Speak slowly. Not necessarily too slow but should not be so fast as if its like some of the commercials on radio or tv when they explain the fine-prints.

i have a lot of experience and do a lot of tings ‼️ just do whatever you do best and tell me how to evaluate.

I am a lay parent judge; please keep this in mind when competing in front of me, and try not to speak too fast or use an overwhelming amount of jargon. I have some experience judging debate, mostly Public Forum but also Lincoln Douglas on one occasion. While I definitely don’t fit the traditional definition of “flowing”, I do take extensive notes during round. Although I’m a parent, if you try to take advantage of me and bring up new arguments in any final focus, I will take notice and dock speaks accordingly. If you have any further questions, I’ll be happy to answer them before the round begins. Above all else, have fun!

please put me on the email chain: kateshadman@gmail.com

^^please send docs, don't dump an entire speech into the body of the email

Colleyville Heritage HS (TX) '20: 4 years PF (tfa and nat circuit)

University of Oklahoma '24: 4(ish) years policy

pronouns: she/her/hers

tl;dr (pf)

do whatever you want, i vote on the flow. your barrier to speed is your opponent (if they can’t handle it don’t do it). please warrant and weigh your arg and terminalize your impacts — if you do this you will most likely win. 2nd rebuttal should frontline, if they don’t defense is sticky in 1st summary. if it’s in final it needs to be in summary. have good evidence ethics.

come in pre flowed and send the email chain at the start time

for roadmaps: just tell me which piece of paper to have on top

tl;dr (cx)

my only cx experience is in college, so I'm not as with it as the other college policy debaters

I don't care what you read, I'll listen to pretty much anything. write my ballot for me, I love judge instruction (especially on the K, implicate it to the round plss). I'm biased for a good policy round but don't get me wrong, I love a good K (most familiar with set col, security, and cap). pls label each piece of paper in the 1NC. regardless of the argument, make sure to extend the link (really hard to vote on anything in the 2AR/NR if it's missing) and implicate your args.

come in pre flowed and send the email chain at the start time

for roadmaps: just tell me which piece of paper to have on top

welcome to my paradigm:

*before your speech, pls just tell me what piece of paper to start on and I'll follow you from there (cx: just give me the order of the sheets of paper)

Warrant, Weigh, Win- it's that simple.

- it needs to be on the flow, I need clean extensions and weighing if you want me to vote on it

(please weigh. please, please, please weigh)

- for it to be an extension, I need claim, warrant, and impact

- tell me why/how you're winning and why your argument matters (write my ballot for me)

- terminalize impacts

- please come in pre-flowed and prepared to debate (i want to start the round asap)

- speech doc/email chain should be sent at the start time of the round (or earlier, just not later)

- signpost, I want to write down all of your wonderful arguments (in the right places)

- speed: i don't care how fast you go, know your opponent (if they can't handle the speed -- don't go fast, if they don't have experience flowing off speech docs, this isn't the round for them to learn), if you're going to go sicko mode, give me a doc, otherwise, I flow on paper if I'm not writing stuff down, slow down

pf specific:

- quality > quantity

- tech > truth

- default util

- I don't like calling for ev. you should be doing the ev analysis yourselves, ie. compare the ev between speeches then say it in the speech (I won't vote on it if it's not on the flow)

rebuttal:

- 1st rebuttal shouldn't be doing case extensions (unless it's an ov, fw, or weighing you want flowed on your case), i already got the args from case, it's just repetitive

- 2nd rebuttal: pls frontline offense

summary:

- if 2nd rebuttal frontlines, defense is not sticky

- if 2nd rebuttal doesn't frontline, defense is sticky

- please weigh (pls, pls, pls)

final focus:

- final focus should mirror the summary (if it's not in the summary it shouldn't be in final) (weighing should also be the same)

- PLEASE DON'T GO FOR EVERYTHING, collapse and narrow down the debate

crossfire:

- start whenever y'all are ready, don't wait on me

progressive args (pf)

I would rather not but, do whatever you want, but, it's extremely hard to do the work you need to do within the pf time constraints and the bar doesn't lower just because it's pf. if you are going to do something funky, one of the biggest mistakes I see is not implicating the K (or whatever) to the round, make sure you do work on page comparison otherwise, it's really hard to see how the argument is relevant to the round. tell me how to evaluate the arg in the context of the round.

