Experience: 4 years policy Neenah High School, 2 years policy UW Madison

For the sake of efficiency, I will start this paradigm with a basic list of issues and mistakes that most frequently appear in rounds and shape my decisions.

1. Impact calculus shapes my decisions more frequently than any other issue. Impact calc is more about relativity than telling me whether or not your advantage/DA has a big impact. Giving me a speech about how large your nuclear war scenario would be is ineffective by itself because it offers no comparative claims that help me distinguish between your impact scenario and your opponents'. Teams have historically won more of my ballots by telling my why their nuclear war scenario is bigger than their opponents' climate change scenario, to use an example. Making DA turns case arguments or case solves the DA arguments are also helpful in facilitating this process for me.

2. "Perm do both" is not an argument by itself. I have dropped affirmative teams in the past because they spent a 2AR telling me that the negative conceded the permutation without actually telling me anything about what the world of the perm looks like. In order to win a permutation, I require both an image of how the CP/K and plan interact in the world of the perm and an explanation of how the perm solves the net benefit.

3. "They conceded condo bad" is not an argument. If the negatives have indeed dropped condo bad or any other theory argument, please extend at least your interpretation and standards. The growing theme here is that conceded arguments still need to have impact calc attached to them in order to sway my decision.

4. If you read framework as part of a kritik, your explanation should thoroughly explain to me how I should evaluate both the kritik and the affirmative through my ballot. I have had many negative teams say something like "the judge should act as a critical educator" without actually telling me how I evaluate arguments under that paradigm. Does that mean the aff gets to weigh its impacts? Is the aff hypothetically implemented? If I don't weigh the aff's impacts, then how DO I weigh the aff?

5. Please treat your opponents with respect. Being assertive and displaying outright hostility towards the other team in cross ex are two different things. Your ethos will not increase by acting excessively sarcastic to your opponents, and it's always uncomfortable to watch rounds like that. I realize that tensions inevitably increase from time to time due to the competitive nature of the activity, but please realize that we are all just here to learn at the end of the day. I'm also not about to vote for racism good or similar arguments, and death good is probably an uphill battle for you.

Next, onto some more specific arguments. I'm not the type to outline every single genre of argument and explain what I like to see, but here are some important ones:

Framework v. K affs: I am more persuaded by arguments geared towards argumentative refinement and institutional engagement being beneficial as opposed to arguments about fairness. I tend to view fairness as an internal link to education, and I'm not usually persuaded by "debate is a game" arguments because I have derived more education from debate than from any other game I've ever played. You will have an easier time winning my ballot if you thoroughly explain the bounds set by your interpretation and clearly explain how a TVA under your interpretation can still access their portion of the library. The less exclusionary your interpretation is to various forms of scholarship, the more likely you will earn my ballot.

K Affs/Antitopical Affs/Non-traditional Affs: I am happy to hear these and evaluate them like I would any other argument. I have a few comments to keep in mind, however. I have seen a lot of teams use some sort of performance, poetry, etc. in the 1AC and then not talk about it for the rest of the round. If you performed something, that performance usually has some sort of value in terms of scholarship, so it's definitely worth your time to extend it. Also, if you're debating against T-USfg, craft your counter-interpretation carefully. Many teams will make a CI that seems rather self-serving and tailored to their specific affirmative. Those highly narrow CI's make it easier to prefer the negative's framework from an education point of view.

Answering Kritiks on the Affirmative: I see a lot of policy aff teams forming unnecessarily defensive strategies when answering kritiks. Spending two minutes of the 2AC explaining to me why there's no link to the K is probably an inefficient way to spend your time because there's almost always SOME link. Instead, focus your time on making the impact of your 1AC massive and using that as offense against the kritik. Impact calc, explaining why the alt can't solve your impact, and explaining why the case solves or is a prerequisite to the K are all better ways of spending your 2AC/1AR/2AR time than trying to no link the K. Also, keep a perm alive in the debate.

Finally, some more general tips for the round:

Impacting your arguments out generally wins more ballots than focusing on every nitpicky detail of the line by line. You obviously shouldn't drop or overlook even "small" arguments on your flow, but a 2NR that discusses 2-3 arguments in depth with comparative work will likely beat a 2AR that spreads for 5 minutes but technically answers everything on the flow. I will probably miss dropped arguments if you spend virtually no time on them. It's always your job to impact out conceded points and turn them into key voting issues for me.

Ethos is crucial. I would bet that 90% of ballots go to the team with the stronger ethos and presentation of their arguments. This means that you should pay close attention to your delivery and the tone of your argumentation. Looking confident and making judges feel like your arguments are obviously true can seriously help shape an RFD. Additionally, take time to slow down in the 2NR/2AR and have two or three "ethos moments" where you stare a judge down and explain to them why a couple arguments are the most important ones in the world. If your 2NR/2AR is just you spreading for 5 minutes without actually changing your inflection or speed to articulate the crucial segments of your speech, I will likely miss some important arguments.

