Katy Taylor 2012-2016

University of Houston 2020’

Conflicts: Katy Taylor

Last Updated: 8/2/2018

Tldr; You do you. I won't vote on anything I can't explain to the other team, meaning all arguments should be constructed out of a claim, warrant, and impact. I think that sets a reasonable standard for debaters to meet.

Yes email chain: momoak(dot)818(at)gmail(dot)com

General: Debate is a game, but that doesn't mean that the activity can't have some external value to it. That being said, I believe in disclosing all prior ideological biases I have before judging, and I’ll attempt to do so in this wiki. Ideological bias is inevitable in debate, however I’ll attempt to remain as neutral as possible when judging.

Generally, Tech >>> Truth.

What do you like to hear? – I’m open to any argument as long as it's not morally repugnant (racism good). My favorite debates to judge are ones with specificity. Specific well-thought out strategies will reflect in your perception and your speaker points. Let me be clear, I do no discourage reading “generic strategies”, when well executed those can be just as effective.

Don't let any preconceived notions of what arguments you think I like base your strategy in a debate. Doing whatever you're good at will result in the best outcome when I'm judging.

Specifics:

Topicality – T debates are about competing visions on the topic, and the 2nr + 2ar should compare which topic is better. This is best done through some weighing mechanism introduced by either side. Teams should implicate their version of the topic through some sort of case list. Standards should be more than vacuous terms like “limits”, “fairness”, and “predictability”. Absent a reason why those things are good and impact comparison for why they o/w whatever the other side is saying, it becomes hard to evaluate T debates.

Framework – Framework is a question of competing visions of debate. Affs should have some relationship to the topic, but that doesn't require they have plan. I'm relatively neutral in most framework debates, when deciding them 2 questions filter my decision: 1) What offense/impact calc has either side won? and 2) Does either team have an i/l to the other sides offense? Which ever team strikes the best balance of both usually wins the debate.

Terminal impacts are needed to win, just saying “destroys fairness” is vacuous and doesn’t explain why fairness is important. I am partial to fairness and argument testing impacts on the negative and pedagogy/inaccessibility arguments on the affirmative. Topical versions of the aff are great, I would appreciate if the block explicitly stated what the TVA is, instead of asserting there is one. I'm most receptive to state engagement arguments when they're explained as a heuristic individuals can use, and also appreciate it when state engagement arguments are contextualized to the topic/aff.

Critiques – Critique debate done well can be very enjoyable to judge, however the opposite is also true. K debates become frustrating to judge when I'm left with a bunch of different arguments but little interaction between them.

Neg things: I think there are several key components every winning K 2nr should have: 1) links that turn the case 2) An external impact 3) A well explained alternative/framework argument that resolves the links. I believe the framework debate is generally underutilized by the negative, usually those debates end up somewhere in the middle resulting in Aff getting to weigh its implementation. Persuasive link analysis should be contextualized to the method/plan of the aff and supported by quotes from 1AC evidence/references to moments in cx. There's a growing tendency of negative team's reading external impacts, but not explaining the internal links to those things. I think this can best be avoided by explaining the impact to the K in the context of your link arguments, that's the best way to guarantee argument clarity. I am familiar with a majority of critiques read. If you're reading something a bit obscure some explanation of the terminology used somewhere in the debate will be appreciated.

Aff things: Utilize the specificity of the 1AC to create distinctions between the aff and the neg's link scenarios. Offense >> Defense, I would much rather you impact turn the methodology/theoretical focus of the alternative than primarily tip toe around with weak defensive arguments. Permutations strategies are best executed when there's a clearly impacted net benefit that distinguishes it from the world of the alternative.

K Affs – I believe K affs should have some form of method that is clearly defined in the 1ac. The 2ac, 1ar, and 2ar should crystalize the method provided by the aff, then contextualize how it resolves your offense. This will help in comparing the method/offense of the aff vs the strategy of the negative. I believe teams should have some tie to the topic, but can be persuaded otherwise.

Negative teams should capitalize on holes in aff explanation, I am fully willing to vote negative on presumption if the negative has proven an insufficiency/contradiction within the aff.

Disadvantages – Read them, go for them, make sure they turn the case. The more specific the disadvantage the better. Impact and evidence comparison is great and you should do it. Specific link analysis is also appreciated. I enjoy when affirmative's find holes in the DA's scenarios and exploit them. 2ac's should have a good combination of offense and defense, otherwise it becomes easy for the negative to exploit deficiencies in 2ac coverage.

Counterplans – The more specific the better, well researched counter plans from affirmative evidence show the effort put into them, and will be rewarded with good speaker points if debated well. CP’s should probably have a solvency advocate, but won’t be counted as theoretically illegitimate unless debated out. Slow down on the CP text/planks. PIC’s are cool, but can be bad sometimes, again a debate to be had.

Case – A woefully under debated portion of rounds. An unmitigated risk of case makes try or die/outweighs claims extremely persuasive. Impact turns are also cool, and can be very nuanced.

Theory - Generally lean neg on condo, excluding something preposterous like 4-5+ conditional advocacies. I can be persuaded to vote affirmative in less extreme cases, when the aff is clearly out-teching the negative of nuanced abuse claims that have been impacted. Other theory issues I'm totally in the middle on, and can be persuaded by either side.

Speaker Point scale:

<27 - You did something super offensive or your speeches were incomprehensible.

27-28 - Your argument explanation was lacking, and you need to improve on a technical level (speech organization, line by line, etc.).

28.1-28.5 - Average speaks, can improve clarity and argument application.

28.6-28.9 - Good, can improve word efficiency, minor speech/clarity issues, and argument contextualization.

29-29.9 - Great, efficient + well contextualized speeches, You were very enjoyable to judge

Email for chains: chrisbrannen(at)gmail. com (Put the @ where the (at) is)

Teacher in Goose Creek CISD

I’ve been an educator for 15 years and coached Debate for 8 years.

On Policy:

* On Impacts: I prefer real-world impacts. I'm generally deciding the debate by weighing the impacts of arguments at the end of the round.

* On Kritiks: I don't like kritiks much, but I recognize they are a thing and that even the actual government uses the reasoning present as a justification for some policy decisions. Personally, I find K logic to be circular and uncompelling. If you and your opponents really want to K debate, I'll hear it and try to judge it but I probably won't enjoy it much. :(

* On DAs: Make sure that you do solid impact comparison. At the end of the round, I need something to weigh. The link controls the direction of uniqueness/the DA, not the other way around. Arguments like this can be helpful to you

*On Framework: If you give me a framework, and win the framing debate, I will view the round through your framework. You still have to impact the debate and win down the flow. In other words, if your opponents meet your framework better than you and say so they win. If your framework is morally repugnant to me I will reject it. In the absence of framework debate, I default policymaker.

* On Topicality: The plan is what makes you topical. I will view the round through the lens of competing interpretations unless you tell me to do otherwise. I don’t think affs need to specify their agent.

* On Speed: I'm good on most speed. I’m kind of deaf so yell. Please signpost clearly and slow down for tags.

* On Theory: I default to reasonability. I'll hear a good theory argument, though, given that it is thoughtful and has a point. I don’t vote for whining. I really don’t care if your opponent hurt your feelings or offended your sensibilities. Beat them on the flow and we can discuss them being mean after the round. I'll even go tell on them to their coach if they were really bad. :)

* On Counter plans: I like them. I prefer single-actor counter plans to multilateral actor counter plans. I generally believe that if the US already belongs to that organization then the counterplan is plan plus or the net benefit doesn’t have a link. Absent debate, I think PICS are good and dispositionality or unconditionality makes for good debate.

* On Decorum: I award speaker points based on my preferences. I like polite debaters who appear to enjoy the activity and I reward that. I like debaters to stand during their speeches and during cross-examination. I find objectionable language unacceptable as it rarely provides a good warrant.

* On Evidence: If you want me to call for evidence, it must be red-flagged in the 2NR or 2AR. I generally find quality round overviews in the last rebuttal to be helpful for me to understand why you think you have won the debate.

* If you have questions about anything, feel free to come talk to me at any tournament. I’ll do my best to answer your questions.

On LD:

# I expect you to share evidence. Don't even wait for your opponent to ask. Plan on sharing it.

# On Speed: I'm good on speed. I’m kind of deaf so yell.

# On Framework: If you don't provide a scale in the round to judge by, I will (likely) fall back on who argued their Value/Criteria framework the best.

# On Plans in LD: I prefer a traditional debate, but some of the resolutions these days really do lend themselves to plans. I don't love them, but I'll try to keep an open mind if you want to run a plan or a CP.

# On Clarity: Use conditional statements and make your logic clear for me. Don't make me guess. I want to hear your reasoning. Don’t make assertions without backing those assertions. (Warrants? Impacts?)

# On Signposting: Signpost clearly. Make sure you remind me where we are and what the order of the arguments are. Repetition is a skill in speeches. It isn’t bad unless you overdo it.

# On Rebuttals: In your rebuttal, crystalize for me. Give me voting issues. Use debate jargon, I’m good with it. I’m looking for who wins the key issues of the debate. Tell me what you think those are and why you think you won them. (Or why you think your opponent lost it.)

# On Decorum: There are lines of decency one should not cross. LD is about values. I have no problem imposing a base level of my own values to the round. I award a wide range of points in debate based on my preferences. I find objectionable language unacceptable as it rarely provides a good warrant.

# If you have questions about anything, feel free to come talk to me at any tournament. I’ll do my best to answer your questions.

On PF:

% I expect you to share evidence. Don't even wait for your opponent to ask. Plan on sharing it.

% On Speed: I'm good on speed, but PF is about communication. Don't be too obnoxiously fast. If you're going faster than Ben Shapiro, you're going too fast. Also, I’m kind of deaf so yell.

% I like frameworks. If you don't give me a framework in the constructive, I will default to reasonability.

% On Clarity: Use conditional statements and make your logic clear for me. Don't make me guess. I want to hear your reasoning. Don’t make assertions without backing those assertions. (Warrants? Impacts?)

% On Signposting: Signpost clearly. Make sure you remind me where we are and what the order of the arguments are. Repetition is a skill in speeches. It isn’t bad unless you overdo it.

% You have to do the order of the speeches and crossfire the traditional way. Don't negotiate to change the times or skip the grand crossfire.

% Use the final focus to tell me why you won. Crystallize the round for me.

On Congress:

! On Structure: Speeches that have solid structure make me glad. Intro/Thesis/Transition/Body/Transition/Conclusion.

! On Clash: DEBATE!!! It is Congressional DEBATE! DEBATE! Clash with your opposition!

! On Decorum: But be nice about it.

! On Argumentation: I don't like or expect the same speech 4 or 5 times in a round. The flow ought to grow. Call out the names of other reps and agree and/or clash with them! I start giving lower scores for speeches where I just hear the same thing. Bring something new! (CLASH, baby, CLASH!!!)

I've coached LASA since 2005. I judge ~120 debates per season on the high school circuit.

If there’s an email chain, please add me: yaosquared@gmail.com.

If you have little time before the debate, here’s all you need to know:do what you do best. I try to be as unbiased as possible and I will defer to your analysis. As long as you are clear, go as fast as you want.

Most judges give appalling decisions. Here's where I will try to be better than them:

• They intervene, even when they claim they won't. Perhaps "tech over truth" doesn't mean what it used to. I will attempt to adjudicate and reach a decision purely on only the words you say. If that's insufficient to reach a decision either way--and it often isn't--I will add the minimum work necessary to come to a decision. The more work I have to do, the wider the range of uncertainty for you and the lower your speaks go.
• They aren't listening carefully. They're mentally checked out, flowing off the speech doc, distracted by social media, or have half their headphones off and are taking selfies during the 1AR. I will attempt to flow every single detail of your speeches. I will probably take notes during CX if I think it could affect my decision. If you worked hard on debate, you deserve a judge who works hard as well.
• They givepoorly-reasoned decisions that rely on gut instincts and ignore arguments made in the 2NR/2AR. I will probably take my sweet time making and writing my decision. I will try to be as thorough and transparent as possible. If I intervene anywhere, I will explain why I had to intervene and how you could've prevented that intervention. If I didn't catch or evaluate an argument, I will explain why you under-explained or failed to extend it. I will try to anticipate your questions and preemptively answer them in my decision.
• They reconstruct the debateand try to find themost creative and convoluted path to a ballot. I guess they're trying to prove they're smart? These decisions are detestable because they take the debate away from the hands of the debaters. If there are multiple paths to victory for both teams, I will take what I think is the shortest path and explain why I think it's the shortest path, and you can influence my decision by explaining why you control the shortest path. But, I'm not going to use my decision to attempt to prove I'm more clever than the participants of the debate.
• If you think the 1AR is a constructive, you should strike me.

Meta Issues:

• I’m not a professional debate coach or even a teacher. I work as a finance analyst in the IT sector and I volunteer as a debate coach on evenings and weekends. I don’t teach at debate camp and my topic knowledge comes primarily from judging debates. My finance background means that,when left to my own devices, I err towards precision, logic, data, and concrete examples. However, I can be convinced otherwise in any particular debate, especially when it’s not challenged by the other team.
• Tech over truth in most instances. I will stick to my flow and minimize intervention as much as possible. I firmly believe that debates should be left to the debaters. I rarely make facial expressions because I don’t want my personal reactions to affect how a debate plays out. I will maintain a flow, even if you ask me not to. However, tech over truth has its limits. An argument must have sufficient explanation for it to matter to me, even if it’s dropped. You need a warrant and impact, not just a claim.
• Evidence comparisonis under-utilized and is very important to me in close debates. I often call for evidence, but I’m much more likely to call for a card if it’s extended by author or cite.
• I don’t judge or coach at the college level, which means I’m usually a year or two behind the latest argument trends that are first broken in college and eventually trickle down to high school.If you’re reading something that’s close to the cutting edge of debate arguments, you’ll need to explain it clearly. This doesn’t mean I don’t want to hear new arguments. On the contrary, a big reason why I continue coaching debate is because I enjoy listening to and learning about new arguments that challenge my existing ways of thinking.
• Please mark your own cards. No one is marking them for you.
• If I feel that you are deliberately evading answering a question or have straight up lied, and the question is important to the outcome of the debate, I will stop the timer and ask you to answer the question. Example: if you read condo bad, the neg asks in CX whether you read condo bad, and you say no, I’ll ask if you want me to cross-out condo on my flow.