"progressive args don't belong in pf" isn't a response (unless you have a beautifully curated block on this arg), you need some legitimate ink on the flow

again, I would rather not judge progressive rounds in pf, if you want to, you run the risk of losing the ballot a lot easier than if you debated traditionally

evidence:

don't do anything stupid and don't take forever to pull up evidence, evidence should be cut properly and cited with a working link, if your opponents are doing something bad/sketch with ev make it a voting issue--I am very likely to vote on it (if it's legit)

personal thing about ev- evidence shouldn't be paraphrased when it's introduced into the round, you should be reading from cards, obviously this gets lost in the back half of the round (which is fine)-- if you are going to paraphrase make sure you have the cut cards available and that you are representing them correctly

Hello,

I'm a lay judge so please keep these things in mind:

1. Don't speak fast

2. Don't interrupt each other

3. Cross is important

Have fun and make it an interesting round! I will not be disclosing at the end of the round.

Don't be rude. That includes to your opponent and to people that are outside the round. I do not tolerate any comments that ostracize people in the community based on their identity. 

I have several years experience of doing various forms of debate and public speaking. I competed for four years in HS at Lone Star and had multiple regional advancements in UIL LD/Extemp.

I currently compete for the University of North Texas Debate Team doing NFA-LD, IPDA, and extemporaneous speaking. I've won nationals for LD in 2021 at PKD, have been a world gold medalist in IPDA for the past two years, and placed in the top 30 in the country for extemporaneous speaking at the AFA-NST and NFA Nationals for 2021. If you have any questions about my paradigms, feel free to ask in-round, and yes I want to be on the email chain so ask me for my email in round as well.

LD

I appreciate a good value/criterion debate. It almost always becomes a framework debate for me. If I don't buy your framing of the round, I have to ask myself why I buy your contentions, your impacts, etc. Make this easy for me by clearly setting up the round in the beginning of your speeches and having good clash with your opponent (Value/Criterion clash was always my favorite in HS).

I am willing to listen to any argument you provide, so just do what you do best. That said, if your argument is racist, sexist, homophobic, transphobic, xenophobic, or otherwise discriminatory to other individuals, whether in round or not, you can expect me to stop flowing and heavily dock your speaks.

Lincoln-Douglas is all about communication. Give me good roadmaps, clear taglines for contentions, and solid links throughout your argument and we'll have a fun round.

PF

Similar to my paradigms for LD, spreading is perfectly fine as long as your opponents and I can understand you. For me, you can spread as fast as you’d like, but make sure your opponents can keep up. 

I’m open to any and all arguments. For context, I typically always run the K, but if you have a solid CP and DA’s, I’m down to hear about it.

Offense wins, so tell me why you win, not why your opponent doesn’t. Again, I listen to all args but my favorites (and the ones you need) are impact calc, framework, solvency clash. Don’t get stuck on single cards unless they really help you. 

General

Topicality - Generally fine, but make sure to clearly lay it out for me. Interp, violation, etc., all the good stuff. I like K debates, especially on Aff, but don't let that discourage you from trying to run on T. I just tend to give more leniency to Aff cases that may not be, on the surface, 'related' to the topic. That said, Affs should prove how they give Negs enough ground to have a good debate. Proven in-round abuse is more important to me to prove than potential abuse.

Affs - I'm honest when I say read whatever you want, as long as it's understandable. I am generally familiar with the literature base for K affs but you should still take care to explain the alt and framing for your opponent. Policy affs are also cool, but you need to prove the solvency above anything in my mind. Give me your impact calc pls

DA - I'm cool with them. Give me the full shell or I won't be convinced.

CP - Also generally fine with them, but you need to give me the net benefit and prove the clash between the Aff's plan and your CP. 

Voters - If you can, which you should, reserve time at the end of your last speech to give me your voters. In my eyes, the judge is there to evaluate the round and the argument provided rather than doing work for the competitors. If you don't provide an impact calc, I won't do it for you. Prove to me you win.

Just do the thing and have fun.

I am a parent judge.

I am ok with spreading as long as I have your case with me and prefer less spreading during rebuttals.

I pay special attention to CX and Rebuttals and you score higher if you logically tie your case, questions and rebuttal arguments. In your conclusions do summarize why your case is stronger than your opponent's.

Be organized, treat your opponent with respect and time your selves.

I like to reflect on the round before I submit the ballot so it may not be possible for me to disclose at the end of the round.

All the best.

Policy: This is my expertise, I debate policy all 4 years of high-school, went to state two years, and went to nationals once. I also participated in Parley debate for my freshman year in college. So I am really relaxed on my paradigms. I would say that while I appreciate the Stock Issues structure of policy debate, I am totally fine and encourage critical debates and critical affirmatives. I am fine with speed, if for some reason you speak too fast for me (which is rare) I will yell clear and put my pen down if you do not slow down after. I do not like topicality as it takes away from education and the debate itself, it is a weak argument and it is boring to sit through a debate that consists of going back and forth about a definition about the meaning of "should". I also do not prefer CP's. My reasoning behind that is that it is normally just the same as the affirmative, just with a different actor and then we are just left with a conversation about who is the better actor. Its fine to run, I would just rather engage in different conversations. At the end of the round you should have given me a framework to view the round and several voters. I will not connect dots and do the work on the flow for you. So that means give me an impact calc, give me voters, give me a framework, and extend all arguments you want me to weigh in the round.

