Hello! My name is Advik. I have done PF before, and I’m a “flay” judge. I flow the entire round, and would typically prioritize flow over truth(there are exceptions). Theory isn’t a priority to me, and would be better if not mentioned.

• Be clear when speaking, and don’t go overboard on spreading
• Impacts should be weighed throughout the round
• Signpost whenever the opportunity comes up
• I don’t like exaggerated facts(like don’t tell me that some emissions from a sector of the skydiving industry is going to ruin the world through climate change).
• EXTEND your arguments and you’ll be in my good books
• Remember, this is HS Debate. Don’t hold anything against each other and be civil about it(otherwise points will be deducted)
• Speaker Points are typically going to be from 25-30, with the lowest score meaning you weren’t really good, and the highest would mean you’re on of the best speakers in this tournament. I might give you a score lower than 25 if you were simply rude or unethical.

If you have any questions, talk to me before the round. Don’t be shy, I’m not that intimidating.

Bonus: You’ll get 1 extra point if you hand me a pen.

Congress:
- Preference for a moderate pace and smooth flow in speeches; understand if speed is necessary for rebuttals.
- Structure should be clear and coherent, with factual information supporting arguments.
- Points should be outlined in the introduction; anecdotes are acceptable but emphasis on reasoning and evidence.
- Evidence should prioritize precedence and specific studies, minimizing jargon.
- Encourage clash but discourage rudeness towards previous speakers.
- Multiple crystallization speeches are acceptable if they bring new perspectives.
- Avoid repetition and keep questioning concise, under 10 seconds.
- Impromptu and extemporaneous speaking is preferred, except for 1st affirmative and negative speeches.
- Impacts are valued; address how bills impact everyday Americans.
- Effective use of motions and aiding the Presiding Officer (PO) is appreciated.
- Authorship and effective handling of questions can secure a higher ranking.
- For Authors: Good legislation is debatable; For P.O.: RECENCY IS VERY IMPORTANT. KEEP TRACK OF IT WELL

PF:
- Focus on impacts and effects of arguments.
- Preference for moderate pace and smooth flow; spreading is unacceptable.
- Clear, coherent structure with factual information supporting arguments.
- Encourage explaining why your evidence is superior if contradicting opponents.
- Will request evidence cards for suspicious sources.
- No jargon.

My name is Colin Coulter and the 23-24 school year is my first year judging and coaching debate. I have no prior experience with debate but have a broad background in public speaking, having delivered speeches to dozens of formal panels, boards, councils, subcommittees, and other bodies over the past 20 years.

I try to follow the NSDA's judging guidelines found here: Judge Training | National Speech & Debate Association (speechanddebate.org). Please take particular note of the videos on how to judge.

Notes on specific events:

Dramatic Interpretation: While interpretive events are judged to the best of my ability on their cutting, blocking, and characterization, I believe that depictions of violence against children are inappropriate in much that same manner that scatological or pornographic depictions would be inappropriate.

Using mental illness in your piece is likely problematic. Mental illness is a disability and to constantly portray mentally ill people as violent for points at NSDA events is essentially Mental Illness Minstrel Show. Ask yourself this question: "If I my character's behavior was attributed to race or sexual orientation instead of a disability like mental illness, would I still perform the speech?"

Public Forum: I believe thatthe foundation of debate is the use of evidence to support arguments. Debaters need to show me that they haveactually read their own citations and that they areengaging with opponents' citations.Please do not gish-gallop me with a long list of poorly-cited sources. Showing me that the opponent has not read their sources is a critical blow.

I need to be able to track your arguments if I'm going to give you credit for them. Signposting is essential in verbal speech. I do not keep a rigorous flow. As it says in the video, an argument is not established without at least a warrant and impact, and arguments are given more weight when opponents fail to respond to them. Effective rebuttals are as important as strong arguments.

Please list trigger warnings before the round begins.

I'm a lay person. 

I have no experience in debating.

You can go as fast as you would like but if I cannot hear you or understand you I cannot vote for you.

I am a games judge.

Add me on the chain: zharnden47@gmail.com

Hey y'all! My name is Zach Harnden, and I did Public Forum debate at Dowling Catholic High School. I have won 4 state titles, qualified to National Tournament 3 times, and I now debate for Simpson College in Parlimentary Debate and Public Forum. I am majoring in Political Science and minoring and Economics. I love football, fishing, and Arnold Palmer.