Framework:

• Don't over-adapt to me in these debates. If you are most comfortable going for procedural fairness, do that. If you like going for advocacy skills, you do you. Like any other debate, framework debates hinge onimpact calculus and comparison.
• When I vote neg, it’s usually because the aff team missed the boat on topical version, has made insufficient inroads into the neg’s limits disad, and/or is winning some exclusion disad but is not doing comparative impact calculus against the neg’s offense. The neg win rate goes up if the 2NR can turn or access the aff's primary impact (e.g. clash and argument testing is vital to ethical subject formation).
• When I vote aff, it’s usually because the 2NR is disorganized and goes for too many different impacts, there’s no topical version or other way to access the aff’s offense, and/or concedes an exclusion disad that is then impacted out by the 2AR.
• On balance, I am worse for 2ARs that impact turn framework than 2ARs that have a counter-interp. If left to my own devices, I believe in models and in the ballot's ability to, over the course of time, bring models into existence. I have trouble voting aff if I can't understand what future debates look like under the aff's model.

Topicality:

• Over the years, “tech over truth” has led me to vote neg on some untruthful T violations. If you’re neg and you’ve done a lot of research and are ready to throw down on a very technical and carded T debate, I’m a good judge for you.
• If left to my own devices, predictability > debatability.
• Reasonability is a debate about the aff’s counter-interpretation, not their aff.The size of the link to the limits disad usually determines how sympathetic I amtowards this argument, i.e. if the link is small, then I’m more likely to conclude the aff’s C/I is reasonable even without other aff offense.

Kritiks:

• The kritik teams I've judged that have earned the highest speaker points givehighly organizedandstructuredspeeches, are disciplined in line-by-line debating, andemphasize key momentsin their speeches.
• Just like most judges,the more case-specific your link and the more comprehensive your alternative explanation, the more I’ll be persuaded by your kritik.
• I greatly prefer the 2NC structure where you have a short (or no) overview anddo as much of your explanation on the line-by-line as possible. If your overview is 6 minutes, you make blippy cross-applications on the line-by-line, and then you drop the last three 2AC cards, I’m going to give the 1AR a lot of leeway on extending those concessions, even if they were somewhat implicitly answered in your overview.
• Framework debates on kritiks often don't matter. For example, the neg extends a framework interp about reps, but only goes for links to plan implementation. Before your 2NR/2AR, ask yourself what winning framework gets you/them.
• I’m not a good judge for “role of the ballot” arguments, as I usually find these to be self-serving for the team making them.I’m also not a good judge for “competing methods means the aff doesn’t have a right to a perm”. I think the aff always has a right to a perm, but the question is whether the perm is legitimate and desirable, which is a substantive issue to be debated out, not a gatekeeping issue for me to enforce.
• I’m an OK judge for K “tricks”. A conceded root cause explanation, value to life impact, or “alt solves the aff” claim is effective if it’s sufficiently explained.The floating PIK needs to be clearly made in the 2NCfor me to evaluate it. If your K strategy hinges on hiding a floating PIK and suddenly busting it out in the 2NR, I’m not a good judge for you.

Counterplans:

• Just like most judges, I prefercase-specific over generic counterplans, but we can’t always get what we want.
• I lean neg on PICs. I lean aff on international fiat, 50 state fiat, condition, and consult. These preferences can change based on evidence or lack thereof. For example, if the neg has a state counterplan solvency advocate in the context of the aff, I’m less sympathetic to theory.
• I will not judge kickthe CP unless explicitly told to do so by the 2NR, and it would not take much for the 2AR to persuade me to ignore the 2NR’s instructions on that issue.
• Presumption is in the direction of less change. If left to my own devices, I will probably conclude that most counterplans that are not explicitly PICs are a larger change than the aff.

Disadvantages:

• I’m a sucker for specific and comparative impact calculus. For example, most nuclear war impacts are probably not global nuclear war but some kind of regional scenario. I want to know why your specific regional scenario is faster and/or more probable. Reasonable impact calculus is much more persuasive to me than grandiose impact claims.
• Uniqueness only "controls the direction of the link" if uniqueness can be determined with certainty (e.g. whip count on a bill, a specific interest rate level). On most disads where uniqueness is a probabilistic forecast (e.g. future recession, relations, elections), the uniqueness and link are equally important, which means I won't compartmentalize and decide them separately.
• Zero risk is possiblebut difficult to prove by the aff. However, a miniscule neg risk of the disad is probably background noise.

Theory:

• I actually enjoy listening to a good theory debate, but these seem to be exceedingly rare. I think I can be persuaded that many theoretical objections require punishing the team and not simply rejecting the argument, but substantial work needs to be done on why setting a precedent on that particular issue is important. You're unlikely to win that a single intrinsic permutation is a round-winning voter, even if the other team drops it, unless you are investing significant time in explaining why it should be an independent voting issue.
• I think thatI lean affirmative compared to the rest of the judging community on the legitimacy of counterplans. In my mind, a counterplan that is wholly plan-inclusive (consultation, condition, delay, etc.) is theoretically questionable. The legitimacy of agent counterplans, whether domestic or international, is also contestable. I think the negative has the right to read multiple planks to a counterplan, but reading each plank conditionally is theoretically suspect.

Miscellaneous:

• I usually take a long time to decide, and give lengthy decisions. LASA debaters have benefitted from the generosity of judges, coaches, and lab leaders who used their decisions to teach and trade ideas, not just pick a winner and get a paycheck. Debaters from schools with limited/no coaching, the same schools needed to prevent the decline in policy debate numbers, greatly benefit from judging feedback. I encourage you to ask questions and engage in respectful dialogue with me. However, post-round hostility will be met with hostility. I've been providing free coaching and judging since before you were birthed into the world. If I think you're being rude or condescending to me or your opponents, I will enthusiastically knock you back down to Earth.
• I don't want a card doc. If you send one, I will ignore it. Card docs are an opportunity for debaters to insert cards they didn't read, didn't extend, or re-highlight. They're also an excuse for lazy judges to compensate for a poor flow by reconstructing the debate after the fact. If your debating was disorganized and you need a card doc to return some semblance of organization, I'd rather adjudicate the disorganized debate and then tell you it was disorganized.

Ways to Increase/Decrease Speaker Points:

• Look and sound like you want to be here.Judging can be spirit murder if you're disengaged and disinterested. By contrast, if you're engaged, I'll be more engaged and helpful with feedback.
• Argument resolution minimizes judgeintervention. Most debaters answer opposing positions by staking out the extreme opposite position, which is generally unpersuasive. Instead, take the middle ground. Assume the best out of your opponents' arguments and use "even if" framing.
• I am usually unmoved by aggression, loud volume, rudeness, and other similar posturing. It's both dissuasive and distracting. By contrast,being unusually nice will always be rewarded with higher pointsand never be seen as weakness. This will be especially appreciated if you make the debate as welcoming as possible against less experienced opponents.
• Do not steal prep. Make it obvious that you are not prepping if there's not a timer running.
• Do not be the person who asks for a roadmap one second after the other team stops prep. Chill. I will monitor prep usage, not you. You're not saving us from them starting a speech without giving a roadmap.
• Stop asking for a marked doc when they've only skipped or marked one or two cards.It's much faster to ask where they marked that card, and then mark it on your copy. If you marked/skipped many cards, you should proactively offer to send a new doc before CX.

Tabula rasa

Policy Good.

Theory Good.

Abstract Good. 

DA Good.

Kritiki Good.

Quality of evidence greater than number of cards.

Quality of arguments greater than number of arguments.

Debate experience

I debated in Varsity policy debate for Trinity University for one year and in the JV division for one semester, then I quit college policy debate. In high school, I did LD and PF for one year, then policy debate for two years, all on the TFA high school circuit. One year, I coached two high schoolers in LD. If I’m about to judge you in a round, it’s probably been a little while since I’ve last judged a tournament.

Judging paradigm—policy and LD

I love strategic debating. Smart, strategic maneuvers are awesome to see well-executed. As much as I love technical proficiency, I’ve got to provide a big caveat: I used to be great with speedy debate, but I’ve been away from the activity for a little while, so you should definitely prioritize clarity over speed. I won’t hear you at your fastest, and I know that sucks. Sorry about that.

I’m very familiar with kritikal debate, but I enjoy listening to all sorts of arguments. Nothing is sacred to me; I love listening to far-left kritiks and performance debates as much as I enjoy well-done topicality and framework debates against such affs, and the usual policy and LD shenanigans are just fine too.

I’ll pull the trigger on theory and I don’t have strong opinions about most theory arguments. “Kritiks are bad for debate” might be a tough sell, but literally anything else—from conditionality good/bad to all kinds of counterplan theory—is fair game. Please slow way down for theory. These debates are technical, fast and sometimes blippy, but you want me to have all of your arguments down. Spreading through prewritten theory blocks in the rebuttals is not the way to win my ballot on these debates.

Policy and critical debate alike are great, just be sure to be smart on the flow. Demonstrate strategic vision and situational awareness and you’ll be rewarded with speaker points. Similarly: strong signposting, or being able to guide me to distinct parts of the debate (from overviews, to the line-by-line, to different flows), is very much appreciated; poor behavior on the flow will annoy me, and I’ll probably subconsciously or unintentionally penalize you for it as I evaluate the arguments—and will definitely penalize you for it on speaks.

Despite my experience with K debate, you shouldn’t assume that I know everything about the theory you’re reading—your link, impact, and alternative explanations should be clear enough for me to articulate the kritik to your opponent, for instance. That can go for non-K concepts as well. Core concepts don’t need to be reexplained in the last rebuttals, especially if significant time has been spent on them in earlier speeches or in cross-examination, but it’s always good to be able to effectively respond to generic and specific responses on the line-by-line with nuanced takes on your critical theory.

I love LD framework debates. Policy debate doesn’t have enough philosophical deliberation. Just make sure to explain everything well enough for me to understand. Philosophy students are taught to write in such a way that a reasonably intelligent everyperson could understand them; similarly, you shouldn't come in with the notion that I already know the bulk of the literature behind your framework, because I probably don't. But I'd love to, so this shouldn't keep you from going for the NC instead of the impact turns (as fun as both options are!).

Debate is fun, and debate is a game. Debate can be personally meaningful and rewarding, but don’t forget that it’s a competition. At the end of the round I have to make a decision, sometimes when arguments relating to students’ personal livse are at stake, and I have to choose a winner and a loser. I hate that this can really hurt students’ feelings. I know I’ve been hurt by decisions before. Take pride in your hard work, no matter how I decide the round.

Judging paradigm—PF

Everything written above holds true for public forum debaters, generally; as weird as it is to hear about kritiks and theory in public forum, I understand that these arguments are becoming more popular, and I’m fine with you reading them. Don’t let that make it sound as if I’m unreceptive to traditional PF debate, though. I should emphasize that I will evaluate the debate based on who is winning the most important arguments. Your job is to focus the debate to a few issues that you’re winning and prove that they outweigh any issues your opponents might be winning. I’m not looking for techy line-by-line here, but responding to your opponents’ warrants and extending your most important arguments is crucial if you want me to be persuaded to vote for you. The worst is trying to vote after a PF round with very little, or very unfocused, clash—making my job easier will be rewarded in speaker points and ballots!

Theory stuff

I figured it’d be helpful to put a list of my default positions on theoretical issues in debates, so here I go. This is just a guideline of how I’ll consider things if these aren’t ever brought up in a debate, but I can be persuaded otherwise in a round, no problem.

• Perms are tests of competition, not advocacies.
• Presumption goes aff if the 2NR advocates anything other than the status quo.
• I will not judge-kick an advocacy unless I’m told to. (And if I’m told not to, I probably won’t.)
• I usually regard dropped arguments as true. That doesn’t apply to dropped shadow-extensions of claims without warrant.
• On that note, smart analytics are way better than mediocre cards. Also, explain why your cards are good and why theirs are bad. Evidence analysis is undervalued and too rarely done in all forms of debate.
• I’m receptive to total defense take-outs. The mere possibility of an impact scenario doesn’t make “try or die” work.

Speaker points

Impress me and you’ll get more. I’ve noticed that I’m a speaks fairy as it is. Maybe I’m too easily impressed, but things like clearly spreading, clear and technical line-by-line, well-executed strategic moves and going for theory well (and slowly) are all pretty neat stuff that I think should happen more often.

Contact information

I’m a big fan of discussing rounds in great depth after the round, but tournaments rarely allow for the time needed to really dissect a good round. Email me anytime at daniel@dconrad.me if you want to discuss a round in greater detail, or find me between rounds at the tournament and we can discuss stuff in our free time.

Shout-out to Darya Balybina for being a cool badass, y’all LD folk should pref her highly. Same goes for Cathy Terrace.

Debate experience

I debated in Varsity policy debate for Trinity University for one year and in the JV division for one semester, then I quit college policy debate. In high school, I did LD and PF for one year, then policy debate for two years, all on the TFA high school circuit. One year, I coached two high schoolers in LD. If I’m about to judge you in a round, it’s probably been a little while since I’ve last judged a tournament.

