Bio/History: I am a junior at Bard Queens HS. This is my first year of judging, however I have been debating for the past six years. I currently mainly do PF but I have parli experience as well (World Schools and AP).

How I will evaluate your round: Aff needs to prove that their side is better than the status quo and they need to provide solvency. Neg has to prove that there are serious disadvantages to voting aff. Please please please extend your arguments through. If you are going to bring it up in final focus, set it up in summary (no extending through ink). Don't just repeat your arguments in final focus, that's a waste of time.

Arguments: I am going into a round with a blank slate. Tell me why your impacts matter. Explain your links. I will follow an argument if it is explained well but you should do the heavy lifting for me.

This should go without saying but please be respectful. No racist, sexist, homophobic, transphobic, ableist, or generally hateful language. This will automatically lose you the round.

3/18/2019

Hi, my name is Taylor. I've been involved in competitive debate since 2001. I participated in policy debate for four years at Jesuit College Prep in Dallas, coached there for a little bit, volunteered with the Dallas Urban Debate Alliance and now work at the NYC Urban Debate League.

My background is in policy, but I'm also comfortable with PF and parli. I can judge LD in a pinch. Here are some things to think about if you get me as a judge:

1) I flow. I will decide who won the debate based on what's on my flow.

2) I decide speaker points based on a combination of charisma (as I define it) and effectiveness. For me, charisma means confidence, familiarity with arguments and evidence, politeness and good sportspersonship (if there's a better, non-gendered word for this, please let me know). Charisma does not mean whether or not I find your voice aesthetically pleasing. Effectiveness means whether you did what you needed to do in your speech to win the round. Assigning speaker points is not a science.

3) I have noticed that I tend to call for evidence a lot more than other PF judges. If you tell me in your speeches that your evidence is better than your opponents', and that this is a reason I should vote for you, then expect me to call for the evidence. If I call for your evidence and it doesn't say what you say it says, I might not give you the argument -- or, more likely, I will give you as much of your argument as your evidence supports. You may find that unfair, but I think debate is about teaching life skills, of which being honest is one.

4) Please weigh impacts. Be as specific as possible. "In our world, X number of lives are saved, whereas in their world (1/2)X number of lives are saved" is more persuasive than "We outweigh on scope." If you're making timeframe arguments, give me an actual timeframe.

5) I think of debate as an educational game, so don't hesitate to run fun and/or zany arguments in front of me. Thus far my experience with PF has been watching the same debate over and over again for each topic and I would like to see some more variety!

I am a parent with limited judging experience. I appreciate debaters who develop a story I can follow and assist me by clarifying at the top of your time what speech you will deliver. My debater tells me this is called "an off-time roadmap." You can explain in lay terms where you are on the debate outline I'm following and from what side you're speaking. I will keep notes that highlight cases and rebuttals. I am however experienced enough to know that new clever arguments introduced in final focus do not count (so don't try to fool me and no debate jargon please ;)

Previous coach, tab director (be on time!), and judge of long ago. Never debated. I can flow arguments made at slightly above conversational pace and appreciate when winning arguments are made clear enough that I don't have to think too hard.

• Don't time torch the round - there are guidelines in the Live Doc about prep time deduction if your evidence takes an excessive amount of time to find. You should be able to find your cards within ten to fifteen seconds in our digital age. Use hyperlinks to your advantage!
• There are also specifications about no prep during evidence finding since, if it's as fast as it should be, that time isn't deducted from prep.

Theory: Debate is a game that should be equitable, educational, and played respectfully. I'll listen to arguments that impact to the shortfalls of the debate space in any of those domains.

I have judged debate, both policy and public forum, including intercollegiate policy, for the past 15 years. I debated policy for Gonzaga University from 2002-2006 and competed at the National Debate Tournament and the CEDA National Tournament. I currently coach and primarily judge public forum debate.

I firmly believe that it is not my place to impose my values or beliefs on a debate. You, as debaters, are primarily responsible for determining what I should value and how I should evaluate specific arguments. You need to tell me what Impacts matter, you need to explain your link and internal link stories, and you need to compare those argument against your opponents. If you do the work, I will follow and will make the effort to understand and respect those arguments. You are responsible, however, for proving, explaining, and analyzing those arguments. You need to explain your internal link and impact story in a way that is both compelling and backed up with evidence. Do not take for granted that I will immediately vote for you just because you said XYZ causes nuclear war. You have to do the work to get me there.

If you leave the debate entirely up to me, making short unwarranted and unevidenced arguments, you are likely to be frustrated with the result. I will rely on my flow as a witnessed accounting of the debate and attempt to deconstruct the arguments made on both sides.

Good Morning or Afternoon! My name is Belmin Rama and if you are looking at this paradigm this means you are interested in seeing what is my experience or prefernces

I have been doing Public Forum debate for more than 10 years and 1 year learning about policy debate. I prefer students if they are able to time themselves, demonstrate great frontlining/rebuttals, provide an analysis between both your side and you opponents, use of weighing and impacts is much preferred. Im not crazy about crossfire since its not a speech, but an opportunity to poke weaknesses at your opponents arguments through questions. Just don't contradict yourselves

Timing yourselves is also key in my judging. This skill allows you to keep track of your time and you don't have to look at the judge to give time signals.

For my experience in speech, I have none what's so ever, but I am interested on the subject and would love to learn this style of debate.