TLDR; Debate should be fun and educational. If it's neither of those, I probably won't be engaged.

-I’m good with both lay and tech.

-Don’t Spread

-If your evidence is important to my decision, I'll ask for it, but otherwise, just don’t paraphrase

-Keep track of your own time, if you abuse it, I’ll doc you.

-SIGNPOST!!!

Theory: I never ran it, and I'd probably prefer you debate the topic. But hell, if you think there is an egregious violation of your rights going on in the debate, then you'd better be running or at least mentioning theory.

Online: IDC about cameras, just make sure I can hear you. My camera will be off, and I will be flowing. I am ready, so don’t ask. :)

Speaks/Tricks:

I’ll give the most speaks to the best speaker, but if that’s not good enough for ya, then here:

If you make proper and funny references to any of the following I will give you auto 30 speaks.

-The Office

-Country Music

-Yellowstone

-Ted

-Roasting Christopher Pierson

if you don't use any prep

Debate Judging Paradigm

Experience Level: With over ten years of experience coaching and judging high school speech and debate, including various formats such as Policy, Lincoln-Douglas, Public Forum, and Congressional debate, I bring a wealth of knowledge to the judging table. While I have primarily judged Congressional debate in the last two years, I am well-versed in the nuances of argumentation and public speaking across multiple formats.

Rate of Delivery and Use of Jargon: I prefer that debaters define technical jargon and acronyms upon their first usage, but subsequent use is acceptable as long as clarity is maintained. While I can comprehend brisk delivery rates, I value the balance between effective communication and analytical rigor. Rushed delivery compromising essential elements of public speaking is a concern.

Note-Taking Approach: During the round, I prioritize note-taking on key arguments and rebuttals. I maintain an aggressive flow for the first two-thirds of the debate, focusing on capturing the essence of arguments. In the final one-third, I hone in on unique insights or turns presented by the debaters.

Argument versus Style: While I prioritize argumentation, I recognize the importance of style in communication. I am unsympathetic to debaters who discount performance aspects entirely, especially in advanced tournaments or rounds. Eye contact, inflection, appropriate pauses, and empathy can enhance the persuasive impact of arguments.

Assessment Criteria: When assessing a debate, I consider several criteria, including the originality of thought, organization and cohesiveness, evidence and logic, decorum, and the thoughtful response to cross-examination questions. Debaters demonstrating evidence of research, original thought, and credibility are particularly impressive to me.

In-Round Conduct Expectations: I expect debaters to demonstrate evidence of preparation, a depth of knowledge for the topic, and professionalism in their interactions with other debaters or senators. Conduct that aligns with the standards of respectful discourse is paramount.

My preferences for judging a debate are: 1) That debaters not speed spread, if I can't follow your arguments it's hard to persuade me. It also makes for a better Public Forum debate if everyone can follow the main arguments. 2) That crossfire be cordial, being rude and/or cutting a speaker off will lose you points. 3) I prefer that your evidence support your argument, not that it tangentially might apply. I also an extensive background in speech and debate as a high school student and as a high school Speech & Debate Coach and a speech Judge.

Nadia Kobayashi | she/her | 886832kob@ames.k12.ia.us

I'm a junior at Ames and have been debating in Public Forum since my freshman year.

TLDR: I’m a flow judge.

General

I can handle speed, just make sure you’re still understandable.

Tech > Truth

Signpost both before speeches (starting with rebuttal) and in the actual speech. I need to know where you are.

I will judge the flow first, and try as hard as possible not to intervene.

Collapse strategically in the back half.

Extensions must include warrants and include all parts of an argument (uniqueness, link, internal link, impact)

Please weigh comparatively using weighing mechanisms.

Theory/K’s

Not really familiar with either.

In general, open-source disclosure is good + paraphrasing is bad (I'll still base my vote on what happens in round, though).

If you have any questions, feel free to send me an email or talk to me! Getting and understanding feedback from rounds is seriously the main way I’ve learned debate!

Background: 4 years at Baylor University, 1-Time NDT Qualifier. Assistant Coach at the U.S. Naval Academy, 2018-2022, Assistant Coach at Dowling Catholic High School, 2019-Present. Currently a Ph.D. Candidate in Political Science and I work for the Legislative Services Agency in Iowa.

Yes I want to be on the email chain: Sheaffly@gmail.com. Also email me with questions about this paradigm.