Judging paradigm—policy and LD

I love strategic debating. Smart, strategic maneuvers are awesome to see well-executed. As much as I love technical proficiency, I’ve got to provide a big caveat: I used to be great with speedy debate, but I’ve been away from the activity for a little while, so you should definitely prioritize clarity over speed. I won’t hear you at your fastest, and I know that sucks. Sorry about that.

I’m very familiar with kritikal debate, but I enjoy listening to all sorts of arguments. Nothing is sacred to me; I love listening to far-left kritiks and performance debates as much as I enjoy well-done topicality and framework debates against such affs, and the usual policy and LD shenanigans are just fine too.

I’ll pull the trigger on theory and I don’t have strong opinions about most theory arguments. “Kritiks are bad for debate” might be a tough sell, but literally anything else—from conditionality good/bad to all kinds of counterplan theory—is fair game. Please slow way down for theory. These debates are technical, fast and sometimes blippy, but you want me to have all of your arguments down. Spreading through prewritten theory blocks in the rebuttals is not the way to win my ballot on these debates.

Policy and critical debate alike are great, just be sure to be smart on the flow. Demonstrate strategic vision and situational awareness and you’ll be rewarded with speaker points. Similarly: strong signposting, or being able to guide me to distinct parts of the debate (from overviews, to the line-by-line, to different flows), is very much appreciated; poor behavior on the flow will annoy me, and I’ll probably subconsciously or unintentionally penalize you for it as I evaluate the arguments—and will definitely penalize you for it on speaks.

Despite my experience with K debate, you shouldn’t assume that I know everything about the theory you’re reading—your link, impact, and alternative explanations should be clear enough for me to articulate the kritik to your opponent, for instance. That can go for non-K concepts as well. Core concepts don’t need to be reexplained in the last rebuttals, especially if significant time has been spent on them in earlier speeches or in cross-examination, but it’s always good to be able to effectively respond to generic and specific responses on the line-by-line with nuanced takes on your critical theory.

I love LD framework debates. Policy debate doesn’t have enough philosophical deliberation. Just make sure to explain everything well enough for me to understand. Philosophy students are taught to write in such a way that a reasonably intelligent everyperson could understand them; similarly, you shouldn't come in with the notion that I already know the bulk of the literature behind your framework, because I probably don't. But I'd love to, so this shouldn't keep you from going for the NC instead of the impact turns (as fun as both options are!).

Debate is fun, and debate is a game. Debate can be personally meaningful and rewarding, but don’t forget that it’s a competition. At the end of the round I have to make a decision, sometimes when arguments relating to students’ personal livse are at stake, and I have to choose a winner and a loser. I hate that this can really hurt students’ feelings. I know I’ve been hurt by decisions before. Take pride in your hard work, no matter how I decide the round.

Judging paradigm—PF

Everything written above holds true for public forum debaters, generally; as weird as it is to hear about kritiks and theory in public forum, I understand that these arguments are becoming more popular, and I’m fine with you reading them. Don’t let that make it sound as if I’m unreceptive to traditional PF debate, though. I should emphasize that I will evaluate the debate based on who is winning the most important arguments. Your job is to focus the debate to a few issues that you’re winning and prove that they outweigh any issues your opponents might be winning. I’m not looking for techy line-by-line here, but responding to your opponents’ warrants and extending your most important arguments is crucial if you want me to be persuaded to vote for you. The worst is trying to vote after a PF round with very little, or very unfocused, clash—making my job easier will be rewarded in speaker points and ballots!

Theory stuff

I figured it’d be helpful to put a list of my default positions on theoretical issues in debates, so here I go. This is just a guideline of how I’ll consider things if these aren’t ever brought up in a debate, but I can be persuaded otherwise in a round, no problem.

• Perms are tests of competition, not advocacies.
• Presumption goes aff if the 2NR advocates anything other than the status quo.
• I will not judge-kick an advocacy unless I’m told to. (And if I’m told not to, I probably won’t.)
• I usually regard dropped arguments as true. That doesn’t apply to dropped shadow-extensions of claims without warrant.
• On that note, smart analytics are way better than mediocre cards. Also, explain why your cards are good and why theirs are bad. Evidence analysis is undervalued and too rarely done in all forms of debate.
• I’m receptive to total defense take-outs. The mere possibility of an impact scenario doesn’t make “try or die” work.

Speaker points

Impress me and you’ll get more. I’ve noticed that I’m a speaks fairy as it is. Maybe I’m too easily impressed, but things like clearly spreading, clear and technical line-by-line, well-executed strategic moves and going for theory well (and slowly) are all pretty neat stuff that I think should happen more often.

Contact information

I’m a big fan of discussing rounds in great depth after the round, but tournaments rarely allow for the time needed to really dissect a good round. Email me anytime at daniel@dconrad.me if you want to discuss a round in greater detail, or find me between rounds at the tournament and we can discuss stuff in our free time.

Shout-out to Darya Balybina for being a cool badass, y’all LD folk should pref her highly. Same goes for Cathy Terrace.

***My hearing was not too great during 2023 but it is doing much better now and I'm feeling much more confident on judging. Just a health FYI/PSA.***

For email chains and any questions, my email is jason.courville@kinkaid.org

Speaking Style (Speed, Quantity) - I like fast debate. Speed is fine as long as you are clear and loud. I will be vocal if you are not. A large quantity of quality arguments is great. Supplementing a large number of quality arguments with efficient grouping and cross-application is even better.

Theory - Theory arguments should be well impacted/warranted. I treat blippy/non-warranted/3 second theory arguments as non-arguments. My threshold for voting on a punishment voter ("reject the team") is higher than a "reject the argument, not the team" impacted argument. I'm open to a wide variety of argument types as long as you can justify them as theoretically valuable.

Topicality - My topicality threshold is established by the combination of answers.

Good aff defense + no aff offense + solid defense of reasonability = higher threshold/harder to win for the neg.

Good aff defense + no aff offense + neg wins competing interps = low threshold/easy to win for the neg.

Counterplans - counterplan types (from more acceptable to more illegit): advantage CPs, textually/functionally competitive PICs, agent CPs, textually but not functionally competitive PICs (ex. most word pics), plan contingent counterplans (consult, quid pro quo, delay)

Disadvantages - Impact calculus is important. Especially comparison of different impact filters (ex. probability outweighs magnitude) and contextual warrants based on the specific scenarios in question. Not just advantage vs disadvantage but also weighing different sub-components of the debate is helpful (uniqueness vs direction of the link, our link turn outweighs their link, etc).

Kritiks - My default framework is to assess whether the aff has affirmed the desirability of a topical plan. If you want to set up an alternative framework, I'm open to it as long as you win it on the line-by-line. I most often vote aff vs a kritik on a combination of case leverage + perm. It is wise to spend time specifically describing the world of the permutation in a way that resolves possible negative offense while identifying/impacting the perm's net benefit.

I most often vote neg for a kritik when the neg has done three things:
1. effectively neutralized the aff's ability to weigh their case,
2. there is clear offense against the perm, and
3. the neg has done a great job of doing specific link/alternative work as well as contextualizing the impact debate to the aff they are debating against.

Performance/Projects - I’ve voted both for and against no plan affs. When I’ve voted against no plan affs on framework, the neg team won that theory outweighed education impacts and the neg neutralized the offense for the aff’s interpretation.

Other Comments
Things that can be a big deal/great tiebreaker for resolving high clash/card war areas of the flow:
- subpointing your warrants/tiebreaking arguments when you are extending,
- weighing qualifications (if you make it an explicit issue),
- comparing warrants/data/methodology,
- establishing criteria I should use to evaluate evidence quality,
- weighing the relative value of different criteria/arguments for evidence quality (ex. recency vs preponderance/quantity of evidence)

If you do none of the above and your opponent does not either, I will be reading lots of evidence and the losing team is going to think that my decision involved a high level of intervention. They will be correct.

Last updated: 5/13/2016

Middle School TOC notes: I'm normally a policy judge, which means I'm not super familiar with LD norms. I'll vote on whatever you tell me to. Speed is fine, but be clear.

I debated for four years at the Liberal Arts and Science Academy in Austin, TX. I currently coach Polytechnic in Pasadena, CA.

Summary

I am fine with just about anything as long as I can both understand the argument and its implications. I will attempt to assess the debate as objectively as possible based on the flow (though I certainly have some biases, which I've listed below). Speed is fine, but give me time to switch between flows and have clear transitions. To steal from Scott Harris, I will work "as hard at judging as the debaters do preparing for the debates."

General Stuff

-Flash time isn't prep unless it's excessive

-Open CX is fine

-Please don't get super rude in CX

-Include me in email chains (isaacqcui@gmail.com), but I will not read cards until after the debate. I will try to avoid reading cards unless the evidence is contested or I have no other way to evaluate the debate.

-I trust both teams to keep track of prep and speech times, but am willing to time stuff if I am asked to

-Mark your cards yourself. This is super important to me because I think the highlighting/warrants in evidence matter a lot if I need to turn to the evidence.

-Be clear--I want to be able to understand the warrants in cards as well as the taglines. I will usually look at you funny if I have difficulty flowing, so be aware of that.

-Don't steal prep

-Aff teams should disclose the 1AC plan text+advantages and the neg should disclose past 2NRs before the round. You should also keep an actively updated wiki

Topicality

I evaluate T debates much like I'd assess a CP+DA strategy; interps are competing options to solve for various DAs. This also means whoever can control the impact calculus--something often forgotten in T debates--will probably win my ballot. Case lists matter a lot to me, but I'm also persuaded that most case lists are too absurd (i.e., that functional limits check); rather than attempting to find the most absurd cases possible, I think it's more worth it to talk about what types of literature bases or types of affs that their interp allows/why that's bad.

I think "reasonability" is largely a buzzword that isn't explained enough. Is reasonability a question of the aff or their interp? Is it about how I evaluate offense? Depending on who you ask, they'll probably give you different answers. As a result, whatever preference for reasonability vs. competing interpretations I have is largely meaningless.  

Framework (versus a K aff)

I debate framework on both sides often, so I'm fairly middle of the road when assessing these debates. T-versions of the aff are very useful, but I mostly think of them as reasons for why the negative's framework can access the literature or education that the 1AC provides. Theoretical framework arguments that solely rely on things like the limits DA and fairness impacts will probably lose to a good aff team. For the most part, I think framework is most strategic as a countermethodology which relies on things like dialogue, institutional engagement, etc., to address the impacts of the 1AC. Make sure framework interacts with the aff (and vice versa--aff teams should leverage case as a DA to framework whenever possible).

After judging a few of these debates, I've found that the internal link matters. Usually framework 2NCs/2NRs are too impact heavy but not enough on the internal link level; I've found myself voting aff against framework multiple times because I didn't think the 2NR explained enough why there was such a limits explosion that their impacts were true, even if I thought their impacts outweighed.

Framework (on the aff versus a K)

My default is to allow the aff to weigh their advantages and for the neg to get an alt. I can be persuaded of an alternative framework that, for example, stresses representations over policies, but it will require a lot of time commitment on the neg. I don't see myself, however, voting on "neg doesn't get the K" because it's too unpredictable or whatever.

Nontraditional Affs

I will evaluate things largely as I do with traditional affs. That being said, having clear explanations as to the advocacy, the role of the judge, and the role of the ballot will go far. I am fine with just about whatever you wish to do as long as you can justify it, though I don't think I will give a double win/double loss.

K

I'm fine with most Ks but please don't presume I know what you're talking about. If your A-strat is to read some esoteric post-modern French philosophy, be ready to explain the K in everyday layperson's language rather than in terms of "lines of flight" or "arboreality" or whatever.

I think the way the K usually wins in front of me, against a traditional policy aff, is to use the links to implicate the aff's solvency or to turn the aff's advantages. Though this may sound obvious, specificity matters a lot.

I think spin is especially important in K vs policy debates--should I view the alt as hippie nonsense or as a necessary reconceptualization of politics? Is the aff a method for green capitalism to control the superstructure of education, or is it a method of taking responsibility for and confronting the worst excesses of capitalism? For me, whoever can best control the answer to these questions will be able to frame much of the rest of the debate, which is especially important if the 2AR hopes to go for a permutation. (If the aff strat is simply impact turning, this matters less.)

Against K affs, make the alt interact with the aff. I tend to be skeptical of most root cause claims--that's not to say you shouldn't make them, but that you need to have more game against the aff than simply root cause. The most convincing strategy, in my opinion, is to explain why the alt's method is better able to solve the aff's impacts than the aff's method. When tackling the perm against a K aff, I need more than simply "this is a method debate, they don't get a perm."

CP

They're great. Please stress or slow down on parts of the CP text that are important since I want to have an idea of what it is in the 1NC. CPs that can result in the entirety of the aff are probably illegit, both on a theory level and a competition level. I think positional competition (http://site.theforensicsfiles.com/NJSD.2-1.Final.pdf) makes a lot of sense. Agent CPs that utilize an alternative actor than the USFG are also questionably legitimate. Multiplank CPs can also become questionable if each plank is conditional. I have other theory preferences below.

I will not kick the CP for you unless the 2NR explicitly tells me to. 

DA

Also fine with them. Affs should attack all parts of the DA. Impact calculus is vital. Turns case arguments are devastating, especially if you can make them earlier up the internal link chain.

Case

Please debate the case. The aff should constantly leverage it and the neg should hedge back against it. Even against nontraditional affs, weakening their solvency is super useful for the neg.

Theory

I will evaluate theory like any other argument--if you impact it out, I have no qualms about putting the ballot at stake on theory. I think multiple conditional worlds (especially 3 or more) probably aren't great for debate. I won't, however, vote on a one-liner in the middle of the 2NR saying that "severance perms are a voting issue"--I need clear warrants for rejecting the team. Please give pen time when reading theory and try to stray from simply reading blocks at each other. A good theory debate can be one of the most enjoyable debates to watch, and I will definitely reward you if you execute well.

