for me. Especially re explaining how to evaluate arguments without being a consequentialist. In LD, I do not believe the 1NC has the burden to rejoin frivolous, ridiculous theory arguments placed in the 1AC to avoid clash over the content of the 1AC.

I think disclosure is, in nearly every case, good. I have zero tolerance for misdisclosure, lying, and shady practices designed to evade clashing with your opponent. If your approach to competing is to debate without integrity, you should strike me.

I will never vote for an argument I could never justify ethically explaining back to you.

RVI's & tricks are nonstarters.

READ THIS --- if I catch you stealing prep during a debate, you have two options. Either (a) You have your speaker points capped at a 27 or (b) I start shaving your prep down in 30 second intervals, depending on the severity of the violation. I don't care if you're a novice or on track to win the freakin' NDT.

things that count as prep: compiling speech docs, writing arguments, talking to your partner, asking the other team what cards they read

things that don't count: emailing/flashing (as long as it's short), drinking water, walking to the stand

if you're reading this before a debate, don't. Go prep. You've got a better chance of winning the K in front me than you do completely switching up your strategy.

If you're deciding whether or not to pref me, here are some common questions that you might want answered.

who? Former Cal debater, current applied math and physics double major at Berkeley. I work in a dark matter search lab.

topic knowledge? Not a ton. Stanford will be the first tournament I've judged on this topic, so your acronyms will be foreign to me.

kritiks? Admittedly an uphill battle. I think of them like a disad with a counterplan that rarely does anything. That being said, I'd be pretty excited to hear something innovative that questions assumptions the aff has made and contextually explains why those assumptions mean the aff loses from a substance perspective (a la Cal NR). This seems unlikely for some reason though.

counterplans? The neg probably gets infinite condo. You can probably kick planks. 2NC counterplans and counterplan amendments are probably fine. It's probably not an opporutnity cost if no actor could do both.

politics DA?. yes but it's probably dumb. You should probably also go for a counterplan.

speed? Oftentimes the slower team makes the smarter arguments by understanding where to prioritize their time. If I can't hear you I'll tell you.

t? Yes. If T is the 2NR, then T is the 2NR.

General

I am a parent judge and a professional journalist, so although I have little experience judging debates I keep up with policy and politics. Don't read a K aff, a complicated K, or any high theory stuff. Don't spread. Tag team is fine. Signpost and give a framework for why you're winning (the stock issues cuz this is GGSA). I know that having a lay can be annoying, but adapting your argument style is important and necessary, so make your arguments clear. Do ev comparison and impact calc. This will win you the debate.

Theory

In general since I'm a parent I won't understand theory and all your standards. If they do something blatantly unfair, like read a new CP in the 1NR, it'll be more convincing if you actually explain why there was abuse in simple terms, and why they made it unfair, rather than speeding through a bunch of standards from your theory masterfile.

Ks

I mean, it's lay debate. Maybe you can run cap if you explain the link really well but it's gonna be hard for me to buy the link story. In general not a great idea.

DAs and CPs

Of course.

Email chain: lisaj@sonic.net

About me - I am a parent judge-please do not spread. I have judged league debates for three years, but I am still not super well versed in debate. I can handle a bit faster than conversational speed, and I try to flow the best I can but I sometimes can't get all the arguments. Please don't run theory or K's when I am judging. I understand Disadvantages and counterplans better than those arguments, and I am open to vote on presumption on neg.

Occupation: Director Technical Product Management/Marketing at VMware

School Affiliations: Dougherty Valley High School

Years of Judging/Event Types: First year, LD/Policy

How I will award speaker points to the debaters: Clarity, Eye-Contact, Don't speak too fast, Polite during Cross-ex.

What helps me make a decision at the end of the debate: Strong voters, best impacts, most organized structure, most logical rebuttals.

Notes/Flow: I will flow as much as I can.

Clothing/Appearance: An easy way to get speaker points is by dressing appropriately.

Use of Evidence: Please use logical evidence that corresponds to the main point that is being made. Also, please do not read cards that are not on the email chain.

Real World Impacts: I need to see the logic and the links to how a series of events lead to the impacts. In other words, the impacts should be well explained.

Cross Examination: Do not be rude during cross examination. I understand that sometimes we like to use strategy and come off as confident during these cross examination periods, but please do make sure you are polite.

Debate skill over truthful arguments: Both of these aspects matter, but I will mainly be looking for the overall debate skill.

Hello Everyone!

As stated above my name is Maria Jose, you can also call me MJ. I am originally from Bogota, Colombia and moved to the U.S at the beginning of high school. I debated for St. Vincent De Paul and have been judging at high school debate tournaments over the last couple of years. I am currently the assistant coach for Lowell High School.

