Arianna Nelson
Paradigm Statement
Last changed 26 February 2022 8:10 AM MDTdebatewrecksmyinbox@gmail.com
Add me on the email chain now rather than later (if there is one)
Basiz Biz
Time yourself. Tag teams fine. Don't be explicit about your racism/sexism if you don't want me to evaluate it. Evaluations tbd.
"Anyone not ready?" doesn't work in online debate. If my camera is off, then you can presume that I am not ready.
Clarity is a prerequisite for me flowing the debate. If I have to say clear more than 3 times, I will stop. Any instances of clipping will stop the round and be an auto loss.
About Me
Debated in policy - 3 years in high school, 2 years in college, qual'd to the NDT / broke at majors. I was taught debate by Scott Odekirk, and I was coached through college by Ryan Wash. I was double 2's during most of my years as a debater. I only read non-topical affirmatives based on postcolonial feminist understandings, usually with a performance method. As negative, if I’m being honest, I usually went for presumption and case negs, but I also flexed with DA/CPs/variety of Ks, including different authors inside of postmodernism, cap, feminism and colonialism.
I flow on my laptop straight down. I think card quality is important in the sense that it shouldn't be cast aside as a) author credibility only being something PF discusses b) overcharged tag lines being accepted as fact and c) presumably having warrants for each of the claims that you are asserting. I will read the cards that are referenced in the last speeches.
Affirmatives
I think I have a lower threshold for presumption arguments. I usually believe going into a round that most affirmatives don't solve as much as they say they do nor do they have internal link scenarios that are as cohesive as their tag lines would suggest. The first thing I look at after round is whether the burden of proof (however that is defined based on the framework of the debate) for the aff has been met.
If you are reading a kritik, I believe a method is necessary.
If you have a topical plan - please write out the full version of acronyms under tags if they are not in the body of the card or your tags themselves. I don't usually research the topic prior to judging at a tournament, so there are some terms that may not be familiar to me even if they are a common phrase under the topic.
Framework vs K Affs
I view these debates as competing models of the activity. Debate is inherently competitive, but how we compete is also important. I am not easily persuaded by "you destroy the activity" impacts. I prefer arguments centered around creating better interactions, whether that be a dialogue, political, accessible, fair, educational, etc, and default to how that affects debaters. If you want me to default to something else, please tell me in your speech.
Kritiks
Connect the theories to events / experiences / history and the affirmative if you want to make it more compelling for me. Connecting it to the affirmative may seem self evident with the K requiring a link and all (at least if you want to win), but in most debates I find myself not being told how the K relates to the answers the aff has given or certain parts of the AC. I'm not saying you need a link for every word they say, but that a link to the story of the affirmative is important sans an explanation of why the part you are critiquing comes before or outweighs others parts of the aff.
Counterplans
Be explicit about the NB in the 1NC. I do think some CPs cheat more than others, but have not seen enough tricky counterplan strategies to have a strong opinion on whether some are just bad for debate. Feel more than welcome to inform me through a theory debate.
Disadvantages
I have a very vague understanding of Politics DA theory, so if you're going for it you should contextualize it to the round (ex. winding way, bottom of the docket, anything w fiat).
Offense > Generic Defense @ 2AC/AR’s
Theory
Enunciate as much as you can or slow down on your blocks for theory. It always seems like going bloop bloop bloop fairness and education is a common practice, and like I said at the top, clarity is a prereq to me flowing.
Everything is up for debate as far as what should be done in debate.
Topicality
My third grade knowledge of grammar is not thriving. Any standard relying on English grammar tests runs the risk of my Google interpretation being incorrect.