I do not have debate experience from HS or College, having judged just a few tournaments. I prefer a medium rate of delivery, (not too fast) preference of fewer well developed arguments than many partially developed. It is equally important to have good communication skills as it is to resolving substantitive issues and one can make-up for (overcome) a shortfall in the other.

I am a logical thinker and feel a good debate/argument can definitely sway my judging decisions, regardless of my personal opinion on the topic. Compelling arguments also need some emotion, a good balance to both (emotion and logic) is key.

Treating others with respect and professionalism is important, it's a baseline expectation. Disrespect, will carry a significant impact on my evaluations.

Public Forum is for the public so all arguments should be convincing for the average well-informed person. The pace of arguments should be reasonable for an informed listener (please give me time to follow your contentions). I am a scientist and I think politics are important: I like evidence with reliable sources. I flow but I will always weigh strong arguments over technical wins.

I am a fairly new parent judge; this is my second year judging for Charlotte Latin School. I prefer clarity over speed - if I can keep up with your argument I can make a much better evaluation. Debate well and frame your arguments so I understand the points you are making. Be respectful to the others in the room.

Hello! I am a parent judge (lay). This is my 3rd year judging PF so I know the structure of a PF round well.

A couple of key things

1. Don’t spread. If you speak too fast, I won’t understand anything you say and you’ll likely lose the round. It will also affect your speaker points.

2. Don’t run theory, K’s, or progressive arguments. I don't know what those are (my son wrote this part) and I don’t know how to evaluate them and it just leads to a confusing round. You’ll also likely lose the round if you do :)

3. It’s okay to paraphrase evidence, but misconstruing it is unethical and not allowed.

4. Don’t run anything racist, homophobic, discriminatory, etc. This is a clear violation of PF rules and will lead to you losing the round and <25 speaker points. Additional consequences may follow.

5. Please time yourself for each speech. Please be honest with your prep time and be responsible for keeping your opponent’s prep time as well.

6. I will be listening in CX but if something important happens in CX, make sure to bring it up in later speeches.

In terms of the argument, make sure to walk me down through the entire argument and explain it in enough depth. I want well-warranted links and evidence. Don’t just say “X causes Y”, tell me why. If your argument doesn't make sense to me, it will be really hard for you to win.

In summary, collapse. Don’t go for everything. You’re better off explaining the 1 winning contention than explaining every single thing that happened in the round. Make sure to defend your case well.

In FF, you should be writing the ballot for me. Everything you said in Summary should be in FF. Tell me your voter points. Don’t bring up new arguments here and abuse 2nd FF. It’s not fair.

At the end of the day, debate should be a fun activity and debaters should enjoy it. I love clashes in the round but don’t be rude to your opponents. Be respectful in rounds to both your partner and your opponents. Enjoy!

I'm a former speech competitor that has been judging speech, PF, LD, and CX rounds for 5 years. I am currently a public speaking teacher at the collegiate level as well. The things that I look for are consistent throughout both speech and debate events, recent and unbiased information, clear definitions, and NO SPREADING! The point of debate is to cleanly debate topics as educated individuals and to not devolve into a rude, talking over type of argument. There is a difference between debating and arguing.

The long and short of it all: I want a good, clean and fair fight!

I am an assistant coach of PF Debate at Charlotte Latin, and a junior at the University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill. I did PF debate for 4 years at Pinecrest High school in North Carolina. I am an Aries

My preferences are straightforward, although I would like to emphasize two points:

First, summary and final focus should be linked. More specifically, voting issues in final focus must be in summary as well.

Second, key-points of crossfire should be brought up again later in a speech. I will only write down CX concessions if they are in a speech.

I am the typical "lay judge". However, I can evaluate strength of argumentation and command of evidence in deciding a round.

Spreading: Don't do it. Please be understandable.

Roadmaps: Extremely helpful for me in understanding how your speech will go. Just a simple explanation of the order will suffice.

The Round: I will always evaluate substantive argumentation first. However, there is only so much of debate I can understand, so if I truly am stuck on which side won based on arguments, I will vote on speaking style.

Speaker Points:

Speaker Points will be awarded based on how well your arguments are presented and argued against, as well as your speaking rhetoric. Giving a roadmap will probably reflect handsomely upon your speaker points. Toxic behavior is very bad.

(this paradigm was written with the assistance of my son)

Hi! I am a parent judge who has been judging here and there for the last 1 year. I am a typical lay judge and thus, adjust your arguments and style as such.

Speed: Don't spread, don't talk fast. I know all you "flow" kids are groaning rn, but chill out fam.

Rhetoric: Rhetoric matters to some extent, but as long as you can get the arguments across to me, from your brain to my flow, you're fine.

Extending: Any arguments you want me to vote on must have cleanly been extended throughout the entire round. Don't tell me to vote off of any args that you didn't make/extend previously.

If both debaters are equal in my "lay" eyes, I will probably vote off of speaking style and persuasiveness.