Please include me on the email chain mjlozano96@gmail.com

(Avoid flashing, it takes too much time)

I am open to any arguments but please do not be offensive or disrespectful. I am familiar with both policy and K styles, however, I am not very familiar with high theory or obscure K’s.

I expect you to be well versed on whatever arguments you choose to run. It is your role to write the ballot for me. You should tell me how to evaluate the debate. I think framing is really important in any debate.

Preferences:

1. Do not heavily rely on your evidence. Reading cards is important but there is way more to a debate than that. Whenever you extend a card, remind me why it is important for the purpose of the debate.

2. I love good overviews and analytics.

3. Discourse is important.

4. I will not vote on T, unless you substantially explain to me why it is a voting issue. Similarly, if you run a CP you must convince me that it is competitive and has a net benefit.

5. Line by line debate is a must along with good sign posting.

6. K aff’s: I like them. You do not have to read a plan text, however, I do prefer if the AFF is related in some way to the resolution.

7.K’s: You must be well versed on the lit.

If you have any questions, feel free to contact me!

Occupation: Software Engineer

School Affiliations: Dougherty Valley HS

Years of Judging/Event Types: 0

Speaker Points:

Will give 28 by default. Exceptionally clear and eloquent speakers will receive a 30. Poor speakers will receive no less than 25. Speakers intentionally rude to their opponent or to me will receive no more than a 20.

What I consider when making a final decision:

Are the arguments well-researched and believable? Did the debater speak clearly and at a reasonable pace? Did the debater maintain good decorum? Did the debater effectively refute their opponent/ defend themselves?

Notes and Flow:

May take brief outlines of each case and subsequent speeches, depending on the clarity of the speaker. Will take note of especially impressive arguments and questioning. Will definitely note poor decorum and unsporting behavior.

Rank each using the following rubric: 1 - not at all 5-somewhat 10- weighed heavily

Clothing/Appearance: 6

Use of Evidence: 8

Real World Impacts: 8

Cross Examination: 5

Debate skill over truthful arguments: 4

I have judged debate for three years with a preference to Policy and Public Forum. My primary exposure has been to lay debate.

I consider myself well read and up to date on current issues. I enjoy a debate where both sides demonstrate an understanding of the arguments they are presenting. My judgements are based solely on what is presented with no bias. If I hear something stated that is incorrect, it is up to the other team to challenge it. Failure to do so may result in a point for the team that used it.

For lay debates, I weigh the rebuttal rounds more heavily than the constructive rounds. It is one thing to present a lot of arguments, it is another to be able to connect them in a narrative that is both logically sound and persuasive. If you use your rebuttal time to just rehash your constructive arguments, it may lose my interest.

Above all, be courteous and respectful to your opponents and to the judge. Spreading is ok as long as you have practiced it.

I don't profess to be a professional debate judge or coach. Unlikely do I understand many of the specific arguments (K or "kritik", for example). Please don't assume I understand any of your abbreviations or shortcuts. If you speak like an auctioneer, you will not help with my understanding - in real life, getting one or two points across is much more persuasive than exhaling 25 points which are incomprehensible.

There are no incompetent judges, only misinformed debate students who presume that the judges are unimportant to their success. I can only suggest that if you are pompous and humiliate your opponent, you will not go far in your round. Charm and intelligence are rewarded much more handsomely in this world than condescension towards others, especially judges. Please address your debate opponents, judges don't like being told how to vote as this is a sign of an attempt to break the fourth wall and shows weakness in the round, in my humble opinion. Attacking your opponent (ad hominem) is also a losing strategy. Judges are asked not to discuss winners or losers in the round directly with the students - if you wish to learn how you fared, read about it in the results as described by the judge.

If you hyperventilate, yell or scream, I may have to presume you need medical attention and will be tempted to dial 911. Please don't waste my time. I am volunteering my time to help your education and am typically not paid to be at your tournament. My child, probably like you, is a rising star 🌟 debate student in Northern California. Please be respectful of these things (as explained) and you will go far in the tournament and in your life. I do not need to be added to the chain of emails, as this is confusing to me and I want to be available to listen more to your presentation that get caught up in the details of the arguments. Last but not least, I prefer teams to time one another and agree upon using tag in cross-x before the debate has begun.

I am a parent judge. Please explain all arguments clearly and do not spread. I will be taking notes throughout the round. Good luck!

4th year of HS policy.

I'm a first year at Yale, but I did 4 years of policy debate in high school. I will let you go for pretty much any argument as long as you have some clear explanation of the arguments and have some good clash. A lot of debaters don't have good clash and often repeat their arguments. Make sure you do good line by line and do evidence comparison. Really dive into your evidence as well as your opponents. I'm fine with K arguments and ran Set Col for the majority of my senior year, but if you're going to go for a K, impact out the links, explain the alt, and have good defense/offense on framework. Have fun -- people take debate too seriously and I think that debate should be a place where you can have intellectually stimulating and pedagogically valuable debates.

