Background: Public Forum debate for three years. Dabbled in Congress for all four.

My preferences are as follows:

1. Weighing: A debate round can have many different arguments/contentions flying around. Unless you weigh them and tell me what's important, I'm not gonna know who to award the win to. Draw your line in the sand, and let me know what you value and how your side of the argument does it better.

2. Extensions: I will not accept one-off arguments that are mentioned once and never brought up again. Mention your argument and your evidence, even if its a surefire win on that particular contention, it won't matter if it is never addressed again.

3. Cross Ex: Cross is one of the few times that you can interact with your opponent, use it wisely. Don't use a bunch of background as a preface for a simple question, it wastes my time and yours. Ask questions, don't just bring up a bunch of info in place of one, cross is not the right place for it, that's what speeches are for. If you have a gotcha moment and have a great response, bring it up in a speech or I won't count it in my decision.

4. Courtesy: If its necessary, I will judge around based off of courtesy alone. Debates can get heated, I get it, but you should attack the arguments, not the person. Acting intentionally rude over the course of the round is the quickest way to get a surefire loss and a complaint to your coach.

5. My bad ears/brain: I have difficulty hearing sometimes, so clear pronunciation would be great. I can only judge things I can hear and understand after all. I'm fine with speaking fast, as long as it doesn't compromise my comprehension of your arguments. So no inaudible spreading, etc...

A good argument is a good argument - make good arguments and you will do well if I'm your judge. While some arguments are going to be more effective than others, I do not have an inherent objection to any particular strategy or approach as long as it does not violate the spirit of the activity.

A few things to keep in mind:

1. Speed is okay, but a low quantity of good quality content will always trump a high quantity of mediocre content. It's important to remember that public forum is supposed to be for the public, so you need to be clear and understandable if you are going to talk quickly.

2. Be respectful of your opponents - debate should be civil and you can have a debate round without being a jerk. This includes not cutting off your opponents during cross ex. You can control the cross ex without interrupting and talking over your opponents.

3. Don't cheat.

4. If you don't provide a specific framework for your case, I will evaluate the arguments through a cost-benefit analysis framework. I don't have any problem with you running a different framework, just make sure to articulate and justify it.

5. When stating evidence, I prefer you state both the author and year. Please do not paraphrase the cards. Tell me exactly what the card says and then explain how the card fits into your case/the round.

6. As a general rule, I don't think that critical positions have a place in a public forum debate round. If you decide to run a critical position, make sure that you have a very, very good reason to do so as you will have to present quite a compelling argument and justification as to why you are making that choice.

7. Please remember that this is first and foremost an activity about communication - make sure you are speaking clearly and with conviction. Your purpose in the round is to convince me that you have the most compelling and important arguments (quality will always trump quantity for me).

If you have other questions, ask.

I did two years of PF, one year of LD, and one year of extemp. If you have a question about something not on this paradigm, feel free to ask before the round.

Public Forum:

I would consider myself a fairly technical and flow based judge. While I can flow decently well, I generally don’t want to see any spreading (very fast speaking) in PF unless it’s clear both teams are fine with it beforehand.

I also don’t want to see any theory or Kritiks in PF as I feel PF as an event should solely be about the resolution. That being said, there isn’t really a type of argumentation that I will auto-drop, but it’s going to be very hard to win my ballot if your main strategy is off-resolutional arguments. Counterplans are fine as long as they and the resolution are mutually exclusive.

Weighing is absolutely crucial. It’s not enough to win arguments on the flow, you need to tell me why those arguments matter the most in terms of the resolution. If you have to make a choice between weighing and covering the entire flow, choose weighing. The most frustrating rounds to judge are when no one does any weighing or telling me the framework to evaluate the round, and I have to decide on that myself.

LD:

I’m fine with any type of argumentation as long as you tell me why I should vote on it, but I’m somewhat pre-disposed to on-resolution types of argumentation. I don’t have a problem with speed, I will say ‘clear’ if I want you to be more clear.