Speaker Points

This is a rough scale of how I give speaks:

29.5 - deserve to be one of the top speakers, very few issues in speeches

29 - minor issues in speeches, probably is in the top 10-15 speakers

28.5 - should break, but some issues

28.3 - average, probably deserve to go 3-3

28 - some fairly sizeable issues

27.5 - dropped something really important

25 or lower - something problematic happened

Arguments I Don't Like

I will still try to evaluate these objectively, but I will probably drop your speaks for reading them:

-Obvious time skews--everything in the 1NC should be a viable 2NR option (includes things like 1 card "gateway issue" Ks or silly T violations)

-Ashtar, TimeCube/etc.

-Racism/Sexism/Ableism/etc. good

Random Notes

These are some self-observed trends from my judging that I thought could be useful -- after all, there's always a difference between how a judge considers their own judge philosophy and how they actually judge.

-After the 2AR, I start deciding by rereading both the 2NR and 2AR, then by either following the framing arguments that the debaters put forth, or -- in the absence of that kind of work -- I look for easy arguments to decide. Once I've decided a couple of arguments, I find ways to apply that to other aspects of the debate.

-This means that I often decide close debates on one small but key issue -- for example, in one round I judged, the negative goes for a CP and elections DA, spending maybe 30 seconds on solvency extending a single argument. The 2AR similarly blows off the solvency argument, claiming that 1AC evidence answered it. This was one of the first arguments that I assessed since it seemed fairly straight-forward to read the evidence as per both teams' direction. I ended up deciding the debate on, essentially, this one argument -- that the aff doesn't solve -- even though it was a small aspect of both of the final speeches because it was a simple argument to decide with widespread implications for the rest of the debate.

-I often feel qualms about voting on very techy arguments, but I usually end up deciding on the tech. An example: the 2NC and 2NR, going for T, make an argument that the aff doesn't meet their own interp based on a reading of the 2AC interp ev that isn't part of the aff's explanation of their interp; this is not directly answered in the 1AR or 2AR. The aff is ahead on every standard and they thoroughly explain their own interp and why they meet it. What they don't do, however, is push back on the neg's characterization of the 2AC interp ev. I end up voting neg because I don't think the aff meets their interp; even if they meet their own explanation of the interp, I felt that that explanation was less accurate to the ev, given the neg's analysis, and that the more "correct" explanation of what the 2AC ev described would exclude the 1AC.

-The closer the rounds are, the more I read cards. Ideally, I like to vote on the flow, because I feel like the more time I spend reading evidence or thinking about the decision, the more likely I am to intervene. But if I can’t determine a round purely on the tech, I’m more likely to try to find the “truth” of the debate by reading all of the evidence. If you’re a team that routinely gets by by out-teching people rather than reading good evidence, you should highlight concessions and tell me how to evaluate things to avoid having me investigate into evidence itself.

 -Extending every part of an argument matters. For example, even if the link to the politics DA is dropped in the 1AR, a 2NR that doesn't extend the link has not made a complete argument. That being said, I'd be sympathetic to the 2NR saying "don't make me reinvent the wheel, the 1AR has conceded the link, [insert 10 second explanation of the link]." But I do think it's important that you actually formally extend the argument in some capacity.

If you have any questions, feel free to send me an email at isaacqcui@gmail.com

GENERAL:
I vote policymaker but am one to vote on K's if convinced. I need analysis on every argument and not just shallow extensions of the tagline. I'm fine with speed as long as you slow down on the tags and I can actually make out what you're saying.
I understand that policy debate is competitive so assertiveness is fine. Just don't overdo it.

IMPACT ANALYSIS AND CALCULUS:
This is very important. Debaters who compare evidence and impacts in round are more likely to get higher speaks. I like to see more than just debaters spewing card after card. Attacking the credibility of sources, finding contradictions in the opponents' evidence, and comparing the impacts in the round are all things that make it easier for me to vote.

TOPICALITY:
I will vote on T; I believe its an A-priori issue and that the aff has the burden to be topical. I primarily vote on competing interps when it comes to T. I will not vote on reasonability because it causes me to determine what I personally think is reasonable; I like to use whatever happened in the round as the basis for my decision. However, I WILL NOT vote on an RVI. I believe the aff's job is to be topical; you're not getting anything extra out of it. But a note to neg teams: if you're running a T just as a time suck, don't. I won't down you but your speaker points may be lowered.

THEORY:
I'll buy theory; just prove to me there's in-round abuse. Theory arguments I'll buy: condo bad, agent CP's, and multiple worlds, just to name a few.

KRITIKS:
Although I prefer to vote as a policymaker, I will vote on the K given that it is well explained and I have been given reasons to vote for it. Explain the link and how the alt functions and how it solves. Also, the role of the ballot debate needs to be discussed in the round by both teams. I will vote on pretty much any K except those "dirty word" K's. Generic K's are sorta in the gray area, depending on how well its argued and explained. When it comes down to it, I need to have strong analysis and reasons as to why the alternative provides a better world than that of the aff.

When it comes to kritikal affirmatives, I prefer you don't run them. But if you only run K affs, then I will still consider them as long as you paint the picture for me and show me why the world painted by the aff outweighs the squo/world painted by the neg.

DISADS:
When it comes to DA's, impact calculus becomes very important because if you're going to go for the DA in the 2NR, I need to know why the squo is better than the world thats created when the aff triggers the link to the DA.

And to the affirmative team, DO NOT RUN INTRINSIC PERMS ON A PTX DA! I will not evaluate them.

CP's:
I will vote on for the CP as long as its an untopical CP. I need there to be a clear difference between the plan and the CP and why the CP solves better.

CASE:
I will vote on case as long as there's both offense and defense.
For the neg, don't run straight up impact defense and no solvency. Offense is key to winning the case flow. I will not vote strictly off of defense.
For both teams, LINE BY LINE debate is crucial. It makes so much more easier for me decide who wins the case flow.

FINAL NOTE:
I do not and will not extend or analyze any arguments for you in the round, so you should always provide complete and clear analysis as to why I should vote a certain way. I will evaluate the round solely off of what was said in the round and whats on my flow. Don't expect me to connect the dots; thats your job.

Greetings, by way of introduction, my name is Eric Emerson. eric.emerson@kinkaid.org (for speech docs).

I coach debate (policy, LD, World's, congress, oratory and public forum) at the Kinkaid school. I have actively served on the Board of the Houston Urban Debate League since 2008, the year of its inception, and have also directed the UTNIF.

As a judge, I evaluate arguments (claim, warrant, data and impact). I prefer arguments grounded in literature rather than regressive debate theory (take note LD). My preferences are flexible and can be overcome by persuasive, smart debaters.

I take notes, sometimes quite quickly. If I think you unclear, I will let you know in my facial expressions and on the occasion, hopefully rare, when I yell 'clear'.

If I find you/your arguments, unpleasant then your speaker points will reflect that. I disagree with judges who give out high speaker points to everyone. You gotta earn my points.

I am easily distracted and I prefer debaters to be both engaging and entertaining. If I appear distracted, it may be your fault.

Debate is a powerful educational tool that should be accessible to everyone. I try to approach all of my interactions with empathy and concern for others. I find unpleasant debates to be just that, unpleasant. I would ask that you avoid being unpleasant to your opponents, spectators, and me. Unpleasantness that threatens debate, to me, should be avoided.

Who I am:
My name is Sohin Gautam and I debated at the University of Kentucky
High School: Westwood HS (Tx) and McNeil HS (Tx)

UK TOC Silver PF (4-20-2017):

I debated policy for 8 years for University of Kentucky ending my junior year in the quarterfinals of the NDT. I coach policy and pf debate for Westwood High School.

Paradigm:

1. If you do not extend impacts, I cannot evaluate your argument. Warrants do not matter if you do not impact them. With that in mind, you have to WEIGH your impact.

2. Terminal defense extensions are cool with me. I do not believe the second rebuttal must cover the first rebuttal, however you can’t read new cards in second summary (so if you want to read a card responding to 1st rebuttal, do that in 2nd rebuttal).

3. Speed is fine, be clear. If i can't understand you, I will shout, "clear," and if you're still unclear I will stop flowing you. 

4. Open to any argument – if you wrote a kritik or theory shell for this topic, this is the round to read it!!

5. Big picture not line by line in summary and final focus.

6. SPEAKS: you will get higher speaks if you do the following:

            - you don’t take 3904820934 hours to hand your opponents evidence

            - you are not rude and annoying in cross fire

            - you extend both the author and the argument

            - your sources are all peer reviewed and come from reputable organizations!

How I Judge:

Primer: I don't have a presumption to either the Kritik or Policy sides, I generally did both in College and enjoy watching either type of debate. I evaluate a round based on the 2AR and 2NR and work my ways backward, using my flow and your evidence to figure out what just happened. I try not to read a ton of evidence, my brightline being a clear warrant extended with the author, and then deciding relevance (e.g. if i decide a CP isn't competitive for x reason then I am more likely to find it unnecessary to read the Net Benefit's cards). 

Specifics:

Topicality:
I love T, it's by far the most underrated tool the negative has.  I have NOT judged a lot on this topic, so I'm not sure what are the main arguments on T. Having said that, here is how I evaluate T debates: First things first, if you're going for T, go for T I'm not going to vote on 15 seconds of T in the 2NR, spend the necessary minutes on it closing doors and extending warrants. Otherwise I'm going to be heavily leaning AFF on T.

I err towards competing interpretations, if the AFF doesnt contest this I will use competing interpretations to decide the debate. Limits and Ground are usually all people say--nobody ever talks about precision and grammar and resolutional integrity (let alone ever impacts these things) and the more impact analysis in the 2nr/2ar the better ("their interpretation destroys fairness because x"). Extra T and FX-T can be independent voters I guess, but more often than not I'm going to view it as a DA to the AFF interp. I'm generally not a fan of the stupid T arguments, I don't think anybody specs their A anymore so get over it. OSPEC really doesnt make sense (they are spotting you ALL the counterplan ground...how dare they). 

The Kritik:
I'm game. You're not going to perplex me with a storm of Baudrillard and D and G because at some point you have to make an argument and I can evaluate that. I'm also interested in the alternative, not necessarily what it practically does (i really don't care) but how it resolves the link debate. AFF teams are encouraged to make vauge alt arguments to keep the NEG in check. K impacts usually fall by the wayside, but it's very helpful to have something external to weigh, so i'm not just voting on a giant case turn, a giant case turn + no value to life/ZPH/Foucault '76 is much better for your chances.

Aff Framework:
Do it. against a K make them win their impact is bigger than yours, or even that their K should be in the debate at all. If you're going for FW then it needs to be a big part of 1ar/2ar strategy otherwise I'm going to lean negative on it.

the Kritik AFF:
this means any aff that doesnt read a plan, reads a plan but "doesn't defend it", any aff that affirms as a mobius strip, any aff that does something "different" than reading a plan with nuke war implications based on the rez. I don't care if you don't have a plan, I'm not going to sign my ballot and walk out of the room if your 1ac has no plantext defending instrumental USFG action. Do your stuff, i'm fine with it. 

CPs:

I don't care...if you read one CP that solves everything, fantastic, if you read 3 CPs that solve different amounts of the aff, fanstastic. It's up to the AFF to tell me why the NEG shouldn't be able to do that. 


DAs

please and thank you. Bonus points for warranted internal link extensions/take outs--most DA debates lack internal link analysis, and that's where DAs are the weakest. 

Random other thoughts:
-drop advantages = drop disadvantages
-2NC answering dropped 1ac advantages is okay because of a CX...in the 1nr it's not okay. Generally avoid reading new offense in the 1NR
-add-ons are fantastic things
-2NC CPs are justifiable
-2NC CP amendments justifiable
-I'm not sure what the speaker point scale if its .5 to 30 than i average a 27.5 with 29-30 being outround quality-->first speaker
-be nice, be funny

Debated 4 years at Stratford High School (Houston)
Competing for University of Houston in Policy

Questions? Email me at gravesbila@gmail.com

Speaks:
I heard from someone once, can't remember their name: "You have a 30 until you start speaking," and I believe that to be the case. In all seriousness though I'll likely start at a 28.5 and go up and down from there. Sometimes I won't start at the 28.5 and whoever finishes speaking first I will try and rank them and rank the other person based off of that. It depends on the round. But I will try and stay within the 28-29 range if at all possible.

LD:
I did LD for most of high school and I feel like I'm one of the few that likes the direction that it is taking. But with that in mind I feel like I have to say this before anything else: IF YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND YOUR ARGUMENTS, DON'T JUST READ THEM. That is a huge pet peeve of mine, if you can't explain what your argument is saying in CX or you read a Counter-Plan and can't tell your opponent if it's conditional or not, these are instances where you shouldn't be reading these arguments. Pretty self-explanatory but it happens all too often. I'll try and go through all the concerns one may have, starting from what is asked the most.

Speed:
I am totally fine with it, if you aren't clear or loud enough I won't be worried to say either of them. However I won't say them a total of more than twice, after that I'll drop speaks. I'm pretty good with understanding you even if you aren't the most clear but that doesn't mean that I won't have issues. On that same point, I don't think being fast for the sake of being fast is worth it. If your opponent isn't comfortable with it, don't do it just to get an advantage. Debate is an educational activity, if both sides are fine with it, speed will be fine with me. If it makes it completely one sided then I don't necessarily think anyone will be learning things from the round.