Other than that, I have few preferences from a substantive perspective about what arguments I want you to read or how I want you to argue them. I have seen a diverse array of strategies throughout my time in debate, and I would prefer a round in which both teams just argue whatever they like to argue.

Question: Am I a bad judge?
Answer: Maybe? Probably. I'm either dumb or just slow.

Disclaimer: I have not judged since 2021. Go easy on me

Experience: I debated policy three years for Neenah High School (WI) and have been judging/coaching since 2016. I was an ok (subpar) debater with some nationals experience, but I was double 1s so evaluate that however you want. Most of my judging these days is LD but don't expect me to be an expert on the topic. I have judged maybe once this season.

Paradigm: Tabs. I'm good with speed, if I can't understand you I guess I'll say something. I will vote for anything well run in a debate round. I am pretty good at following K proper flows. I can have a hard time with heavy theory debates. That being said, feel free to run whatever you are comfortable with.

In Round stuff: I really really really would prefer you to time your own speeches/prep/cross. I am very disorganized and absent-minded so I will probably forget to write down the prep usage or start speech times late if at all. Its also just good practice to be mindful of time in a round.

If its allowed at the tournament put me on the email chain.

Special Notes: You are responsible for the language that you use in the debate round; racist, sexist, queerphobic, ableist, or any other discriminatory speech will not be tolerated.

-Anything Else-

Feel free to ask me before a round. Chances are you know more than I do, I generally think I know what I'm talking about but I probably don't.

My email is isaacdorn@gmail.com

Email me if you have any questions about your ballot or my paradigm, I'm happy to reply!

-More Detail-

-Affirmatives-

Policy affs with a plantext: Go for it.

Plantext affs with K impacts: Go for it

Non Traditional Affs (advocacy, narratives, performance, kritikal, etc.): Go for it, but make sure to clearly extend case. Also I need a clear ROB so that I know what I'm voting for at the end of the round.

-Negatives-

DAs: Go for it.

CPs (Consult, Process, Agent, etc.): Go for it, make sure there is a clear net benefit. I tend to grant affs a bit more leeway when it comes to solvency as long as there isn't a competitive fiat debate. I also appreciate good explanations of the perm on both sides (i.e. whether there is functional severance, redundancy, works/doesn't work etc.). Some caveats; I have a history of defaulting affirmative on counterplans that I am unclear on or if the permutation debate seemed muddled to me (I am, however, beginning to shift my mindset on this towards tech>truth)

Ks (any kind): Go for it. Love em'. Like I said, I can keep up with K proper flows. Make sure your alt and link are clearly explained. While I like kritiks, I prefer for them to be educational rather than strategically ambiguous. Although I'm comfortable with my literature base, I will not do the conceptual work for you. You must adequately explain the content of your kritik.

T - Let me preface this by saying I have never voted on T. That being said, there are a few things you need to do to win a T debate in front of me. 1) Clear and present standards AND voters 2) In round abuse (which could be strategically planned) or a compelling reason for me to vote on potential abuse 3) Commitment in the 2NR, the argument is theoretically that you can't engage with a non-topical aff, if you spend half the 2NR with offense on the aff that makes your argument less compelling. IMO Topicality is a tool to keep affirmatives in check, I am much more Truth>Tech on the T flow.

-Theory-

Most of my squirreling on panels is usually because my understanding of theory. I didn't really get it as a debater, so most of my knowledge comes from my experience as a judge/coach/just thinking about it. I think my biggest problem with theory is that it is often presented as a series of quick one-liners that don't have a ton of substance. Seeing that I've never been great at flowing my preference is depth over breadth on theory.

(Update) I will not retract my previous statement, however I have developed my thought process some more. When you are engaged in a theory debate in front of me, make sure you have two things. 1) A sufficient claim that you meet your interpretation of debate better than your opponent. 2) Comparative offense calculus so that I as a judge understand why I should care about your interpretation of debate.

I will for sure vote for theory arguments in a debate, if I can understand them.

IN LD:

The WDCA requires that I add the following to my paradigm

Apply all of the above and...

Framework: Framework is an important aspect of your case and should not be neglected. Don't ignore offense on your FW.

V/VC: I don't need to see a Value/Value criterion in your case in order for me to vote for you. But you are responsible for making a cohesive argument as to why it is important for you to ignore this structure.

Plantexts: Go for it. I come from policy so honestly I would prefer a plantext.

CP: I think a CP is a fundamental part of your offensive toolkit on the negative and you should take advantage of this as much as you can.