The framework debate and weighing are very important. Don’t just extend arguments without telling me why they matter. Again, winning the most critical arguments is way more important than winning the most arguments.

Extemp:

If a tournament allows competitors to use notes, I prefer that competitors don’t use notes, and will generally rank competitors who don’t use notes over those who do. I will give time signals. Using sources are important, with publication, author, and date (month and year are fine unless you have a story covering fast-changing events). I consider speaking ability and content/structure to have roughly equal importance.

Congress:

Quality over quantity. I value better speeches and better questions over more speeches and better questions. The best speeches have a good structure, multiple sources, and refute the points of previous speakers. The worst speeches are those that just rehash the same points as previous speakers while adding nothing new.

Policy:

If I am judging Policy, there is a severe shortage of policy judges at the tournament you are at. I don’t know much about Policy Debate at all aside from the amount of policy type arguments I saw in LD. In all honesty, it’s probably best to treat it like a more technical PF round with longer speeches.

Been involved in debate for over 20 years. Coached mostly PF and Congress, however have judged all events at just about every level.

Speed is fine in LD and policy, but in pf do not sacrifice clarity for speed.

Theory should ONLY ever be used if there is a real violation in the round that skews it greatly.

I like numbers, I will favor an economic impact over a general good of humanity argument. No warm fuzzies.

I HATE performance in any way shape or form. This will end the round for me. If you want to do a passion project go do OO.

Debate the topic. Tie your arguments to the topic. As long as you can establish a clear link we are good to go.

Mostly just ask what you want to know, I am pretty open and just like good debate.

Pronouns: she/her/hers

Style: I am one of those judges who responds very negatively to rudeness, disrespect, and offensive language.

General: Please respect me by not using graphic descriptions of violence or abuse in your argumentation - if you have a question about this I’m willing to talk to you before round. I will not vote for what I feel are morally repugnant arguments like “racism good,” “torture good,” or “death good.” Do not take me or my ballot hostage. Do not argue for a double loss or a double win.

Speed: I’d prefer you go slowly. Fewer cards often means more skill in argumentation.

LD and PF
I approach LD and PF rounds through the lens of policy debate. So LD or PF specific jargon, abbreviations, and tricks likely will not resonate with me. I want clear impacts and impact analysis. I do not like paraphrasing and I want clash. Lots of clash. I feel like at the end of a lot of rounds I've not be told how to weigh the two teams' impacts. So lots of clash is only good with lots of impact weighing. In LD, I generally do not know or understand your kritiks. So take the time to explain to me how your kritik interacts with your opponent’s case.

Policy Debate
I think policy debate is about whether or not the aff's plan/advocacy should happen.

Kritiks : I think that Affs should have a written advocacy statement, but they do not necessarily have to advocate for the USFG. I prefer the policy making framework, but do have an appreciation for performance debate. Despite working for the NSDA, I think there are a lot of problems with debate as an activity/community. If you choose to kritik the institution of competitive debate, I appreciate arguments that are solutions-oriented.

Theory+ Topicality : I was a 2A so I have a residual aff bias when it comes to theory. For me to vote on T it must be proven that the aff’s interpretation is flawed and that abuse has happened in round. I have a hard time weighing different standards for theory and T - you need to do that work for me on the negative, if you don’t I will likely presume aff on T.

My Background
I work at the National Speech & Debate Association as the Leadership and Education Specialist. I have a theatre teaching degree, a master's in performance studies, and a master's degree in teaching English Language Learners. I am married to my former college teammate, Chase McCool, but we don't always agree on debate-things, so don't assume!

I am a former public forum debater. When you make arguments, make sure you understand what they mean. Impacts are always benifical throughout the entire debate. But extend the argument not the card. If you believe you have won a point, you should be able to summarize why you have into a brief statement as opposed to not mentioning it. By the end of the final focus I should have a clear presentation of why your team won the round. If you use evidence in the round, please have that evidence ready to be shown in case it is called for by the opposing team or me.i will give a verbal RFD about what need to be worked on or give suggestions for possible help.

Please be respectful, speak well, and remember this activity is one for education and fun