PF: I do not have any PF experience, but I have judged several PF rounds in the past couple of years. I do not have any specific paradigms but I will say be civil, explain things as if someone who has not ever heard a debate in their life, and do not spread. Just give me a framework to vote on! I will not do the work for you, so do it for me.

LD: I have competed in LD once in high-school and understand the structure. While in policy I am all for critical debates, I am fairly traditional in LD. I do not like this sudden merge that is occurring in LD right now between LD and policy. If there are any policy-based arguments in LD (Kritiks, CPs, DA's, T's, etc.) I am going to be REALLLY skeptical in voting for you IF you do not run it correctly. Also, I do not understand very well the significance in running a CP, DA or T argument in LD, so if it is something you WANT me to vote for, walk me through it all the way. I will not do the work on the flow for you and I need you to give me a framework to vote on. Also, voters at the end of the debate are huge musts. The fundamental basis of LD is to engage in a conversation about morals and ethics. So, lets save the CX type arguments for the CX'ers. I want to see a value and criterion, how they A) Uphold the resolution and B) how they link with all of your contentions.

I used to have a longer paradigm, I deleted it because it'd been a while since I made any substantive changes to it and I think my relationship to debate has changed. People are on here looking for prefs and pre round advice for how to persuasively frame their arguments. I'm not sure what the ideal paradigm for answering those questions is and doubt that this one comes close in many readings.

i just want to see a debate. I want full argumentation relying on complex and nuanced understandings of interesting and innovatice evidence sets. I want to see debaters taking research and connecting the dots to develop a complex understanding of the world. I love that strategy is a part of debate and like to see people make bold choices with clear and clever strategic goals, and for those things to be communicated in an effective manner.

I think that arguments should be complete (having a claim, warrant, and impact) on the flow when they are made. I appreciate well organized debaters who engage in a method that creates a clear structure for the flow. I think that there has been a lack of emphasis on argument explication. I guess what I'm trying to say is it seems like debaters are either being held or are holding themselves to a lower threshold when it comes to fleshing out the implications of any particular argument and it's relationship to all the other sub debates and ultimately the ballot. Maybe one thing that causes that is debaters wanting to go for too much in their final speeches. Being confident in being able to narrow the debate down to what you believe to be the key issues is I think what I mean by making bold choices. I think it's good when these things happen earlier (as early as the 1ac/1nc) rather than later(I'll put "condo" here so people can control f that and surmise my opinion about big 1nc's in LD by reading the preceding sentence).

As long as adequate time is spent to implicating ur argument and telling me what to do on it then you shouldn't be afraid to say anything in front of me. (Except bad and incomplete arguments).

Speed? I can do it!! I think this is something that should be negotiated between debaters but I'm a pretty alright flow! Pen time between pages and vocal intonations and speed changes for emphasis are good things.

Evidence should be like, words highlighted that when read together approximate at least an attempt at a sentence. If I read the highlighting and come away thinking "what is bro yapping about" I'm gonna lower your speaks.

Conversely will award decent speaks for interesting and good quality research.

Spin is important but so is your ev, but remember when making args I'm probably not looking at it till after the round.

I think I might have a higher threshold for explanation than a lot of judges. I'm at the risk of being repetitive here, making bold, specific, and strategic choices/ sticking to your guns to take them to their logical conclusions is great for you in front of me.

My email (which you should put on the chain) is: debatethek@gmail.com

I do policy and NFA ld for the University of North texas. If you're interested in debating in college, and in particular at UNT hit me up, we have scholarships!

Online debate stuff:

I like email chains over other kinds of sharing methods- it lets us get in contact with ppl in case of technical difficulties.

I think Jackie Poapst said this first, but I absolutely hate “is any one not ready” because if someone is having a tech problem then they may not be able to indicate they are not ready. It is the equivalent of “if you aren’t here raise your hand.”

There have been several times when debaters have asked “is everybody ready” and then proceeded to give their speech without a response from me- I missed several seconds of those debaters’ speeches. Please wait for me to respond I’ll usually say that “i’m good” verbally. If I see that the debater about to give a speech can see their camera- i may just give a thumbs up. If I have not done either of those things- I AM NOT READY.