Theory:
Legitimate abuse is needed for me to vote on theory. Don't just read shells because you think you can get away with it and opponents can't answer. As I said, debate is about education. While theory can sometimes be educational, more often then not theory really just seems to be a time suck. The next question normally asked about theory is what do I default to? I tell everyone that asks me this that there really isn't a default. Both are good things for debate but be sure to implicate why I should prefer one or the others. One line in theory shell that says: "prefer competing interpretations" then moves on doesn't give me a reason why I should buy it. You're just saying the words. Give me a theoretical reason WHY I should buy competing interpretations or reasonability. Both have reasons why they're good, I've heard them tons of why. But debate about those reasons. Theory should be debated well and if it isn't implicated why do I vote? What role does theory play? How should I evaluate it? All of these questions should be answered. I'm a bit more lenient on Topicality shells as opposed to any theory violations, but there still has to be actual abuse. All of the above still applies.

Kritiks:
I'm fine with you reading them but I'm not super versed in the lit. I have a basic understanding of most but don't expect me to know the tiny distinctions between the arguments that you're reading. I feel that a lot of the time the alt needs to be pointed out much more which doesn't happen all too often. Try and be sure to explain this and contextualize it, weighing it against the world of the Aff. If I don't get how the alt works by the end of the round, then it's very doubtful that I'll vote on your K. Impact analysis is still important and you have to engage arguments made by the aff. Just saying K outweighs or making generic claims isn't enough. Do work just like any other argument.

CPs:
If you spend a minute and a half in CX trying to answer if your CP is conditional or not, you probably shouldn't be running it. With that being said, I'm fine with them as long as you understand how it functions in regards to the aff. You don't have to read a competition section that's longer than whatever your net benefit is, but it should be competitive in some form or another. Overall I'm fine with them, but most of these are arguments that I like, so I will hold you to a high standard and your ethos will tank with me if you do them badly.

Policy:
A lot of what I said above applies here but I'm not going to hold you to as high of standards on things like theory. How it's evolved in the two are completely different, and they can be debated as such. The biggest thing for me is that you have to read case arguments in the 1NC, starting case in the block isn't fair, and especially as a 2A I feel very strongly about this. The main thing however I think I have to say here that wouldn't have been addressed above is that I will buy pretty much any argument. Obviously there are thresholds with blatantly offensive arguments (racism good is really the only one that comes to mind) but for most anything I can be persuaded. Debate well and you'll do fine.

PF:
I don't really know what paradigm questions you'd have for this, but the biggest one I can think of is big picture v line-by-line. And I'd prefer line-by-line for sure. That's really the only thing. Make the debate interesting educational and all will be good.

Conflicts: Katy Taylor and Hendrickson

LAST UPDATED: Pre-TOC 2018

I debated at Texas on the NHI topic.

Explain your arguments. Warrant out your claims. Impact them out. Give me all the pieces put together because I think judge intervention hampers the ability for students to make debate what they want it to be. I will only vote on an argument if I can explain it to the other team – this might seem arbitrary but it forces debaters to disengage in shallow explanations so I think it’s reasonable. I prefer you to debate what you enjoy reading. Specificity and well thought out strategies are always enjoyable to judge.

Specifics:

• Framework: It's about competing models of debate. Have a defense why the education your model produces is good. I’ll usually default to competing interpretations unless persuaded otherwise by reasonability/competing interps bad. That being said, I think it’s important to have procedural fairness and education claims to hedge back against the 1AC’s offense. Specificity of evidence in relation to the affs politics and the core of the topic (education good) also makes your policy making good argument are more persuasive to me. As I've adjudicated more framework debates, I find clash and limits to be the most persuasive impacts to go for.
• Topicality: It's about competing models of debate. Reasonability usually is just asserted by the aff so unless there’s a robust defense of why the aff really is reasonable, I will default to competing interpretation. Impact out your standards - give me reasons why fairness and limits matter. Flesh out the violation in the 2nr to prevent simple we meet arguments in the 2ar.
• Disadvantages: The more specific the DA, the better. Have good/specific link and turns case analysis, doing so will reflect better in your speaker points. For the aff, I think evidence comparison/call outs coupled with tricky strategies like impact turns or internal link turns helps you win these debates.
• Counterplans: Always go slow on the CP text(s). Having specific solvency advocates tells me that you’ve done good research and when deployed well, your speaker points will definitely be rewarded. Without a solvency advocate, it makes a permutation seem a lot more convincing unless the link to the aff for the net benefit is specific. Strategic PICs are appreciated.
• Kritiks: The biggest pitfall of K debaters is making a bunch of vacuous link/impact and framing arguments without any contextualization to the aff or providing me with a way to weigh your arguments versus the affs impacts – leaving me with a bunch of floating pieces is not a good place to be. That being said, I think that link debate is a place where you can make smart turns case/impact analysis and embed tricks that the aff possibly won’t catch – quoting their evidence or referring to moments in cross-x is also very persuasive and makes it much easier for you to win a link. As I said above, make sure you have good impact comparison and weighing mechanisms and always have an external impact. The alt debate seems to be one of the most overlooked parts of the K and is usually never explained well enough. The 2AR will mostly always control the way that the aff is explained, so always explain the alt thoroughly and how it interacts with the aff – with that, you’ll be in a good position.
• Kritik Affs: Give me a robust explanation of the mechanism of the aff in both the 1ar and the 2ar and how it resolves or accesses their offense – this will put you in a much better position for the permutation/link turn debate or even an impact turn debate depending on your strategy, but it will also help me explain to the negative why I voted aff (in a scenario where I do). Lack of explanations of the aff’s solvency mechanism puts me in a tough spot because I won’t assume to know how the it functions unless you tell me – this also probably makes the negative’s explanation of whatever their strategy is much more persuasive and allows them to dictate what your own aff says which is a position you don’t want to be in.
• Case: Severely underused part of debate. Not engaging the aff makes it difficult to hedge back versus the aff’s offensive claims and makes voting aff much easier. Read impact defense, specific solvency deficits, impact turns, straight turns, etc. That being said, I’m also completely open to voting on no risk of the aff and voting neg on presumption. A good case debate will be rewarded with more speaker points and can make the neg’s life infinitely easier.
• Theory: It's fine - if its your 2ar strategy make sure there is sufficient 1ar time allocation to it.

For any other questions, feel free to ask me before round or email me at subbu.iyer98@gmail.com

- Affs probably should be topical, I’m just as willing to vote for impact turns against framework.
- I view most of these debates like a checklist. Affs probably need some answer to the following (and negs should be making these args): limits turns the aff, switch side solves, topical version of the aff. I have trouble voting aff if these are not answered. Similarly, I have trouble voting neg if these arguments are not made.
- The best affs generate their impact turns to framework from the aff itself. A bunch of random external criticisms of framework like just reading Antonio 95 or Delgado and calling it a day is not persuasive to me
- The debater that best defends their model of debate is the one that tends to win. Aff debaters who win their model of engagement/debate/education is better than the neg's will win more often than random impact turns to framework
- Should you read a non-topical aff in front of me? You can check my judging record, I think I have voted for and against these non-t affs about equal amounts.
- If you're going for FW: answer k tricks, don't drop thesis level criticisms of T, reading extensions for more than 3 min of the 2nr is an easy way to lose in front of me
- If you're answering FW: you need answers to the args I listed above, I think defense on the neg's args are just as important as development your offense against T, less is more when it comes to developing offense against T

- Defaults: Competing interpretations, drop the arguments, RVIs justifiable, not voting on risk of offense to theory
- Weighing standards is the most important to me
- I will miss something if you blaze through your theory dumps
- I’m probably a better judge for tricks than you might think. I’m just as willing to say “these theory arguments are silly” as I am to say “you conceded that skep takes out fairness.” If you go for tricks, go for tricks hard.
- I will vote on 1 condo bad in LD

- I think frameworks are usually artificially impact exclusive where they preclude all other arguments for virtually no reason. I'm inclined to believe in epistemic modesty but you can win confidence in front of me.
- I default comparative worlds, but it's not hard to convince me to become a truth-tester. What truth-testing means, you will have to explain it to me.

- I’m slightly more convinced by the state being good than bad, but don’t mind on voting on state bad
- I’m a little better read on identity type arguments as opposed to high theory arguments
- I’m not afraid to say I didn’t understand your K if you can’t explain it to me
- I don’t know why negs don’t have a prewritten perm block given that I vote on the perm a lot
- Specific link analysis is better than generics
- There has to be a lot of weighing done in the 2nr
- Case defense is underrated in these debates
- Case K overviews that aren't entirely pre-scripted are undervalued
- Performance is fine
- There should be more debate about the alternative
- The aff gets to weigh their aff, what that means is up for debate

Email: jjenningscrosby@gmail.com

Last updated: 10/4/20

General:

Summary - Read basically anything you want, go for what you're good at, try new things if you want, Don't be rude.

About me - I debated at Crosby highschool and middle school for a collective 6 years and I debated policy at University of Houston for 3 years. I used to help as an assistant coach for The Kinkaid School for about 3 years.

I am fine with almost any argument, so if you want to read it I'll listen, unless it's things like racism or patriarchy good.

Speed - Go for it. I will not say clear if you're partially unclear, unless its egregious.

Edit for online: remember, not all microphones are created equal, so make sure your microphone can adequately pick up how fast you’re going (maybe record you practicing a block to test it), because your mic may only be able to pick up about half of the syllables you say if you’re going too fast for it.

Cx: (LD is below this)

On topicality and theory, I default reasonability if there is no discussion of this in the debate because it's much less of a risk for the neg. Make sure to make it very clear what your interpretation is and exactly what portion of the plan violates that and explicitly apply what ground/predictability/education/etc you lose from their specific interp compared to yours. A lot of T debates get lost in the impacts of standards/voters and don't contextualize it vs the counterinterp.

On kritiks, You HAVE TO explain the alternative, in debate people get away with not doing that too much, which is annoying as a judge. The only exception to "not explaining the alt" is when you kick it and go for just the k as a k of policy framework/policy debate itself (I don't think is applicable to every kritik, but it is to some). I like when the link is contextualized to the aff (give specific analysis about how the aff makes the system of oppression worse or prevents it from changing).

On Counterplans, I love good counterplans, as long as your story on the world of the cp is clear and you're winning a net benefit that you solve, you should be fine. Do clear solvency/net benefit comparison.

On Disads, have a logical story as to why the aff links and how that causes the impact. Do impact comparison.

Non-traditional Affs - I will evaluate any affirmative even if it's non-policy, just make sure if you're untopical, you have a reason to be untopical.

Framework – I am not afraid to vote on this, I think there are benefits and disadvantages to policy debate and benefits and disadvantages to kritik aff debates. Make sure you weigh the Interp vs the counter Interp because a lot of people weigh the debate in terms of there being no counterinterp.

For LD:

I’ve judged a lot of LD debates. I have coached a few students in LD as well. I am a CX coach/judge/debater normally so do what you want with that info.

I will evaluate almost any argument, I tend to think of the debate round on the bigger picture focus (mainly because the 1ar I feel is rough and it allows better debates for LD), although I have no real predisposition against technical debate, the debaters should tell me how to frame the debate in the context they desire.

Framework: I'm fine with policy, whole resolutional or k debates, just debate out how I should evaluate who wins.

Topicality: I will evaluate T, I default to reasonability if no arguments are made but I will evaluate it either way. Make sure to make it very clear what your interpretation is and exactly what portion of the plan violates that and explicitly apply what ground/predictability/education/etc you lose from their specific interp compared to yours. A lot of T debates get lost in the impacts of standards/voters and don't contextualize it vs the counterinterp.

Theory: I will evaluate most theory, but it has to make sense and I tend to have a higher threshold on what I think is a voter, meaning most theory I've seen in LD doesn't rise past the level of reject the argument, while some LD judges would reject the team. I will not vote on RVIs. I also probably won't vote on frivolous theory (which I think is a very subjective term), which all I really mean is make sure theory has a legitimate reason to reject the team. I default to reasonability if no arguments are made but I will evaluate it either way.

CP: I think CPs make the most sense vs plans and I can be convinced Topical Cps are illegit if you’re winning whole rez should be the focus of the debate (all up to debate).

K: On kritiks, You HAVE TO explain the alternative, in debate people get away with not doing that too much, which is annoying as a judge. The only exception to "not explaining the alt" is when you kick it and go for just the k as a k of policy framework/policy debate itself (I don't think is applicable to every kritik, but it is to some). I like when the link is contextualized to the aff (give specific analysis about how the aff makes the system of oppression worse or prevents it from changing).

Coach for the University of Houston, Langham Creek High School, and Memorial High School

A couple of thoughts before I address specific arguments

for Wake/UT - I haven't judged very much this year and don't know what the norms/args are yet

If it’s important say it more than once, I don’t necessarily mean that you should just repeat yourself, but make the argument in more than one place with more than one application.

Highlighting should be able to be read - I think that your evidence should be highlighted in a way that makes at least some grammatical sense - this is kind of subjective but if its a true abomination of words slapped together I won't read around your highlighting to understand what you're trying to say.

please time yourselves

I would like to be on the email chain, clarkjohnson821@gmail.com

CX

T debates (and theory debates) are already very blippy, if you want me to evaluate it, slow down. I like it when teams use T strategically in other areas of the debate.

DA's: good spin > sepcific ev > generic ev. I like intuitive turns case arguments and I love when you can implicate the aff’s internal links and solvency using other parts of the disad. I think that

CP's: These are fine, if you want to know my thoughts on judge kick see Rob Glass's paradigm.

K’s: As long as you approach the debate assuming I won’t understand your version of baudrillard we’ll probably be fine. 2nr (and 2nc to some extent) explanation of what the alt world would look like, how the alt solves the links to the aff, and how the alt solves the impacts are important to me, I find myself to be much more persuaded by neg teams that can do this well.

K affs v fw: I think your aff should in some way be related to the topic, that's not to say that you have to be, just that it will make it easier for you to win those debates.

