1. The faster you speak, the greater risk you run that neither your judge or your opponent will catch what you're saying. I am not against speaking fast per se, but if you talk so quickly that you slur words and I can't understand you, it will put you at a disadvantage. Even if you include me in an email chain, clarity > speed and concision/potency > sheer volume of words.

2. I look for clash, which I define as a dialectically progressive correspondence between argument and counterargument. I won't look favorably on a rebuttal that is simply a rehash of your case. Don't just tell me that your previous point refutes their contention; give me a new reason why.

3. LD: Stronger cases will have strong value-criterion framework. If you depart from this convention, your justification must be solid and explicit.

4. Off-time road maps are great, but if it consists only of, "First, I'll be going over my opponent's case, then going over my case," then don't bother; that's the bare-bones function of a rebuttal speech anyway and I already assume you'll do that. Give me more structure: signposts and summaries that reinforce your speech's structure throughout are even better.

5. Don't be rude. It will cost you dearly in speaker points.

6. I reserve the right to determine for myself what the voting issues are for the round in a neutral evaluation of your case, your opponent's contentions against it, and what has arisen to carry the most ethical and logical weight during the discourse. However, you are more than welcome to advise me as to what the voting issues should be from your perspective.

7. I'd be delighted to shake your hand after the round if you wish.

I forgot to update this, so apologies in advance if it caused any issues.

I mostly did LD throughout high-school, and a bit of a mix between progressive and traditional. So, with that in mind, here's generally how my paradigm boils down.

I don't really care much about what you run between kritiks, DAs, etc, so don't be afraid to read those in front of me, but understand that I likely haven't read the literature you're reading, or may not understand hyper-specific jargon, so it is in your interest to guess that I don't know what you're talking about and give an understandable statement as to what it all means. I care more about how you tell me to vote than anything; make the round about what you want to discuss (hint: this makes it easier for judges to make a decision, which prevent situations where debaters get pissed at the judge. It's harder than it looks!)

In regards to speed: I can handle a decent amount, but the main problem is that clarity is often disregarded by debaters. If it's really bad I'll call clear a couple times, so please just make it good from the beginning. Also, keep in mind that since I graduated I've barely even thought about debate (because I'm finally free!) so it is probably in your best interest to not go at your max speed. I'd like to be included in email chains so I can follow along, but don't take me reading your case as an excuse to sacrifice clarity: whitmanhoward@gmail.com

Furthermore, I'm not versed basically at all in the over-the-top technical stuff. I don't even know exactly what examples to give as I never even had a round with stuff like that, so unless you can succinctly explain what it means in your speech, you should probably avoid it.

Aside from all that, here are just a few preferences:

1. Be relatively nice. There's a difference between assertion and aggression, and the former is always better.

2. You can sit or stand, I don't really mind, but know that standing is better for airflow, forces your blood to stay pumping (which is good for your brain, quite basically), and makes it easier for me to hear you.

3. PLEASE give clear signposting and tags. Simply saying the order at the start isn't enough if you never again indicate where you are on the flow, and speeding through tags will get me lost quite quickly. In addition to slowing down, change the tone of your voice a little when switching between flows, reading tags, or emphasizing certain points.

4. Try your best to have fun. I know this is a typical statement from younger judges, but it's really painful to see other debaters get too stressed out, as I've been in many of those situations. Realize that debate isn't everything: it's a learning experience at the most fundamental level, not a system of grievances and grudges (though this seems to be the case for many kids)

If you have questions feel free to ask before the round, I'll do my best to answer.

Flow Judge.

I am the assistant debate coach for Layton High School. My background has primarily involved policy debate in high school and college. However, our students have moved into LD and PF so I find myself judging and supporting those events more. I usually judge more than a hundred rounds of debate each year spread out between the various debate events. I have switched to OneNote for flowing. If you provide your contact information (specifically email addresses) I will send you my flows after I have concluded the ballot. You are then welcome to discuss my flows and decision at anytime.


Jump/Email Chain
I expect to be included in all jumps and email chains. You can email me cxjudge@hotmail.com. As a rule of thumb, I usually do not review evidence until the end of the round and I use my flow as a filter to what I think you introduced into the debate. As of 1/2017 my preference is to use pocket box or something similar that just allows everyone to download the file after upload.