Feel free to ask me any questions or shoot me an email.

email: andywu454@gmail.com

Lowell '20 || UC Berkeley '24 (Studying Computer Science, not debating) || Assistant Coach @ College Prep || she/her/hers

Please add both kellyye16@gmail.com and cpsspeechdocs@gmail.com to the chain.

Please format the chain subject like this: Tournament Name - Round # - Aff Team Code [Aff] vs Neg Team Code. Please make sure the chain is set up before the start time.

Background

I debated for four years at Lowell High School. I’ve been a 2A for most of my years (2Ned as a side gig my junior year). Qualified to the TOC & placed 7th at NSDA reading arguments on both sides of the spectrum. I'd say my comfort for judging rounds is Policy vs. Policy > K vs. Policy >> K vs. K.

I learned everything I know about debate from Debnil Sur, and I think about debate in the same way as this guy.He's probably the person I talk to the most when it comes to strategies and execution, it would be fair to say that if you like the way that he judge then I am also a good judge for you.

General Things

I'll vote on anything.I think there is certainly a lot of value in ideological flexibility.

Tech >>>>>>>>> truth: I'd rather adapt to your strategies than have you adapt to what you think my preferences are. The below are simply guidelines & ways to improve speaks via tech-y things I like seeing rather than ideological stances on arguments.

Looooove judge instruction - if I hear a ballot being written in the 2NR/2AR, I will basically just go along with it and verify if what you are saying is correct. The closer my decision is to words you have said in the 2NR/2AR, the higher your speaker points will be.

I think evidence quality is important, but I value good spin more because it incentivizes smart analysis & contextualization - I think that a model of debate where rounds are adjudicated solely based on evidence quality favors truth more than technical skills. As a result, I tend not to look at evidence after the round unless it was specifically flagged during speeches. With that being said, I’ll probably default to reading evidence if there’s a lack of resolution done by teams in a round. You probably don't want this because I feel like its opens up the possibility for more intervention -- so please just help me out and debate warrants + resolve the biggest points of clash in your 2NR/2ARs.

2023-2024 Round Stats If You Care:

Policy vs. Policy (11-18): 37.93% aff over 29 rounds, 22.22% aff in a theory debate over 9 rounds

Policy vs. K (5-2): 71.43% aff over 7 rounds

K vs. Policy (2-3): 40% aff over 5 rounds

K v K (1-0): 100% aff over 1 round

Sat once out of 12 elim rounds

Disads

Not much to say here - think these debates are pretty straight forward. I start evaluation at the impact level to determine link threshold & risk of the disad. My preference for evaluation is if there is explicit ballot writing + evidence indicts + resolution done by yourself in the 2NR/2AR, I would love not to open the card document and make a more interventionist judgement.

CPs

Default to judge kick. If the affirmative team has a problem with me doing this, that words "condo bad" should have been in the 2AC and explanation for no judge kick warranted out in the 1AR/2AR.

The proliferation of 1NCs with like 10 process counterplans has been kind of wild, and probably explains my disproportionately neg leaning ballot record. Process/agent/consult CPs are kind of cheating but in the words of the wise Tristan Bato, "most violations are reasons to justify a permutation or call solvency into question and not as a voter."

I think I tend to err neg on questions of conditionality & perf con but probably aff on counterplans that garner competition off of the word “should”. Obviously this is a debate to be had but also I’m also sympathetic to a well constructed net benefit with solid evidence.

Ks

Framework is sosososo important in these debates. I don’t think I really lean either side on this question but I don’t think the neg needs to win the alt if they win framework + links based on the representational strategy of the 1AC.

Nuanced link walls based on the plan/reps + pulling evidence from their ev >>>> links based on FIATed state action and generic cards about your theory.

To quote Debnil “I'm a hard sell on sweeping ontological or metaphysical claims about society; I'll likely let the aff weigh the plan; I don't think the alt can fiat structures out of existence; and I think the alt needs to generate some solid uniqueness for the criticism.“

Bad for post-modernism, simply because I've never read them + rarely debated them in high school. If you have me in the back you need to do a LOT of explanation.

Planless Affs/Framework

Generally, I don’t think people do enough work comparing/explaining their competing models of debate and its benefits other than “they exclude critical discussions!!!!”