K affs v k's: this is by far the debate that I have the least experience with, something that's really important to me in these debates is clarity of how the alt/aff functions and how it interacts with the links to your opponent's argument, I tend to find myself being persuaded by detailed alt analysis.

if you’ve noticed a common theme here, it’s that I think the alt debate is important

Theory: Default neg and reject the argument, you should give me reasons to do otherwise, don't expect me to vote on it if you don't slow down and explain your argument, most debaters spread blippy blocks that make it difficult to flow and evaluate, if the 2nr or 2ar want to go for theory in some form or fashion you're going to have to do a modicum of work, saying severance perms bad for 10 seconds at the top of your 2nr is not enough to get me to vote on it as long as the 2ar makes any sort of response.

Counterplans bad is probably not a reason to vote aff

LD

I don’t judge this event as often so I may lack a more nuanced understanding of how things function in LD compared to policy, but with that being said I’m open to however you want to do it, be it traditional or progressive. Your phil and theory debates are a little alien to me coming from how we approach similar arguments in policy, so if that’s what you think you’ll be going for in your 2ar or nr be super clear. Most of my thoughts about args in cx will color my analysis of the arguments you make in LD.

PF

I dont consider the time it takes for your opponents to provide you their evidence as prep time, and I don't think you need to take cx time for it either. If you can’t tell, I am primarily a policy judge and as such I probably have a higher standard for evidence quality and access than your average judge.

other than that I don't have strong opinions when it comes to what arguments you want to read as long as you justify them (read: impacts matter!)

im not familiar with pf norms when it comes to whether you should or shouldn’t answer opponents args in summary or 2nd constructive. And sometimes I feel like I’m inconsistent in trying to figure out and apply what they are in my rounds judging it. As such I will treat it as I would a cx round unless you tell me otherwise - new args can be made in first two speeches, summary should not be new args (but can if they are answering a new argument, ie 1st speaking team makes an argument that directly answers a new arg made by 2nd speakers in the last constructive speech) in terms of extensions through to ff I don't think that saying something in grand is enough for me to weigh it at the end of the debate if you dont extend it through your last speech.

I will probably call for evidence. If you paraphrase, expect me to not treat your evidence with the same level of veracity as someone citing specific parts of their cards.

Katy Taylor 2011-2015

Rice University 2015-2019

Conflicts: Katy Taylor

Link to my aff wiki my senior year: https://hspolicy14.debatecoaches.org/Katy+Taylor/Brents-Kim+Aff

Link to my neg wiki my senior year: https://hspolicy14.debatecoaches.org/Katy+Taylor/Brents-Kim+Neg

I debated for Katy Taylor for 4 years. I was the 1A/2N for three of those years and doubles 2s for one. I pretty much went for the K for all my 2NRs, my favorite being the Cap K. I've read many different types of arguments throughout my career, but please don't assume I know what you are talking about without a clear explanation. 

I have no preference to what arguments I want to hear. I try to be impartial when it comes to the style of argumentation whether it be a K or the politics DA. 

My judging philosophy is very similar to the philosopy of my former teammate Albert Li so here is a link to his philosophy: https://judgephilosophies.wikispaces.com/Li%2C+Albert

That being said, we did not read the same arguments in high school, so skip those parts of his philosophy.

Also the following section is copy and pasted from his philosophy:

If you’ve decided there’s a chance I’m going to judge you, here are some more specifics:

On Topicality/procedurals: I default competing interpretations. I think the best standard is predictable limits, insofar as it can usually implicate the internal links to other standards very easily. The portable skills stuff and education always seemed more “meh” to me, but so long as you impact out all your standards then it really doesn’t matter. Reasonability seems to rely a lot on ground/abuse defense, so it might behoove the aff to make those two arguments in conjunction with each other. Cross-ex probably checks most spec arguments.

Specifically on Framework: I’m really open to most framework arguments (I barely debated this at all my senior year, surprisingly). Like on topicality, I like predictable limits on the negative and arguments about pedagogy and stuff on the aff. Framework isn’t topicality; don’t confuse it as such. Make fun of asinine interp evidence. Institutional engagement arguments likely beg the question of the efficacy of institutions. For the aff, I don't care at all if you're the least topical aff I've ever heard in my life. I'll leave it up to the neg to decide how they want to engage.

On DAs: There isn’t much to say other than that the straight turn in the 1AR is so underused. I love impact turns/internal link turns (not unique to DAs, but I figured I’d just drop that here). I don’t like the politics DA, but, like so many others, have come to accept it as a necessary evil. You’ll make me like it more if you have specific/multiple links/internal links. That applies to every position.

On CPs: There’s been an increasing tension between the theoretical legitimacy of counterplans and the need to deal with smaller affs. I think that debate deserves a bit more contention despite my hatred of bad theory arguments. You should probably have a solvency advocate – it demonstrates good research practices but also checks back against a ton of theoretical concerns. I like when people point out atrocious wording in the text. I wasn’t really much a CP debater, but I can appreciate it when people bust out really cool competition tricks and solve the shit out of the aff.

On Ks: I really like one off strategies. My most common block division was the K in the 2NC and case in the 1NR. The framework debate has devolved mostly into semantics that usually ends up as a middle of the road split. I think K teams need to go more aggressively for a denial of the aff on epistemological/whatever else grounds and policy teams need to go more aggressively for a denial of things like reps-based args in the interest of fairness. The alt’s pretty important, but not necessary to win if you’re winning a ton of case turns. That being said, RECOGNIZE WHEN IT’S A HORRIBLE IDEA TO KICK THE ALT. I don’t mind longer overviews, but if you find yourself saying “that was in the overview” a lot on the line by line then you might wanna consider some reorganization. Also don’t lie to me about how long your goddamn overview is. Shower me with links – quote their evidence and cross-ex.

On Cheating: Pretty serious accusation with serious consequences. If you accuse you better have evidence for it. If I conclude cheating’s gone down then I’ll grant lowest speaks to either one or both members, depending on the nature of the infraction. The accusers win and the cheaters lose. I’ll try to give speaks to the other team accordingly.

On General Speaking Stuff: Please change your speed/tone according to the importance of an argument or between tags/evidence. Don’t spread through analytical stuff; I think people forget that the non-machine nature of the judge means that they will generally pick up on those changes and note them more readily. The rebuttals deserve less speed and more efficiency. If you can flag the important stuff not by explicitly saying it but by implying it through your speaking, you will get fantastic speaks.

Leo (Sung) Kim
Harvard ‘17
Katy Taylor ‘13
hmu at leosjk07@gmail.com if u got questions thanks

i am not the leo kim who will be at the berkeley tournament

prefer email chains; flashing doesn't count as prep unless it's egregious

NOT to be confused with the Leo Kim from California (plz email the right Leo Kim)

updated for the harvard tournament
if it helps - check out my wikis
https://opencaselist15.paperlessdebate.com/Harvard/Kim-Borbon+Aff
https://opencaselist15.paperlessdebate.com/Harvard/Kim-Borbon+Neg

Short Version

Hi. I debated at Katy Taylor and debated at Harvard for 3 years. I coached Katy Taylor Albert and Zaki (RIP sorry about osama aff), and also coached Katy Taylor's Spencer/Subbu and Patrick/Mohamed. I believe the best judges will listen to and adjudicate as impartially as possible any argument and style of debate. You should do whatever you are best at.

I don't think you should pref me based on any perceived ideological bias. My preference is for good arguments and interesting debates.

That being said, I try to leave out any biases or predispositions I may have and be a fair and attentive judge. YOU DO YOU.

I am very reluctant to vote on arguments made in the text of cards but not in the debate. If you think you have better evidence you should explain why.

A new argument is one that could not have been predictably deduced from my understanding of its previous form.

Also - I will vote on an argument only if I can explain it to the other team. This is an arbitrary standard, but it’s the best one I could come up with and it encourages you to communicate more so I’m ok with it.

Clarity over Speed – you can be the fastest debater in the world but it doesn’t matter if you are unclear and nobody can understand you. Speed is not how fast you can spout the words but how fast you can communicate the words. Emphasis and ethos = more speaker points. Also slow down in the T debate and theory debate.

Arguments – Arguments are arguments regardless of what form they take so do whatever you like to do and what you are best at. Don’t assume that I am familiar with the specific details of your disadvantage or that I am familiar with whatever critical literature you read. I just want a fun, well-flushed debate where everything is explained well and why it matters to me in the debate round. 

Ethics- don’t cheat, don’t lie, don’t be rude, don’t say messed up things, don't clip obviously. There is a line between sassy/funny and being an ignorant asshole. 

If you have any questions, definitely feel free to ask before the round!

Be smart. Be funny. Relax. This will help your speaks. Have fun!

+0.5 speaks to the team that uses less than one min of prep and wins


Specifics

I understand that my short version isn't very helpful for people looking for very specific stuff, so I'll write stuff out.

Clarity over Speed – you can be the fastest debater in the world but it doesn’t matter if you are unclear and nobody can understand you. Speed is not how fast you can spout the words but how fast you can communicate the words. Emphasis and ethos = more speaker points. Also slow down in the T debate and theory debate.

CX – a lot of debates can be won in cross-x and a good cross-x can be very devastating and very positive for speaker points (or negative if you seem like you have no idea what you are talking about). Win links to your stuff in cross-x, win no-links to their stuff in cross-x, etc. I will listen to cross-x.

Arguments - Arguments are arguments regardless of what form they take so do whatever you like to do and what you are best at. Don’t assume that I am familiar with the specific details of your disadvantage or that I am familiar with whatever critical literature you read. I just want a fun, well-flushed debate where everything is explained well and why it matters to me in the debate round. I was as comfortable taking the deterrence DA in the 1NR as I was taking the Metaphysics of Presence K - so don't pref me based on what you think is an ideological bias.

Kritiks and the like - Ks are cool. I did a lot of K stuff in high school, and still do a lot of K stuff in college. My academic interest (beyond statistics and stuff) are in security studies and IR. Things I don't like when judging K debates: buzzwords thrown around without unpacking them or explaining their significance, not engaging with the aff, assuming I know the lit, trying too hard to be BoSu or Mich KM but executing poorly, lack of alternative explanation in the 2NR, no external impact. Things I do like when judging K debates: specific analysis, sass, showing off your knowledge, K tricks, smart CX strategies to set up the K, cool explanations in the 2NR of how the K solves the case, good impact calculus.

K Affs - Also cool. I don't believe that there is a necessity for a plan text but I do wish the affirmative is in the direction of the topic, or at least about the topic. That said, if you can robustly defend your method/the important of your advocacy, sure go for it.

Framework: Framework debates, to me, are basically a debate over competing visions of debate and methods. Impact calculus please. "Destroys fairness" isn't an impact - why does fairness matter? What's the impact to fairness or why is switch-side debate good? what makes the neg's model of debate better than the aff's model of debate? why is the aff's model of debate good? Framework debates are fun to judge if they're done well! Yay!

Disadvantages - I like timely/specific DA's. I like politics. I like DA's. I don't know what else to say here. Good specific analysis of turns case and impact calculus = higher speaker points. Also I am not afraid to vote on no risk of the disad. Oh, btw, not a big fan of rider DAs but whatever I'll vote for it if you win it.

Counterplans- I think plan plus counterplans are solved by perm do both. I like really tricky PICs. I usually err neg on theory questions such as PICs bad, bad, etc, but they can definitely be won in front of me. However, I don’t want the 2AR to be PICs bad. Just engage with the substance yo. Also, if your CP has like 10 planks and you say you can kick planks, I'm more likely to be aff-leaning on theory args that I usually lean neg on (like condo). #DontBringConsultJapanBack

T/Theory: [copied and pasted from my roommate Madhu Vijay's philosphy aka MadDog Madhu] The team that wins the tech will win my ballot, regardless of the underlying argument's quality. (Of course, it's harder to make a compelling, technically sound case for something like no neg fiat.) Impact calculus is absolutely vital and underutilized. My substantive preferences aren't very relevant -- I will say that in general, the closer a CP is to the plan and the less specific differentiating evidence the neg has, the less likely I will be to believe it's competitive/legitimate. That is a very loose preference, and tech >>>>>>>> vague predispositions here. I tend to default to competing interpretations because reasonability is often debated vaguely/poorly by aff teams; if you can do otherwise, do so. As every judge says, theory/T are like DA's; you should debate them as such, and I will judge them as such. A caveat is that if you do things like not meeting your own interpretation, you'll probably lose. tbh i don't like judging theory debates because it's often done poorly

Also, I generally default to competing interps but can be persuaded otherwise (This is just the position i start out with in the debate - if you can win a disad to this preference then I will view the debate through a lens of reasonability and the same the other way). Topicality is generally a voting issue. T doesn’t cause genocide, but certain impact turns to T can be persuasive.

Case – woefully underused part of the debate. These arguments can be so strategic and when used creatively, they can be one of the most important parts of the debate. I’m not talking only defense claims like ECONOMIC COLLAPSE =/= EXTINCTION, but also impact turns and straight turns to their scenarios. Those are coolio. A well-done and well-engaged case debate = more speaker points. Smart cross-applications on either side = more speaker points.

Some self-perceived theory bias:
Aff-leaning on: Consults/Conditions, A-Spec (lol)
Neg-leaning on: Conditionality (to a certain extent), PICs bad (unless it's super abusive), Dispo

Ethics- don’t cheat, don’t lie, don’t be rude, don’t say messed up things. There is a line between sassy/funny and being an ignorant asshole. I’m fine with cursing in round if done correctly/appropriately/moderately.

If you have any questions, definitely feel free to ask before the round!