Timing
I expect you to keep track of your time so that I do not have to call out time remaining during a speech. I will do it if asked by a student and I will not hold it against you, but I do find it distracting from the speech. With that said, I track all time in the debate. Consider it the "official" time for the round. I work from my official time... that means when my time shows your speech is done, I stop flowing regardless if you keep talking for another 10 seconds. I usually allow students to answer CX questions put to them during the actual time of cross examination, even if this means the answer takes another 10 seconds or so in the round for a proper answer.

Speaks
I used to not care much and would routinely just award everyone 30's. However, I learned the folly of my ways after repeated conversations with tabrooms. Nowadays, everyone starts at 28 and can go up or down from there depending upon their performance. I think of a speaker's capabilities in the following categories: organization, clash, delivery (speed, clarity, tone - i.e. not yelling), argument development, technical skill, strategy and creativity. If you need a lengthy explanation of these categories there is probably something missing in your experience to the event. I am happy to briefly explain this to any competitor if they believe it will help their performance during the round I evaluate.

Prep Time
Traditionally, I have been very lax and generous with prep time. However, I find myself getting more annoyed with prep time abuse. With paper it used to be simple, stand up when you are ready to speak and the prep time ends. Now it seems that participants do things they do not consider prep (saving the file to a jump drive, emailing the file, organizing their flows, changing the order of the speech document, etc.). I am sympathetic to the technical challenges of paperless debate, but I have also experienced efficient rounds where everything moved incredibly smooth (especially when something like pocket box was used). I'd like more of that and less of the rounds that take an extra 15-20 minutes for "technical challenges" related to jump drives or slow emails. For the last few tournaments, I have maintained a more relaxed approach to prep time, I just nuke speaks if it appears to me like you are abusing prep time.

Nuisance Items
Actually not sure what to label this section, so think of this as things I do not like.

1. I do not like poorly developed arguments. For example, "Perm do both" is absolutely meaningless without some warranting and articulation as to how that would actually work. I consider these types of blips as non-arguments. I am pretty up front and vocal about this and still debaters just go into default mode and make tons of these arguments... they are then surprised when I give them no weight. From my perspective, "Perm do both" is removed from consideration when the neg responds with "No don't do both". Both statements provide exactly the same amount of articulation and null out to a non-argument on my flows. This is by way of example, there are tons of these found on your speech documents. You will know it when you make a pointed argument that ends when you finish the tagline. Do the work to explain your argument or don't waste the flow.
2. Evidence Mumbling or Abuse. Like many judges I prefer that you breathe between tags/authors/evidence so I can hear the natural break of your speech. I also listen to evidence and flow what I consider to be important points made by your evidence. If you mumble your evidence, power tag it, take it out of context, etc. I consider it invalid and it may cost you my ballot.
3. Speech Document Abuse. This is a recent trend I have seen on the circuit and I will definitely get punitive to stop this. Here the debater loads a speech document with 40-50 pages of cards. They then proceed to skip all over the speech document expecting everyone to know/understand where they are. obviously this applies to my category of organization (see above). Further, I have seen this approach used to win debates where evidence is considered by the judge after the round EVEN THOUGH it was not read in the round. I should be able to open your speech document and follow along with your speech if I am so inclined. Finally, having a few extra cards in the speech document is NOT abuse. I expect you to have a little extra evidence if you have the time to further your arguments. There really is no fine line here as I have heard some complain, you will definitely know the difference of what I am referring to when you open a speech document that is double or triple the size of a normal speech document.

Background / Experience
I debated (CX/Policy) 4 years at West Jordan High School. After High School, I debated NDT at Weber State. As I mention to all teams that ask my paradigm, I am old school tabula rasa and open to just about anything (except truly offensive/abusive behavior/material). I have yet to encounter a person I could not flow in terms of speed. Clarity obviously matters and if I cannot understand you I will say something like "Clear". You can basically go as fast as you can speak, so long as you are clear. Also, reading analyticals (or non-evidence tags) at supersonic speeds are pretty hard to catch, I would suggest that you explain those types of tags/arguments.

