Currently serving in the United States Navy in California. Honored to participate as a judge and watch young Americans practice one of the fundamental skills of Democracy. He/Him/His are my preferred pronouns. Unless preference clarified by participants, I will use initials and gender neutral pronouns when referring to specific participants.

Judging is based on participants' ability to clearly state their position, lay out supporting claims in an organized manner, provide insightful questions that diminish strength of opponents' claims, and defend their own position when questioned by opponent. I will do my best to provide comments that help explain reasoning and give feedback for improvement.

Key points:

I will always look negatively at responses that rely on straw person attacks, cherry picking data, unsupported slippery slope, and the greatest offender of all being whataboutism- derailing debate with unrelated issues.

Most importantly, be respectful to each other.

I'm Anna (she/her). I’m a sophmore at Brown University. I coach PF for Durham where I debated from 2018-2021.

Add me to the chain: anna.brent-levenstein@da.org

TLDR:

At the end of the day, I’ll vote off the flow. Read whatever arguments, weighing, framework etc. you want. That being said, I don’t like blippy debate. Don’t skimp on warranting. If your argument doesn’t have a warrant the first time it’s read, I won’t vote off of it. I am especially persuaded by teams that have a strong narrative in the back half or a clear offensive strategy.

Specifics:

1. I always look to weighing first when I make a decision. If you are winning weighing on an argument and offense off of it, you have my ballot. That said, it must be actual comparative, well-warranted weighing not just a collection of buzzwords(e.g. we outweigh on probability because our argument is more probable is not weighing). Prereqs, link ins, short circuits etc. are the best pieces of weighing you can read.

2. Collapse and extend. I'm not voting off of a 5 sec extension of a half fleshed out turn. It will better serve you to spend your time in the back half extending, front-lining, and weighing one or two arguments well than 5 arguments poorly.

3. Implicate defense, especially in the back half. If it is terminal, tell me that. If it mitigates offense so much that their impacts aren't weighable, tell me that. Otherwise, I'm going to be more likely to vote on risk of offense arguments. Impact out and weigh turns.

4. I will evaluate theory/Ks/progressive args. When reading Ks, please make my role as a judge/the ROB as explicit as possible. Additionally, please know the literature well and explain your authors' positions as thoroughly and accessibly as possible. I see theory as a way to check back against serious abuse and/or protect safety in rounds. I will evaluate paraphrase and disclosure theory but find that the debates are generally boring so I won't be thrilled watching them.

I won't tolerate discriminatory behavior of any kind. Read content warnings with anonymous opt outs. Respect your opponents and their pronouns.

Finally, I really appreciate humor and wit. Making me laugh or smile will give you a really good chance at high speaker points.

If you have any questions feel free to ask me before round. I will disclose and give feedback after the round.

Background:

Sedrick Brown

Email: sbrown3@unc.edu

I am a junior at UNC-Chapel Hill studying Public Policy and Economic. For all four of my years in high school, I debated for Massey Hill Classical High in Fayetteville, NC. I did PF for almost 2 years, and LD for another 2.

How I Evaluate Rounds:

1. Anything said that is inherently racist, homophobic, sexist, etc will result in an instant loss. As a person of color, I believe that debate should be a safe space for everyone, and I refuse to tolerate any discriminatory behavior. Period.

2. I will not vote for you if whatever argument you are going for (link and impact) is not fully extended in summary. Frontlining is not extending. If neither side is properly extending then I'll intervene

3. I'm a flow judge. Anything above 300 wpm is too fast, and I won't get it down (which will probably not bode well for you).

4. I vote off the weighing debate first. whoever wins the weighing debate tends to win the round. If there is no weighing or the weighing is a wash, i vote for the cleanest piece of offense. If there is no offense, i presume first speaking team. If you want me to presume differently, tell me why.

Other Stuff:

1. Please collapse in Summary and Final Focus, it makes judging much easier. Collapsing strategically will boost your speaks. Don't go for everything.