Paradigms are difficult to write because there are so many potential audiences. From novice middle schoolers to varsity college debaters, I judge it all. As a result, I want everyone reading this paradigm to realize that it was written mostly in terms of varsity college debates. I think about debate a little differently in high school and a little differently when it comes to novice debates, but I hope this gives you a general idea of how to debate in front of me

== TL;DR ==

Do line-by-line. I do not flow straight down and I do not flow off the speech doc. I am a DA/CP/Case kind of judge. I am bad at understanding kritiks and I am biased towards the topic being good. Be nice.

== Top Level - Flowing ==

It has become clear to me after years of judging that most of my decisions center not around my biases about arguments (which I won’t pretend not to have), but rather around my ability to understand your argument. My ability to understand your argument is directly related to how clean my flow is. Thus, it is in your best interest to make my flow very clean. I used to think I was bad at flowing, but I've come to the conclusion that line-by-line and organized debate has become a lost art. Debaters who learn this art are much more likely to win in front of me.

You are NOT as clear on tags as you think you are. Getting every 4th word of a tag is okay only if every 4th word is the key nouns and verbs. This is never true. So slow down on your tags, I am NOT READING THEM.

I’m not gonna flow everything straight down and then reconstruct the debate afterwards. The 1NC sets the order of the debate on the case, the 2AC sets the order of the debate off case. Abide by that order. Otherwise, I will spend time trying to figure out where to put your argument rather than writing it down and that’s bad for you.

Another tip: Find ways to give me pen time. For example, do not read 4 perms in a row. It’s impossible for me to write down all of those words. Plus, it’s always first and you haven’t even given me time to flip my paper over. And then your next argument is always an analytic about how the CP doesn’t solve and then I can’t write that down either. So stop doing things like that.

== Top Level – Arguments ==

Basic stuff: I love creativity and learning from debate. Make it clear to me how much you know about the arguments you are making. I don’t think this means you have to have cut every card you read, but understanding not just the substance of your argument, but the tricks within them is important.

As I said above, the thing that will be a problem for me is not understanding your argument. Unfortunately, this probably impacts Kritik debaters more than policy debaters, but I’ll get to that in a minute.

I am probably a little more truth > tech than most judges. I believe in technical debate, but I also believe that debate is a place where truth is important. I don't care how many cards you have that say something, if the other team asserts it is not true and they are correct, they win the point.

== Top Level - Community Norms ==

1) For online debate, prep time stops when you unmute yourself and say stop prep. A couple of reasons for this. a) I have no way of verifying when you actually stopped prep if you come out and say "we stopped 15 seconds ago" and b) neither do your opponents, which means that you are basically forcing them to steal prep. I don't like it so that's the rule.

2) Debate is a messed-up community already. Don't make it more so. Be nice to each other. Have fun in the debate while you are disagreeing. If you make it seem like you think the other team is stupid during the debate, it's gonna make me grumpy. I love debate and I love watching people do it, but I hate confrontation and I hate it when people get angry about debates that don't matter that much in the long term. Be nice. Please.

3) This is mostly for high schoolers, where I see this issue all the time: If you are going to send a document without your analytics in it, making the version of the doc without the analytics in it IS PREP TIME. You don't get 45 seconds to send the document. Y'all are GenZ, I know you can send an email faster than that. You get 15 seconds before I break in and ask what the deal is. You get 20 seconds before I start prep again.

== Specifics ==

Affirmatives...

...Which Defend the Topic - I enjoy creativity. This includes creative interpretations of topicality. You should also read my thoughts on DAs as they apply to how you construct your advantages. Clear story is good.

...Which Do Not Defend the Topic - I am likely not a great judge for you. I think I may have a reputation as someone who hates these arguments. That reputation is not unearned, I built it up for years. But over time I’ve come to become a lot more accepting of them. There are many of these affirmatives that I think provide valuable debate. The problem I have is that I cannot figure out an interpretation of debate that allows the valuable "K Affs," but limits out the affs that I think are generally created to confuse their way to a win rather than provide actual valuable propositions for debate. I will always think of framework as a debate about what you JUSTIFY, rather than what you DO, and every interpretation I have ever seen in these debates simply lets in too much of the uneducational debates without providing a clear basis for clash.

