Though I've been a PF middle school coach for four years, I consider myself a novice/lay-type judge. I do flow so I appreciate clear signposts, warrants and unique and impactful evidence. I am very much interested to see speakers attempt or execute innovation in form and style using humor, pathos and engaging impacts. I believe speakers who believe what they're arguing. I frown upon speaker dispositions that are communicated in a seemingly unfriendly, impatient or unkind manner.

Hi - I've judged several tournaments over the last year and I love hearing different points of view.

First -- make sure I can understand you. If you go fast and mumble, I won't hear your points and will have a hard time following your arguments. Ideally, enumerate your points so I can follow them and keep track of them throughout the argument. If you go fast, make sure I can get your points! Otherwise, focus on what's most important and share that with me.

Second -- use your time! If you have 4 minutes, make the most of it.

Third -- Cite your sources. It is important that you do this so I can compare evidence. Then tell me why those points are important.

Fourth -- (but probably most important) Be respectful. Good sportsmanship and being kind is important to me. If you insult or talk down to the other team, I will not be impressed.

Lastly, listen to the other team.

Good luck!

Hey!

I'm David Glick. I go to Stuyvesant HS and do Public Forum debate there. Here's my email if you want to reach out: dglick40@stuy.edu Here are some things to know about how I evaluate rounds.

1) Extensions matter. If you want me to evaluate something you should spend time on it in each speech. Whatever offense you want me to vote on should be extended fully (with all the necessary warrants) in summary and FF.

2) Evidence doesn't matter. 100 times out of 100 I will evaluate well-warranted claims over random author names and a quote.

3) Defense just isn't sticky. I don't understand why it would be.

4) Don't use weighing mechanisms. Just explain why your argument is more important than your opponents in normal-people-talk, I think this minimizes warrantless weighing that is just jargon being thrown around.

5) I'm not going to listen to cross because I'll either be on my phone or typing up feedback. Be nice though.

Also, please post-round me for a long time. I think that asking questions about every issue on the flow is the best way to improve. After every loss, I spend at least 5 mins annoying the judge about all the different places I could get better.

For Middle School:

Be respectful, be clear, try your best. I'll adapt to you

Have fun

H e l l o .

I'm an open/varsity public forum debater from Midwood High School. If you have questions regarding a n y t h i n g please reach out to me at ahossain962@midwoodhighschool.org

I'm a flow judge that wants to be persuaded using strong evidence and examples. I weigh the round based off of various factors including persuasiveness and coherence of the argument presented. I distribute speaker points depending on how well you're able to organize and execute your constructive speeches with some degree of confidence.

When judging a debate, there are a few important things that I look for. The first thing that I look for is good sportsmanship. All debaters should show respect to one another and encourage each other. Next, it is important that each debater has a clear understanding of their topic which should be supported by reliable sources. Lastly, it is important that the debaters are able to rebut their opponents points. 

Thank you,

Alana Itkin

My name is Sameeha Saleem. I’m a student judge. I’ve been doing debates in many different formats but specifically, I did public forum debates for two years during middle school.

Important things to consider:

• get to the round as soon as you can

• Be respectful and considerate of your fellow debaters (no discriminatory remarks)

• Before starting, please tell me your name, what speaker you are, and your pronouns

• try to be as clear as possible

• Everyone has their own speeds of speaking and understanding so try to speak at a reasonable speed

•  Will always keep time, but just as a recommendation debaters should also keep time.

• Cards might be called if felt that they are necessary. 

• Always state where you got your evidence for.

• Try to weigh in your summaries and definitely in your final focuses.

• I won't count anything that happens during crossfires unless someone brings it up in their speech. 

• No new points should be brought up during the summary or final focus. 

• Verbal feedback will be given if asked, as well as written feedback on tabroom

Hello, my name is Ayrah and I am a sophomore student in high school. I have debated public forum for three and a half years, and this is my second year of judging debates. That being said, here are a few of my preferences/tips for when it comes to a round:

1) I don't take crossfire into consideration unless you bring up what was said in your speeches. So, if you managed to get your opponent to slip up during a crossfire or perhaps you answered/rebutted their questions/points cleverly and really want to showcase that to me, you should include it in your summaries, final focuses or rebuttals. Be weary not to drop any arguments.

2) I don't mind if you talk fast, just don't spread. I will time you but I also recommend you time yourself to be able to know when and how to pace yourself.

3) Weighing is very important to me, because your weighing is pretty much selling your arguments to me. I would like to see weighing in the summary and especially final focus, and I wouldn't mind seeing it in rebuttal speeches as well. But don't make your weighing just one sentence such as "We win on scope because we affect more people because [insert basic response]" etc. I'd like to see you elaborate on your weighing because again, that is a big part of what sells your arguments to me. In addition, when you state your contentions during your first speech, I need to know why your reason for or against an argument matters because again, you want to emphasize that your contentions matter (impact) and aren't just a list of pros or cons. Also, make sure you don't have any defensive arguments or else you have little to no impact.

4) I prefer the use of a framework but make sure it isn't anything like "If we prove to you that the pros outweigh the cons we win" because that's rather obvious and so it ends up being a waste of a few crucial seconds.

5) I recommend you use your prep time wisely and not let it go to waste because it is given to you for a reason. Writing on the spot can be very stressful (trust me, I'd know), but if you learn to maximize your prep time, it will gradually make things easier for you.

I hope this doesn't come off as intimidating! I am no perfect debater and I've definitely had my moments both in the spotlight and in moments I wish I could forget when it comes to debate. Just because I might be older or have debated longer doesn't necessarily mean that I am much better than you. I am just using my debate experience over the course of the past few years to try and provide any insight I can to help you improve, and of course, to try to be a fair judge. With all that said, I wish you good luck!

I'm a senior at Brooklyn Technical High School and this is my sixth year doing debate. I'm a flow judge. I try to maintain some eye contact to indicate I'm listening but, generally, I will be flowing during round. My decisions usually boil down to extensions and warranting. I will vote on crazy impacts only if the warranting is good or responses are really bad.

I give pretty high speaks. As long as you don't say slurs or anything offensive, I will give you decent speaks. Just make sure you're clear and civil. I like clash in cross as long as it's respectful and appropriate but I don't flow cross and won't vote on it.

I heavily dislike evidence arguments, meaning "this evidence is bad" without a valid explanation or warranting. Please don't focus on evidence too much! Tech > Truth, so make sure you have good command over your evidence. Signpost! Everything!

You can keep time but I will keep final time.

Not super familiar with prog arguments, so do them at your own risk.

If you choose to set up an email chain, put me on it: nvegaayala19@gmail.com