For the aff: Having advocacy in the direction of the topic >>>>>>>> saying anything in the 1AC. I’ll probably be a lot more sympathetic to the neg if I just have no clue what the method/praxis of the 1AC is in relation to the topic. I think the value of planless affs come from having a defensible method that can be contested, which is why I’m not a huge fan of advocacies not tied to the topic. Not sure why people don’t think perms in a method debate are not valid - with that being said, I can obviously be convinced otherwise. I prefer nuanced perm explanations rather than just “it’s not mutually exclusive”.

For the neg: I don’t really buy procedural fairness - I think to win this standard you would have to win pretty substantial defense to the aff’s standards & disprove the possibility of debate having an effect on subjectivity. I don't think I'd never vote on fairness, but I think the way that most debaters extend it just sound whiney and don't give me a reason to prefer it over everything else. Impacts like agonism, legal skills, deliberation, etc are infinitely more convincing to me. Stop with the question of "what does voting aff in round [x] of tournament [y] do for your movement", you're hardly ever going to get the gotcha moment you think you will. Absent a procedural question of framework, I am just evaluating whether or not I think the advocacy is a good idea, not that I think the reading of it in one round has to change the state of debate/the world.

Topicality / Theory

I default to competing interps. Explanations of your models/differences between your interps + caselists >>>>> “they explode limits” in 10 different places. Please please please please do impact comparison, I don’t want to hear “they’re a tiny aff and that’s unfair” a bunch.

Topic education, clash, and in-depth research are more convincing to me than generic fairness impacts.

Theory debates are usually the most difficult for me to resolve, and probably the most interventionist I would have to be in an RFD. Very explicit judge instruction and ballot writing is needed to avoid such intervention.

Ethics Violations/Procedurals

I don't flow off speech docs, but I try to follow along when you're reading evidence to ensure you're not clipping. If I catch you clipping, I will give you the benefit of the doubt and assume you don't know what you're doing. I will give you a warning, but drop you if it happens again. If the other team catches you and wants to stake the round on an ethics challenge, I doubt you're winning that one.

Questions of norms ≠ ethics violations. If you believe the ballot should resolve a question of norms (disclosure, open sourcing, etc), then I will evaluate it like a regular procedural. If you believe it's an ethics violation (intentionally modifying evidence, clipping, etc), then the round stops immediately. Loser of the ethics challenge receives an auto loss and 20s.

Evidence ethics can be really iffy to resolve. If you want to stake the round on an evidence distortion, you must prove: that the piece of evidence was cut by the other team (or someone affiliated with their school) AND there was clear and malicious intent to alter its meaning. If your problem isn't surrounding distortion but rather mistagging/misinterpreting the evidence, it can be solved via a rehighlighting.

Online Debate

Please don't start until you see my camera on!

If you're not wearing headphones with a microphone attached, it is REALLY hard to hear you when you turn away from your laptop. Please refrain from doing this.

I would also love if you slowed down a tiny tiny tiny tiny bit on your analytics. I will clear you at most 3 times, but I can't help it if I miss what you're saying on my flow ;(.

Lay Debate / GGSA
I actually really appreciate these rounds. I think at the higher levels, debaters tend to forget that debate is a communicative activity at its core, and rely on the judge's technical knowledge to get out of impacting out arguments themselves. If we are in a lay setting and you'd rather not have a fast round when I'm in the back, I'll be all for that. There is such a benefit in adapting to slower audiences and over-explaining implications of all parts of the debate -- it builds better technical understanding of the activity! I'll probably still evaluate the round similar to how I would a regular round, but I think the experience of you forcing yourself to over-explain each part of the flow to me is greatly beneficial.

Public Forum

I've never debated in PF, but I have judged a handful of rounds now. I will evaluate very similarly to how I evaluate policy rounds.

I despise the practice of sending snippets of evidence one at a time. I think it's a humongous waste of time and honestly would prefer (1) the email chain be started BEFORE the round and (2) all of the evidence you read in your speech sent at once. Someone was confused about this portion of my paradigm -- basically, instead of asking for "Can I get [A] card on [B] argument, [C] card on [D] arg, etc...", I think it would be faster if the team that just spoke sent all of their evidence in one doc. This is especially true if the tournament is double-flighted.

If you want me to read evidence after the round, please make sure you flag is very clearly.

I've been in theory/k rounds and I try to evaluate very close to policy. I'm not really a huge fan of k's in public forum -- I don't think there is enough speech time for you to develop such complex arguments out well. I also don't think it makes a lot of sense given the public forum structure (i.e. going for an advocacy when it's not a resolution that is set up to handle advocacies). I think there's so much value in engaging with critical literature, please consider doing another event that is set up better for it if you're really interested in the material. However, I'm still willing to vote on anything, as long as you establish a role of the ballot + frame why I'm voting.

If you delay the round to pre-flow when it's double-flighted, I will be very upset. You should know your case well enough for it to not be necessary, or do it on your own time.

Be nice & have fun.