Kritik: Kritiks are great. Don't expect me to do the legwork for you though, see above for specifics. Extend your evidence.

What I vote for in LD: Generally I will be voting for the team which understands their case more. Refer to my paradigm for what I like to see in a round.

Ehrlich, Miranda

About me: I debated policy in college for four years at the University of Minnesota and was a semi-finalist at the NDT in 2015. While I have many years of experience judging and coaching policy debate, it's been several years since I've judged at a tournament, and the Wisconsin State Debate Tournament is my first time judging online debate. These are also the first rounds I am judging on this topic, so please err on the side of more explanation of acronyms, key concepts, etc.

Couple of top-level comments:

--Dropped arguments need a claim, warrant, and implication – “perm do both” without an explanation of how it solves the net benefit is not a winning argument

--Impact calc is extremely important, but underutilized

--Clarity in speaking is important to me. Please strive to be comprehensible on both tags and card text!

Some specifics:

Disads – The more specific, the better, but if politics is your primary strategy, I’m a perfectly fine judge for you.

Counterplans – Many are theoretically questionable, but affirmatives rarely push back on this. Substantive PICs are awesome – multi-actor international object fiat is the worst. Everything else is somewhere in between.

Kritiks – Can be a viable strategy in front of me, but they need to be applied specifically to all portions of the case. I would highly recommend extending case defense to bolster your K – the most common aff argument I vote on against K’s is “case outweighs”. I also like K affs that are topical, defend a real-world impact, and critique disads – especially if you can point out why the disad is contrived and silly, which it likely is. Generic postmodern K’s, on the other hand – not my cup of tea, and I’m not familiar with the lit base. On many popular K's, the link seems to be "you don't solve enough" rather than "you actively do something bad". If you can't figure out a way to phrase your link as offense and impact it, you will have a hard time winning my ballot.

Non-traditional – It is important to me that the aff explains how they solve the harms that are presented. If they fail to do this, I can be persuaded by presumption. I am skeptical of the "you don't get a perm in a method debate" argument, but could see myself voting for it if debated poorly by the other team or debated exceptionally well by the negative. Affs should be aware that I generally find a well-debated framework argument to be persuasive. When I vote against framework, it is usually because the aff convinces me that they either have a) out-teched the other team or b) that the neg has mishandled a fundamental thesis claim of the aff that interacts with framework. When I vote for framework, it is usually because the neg has both won some offense (usually with an internal link based on predictable limits) and also mitigated the case by explaining how framework can resolve it (such as T version of the aff) or through case-specific defense.

Theory – I generally think conditionality is good, but I can be persuaded to vote on it, especially if the neg has read 3+ conditional advocacies. I do, however, think that if the neg makes performative contradictions – for example, reads a security K and then a terrorism impact on a disad – it can be justification for the aff to sever their reps or argue for judge choice. I do not default to judge kick unless told to do so. Theory is usually a reason to reject the argument, not the team.

Other - I will not vote for arguments that are blatantly morally reprehensible, such as racism good, sexism good, genocide good, etc.

I spend the majority of tournaments in the tabroom. In 2015-2016, for example, I judged only one round. As a result, if I'm in the back of the room, I will be a bit of a fish out of water and likely something is going wrong with the world. I'm old and judge with an old-school philosophy. Make sense, explain your evidence and treat everyone with civility.

Background:

I debated for Mukwonago starting in my sophomore year. Novice year was policy, the next two years were PF. Since high school, I've judged on and off for Muk, and am now their assistant coach.

Affiliations:

Mukwonago

Hansen

Policy: I'm going to vote on the best policy, however, if you miss something big, that could very well be a voting issue for me should that thing outweigh your impacts. On the Aff, I like solvency. If you run nothing pertinent to harms, at least get some solvency in. On the Neg, I don't care about on case. Give me disads, counterplans, theory, and kritiks (I particularly enjoy those). I love theory qnd framework as well; easily my favorite argument in all forms of debate. I'm typically a PF judge, and I did PF through most of my debate career, so speed is a no no.

LD: Give me a good framework debate. I'll vote on best framework and who fits that framework best. I will not vote on plans, and I will not vote on counterplans (unless at national style tournament). If you choose to run a plan or CP, that's your prerogative, but understand that I won't vote for it. It may be an interesting way to create an argument that's merely a time suck, and I'm definitely cool with that, but if your opponent has read this at all, they'll know not to touch it because I won't vote on it. The WDCA does not allow these, therefore I will not flow them. Again, I was a PF debater, so no spreading. If I can't hear you, I won't flow.

PF: I won't necessarily weigh a round exclusively on speaking skills and how good of an orator you are, but it will certainly help your case, especially if it's a tough decision.