LINCOLN DOUGLAS
During high school I competed in LD when I was not doing policy debate. For me, the best way to win my ballot is to make sure you frame any criteria and value into context with the main arguments you feel like you are winning. I also caution competitors that ignoring value and criteria is risky on my flow because it looks as if you concede that and I will interpret arguments based upon the conceded value/criteria of your opponent. That presents a serious uphill obstacle to winning your argument. As my experience is primarily policy based, I can flow anything that LD debates present.

• Theory - I like well developed theory arguments
• Kritiks - I believe I have a pretty good understanding of most critical arguments. However, that does not mean that I will fill in the blanks for you if you do not fully develop your advocacy.
• Critical Aff - I am ok with as long as it is well developed and provides a mechanism for your opponent to participate.
• Framework - I understand FW args from both Policy and LD style debates. What I have encountered the most is participants who do not understand the blocks they are reading.
• Topicality - I have a great understanding of "T" and all of its standards/voters/impacts. I'd suggest not reading T if the Aff has not read a plan.
• Disclosure - I could care less if there arguments are in the wiki or not. With that said, disclosure does take a bite out of fairness impacts (I am not saying I will not consider fairness, but if something has been in the wiki for 2 months, it's going to weigh against claims of fairness).
• Flex Time - As long as everyone agrees to it I am fine with it.
• 1AR Flexibility - I like many judges understand the time constraints on a 1AR. I am willing to give them lots of leeway on covering all arguments made by the NC. However, I still expect enough argumentation to be made that allows the negative rebuttal to understand the "gist" of the aff argument. In effect, it puts the neg "on notice" as to what the aff is arguing. This is not an excuse for blip arguments though. Remember grouping and combining arguments is your friend during this speech.

Order of importance / Round Evaluation
So this is a somewhat problematic area to write about. The first thing to say is that each round is unique and evaluation is therefore unique. I may have a process I usually follow to determine the "winner" of the round but that does not mean I am grounded in any specific approach. That means everything is debatable and subject to the participants within any given round. Outside of this, I (like nearly every judge I have worked with) look for the easiest place to write a ballot. So, if you drop some kind of voter on the flow I may use that as an excuse to write the ballot and get out of doing a lot of evaluation to determine which arguments win over others. With that said things usually look like this

Level 1: Framework -> Theory -> Value/Criteria
Level 2: Kritik -> AC/NC -> Counterplans -> DAs

Another way to think about my approach is to consider the theoretical aspects of how I should evaluate the substantive aspects of the advocacies made during the round. Also, the levels are more important then where the categories are listed above, but I usually find that FW leads me to understand theory and Val/Crit arguments. Usually a K precedes the aff case, etc.


POLICY DEBATE
I am very relaxed and flexible with regards to Cross-Ex, prep time (stopping when the jump drive is out), speakers keeping their own time, etc. I really like the debate to be controlled by the debaters with me as an observer rendering a final decision. With that said, if it seems like you are abusing prep time or other round mechanics I may voice my concern and your speaks will reflect my questions about your behavior.

With the philosophy of letting the debaters decide how the round rolls, I am open to any judging paradigm, all theory and weighted arguments. In my hay-day my partner and I were theory hounds. Kritik's did not exist, but if they did we have would have run them. We loved counter plans, T, counter-warrants, Justification and just about anything else you can imagine. If those arguments are done well, the debate is a real pleasure to observe. I constantly hear varsity debaters make claims regarding dropped arguments. If you do not direct the flow yourself, do not tell me that the other team dropped/conceded an argument. Without directing the flow, you really have no idea where I put arguments. Frankly, I am surprised by the number of varsity competitors I observe that fail to actually direct the flow. In yonder years, this was really the only way you could make a claim that an opponent dropped an argument and why a judge should consider it on the ballot.

For 2AR/2NR, spend 20-30 seconds summarizing the key positions and voters and explain why you win. It's weird to me how many final rebuttals miss this very important aspect of debate. Always tell the judge in the last few seconds why you are winning the debate. If you leave it up to the judge entirely, you may not get the result you hope for. Keep in mind, I vote off my flow and will not do work for either team in terms of advancing/understanding arguments. I figure that if you don't want to take the time to explain your argument, why should I take the time to build it up on the ballot or my flow.

