I have been a coach for four years and I have worked as a guidance counselor for 21 years and teach communication skills. I am looking for clarity and I want you to engage me with your speech. Please speak at a pace that allows me to keep up. I will put down my pen if I can't follow you. Please emphasize your points so I know that they are important and remember to pause on occasion so that I can take in your ideas.

Analysis is important. I appreciate a clear explanation of your position and I will be listening for how you support your position. Roadmaps are appreciated.

You can keep your own time, or I am happy to time and give you cues.

Be kind, be professional, and have fun!!

• I am Parent Judge and have been judging debate tournaments for 3 years and I enjoy judging Public Forum and Parliament Debates
• I take Notes, and will look for quality and strength of the argument and ability to defend that during crossfire.
• Please slow down to ensure you are making and conveying your point

All the Best!

I debated four years in high school and four additional years in college (NPDA). I have spent the last five years coaching debate and judging nearly every other weekend.

Policy/LD - I have significant experience judging both events and am comfortable with all speeds, strategies and arguments.

Parli - teams should debate the resolution unless there are significant problems with it. I believe parli should primarily be a limited prep event, I do not often vote for canned cases that teams just try to apply to every resolution. I am comfortable with policy, value & fact debates and believe that as long as they provide group and stay topical, the aff gets to set the parameters for the round. Speed is not a problem as long as you are communicating. K's are welcome on the Neg and I treat them as any other argument. But every K (no matter how much you like it) does not fit in every round.

For all debate formats- Run whatever you want, but for the love of all that's good and right, please, please respond to what your opponent runs, explain your clash analysis, and give me a weighing mechanism.

AND...

LD- Not only should V/VC be defined, I'd like to know your rationale why they are superior over other V/VC you could have chosen. ALSO, have clarity on how the VC gets you to the V. And of course, contrast how your V is superior. In the event your opponent has the same V, and/or tries to claim your advantages through his/her V, clarity of comparison analysis, and reinforcement, are pretty darn important. All too often I'm seeing debaters essentially referring to an opponents position, as if that somehow provides clash. I need analysis of opponents arguments to give me a reason to flow to your side.

CX- I like on-case arguments, T is fine. Not huge fan of Theory when all you know is how to read the canned script of your Theory argument w/o understanding or being able to explain your own argument, same goes for K.

PF/Parli- Comparative Impacts! Logical pace w/o spread- breathe and just explain ideas and clash.

Parent judge. Very limited experience. Please speak at a reasonable speed (do not spread).

Quality beats quantity every time. There's no value to speaking as fast as humanly possible. If I can only catch 50% of what you say, you're wasting 50% of the time you have.

Arguing the meaning of a common word may work in a deposition, but won't win a debate.

I prefer no off time road maps. If you wish to lay out your speaking plan, please do that in your allotted time.

Asking my paradigms, then ignoring them almost always ends with a loss.

As a mother to two debaters, I have had my fair share of debate tournament experience. As per what my kids say, I am not a flow judge, but more like a lay judge. I like to see how arguments flow through, but at the end of the day, whichever case is stronger and better in being communicated to me will win debates. Please note that I do not consider points in cross ex valid unless brought up in speeches and that fast talking is harder for me to understand. Sportsmanship and quality of speaking are of the upmost priority here. Every idea is runnable if you are a good speaker.

To me, clash is really important. I want to see ideologies go at it so that there is no right answer, just a better debater. I'm not a fan of spreading, but I'm fine with debaters going at a quick pace. I just value winning the arguments over throwing out as many as possible and taking away from a potentially good debate. Your opponents have to have a fair chance at understanding everything you say and having reasonable enough time to attempt a refutation.

Likewise, I want a debate that is fair on grounds. I'm flexible if a debater feels the typical interpretation of the resolution is unfair, but need to be convinced that the alternative is more fair. Basically, I want everybody to have an equal shot at winning the debate so it to come down to who provides the best impacts and refutations rather than the side of the res drawn or the amount of contentions given.

This carries over to kritiks. I value the ideas behind kritiks, however I do not like it when it is implemented to take away from the opponents chance at winning. If winning a k requires you telling me your opponent does not have a right to win, I won't buy it. Kritiks, plans, counterplans, grounds debates, definitions debates, all of it has to be done to take away from one's own disadvantage, never to push your opponent into one. I want an even playing field for the collision of opposing ideas in every round.

I have three years of debate experience, but I don't want you doing anything complicated without an obvious effort to make things clear. If you baffle your opponent or me within complex frameworks or advanced organizational strategies, it will not help you. If its not something that the typical novice would learn within their first year, explain the process and why you're using it so that everyone is on the same page.

Most of all, I want to see both sides having fun as they compete. That should be the goal.

Introduction to topic and event

Clear delivery

Emphasize on impacts

Being polite to opponent teams

1) Be polite.

2) Provide clear links.

3) Signpost for me, I want to know where you're at on the flow at all times.

4) Have fun!

Debate:

I have a difficult time hearing, so please speak slow enough for me to understand you, when you spread and I cannot follow I will rank you down.

Please be respectful, follow your opponent's case and make sure you have good clash.

Please limit jargon, anyone off the street should be able to understand your case, big words don't win cases.

IE's

Again, I have a hard time hearing, please speak to the back of the room.

I look for you to have a connection to your piece. I want to feel that you understand the emotions that you are portraying.

