PF PARADIGM:

I am comfortable with you running whatever arguments you want, as long as they are explained and impacted well. Please be respectful to your opponents. I judge predominantly on the flow so dropped and extended arguments do matter in a round.

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CX PARADIGM

Tabula Rasa...with a few caveats.

In the interest of brevity, I've decided to condense my paradigm to 5 specific things that are important for me.

1. I like seeing an on case debate, or even debating stock issues, especially in the context of this years's resolution.

2. I have a hard time voting for most politics DA's because of sketchy link scenarios so make sure every step of the link chain is well defended if you are going for one.

3. On Perm debates I want to see the perm addressed as a test of competition rather than a separate advocacy.

4. Explain K impacts clearly (i.e. what is genealogical analysis, what would a radical rejection of X actually do, etc.). Make the K actually link to the other side. Don't just use philosophical meme jargon please. Go slow on K's.

5. When reading/extending cards please don't just reference cards by author/date. I generally flow cards by content so briefly tell me what the card actually said so I can reference it on my flow.

Note on Speed and Prep: I am okay with speed, but will say clear if you are unclear. I value clarity much much more than I value speed. If you are debating a team that goes much more slowly than you, I will ask that you slow down and not try to spread them out of the round. You may win the round still but I will not give you more than 25 speaks if you do this.

Prep is 6 minutes per side per state rules unless tournament rules say otherwise, prep ends when the flash drive leaves the computer.

     I start out as a Stock Issue Judge.  The Affirmative must maintain all of the stock issues to win the debate---Topicality , Significance Harms, Inherency Solvency.  If the Affirmative maintains  all of the Stock Issues I then become a comparative advantage judge.  I weigh the advantages of the Affirmative versus the disadvantages, kritiks and counterplans of the negative.   I won't intervene in a debate but I would be receptive of arguments  that 1.  the negative can only have one position in a debate and 2.   that the negative cannot kritik the status quo without offering a counterplan.

I’m the head coach of the Mount Vernon HS Debate Team (WA).

I did policy debate in HS very, very long ago - but I’m not a traditionalist. (Bring on the progressive LD arguments-- I will listen to them, unlike my daughter, Peri, who is such a traditional LD'er.)

Add me to the email chain: kkirkpatrick@mvsd320.org

Please don’t be racist, homophobic, etc. I like sassy, aggressive debaters who enjoy what they do but dislike sullen, mean students who don't really care-- an unpleasant attitude will damage your speaker points.

Generally,

Speed: Speed hasn't been a problem but I don't tell you if I need you to be more clear-- I feel it's your job to adapt. If you don't see me typing, you probably want to slow down. I work in tabroom in WA state an awful lot, so my flowing has slowed. Please take that into consideration.

Tech = Truth: I’ll probably end up leaning more tech, but I won’t vote for weak arguments that are just blatantly untrue in the round whether or not your opponents call it out.

Arguments:

I prefer a strong, developed NEG strategy instead of running a myriad of random positions.

I love it when debaters run unique arguments that they truly believe and offer really high speaker points for this. (I'm not inclined to give high speaks, though.)

Any arguments that aren’t on here, assume neutrality.

Do like and will vote on:

T - I love a well-developed T battle but rarely hear one. I don't like reasonability as a standard-- it's lazy, do the work.

Ks - I like debaters who truly believe in the positions they’re running. I like critical argumentation but if you choose to run an alt of "embrace poetry" or "reject all written text", you had better fully embrace it. I’m in touch with most literature, but I need a lot of explanation from either side as to why you should win it in the final rebuttals.

Don’t like but will vote on if won:

“Debate Bad” - I DO NOT LIKE "Debate is Futile" arguments. Please don't tell me what we are doing has no point. I will listen to your analysis. I may even have to vote for it once in a while. But, it is not my preference. Want a happy judge? Don't tell me that how we are spending another weekend of our lives is wasting our time.

Very, very, very... VERY traditional LD - if you are reading an essay case, I am not the judge for you.

Not a huge fan of disclosure theory-- best to skip this.

Don’t like and won’t vote on:

Tricks.