Be smart. Be funny. Relax. This will help your speaks. Have fun!

errr... if it matters, people who have really influenced me in my debate career at harvard so far (in no particular order): patrick kennedy, lundberg, mathew petersen, bradley bolman, yung michael suo  

Conflicts: University of Houston

Add to email chain: patrickleeqw@gmail.com

Hello debate community members. I debated for 4 years at Katy Taylor HS and 1 year at UT-Austin on the M4A topic. I welcome arguments in all their forms. I mean this quite literally. Denounce modernity or impact turn innovation - within the parameters of debate, I don't care. My only request: whatever form yours may take, please be considerate and take the time to outline for me the claim of the argument, the warrants to support it, and the impacts of its significance. Even better, organize these arguments so the ideas are unambiguously clear; and at the end of the debate tell me in no uncertain terms why you win and why they lose.

K debate: If the terms of your argument use jargon from the bowels of academia, and if said terms are not explained with the intention of forwarding understandability, then, in the spirit of competitive agonism, I suggest using clearer and shorter words, for there are plenty of them that are certain to capture the essence of your claims. But in the case that it is of your opinion that there simply exist no other adequate terms and only your words sufficiently capture the monumental complexity of your theorization, that is perfectly fine too - but know that your arguments must now live up the task of explaining that complexity, adequately, as a pre-requisite to evaluation.

At the end of the day, I think debate is an enjoyable game with lasting subjective consequences. What these consequences are, and the extent to which they can become desirable or malignant, is open to interpretation. I believe this responsibility to interpret ultimately resides with the debaters, not the judge. I won't superimpose. I'll try my best to simply evaluate. Have fun!

Current coach/DOF at Lindale High School.

For email chains: mckenziera @ lisdeagles.net

CX - This is where I have spent the majority of my time judging. While I am comfortable judging any type of round, my preference is a more traditional round. Debate rounds that are more progressive (kritikal affs, performance, etc...) are totally fine, but you'll do best to slow down and go for depth over breadth here. I think that judges are best when they adapt to the round in front of them. Writing the ballot for me in the last few speeches can be helpful.

LD - Despite judging policy debate most, I was raised in a traditional value and criterion centric area. Still, I think that policy debates in LD are valuable. See my notes above about progressive argumentation. They're fine, but you'll probably need to do a few things to make it more digestible for me. Again, though, you do you. Writing the ballot for me in the last few speeches can be helpful.

PF - I judge only a few PF rounds a year. I'm not up-to-date on the trends that may be occurring. I naturally struggle with the time restraints in PF. I generally feel like teams often go for breadth instead of depth, which I think makes debate blippy and requires more judge intervention. I'd rather not hear 20 "cards" in a four minute speech. Framework is the most reliable way to construct a ballot. Writing the ballot for me in the last few speeches can be helpful.

Congress - Speeches should have structure, refutation, research, and style. Jerky Parliamentary Procedure devalues your position in the round.

Speech - Structure and content are valued equally. I appreciate, next, things that make you stand out in a positive way.

Interp - Should have a purpose/function. There's a social implication behind a lot of what we perform. I value great introductions and real characters.

Ben Mitchell
Kinkaid 09-13
University of Texas 13-17
Currently coaching Austin SFA

While debating for Kinkaid I spoke all four speaker positions. On the negative, I both extended and went for a variety of arguments, from topicality to politics to conditions to psychoanalysis. On the affirmative I have read both hard right affs and more critical affs while still defending a plan text.

1. While debating, my coaches would always tell us "have fun, be smart, and debate well," and if forced to choose, I would chose the first. As a debater, I found the being smart and debating well were frequently positively correlated with how much fun I was having. And as a judge, if you're having fun, I find the debate more engaging and am likely to reward that with higher speaker points. A corollary of this is be nice. Very few things hurt your ethos more than when you're unnecessarily mean to your opponents and/or your partner. You don't all have to be best friends, but it also shouldn't feel like a war zone.
2. For the Oceans topic - I've judged the grapevine tournament, the greenhill round robin, and the greenhill tournament proper. I was not involved, however, in summer camp on the oceans topic, so outside of the aff's I've seen I know fairly little about the topic. If you're reading some hyper specific strategy on the neg or a small squirrely aff assume a fairly low level of background knowledge on my part. Try to be extra crisp on explanation, if you do so I will be happier and more likely to vote for you.
3. While I have done all speaker positions, I've found that when reading evidence and evaluating rounds I can sometimes think like a 2N. This is something I try to avoid as much as possible, however it still lingers. What does this mean for you as a debater though? I find that my 2N tendencies come about most in rounds where the final rebuttals include very little evidence comparison or impact analysis, and I'm left to decide with very little weighing mechanisms provided by both teams. If either the 2nr or the 2ar are able to provide me with a lens to view the debate (try or die, timeframe, which impacts control the escalation of others, filtering the entire link debate through the permutation, necessary vs sufficient, etc.) then I will be much more sympathetic to their position, less likely to intervene, and more likely to vote for them.
4. Evidence is not necessary or sufficient to make arguments. Many positions can be mitigated substantially by pointing out logical inconsistencies or reading ununderlined portions of the cards, and cross-x is probably the best time to set this up. Similarly, if all you do in the 2ar is tell me that X piece of evidence is super hot and I should call for it after the round without explaining its warrants or impacting it, you have not made an argument, and would have been better off substituting that for analytics.


I find myself judging clash of civilization debates fairly often. It's safe to assume that I would always prefer to hear a negative strategy that attempts to engage the affirmative in these debates, however I am sympathetic to the framework position and am willing to pull the trigger if I think the negative has done a better job in that debate.


Speaker Points

Basic rundown of how I view speaker points
29 and up = I think you should be top few speakers
28.7-28.9 = Impressive debating, high speaker award, definitely should clear
28.4-28.6 = Few technical problems, in the running for clearing
28-28.3 = A number of technical problems, still excecuted a coherent strategy
Paperless

You should have a viewing computer available if the other team needs one
If your computer crashes, we can stop the debate, however I highly encourage you flash your speeches to your partner and will be marginally impressed if you can do a smooth transition in the event of your computer shutting down

Prep
You don't need to take prep to flash, please don't abuse that privilege though
Pleaseeee keep track of your own prep, I'm lazy and usually won't write it down

For email chain: empireofme@gmail.com

currently teach and coach debate at Saint Mary's Hall in San Antonio.

experience:

high school 4 years cx/ld debate at laredo, tx united
college: 3 years policy at the university of texas at san antonio
coaching: 2 years coaching policy at the university of texas at san antonio, coached nine years as director of debate for reagan high school in san antonio, tx. 1.5 years as the director of speech and debate at San Marcos High School, 2.5 years as director of speech and debate at James Madison High School... currently the director of debate at Saint Mary's Hall.

former writer/ researcher for wisecrack: this does not help you.

***note: please don't call me Matt or Matthew, it is jarring and distracts me. If you must refer to me by name please call me reichle [rike-lee].

(updated sections are marked with a *)

*TOP SHELF COMMENT*

Please, please, please slow down a bit, stress clarity when speaking, and give me pen time during analytic/ theoretical arguments. I AM NOT FOLLOWING ALONG IN THE SPEECH DOCUMENT--I genuinely believe that debate is a communicative activity and I should not have to rely on the speech document to decipher the arguments you are making. If this sounds real grouchy and sounds like "get off my lawn" old man talk... fair enough.

What I mean is this: I like to think that I am working hard to listen and think during the debate and looking up from my flow makes me think about all sorts of things that are not helpful for the debate... (the posters in the room, fashion choices, the last few words of episode 12 of Andor, the amount of Hominy I should add to Pazole... etc.)... all sorts of things that are not helpful for your decision. So help me out a bit. Please.

***The Rest***

*Digital Debates:

Please consider the medium and slow down a bit/ be more purposeful or aware of clarity--the added noises of a house (animals, small children, sirens, etc.) make it a bit harder for me to hear sometimes.

Please try to not talk over one another in cross-examination: it hurts my head.

*proclamation:
I proclaim, that I am making a concerted effort to be "in the round" at all times from here on out (I suppose this is my jerry maguire manifesto/ mission statement moment) . I understand the amount of time that everyone puts in this activity and I am going to make a serious effort to concentrate as hard as possible on each debate round that I am lucky enough to judge. I am going to approach each round with the same enthusiasm, vigor, and responsibility that I afford members of a writing group--and as such I am going to treat the post round discussion with the same level of respect.

Ultimately debate is about the debaters, not about the ways in which I can inject my spirit back into the debate format. That being said there are a few things that you might want to know about me.

I debated for four years in the mid-to-late nineties in high school and three years at UTSA. I have debated ‘policy’ debates in several different formats. Because I ended my career on the ‘left’ of the debate spectrum is in no way an automatic endorsement for all out wackiness devoid of any content. That is not saying that I don’t enjoy the ‘critical’ turn in debate—quite the opposite, I like nothing better than a debate that effectively joins form in content.

*I prefer explanation and examples in debates, these make sense to me. The more depth and explanation the better.

*strategy is also something that I reward. I would like to know that you have either thought about your particular strategy in terms of winning the debate round--and I don't mind knowing that you accident-ed your way into a perfect 2nr/ar choice. Either way: the story of the round is important to me and I would like to know how the individual parts of a round fit together (how you understand them). I think this is part of effective communication and it's just helpful for me in case I am missing something. Illumination brought to me (by you) seems to be the crux of getting a decision that is favorable (to you) with me in the back of the room.


*I flow. I may not flow like you, but I keep a flow because my memory isn’t the best and because at some point I was trained to… it just kind of helps me. But I flow in a way that helps me arrange my thoughts and helps me to keep what is said in the debate limited to what is actually spoken by the debaters. I flow the entire round (including as much of the the text of the evidence as I can get) unless I know a piece of evidence that you are reading. That being said… If I can’t understand you (because of lack of clarity) I can’t flow you. also, some differentiation between tag, card, and the next piece of evidence would be great.

Topicality—I don't know why teams don't go for topicality more... it is a viable strategy (when done well in most rounds). In high school I went for T in the 2NR every round. In college I went for T (seriously) no times in the 2NR. While I give Aff’s lenience on reasonability—there is something hot about a block that just rolls with topicality.

*Counterplans/ disads. Sure. Why not. Win net benefits. Answer the perm. Make it competitive. Win your framework (if an alternate framework for evaluation is proposed by the aff). more and more i find the quality of the evidence read for most cp and da's to be shaky at best--not that there isn't great evidence on political capital and the role of popularity in certain aspects of the political economy as it pertains to pending legislation... i just find more and more that this evidence is either written by some rand-o with a blog or is great evidence that is under-hi-lighted. please read good evidence, not evidence that can be written by one of my children on the cartoon network forums section.

Performance/ The K/ the Crazy/Whatever you want to call it: Do what you have to do get your point across. If you need me to do something (see the way I flow) let me know—I will comply willingly. Just warrant your argument somehow. As before, this is in no way a full on endorsement of ridiculousness for the sake of ridiculousness. Win your framework/ impacts and you should have no problem. Please help me out with the role of the ballot. Please.

*theory: I need to flow. I can not flow a theory debate where the shell is read at the speed of a piece of evidence--tag line speed at the fastest for theory, please. Also if you have no differentiation between tag speed and card speed (good for you) but people are only pretending to flow what you are saying.


*paperless issues: prep time is up when the speaker's jump drive is out of their computer/ when you are ready to email your cards (not continue to write blocks as you 'send' your email). Completely understandable if you send the other team a few more cards than you are going to read but please do not jump the other team an entire file or seventy cards in random order. Learn to send evidence to a speech document.


It becomes harder every year for me to think of a way to encapsulate how I view debate in a way that somehow gives a useful suggestion to debaters. It seems that each philosophy follows a formula--assure everyone that you were a good debater up to and including past experience, make sure they know that you are either open or receptive to all types of argumentation while still harboring resentment to anything progressive and different from what is deemed acceptable by personal debate standards, which is then followed by a list of ways the judge hopes everyone debates.

While the formula will apply to some extent I would like to say that i am in every way honest when I say this: do what you do best and read the arguments that you prefer in the style that you prefer in front of me. Do this and I say unto you that it will do less harm than running around in circles in round for the sake of a paradigm. Be the debater that you are, not who you think I want you to be.

That being said; this is who I assume you should be: kind. Be kind to your opponent and avoid shadiness and we’ll have no problems. There is probably a list that defines shadiness but it follows the same rule as inappropriateness: if you have to ask if something is shady--it is.


have fun. have a nice year.

I did three years of policy debate in High School and had experience coaching junior varsity members in PF and World Schools. Did a year of traditional policy and two years of critical/performance debate so yeh but I will vote on anything. Framing is critical to me as a judge whether you go for A disad or procedurals or a critique. If you do not frame the round I will vote based on how I saw the arguments in the round which may not always go in your favor even if you had the better arguments coming out of the block/constructives. That being said, although I am a critic, I will not restrict you and what you want to debate unless I find it to be particularly harmful or violent...so yeah literally run anything in front of me as long as you got the finesse to do it well.

Also little things you may wanna know about me:

This is my first time judging the topic, so I may have a higher T/FW threshold in terms of voting on it. Spread to your heart's content, but having a cadence will make you easier to flow.

DAs - Love me some specific links, not a fan of spending/ptx but hey I'll vote on it.

CPs - I like me a good CP. Run em well, especially in non-policy debates, don't be clearly abusive, real game changers right here. Don't skimp on the internal net benefit analysis either, really make it competitive to the aff regardless of the offense on other flows.

Ks - Just because I was a critical debate doesn't mean I will take an underdeveloped one and do the work for you. If it's a sloppy K debate I will feel disinclined to award high speaks regardless of whether or not I vote on it. Also don't make your alt basic/reject the aff, I want to know how the alternative will solve the impacts of the criticism and also tackel the nuances of the aff.

T/FW/Procedurals - I enjoy judging these debates more than I do debating them. I don't want to hear generic blocks on these, though, really sell your net benefits and why the aff's model of debate is net bad, don't just exclude them. I have a hard time voting on Policymaking framework if it is answered reasonably well, but a different interpretation that allows for the possibility of the aff to be debated in another shape or form can make for a great and productive debate in my opinion. Theory is A-okay with me, especially with critical internals.