For Informs/Expos/Extemp/Impromptu/Oratory - I would like you to have some energy when delivering your piece, just because it's not an interp does not mean that it has to be monotone.

TL;DR I have some experience and am a progressive judge, so you can do whatever as long as you make sure you explain things and have warrants. The best way to get my ballot is generating lots of offense and doing good weighing / impact comparison. If you're looking at this right before a round trying to decide on your strategy, run whatever you want.

Experience:

-3 years Parli at Ashland HS (Oregon); broke at TOC my senior year

-4 years NFA LD (basically solo policy) at Lewis & Clark; 2022 National Champion

-3 years as head coach at Catlin Gabel HS

-Current law student, if that matters

-Well over 100 rounds judged; 37-5 on the winning side when judging on elim panels.

Main Judging Philosophy:

Progressive/Flow judge. I vote on the flow and will vote for you if you win. Do that however you want; just make sure you sufficiently explain your arguments so they are actual arguments rather than claims with no warrants.

Please collapse in your final speeches! It makes things so much cleaner, and if you give me a clear path to the ballot instead of trying to messily go for everything, it will only help you. Same for weighing: if you weigh your impacts things will be so much cleaner and easier for me to vote for you.

Ks are fine on the aff or neg. Framework is fine. T is fine. Theory is fine. DAs and CPs are fine. Tricks are fine. It's all fine just make the arguments you want to make.

Speed is fine. I'd like to be on the email chain or file sharing if applicable. For Parli, please slow down on tags and important texts (e.g., plan texts, topicality interps, etc.)

Misc:

Disclaimer: if you say anything blatantly racist/sexist/homophobic/transphobic or generally bigoted I will give you zero speaker points and you will lose. Just be nice please.

Note that I do not always flow author names, so when extending cards, please give me the tagline or reference what the card actually says rather than just saying "extend Smith 21." I don't want to have to look for it in the doc.

Happy to answer detailed questions before the round! Just trying to keep this short.

In general I judge a debate based on the flow. Therefore clash is essential. I am basically a tabula rasa judge with one basic exception that applies across all debate forms. That exception is that I will not accept arguments that are blatantly unethical or inhumane. A good example of this kind of argument is “Nuclear holocaust will aid in population control.” I am not a fan of spreading, though I can work with it. However, that being said, if I cannot hear it, understand it, or flow it, it will not figure in to my final decision. Specific paradigms for individual debate forms are as follows:

CX Policy: I rarely grant a debate on the basis of Topicality. If you argue topicality make sure that it is indeed topicality and not a sub-point of Solvency or Inherency. Both sides need to show me that they have followed and understand the arguments of their opponents and clash with their points.

LD: Value and Criterion must work hand in hand. All contentions need to be made with the value and criterion in mind. I really appreciate the more philosophical approach, but it needs to also be grounded in the real world.

Public Forum: I am not a fan of K's. If you utilize them, they must be something more than a basic attack on the underlying assumptions, and please no slippery slope arguments. If you attack the underlying assumptions, create a very solid rationale and have in depth factual material to back up your argument.

Parli: I look more for the creativity of the cases, and how the sides develop their position within the narrow time frame. The debate will be judged on the flow, but I want to see creativity, clash, and excellent use of questioning.

I am here to be persuaded, and to that end I want to see you communicating with me. Respect for your opponents and ideas is a must. Good luck and I look forward to seeing you debate.

If you are a novice - please do not feel pressure to fill time just because you have run out of things to say. It is much better to end your speech early and leave time on the table than to fill time just for the sake of filling time by repeating arguments you or your partner has already read.

General debate: I judge primarily on the flow. If you're talking too fast that I can't write your arguments down, or if you are not properly sign posting to where I should write that argument, I might not be able to vote on it. I do not intervene. I sometimes write "consider this argument next time" on ballots, but I won't make links or impacts for you, you need to be explicitly clear.

I don't flow questioning periods - if you're trying to make a point, you need to so directly on the flow (with internal sign posting) and use your opponent's answer as the warrant for that argument.

I often do not vote in favor of Ks and would rather see those types of arguments structured as a DA if the K is on the resolution. The only exception to this general guideline is if one team is uniquely offensive in round and you're running the K against something specifically said or done by your opponent.

Parli: I judge parli from a policy perspective. This means that for a policy resolution ("given actor" should "given action) I like formal structure (plantext, CPs, DAs, solvency press, etc) and for a value resolution, it means that I want to know what are the real world consequences of voting in a certain way? For example, if you want me to vote that "liberty should be valued above safety" tell me what natural policies consequences will follow and the impacts of those.

LD: I rarely cast my ballot based on the framework debate alone. I put more weight on the contention level. In general, I have a strong preference in favor for traditional LD over progressive LD.

PF: I like to see your analysis in your evidence. Please do not just quote an author, but explain how what this author said relates to the argument in your specific case. I often ask to read evidence myself, so please have full articles available for context, with your specific source highlighted or indicated.

Paige Yi (she/her/hers)

pyi@csd8.info

I have been involved in the speech and debate world for several 7 years and have previously coached.

Overall, I expect a respectful, well-structured debate. Essentially, keep it organized, explain things clearly, clash, and don’t be rude to your opponent.

I prefer off-time roadmaps.

Please keep your delivery clear. I’m not a fan of spreading, but as long as you are speaking clearly and are organized in your debate, I can accommodate. If I cannot understand what you are saying, however, I will not flow it.

I appreciate a clear analysis of why you should win in the final rebuttals.