One more thing... during my heyday, particularly in college, we actually flowed evidence warrants as well as taglines. I am funny that way, I still do that. You would be amazed how much I get on my flows in high school rounds. To that end, DO NOT mumble your evidence to me otherwise I do not consider it introduced in the debate and therefore will not consider it when rendering my decision. If I do not have your warrant, I do not consider it. Also, if I catch you power-tagging, clipping or any other patently abusive behavior you can expect a loss and very low speaks.




If you have any other questions, just ask before the round. Also, you are welcome to approach me after rounds and I will give you as much feedback as I can recall.

ghadashehab321@gmail.com (Start an email chain right away please)

FOR LD:
Basically, I'm familiar with most progressive/traditional arguments. So feel free to run whatever you want.

If you have questions, please ask before round.


Techniciality before anything, I judge that first.
Theory is fine, but break it down and tell me why its a voting issue. I don't do RVIs. Counter-interp's are better than "we-meet". But go about it whatever way you want.
I feel very strongly about calling your opponent a "cheater". I think there are better ways/words to show that you are being put at a disadvantage during the debate round.


Some dropped arguments are honestly useless for the whole picture of the debate. Just because you extended a dropped argument that does nothing for you doesn't mean I'll vote it up.


Topicality is also fine and I will evaluate it first if I think your opponent is being unfair. I do strongly believe that for fair engagement inside of the debate space, the affirmative should be somewhat topical. However, this is up to you to convince me how to vote off of that.

K's are great. I'm familiar with most of the K's circulating around, and with a lot of the literature of K's. But if you're going to be reading something out of the ordinary, articulate and explain it to me.
(I will say this; however, most people that run structural violence K's tend to group minorities in hierarchies and solve for the "most oppressed"; this strategy is wrong and offensive).


Philosophical arguments are also very cool. I love Philosophy. However, you will need to explain it to me if its out of the ordinary.

Traditional LD is also awesome. If you're going to do Traditional LD, then i'll put a little emphasis on the V/VC debate. I love good framework debates! I HATE cross-benefit/cost-benefit analysis frameworks, if you do read that, just know i'm disappointed.


I've seen a few performance cases and I loved them, if that's what you do, go for it.


I don't flow Cross-Ex, but I listen. If there is something that you want on your flow, bring it up in your speech.


SPEED - Speed is great, go as fast as you want BUT taglines, plan texts and/or advocacies should always be conversation speed. If I don't hear it, i won't flow it.
Intensity is fine, just don't be rude.
Speaker Points - I never give 26 or lower, if I do, you're super offensive and/or rude.
& Always give voters.

-If you wanna transfer CX time to prep; go for it.

I also call for evidence a lot.

If I don't understand something, you will know from my face expressions. I will expect you to explain it to me if you notice that I don't understand your argument. I can't vote on something that doesn't make sense to me.

Things I hate:
-Males talking over Females in CX is a pet peeve of mine.
-Being a Male and being over-aggressive to your female opponent will earn you a 25 or lower.
-Knowing that your opponent is traditional and then reading like 2 K's or 8 off is also un-educational and unhelpful. A good debater knows how to adjust and win off of that. I'm not saying I won't vote off of it, I'm just saying its unproductive inside of the given debate space.
-K's with no alts aren't K's.. Seriously.

-- i'm EXTREMELY tired of progressive vs. traditional debates. If your opponent is traditional, adjust. That's what good debaters do.

Background: I competed on national and local level LD for all of high school during which I achieved moderate success and qualified to the TOC. I judged consistently throughout college and coached for 3 years on the national level. I have only judged a few times in the past two years. My pronouns are he/him/his.

Email for chain: calenjsmith@gmail.com

Warning: I haven't judged in a bit but find that I am still ok at keeping up in high speed rounds, though the Stanford 2021 tournament is my first virtual tournament so just check in throughout the round.

Speaking: I used to do and coach national circuit debate so I am fine with speed however my tolerance is diminished so I will probably be better at judging medium paced rounds. I will tell you to slow down. If I tell you to slow down I have probably already missed arguments you are making.

Substance: Ill judge any round (K, Theory, Substance, etc) I am probably more adapt at judging framework debates but I enjoy anything that is well explained and am happy to judge kritiks, theory, policy making etc.