For PF: Speaks capped at 27.5 if you don't read cut cards (with tags) and send speech docs via email chain prior to your speech of cards to be read (in constructives, rebuttal, summary, or any speech where you have a new card to read). I'm done with paraphrasing and pf rounds taking almost as long as my policy rounds to complete. Speaks will start at 28.5 for teams that do read cut cards and do send speech docs via email chain prior to speech. In elims, since I can't give points, it will be a overall tiebreaker.

For Policy: Speaks capped at 28 if I don't understand each and every word you say while spreading (including cards read). I will not follow along on the speech doc, I will not read cards after the debate (unless contested or required to render a decision), and, thus, I will not reconstruct the debate for you but will just go off my flow. I can handle speed, but I need clarity not a speechdoc to understand warrants. Speaks will start at 28.5 for teams that are completely flowable. I'd say about 85% of debaters have been able to meet this paradigm.

I'd also mostly focus on the style section and bold parts of other sections.

---

2018 update: College policy debaters should look to who I judged at my last college judging spree (69th National Debate Tournament in Iowa) to get a feeling of who will and will not pref me. I also like Buntin's new judge philosophy (agree roughly 90%).

It's Fall 2015. I judge all types of debate, from policy-v-policy to non-policy-v-non-policy. I think what separates me as a judge is style, not substance.

I debated for Texas for 5 years (2003-2008), 4 years in Texas during high school (1999-2003). I was twice a top 20 speaker at the NDT. I've coached on and off for highschool and college teams during that time and since. I've ran or coached an extremely wide diversity of arguments. Some favorite memories include "china is evil and that outweighs the security k", to "human extinction is good", to "predictions must specify strong data", to "let's consult the chinese, china is awesome", to "housing discrimination based on race causes school segregation based on race", to "factory farms are biopolitical murder", to “free trade good performance”, to "let's reg. neg. the plan to make businesses confident", to “CO2 fertilization, SO2 Screw, or Ice Age DAs”, to "let the Makah whale", etc. Basically, I've been around.

After it was pointed out that I don't do a great job delineating debatable versus non-debatable preferences, I've decided to style-code bold all parts of my philosophy that are not up for debate. Everything else is merely a preference, and can be debated.

Style/Big Picture:

• I strongly prefer to let the debaters do the debating, and I'll reward depth (the "author+claim + warrant + data+impact" model) over breadth (the "author+claim + impact" model) any day.

• When evaluating probabilistic predictions, I start from the assumption everyone begins at 0%, and you persuade me to increase that number (w/ claims + warrants + data). Rarely do teams get me past 5%. A conceeded claim (or even claim + another claim disguised as the warrant) will not start at 100%, but remains at 0%.

• Combining those first two essential stylistic criteria means, in practice, many times I discount entirely even conceded, well impacted claims because the debaters failed to provide a warrant and/or data to support their claim. It's analogous to failing a basic "laugh" test. I may not be perfect at this rubric yet, but I still think it's better than the alternative (e.g. rebuttals filled with 20+ uses of the word “conceded” and a stack of 60 cards).

• I'll try to minimize the amount of evidence I read to only evidence that is either (A) up for dispute/interpretation between the teams or (B) required to render a decision (due to lack of clash amongst the debaters). In short: don't let the evidence do the debating for you.

• Humor is also well rewarded, and it is hard (but not impossible) to offend me.

• I'd also strongly prefer if teams would slow down 15-20% so that I can hear and understand every word you say (including cards read). While I won't explicitly punish you if you don't, it does go a mile to have me already understand the evidence while you're debating so I don't have to sort through it at the end (especially since I likely won't call for that card anyway).

• Defense can win a debate (there is such as thing as a 100% no link), but offense helps more times than not.

• I'm a big believer in open disclosure practices, and would vote on reasoned arguments about poor disclosure practices. In the perfect world, everything would be open-source (including highlighting and analytics, including 2NR/2AR blocks), and all teams would ultimately share one evidence set. You could cut new evidence, but once read, everyone would have it. We're nowhere near that world. Some performance teams think a few half-citations work when it makes up at best 45 seconds of a 9 minute speech. Some policy teams think offering cards without highlighting for only the first constructive works. I don't think either model works, and would be happy to vote to encourage more open disclosure practices. It's hard to be angry that the other side doesn't engage you when, pre-round, you didn't offer them anything to engage.

• You (or your partner) must physically mark cards if you do not finish them. Orally saying "mark here" (and expecting your opponents or the judge to do it for you) doesn't count. After your speech (and before cross-ex), you should resend a marked copy to the other team. If pointed out by the other team, failure to do means you must mark prior to cross-ex. I will count it as prep time times two to deter sloppy debate.

• By default, I will not “follow along” and read evidence during a debate. I find that it incentivizes unclear and shallow debates. However, I realize that some people are better visual than auditory learners and I would classify myself as strongly visual. If both teams would prefer and communicate to me that preference before the round, I will “follow along” and read evidence during the debate speeches, cross-exs, and maybe even prep.

Topicality:

• I like competing interpretations, the more evidence the better, and clearly delineated and impacted/weighed standards on topicality.

• Abuse makes it all the better, but is not required (doesn't unpredictability inherently abuse?).

• Treat it like a disad, and go from there. In my opinion, topicality is a dying art, so I'll be sure to reward debaters that show talent.

• For the aff – think offense/defense and weigh the standards you're winning against what you're losing rather than say "at least we're reasonable". You'll sound way better.

Framework:

• The exception to the above is the "framework debate". I find it to be an uphill battle for the neg in these debates (usually because that's the only thing the aff has blocked out for 5 minutes, and they debate it 3 out of 4 aff rounds).

• If you want to win framework in front of me, spent time delineating your interpretation of debate in a way that doesn't make it seem arbitrary. For example "they're not policy debate" begs the question what exactly policy debate is. I'm not Justice Steward, and this isn't pornography. I don't know when I've seen it. I'm old school in that I conceptualize framework along “predictability”; "topic education", “policymaking education”, and “aff education” (topical version, switch sides, etc) lines.

• “We're in the direction of the topic” or “we discuss the topic rather than a topical discussion” is a pretty laughable counter-interpretation.

• For the aff, "we agree with the neg's interp of framework but still get to weigh our case" borders on incomprehensible if the framework is the least bit not arbitrary.

Case Debate

• Depth in explanation over breadth in coverage. One well explained warrant will do more damage to the 1AR than 5 cards that say the same claim.

• Well-developed impact calculus must begin no later than the 1AR for the Aff and Negative Block for the Neg.

• I enjoy large indepth case debates. I was 2A who wrote my own community unique affs usually with only 1 advantage and no external add-ons. These type of debates, if properly researched and executed, can be quite fun for all parties.

Disads

• Intrinsic perms are silly. Normal means arguments are less so.

• From an offense/defense paradigm, conceded uniqueness can control the direction of the link. Conceded links can control the direction of uniqueness. The in round application of "why" is important.

• A story / spin is usually more important (and harder for the 1AR to deal with) than 5 cards that say the same thing.

Counterplan Competition:

• I generally prefer functionally competitive counterplans with solvency advocates delineating the counterplan versus the plan (or close) (as opposed to the counterplan versus the topic), but a good case for textual competition can be made with a language K netbenefit.

• Conditionality (1 CP, SQ, and 1 K) is a fact of life, and anything less is the negative feeling sorry for you (or themselves). However, I do not like 2NR conditionality (i.e., “judge kick”) ever. Make a decision.

• Perms and theory always remain a test of competition (and not a voter) until proven otherwise by the negative by argument (see above), a near impossible standard for arguments that don't interfere substantially with other parts of the debate (e.g. conditionality).

• Perm "do the aff" is not a perm. Debatable perms are "do both" and "do cp/alt"(and "do aff and part of the CP" for multi-plank CPs). Others are usually intrinsic.

Critiques:

• I think of the critique as a (usually linear) disad and the alt as a cp.

• Be sure to clearly impact your critique in the context of what it means/does to the aff case (does the alt solve it, does the critique turn it, make harms inevitable, does it disprove their solvency). Latch on to an external impact (be it "ethics", or biopower causes super-viruses), and weigh it against case.

• Use your alternative to either "fiat uniqueness" or create a rubric by which I don't evaluate uniqueness, and to solve case in other ways.

• I will say upfront the two types of critique routes I find least persuasive are simplistic versions of "economics", "science", and "militarism" bad (mostly because I have an econ degree and am part of an extensive military family). While good critiques exist out there of both, most of what debaters use are not that, so plan accordingly.

• For the aff, figure out how to solve your case absent fiat (education about aff good?), and weigh it against the alternative, which you should reduce to as close as the status quo as possible. Make uniqueness indicts to control the direction of link, and question the timeframe/inevitability/plausability of their impacts.

• Perms generally check clearly uncompetitive alternative jive, but don't work too well against "vote neg". A good link turn generally does way more than “perm solves the link”.

• Aff Framework doesn't ever make the critique disappear, it just changes how I evaluate/weigh the alternative.

• Role of the Ballot - I vote for the team that did the better debating. What is "better" is based on my stylistic criteria. End of story. Don't let "Role of the Ballot" be used as an excuse to avoid impact calculus.

Performance (the other critique):

• Empirically, I do judge these debate and end up about 50-50 on them. I neither bandwagon around nor discount the validity of arguments critical of the pedagogy of debate. I'll let you make the case or defense (preferably with data). The team that usually wins my ballot is the team that made an effort to intelligently clash with the other team (whether it's aff or neg) and meet my stylistic criteria. To me, it's just another form of debate.

• However, I do have some trouble in some of these debates in that I feel most of what is said is usually non-falsifiable, a little too personal for comfort, and devolves 2 out of 3 times into a chest-beating contest with competition limited to some archaic version of "plan-plan". I do recognize that this isn't always the case, but if you find yourselves banking on "the counterplan/critique doesn't solve" because "you did it first", or "it's not genuine", or "their skin is white"; you're already on the path to a loss.

• If you are debating performance teams, the two main takeaways are that you'll probably lose framework unless you win topical version, and I hate judging "X" identity outweighs "Y" identity debates. I suggest, empirically, a critique of their identity politics coupled with some specific case cards is more likely to get my ballot than a strategy based around "Framework" and the "Rev". Not saying it's the only way, just offering some empirical observations of how I vote.

Sita Yerramsetti (sitamly@gmail.com)

The Kinkaid School '16

Harvard College '20

I debated for four years in high school at Kinkaid as both a 2A and a 2N, qualifying to the TOC twice. In high school, I generally read center-left affs (affs with plan texts and structural violence impacts) but also read some big-stick policy affs and critical affs; I went for a wide range of NEG arguments, from topicality to psychoanalysis kritiks to elections disads.

What you should know about how I think about debate:

1. I'm not very familiar with the water topic, which means that you should be extra thorough in your explanations of topic-specific arguments. Do not assume that I know what obscure acronyms stand for - even if you've been using them since camp - or what community consensus is about certain issues (topicality interpretations, etc.).

2. Argumentatively, you should feel free to do what you want, but I am candidly not the best judge for pomo-type kritiks on either the AFF or the NEG - doesn't mean you can't read them, but you will have to put some extra effort into explaining all of your buzzwords and how they relate to the aff and/or the topic.

3. Debates in high school are often won and lost in the framing of the 2NR/2AR. The best debaters can isolate the nexus question of a debate and focus their last speeches on controlling it. "Even if" statements are your best friend: rarely are you winning EVERY part of the debate, and addressing potential weaknesses makes you look smart and makes your strategy stronger.

4. Tech > truth (except for morally reprehensible arguments, which will always lose), but I rarely consider arguments in isolation. If one team points out a technical concession but the other team is controlling the meta-issue of the debate that clearly deals with the dropped argument, the argument wasn't actually dropped. However, you still need to flow and, in some way, answer all relevant arguments, regardless of your style of debate (many of the best K debaters I know are very technically proficient even if they're not flow-centric).

5. Lots of things, including framing and strategic thinking, affect speaker points, but presentation-wise, the following things are the most important:

A) Clarity - Don't try to go too fast; speed < clarity in all instances. I will say "clear" twice if I can't understand you but then will probably just put my pen down and stop flowing. Look up once in a while to make sure I'm understanding you and also see my reactions to your arguments.

B) Cross-x - Treat it like a speech by preparing meaningful questions in advance and approaching it with a strategy. Using cross-x to generate arguments and understandings you can refer to in your speeches will make your speeches more efficient and get you higher speaker points.

C) "Flowability" - Make your speeches as easy for me to flow as possible. Slow down on long blocks of analytics (especially for T and theory) and important parts of the debate you want to make sure I flag; give me pen time between different pieces of paper (I don't flow on my computer); use vocal inflection to indicate when you're moving on from an issue or when you're making a big thesis claim; avoid jumping around the flow.

6. Having great evidence is basically useless if you can't explain it well. In a lot of cases, I'll only read cards to verify claims made by debaters or settle disputes of interpretation, so don't assume I'll fill in your authors' sick warrants for you after the debate based on your tagline extensions. Especially in debates where I will have to read lots of cards (politics, etc.), you would really benefit from doing nuanced evidence comparison.

7. I'm really not a fan of long overviews (obviously, there are exceptions, like kritiks for which you need to explain a lot of complicated terms). If you find yourself saying "that was in the overview" repeatedly or saying "moving on to the line-by-line" after three minutes have elapsed, that's not good. Debates are generally better organized if the content of overviews is simply placed in relevant places on the line-by-line.

8. Don't steal prep, clip cards, be shady with disclosure, or be mean to your partner or your opponents; also, of course, remember to have fun!

If you have any questions, just ask me before the round. Good luck!