Competitor 2009-2013

Judge 2013-

Paradigms are silly. Rules and guidelines exist for a reason.

LD - I'm a traditional LD judge. It's philosophy debate. Listen to what your opponent is saying, and tell me why their points are silly. I don't want to hear that they dropped your subpoint 1.a.x, I'm flowing the round, I know they did or didn't. I want to know why them dropping the point matters to me. Why should I care about that one point?

On time - I keep official time, but if I'm listening to you speak, flowing, and keeping notes, I'm not going to be good at giving you time signals. Please keep your time too.

Also, don't spread. It's like when you go to a restaurant and they have 3000 things on the menu -- I'm going to assume that none of those things are amazing, and they're all mid, they just have a lot of them to distract me. I'd rather you have 2 solid arguments you know well. If I can't keep up on flowing, you're doing too much.

PF -There's four of you. Stop yelling at me. Stop yelling at each other.

Speech - Your movements, voice, face, mannerisms matter. You don't get props so you are the prop. Use it. Also, negative emotions are shown by more characteristics than "Sad yelling" -- please. Please stop sad yelling and please explore more of the emotional options.

In general, I like to think I'm not a regular judge, I'm a cool judge. That is to say -- just don't be rude, and we're probably chill.

No intense spreading please for myself Donna Chisum. I am a fairly New Judge. I struggle keeping up with spreading. I prefer not to judge CX.

No intense spreading please for myself Donna Chisum. I am a fairly New Judge. I struggle keeping up with spreading. I prefer not to judge CX.

I am a former high school competitor with ten years experience coaching LD, PF, and extemp. I don't like speed. Debate is a communication activity, and if normal people cannot comprehend you, you are not actually communicating.

In general, I am reluctant to offer paradigms because the argumentation of each individual debater is much more important to me than any pre-set notion of what should happen in a round. As a classic LD debater, I tend to weigh value and criteria fairly heavily in the round -- but if you win the framework but debate everything else horribly, I will still vote against you. Ultimately, I will vote based on your voting issues. Convince me that the issues you've won are the most important in the round, and that's what I'll write on my RFD -- whether that's evidence, framework, or contention-level arguments.

You should know that I have zero background in policy debate and zero patience for people trying to transform LD into a one-person version of CX. I do not admire debaters who attempt to win by putting so many blippy arguments on the flow that your opponent cannot possibly answer them all. In general, please treat your opponent with courtesy and respect, or don't expect to get speaker points.

Pretty much tab, I'll vote for practically anything if you explain it well and it's not racist/sexist/bigoted etc. Because of this, framework occupies an essential role in the round as it defines the debate space. Also, the cleaner you allow my flow to be, generally the easier time I'll have voting for you. Feel free to ask any specific paradigm questions.

Although I am certified to teach speech and debate in my state I am a theatre technical director and teach technical theatre for a very large high school (5000 students) as my full time job. My background is in broadcast television news working in television for almost 20 years before coming to education. I am married to a speech/debate teacher so have been judging in some form for many years but I am not a debate wonk.

To be successful with me as your judge (if its a policy round we're both in trouble). Make your arguments and do not expect me to fill in your holes in logic, or reasoning. I am a voracious reader of current events and news from around the world and in order to not use knowledge that most people would have I make sure to have the student make the argument to completion. I am looking for good logic and presentation and word walling with information and spreading until you are a mile wide and an inch deep is not my favorite.

Be sure when you are using examples that you are making direct connection to the resolution. One thing that drives me crasy is students telling me a bunch of statistics without telling me how they DIRECTLY relate to the topic.

In IE events I come at them from a theatre standpoint and want to see you use your full instrument of body, voice and presentation to bring me into the world that you as an artist build.

I enjoy working with students and may provide you with feedback if asked but as always it is just my opinion and others may see it differently.

 I participated in LD debate for four years in high school for Metro Christian Academy and the last year and a half in Parlimentary debate for the University of Oklahoma. My high school years made me into a very traditional debater as I debated on typically traditional circuits, but my experience in college has exposed me to some more progressive arguments like Ks, Counterplans, and theory; however, I am still more likely to fully understand and therefore vote on more traditional arguments.

I'm not a big fan of a lot of speed though I have been exposed to it. I lend more credence to the debater that better presents their arguments. I like to vote off framework and clashing arguments.

Essentially, I decide what framework to use then who gained the most ground on their side with arguments under that framework. 

If there's anything I left out, feel free to ask.