I realize this sounds like I have been totally brainwashed by framework, and perhaps I have. But I want to be honest about where I'm at. That said, I think the above makes clear that if you have a defensible INTERPRETATION, I am willing to listen to it. You should also look at the section under kritiks, because I think it describes the fact that I need the actual argument of the affirmative to be clear. This generally means that, if your tags are poems, I am not ideologically opposed to that proposition, but you better also have very clear explanation of why you read that poem.

Negative Strategies

Framework: See discussion above. Good strategy. Impact, impact, impact. Education > procedural fairness > any other impact. “Ks are bad” is a bad argument, “their interpretation makes debate worse and uneducational” is a winnable argument. Topical version of the aff goes a long way with me.

Topicality: Good strategy. Impact, impact, impact. Case lists. Why that case list is bad. Affirmatives, you should talk about your education. I love creative interps of the topic if you defend them. But for the love of god slow down.

Disads: Absolutely. Well constructed DAs are very fun to watch. However, see truth vs. tech above – I have a lower threshold for “zero risk of a [link, impact, internal link] etc.” I love Politics DAs, but they’re all lies. I am up-to-date on the news. If you are not, do not go for the politics DA using updates your coaches cut. You will say things that betray that you don’t know what you’re talking about and it will hurt your speaks. Creative impact calc (outside of just magnitude, timeframe, probability) is the best impact calc.

Counterplans: I'm tired of the negative getting away with murder. I am VERY willing to listen to theory debates about some of these crazy process CPs which compete off of a net benefit or immedicacy/certainty. Theory debates are fun for me but for the love of god slow down. Otherwise, yeah, CPs are fine.

Kritiks: Eh. You can see the discussion above about K affs. I used to be rigidly ideological about hating the K. I am now convinced that the K can make good points. But because I was so against them for so long, I don’t understand them. I still think some Kritiks (here I am thinking mostly of French/German dudes) are basically designed to confuse the other team into losing. Problem is, I can’t tell the difference between those Kritiks and other Kritiks, because all Kritiks confuse me.

Very basic Ks are fine. Realism is bad, heg is bad, capitalism is bad, I get. Get much beyond that and I get lost. It's not that I think you're wrong it's that I have always been uninterested so I never learned what you're talking about. I cannot emphasize enough how little I understand what you're talking about. If this is your thing and I am already your judge, conceptualize your K like a DA/CP strategy and explain it to me like I have never heard it before. Literally, in your 2NC say: "We believe that X is bad. We believe that they do X because of this argument they have made. We believe the alternative solves for X." I cannot stress enough how serious I am that that sentence should be the top of your 2NC and 2NR. I have had this sentence in my judge philosophy for 3 years and this has been the top of the 2NC once (in a JV debate!). I do not know how much clearer I can be. Again, I am not morally opposed to Kritiks (anymore), I just do not understand them and I will not vote for something I do not understand. I believe you need a good link. Yes, the world is terrible, but why is the aff terrible. You also need to make your tags not a paragraph long, I never learned how to flow tags that were that long.

I've been a debate coach and I've judged debate for 16 years, but I was never a debater.

With that said, MAKE MY JOB EASY FOR ME. Signpost your speeches, make sure your summary summarizes, weigh the round during the Final Focus, tie it into the framework, and basically tell me why and how you have won.

I need your speeches to be organized, clear, and concise. I need you to speak clearly, loudly (but not yelling), and to enunciate - I listened to a lot of loud music in the 80s, and my hearing isn't the best.

I will time you, but I expect you to also keep your own time. Keep your eye on your clock and budget your time accordingly during your speeches. If the timer goes off, finish the sentence in your mouth and make a quick conclusion...do not keep talking on and on.

If you drop one of your or your opponent's contentions (or subpoints) in your rebuttal or summary, I will NOT flow it through if you pick it back up later in the debate.

No new arguments in summary (it's abusive; your opponents don't have enough time to respond).

NO NEW EVIDENCE IN FINAL FOCUS. Final Focus is meant to weigh everything important that's happened in the round and to tell me why you should win, not to make new arguments.

Politeness and appropriate debate decorum are important to me. I will take off speaker points for being rude, snippy, or snarky, or if I perceive you willfully misunderstanding or misrepresenting something your opponent says. Using strong-arm and straw-man tactics is considered poor sportsmanship and will be taken into account when I make my decision.

I am a newer judge. I don't like fast speaking if its to hard for me to follow. I prefer big picture analysis. and quantification. Please sign post and don't spread I need to be able to understand you. Please don't say anything offensive or mean. Please add me to the email chain ctimm92@msn.com