No matter what, I want to see impact calc. I pity the fool who don't do impact calc. I don't care how cool inflation might be, if you don't give me any dead bodies, I likely won't know what to do. Always weigh the round in the final rebuttal, make it as clear to me as possible that you're winning. Be polite to your opponents always. Being snappy made PF need to sit down during cross, so be nice. If you have something absolutely ridiculous like some kind of a kritikal aff, feel free to use it in front of me. I will absolutely vote on stupid things provided they're executed well (i.e. Death is the end of human suffering, and therefore whichever side kills the most amount of people should win the debate; meme/joke cases, Performance AFFs). The only catch is to go all in with those, or don't do them at all. Go big or go home, there is no in between.

Email is timpeplinski96@gmail.com

(send memes)

Email: Charles.p.russell@outlook.com

PF Paradigm – I come from a policy debate background and until recently have been almost exclusively a policy judge. Due to this, I know that I tend to view rounds under a somewhat policy framework. What is the plan, what are the problems, and how does the plan solve these problems? I also understand that not every PF topic is going to fit nicely into this mold. To help mitigate this tendency I am looking primarily to the quality of argumentation in the round.

What does this mean for you?

· I am looking for a round where the debaters are clear and understandable, willing and able to give good arguments.

· I much prefer a single quality argument over 5-10 short arguments with no substance and I ultimately want the debaters to tell me why the world is better under their plan or side of the topic than the opposing team.

· When presenting impacts please make sure that they are realistic. I don’t want Bob yelling at his dog to cause a nuclear war, but I am willing to listen to geopolitical tension leading to war.

· Give me a reason to vote for you. Tell me what is important in the round and why it is important. If you don’t, I default to a utilitarian evaluation of the round.

· I am perfectly willing to listen if you have evidence that says a source is bad, but you need to have evidence. I’m not going to drop a card just because you don’t personally like an author. In addition, saying that a source is biased can be a decent attack, but you need to give me evidence that disproves the source in addition to this.

Ultimately, if you focus on good argumentation, you should do just fine in front of me.

Policy - I, like my coach before me, have an old-school policy paradigm. What this means is that I look at the round and evaluate it based on what I feel is the best policy for the United States under the given resolution. In the round, you should argue everything under the assumption of that framework.

Speed – I am not a fan of speed. I understand that you are going to need to speak faster than a normal talking speed and that is fine given the time constraints in the round but there is no need to speak at the extreme speeds that are becoming more and more common. I am a great proponent of depth over breadth in debate. The more reasonable your speed the better you will likely find yourself doing in front of me.

Topicality – This is something that I feel can be put to great use and I have no problem seeing it in the round. That said, there are a couple of conditions. First, the voter in front of me is always jurisdiction, if you can reasonably prove that the Aff being presented is outside of the topic area I am likely to vote for T. Second, I am not a huge technical T judge. I much prefer that in round abuse or potential abuse is spelled out for me rather than someone trying to tell me that we should win T because the other team didn’t answer every small technical detail of a T argument.

Advantages and Disadvantages – This is the bread and butter of my judging paradigm. This is where I prefer to see most rounds debated and is the place where most rounds are won and lost in front of me. I want to see real-world impacts with realistic link chains. If your opponent is telling me that everything is going to lead to nuclear war or global extinction you just need to prove that this is not a realistic scenario and you will have won the impact for that advantage or DA. Politics is also perfectly allowable. The only politics DAs that I do not like are those saying that you spend political capital therefore these bad things happen. Those DAs tend to run roughshod over affirmative fiat so I don’t like seeing them and I don’t give them much if any in round weight.

CPs – Absolutely love to see a good CP. My only real requirements here are that the CP should be non-topical and competitive. CPs using other actors or consulting other countries are great and I am perfectly willing to entertain them so long as they meet the above requirements.

K – Kritiks are something that you need to be very selective with in front of me. You need to make sure that the alternative is a real-world policy alternative and not something that would never apply in reality. I absolutely agree that there may be questions of morality that are addressed by a kritik but without a policy alternative it isn’t going to go very far in front of me.

Last thoughts – First, be specific when you are telling me where your arguments are going. Don’t just tell me “on the Labor DA flow” and start spewing cards. Give me the specific points you are attacking and don’t expect me to do your work for you. I am more forgiving at the novice level because those debaters are still learning but I still expect you to tell me where you want your arguments to go. Second, if you feel an argument is going to be important in the round I had better hear more than 10 seconds about it in the constructives. Arguments that are presented as blips in the constructives and then expanded upon for 3-5 minutes in the rebuttal come across as something that you didn’t really care about that much until you realized that there may be a viable strategic option. If you want to go for something at the end of the round make sure that you have spent sufficient time on the argument in the constructives.