2. Please weigh, and start as early in the round as you can. In the scenario that both teams weigh, I would like some sort of metaweighing or comparative analysis between both weighing mechanisms.

3. The second rebuttal should frontline, it doesn't have to be a 2/2 split, but I want to see some interaction with the first rebuttal. I believe this makes for a better debate. If you don't respond to turns in second rebuttal, I will consider them dropped and evaluate them as such.

4. Will generally be tech > truth, but within reason. You can not get away with a blatantly false argument.

5. Make sure you terminalize your impacts in both summary and final focus, otherwise I don't know why I am voting for you.

6. I will evaluate prefiat arguments like theory or Ks. I have a higher threshold for explanations and general warranting for such arguments not because I don't like them but simply because I have relatively less experience with them. That said, I'm pretty confident evaluating progressive argumentation - more theory than Ks but I can handle either. If you explain the argument well, I'll vote for it, just slow down and be a bit more thorough with these kinds of progressive arguments.

Speaker Points

- Be as funny/savage in crossfire as you want (More entertainment = Higher Speaks)

I competed in high school speech and debate all four years back in the 1990s and have been judging Lincoln Douglas and Public Forum debate for the last eight years.

Well reasoned arguments and high quality evidence are more convincing to me than twenty evidence cards- quality not quantity please! Speech and Debate is fundamentally an oral communication event and if I can't understand you your arguments can't persuade me.

Although NSDA rules allow citing sources as "Jones 2020", if I need to weigh competing evidence, knowing that "Jones 2020" is from The Washington Post instead of Wikipedia is important.

If you can't find the evidence in 30 seconds, we will move along- Organization is part of the preparation for this event.

Learning how to organize your thoughts quickly and how to stay cool under pressure/cross examination is a terrific life skill- this is an amazing activity and will help you in your later professional life no matter your high school win-loss record.

I competed in public forum debate for four years at Centerville HS and have judged for the past four years. I am currently a senior at NYU. Add me to the email chain at sij233@nyu.edu.

There are a few things that I want to see in the round.

1) I think that using logic with evidence is important. Do not just dump cards and not explain the warranting behind them.

2) I like when teams give organized rebuttals and signpost.

3) Don't fight over evidence.

4) Don't run theory/K's as I am not too knowledgeable on them.

5) Use off-time roadmaps in the round so that I know where you are starting at.

6) I won't flow cross but if something major happens let me know in a speech.

If you have any questions, let me know before the round.

Good luck!

I am a head coach and have been coaching for thirteen years. I thoroughly enjoy all of the events that our organization sponsors and deeply appreciate the critical thinking and communication skills they promote. For debate, I can appreciate a range of styles and approaches. While I don't mind a brisk speed when it is necessary to incorporate a variety of legitimate arguments in case or rebuttal, when it is used primarily as a weapon to overwhelm an opponent with accusations of dropped cards (in particular), I admit my patience can grow thin. You also don't have to win every bit of the flow (or pretend to) to win a round for me. You may even honestly concede minor points and cards/warrants. The important thing is to win the main arguments, wherever they happen to occur in the flow. Therefore, your job is to help me weigh what the most essential arguments are towards the end of the round. That is not to say that I don't value line-by-line coverage of the flow in rebuttal, and that dropped points are of no concern. And it is possible that accidentally dropping major points (usually by poor time distribution) could result in a fairly automatic loss. It's just that all things being equal, I value winning the major points of the debate over thoroughness of coverage.

I am a parent lay judge! We would all benefit if you present your arguments at a pace and in an outline format that ensures I can flow them correctly. I have no issues with an off-time roadmap if you desire.

I value logic with supporting evidence over emotional arguments. I would prefer to hear coherently linked arguments rather than an assortment of arguments unrelated to each other.

I have been a parent volunteer for four years. I have never competed in Speech and Debate myself. Please keep your delivery clear.

I don't like spreading. I prefer to hear well formed arguments. Speaking as fast as possible is not a substitute for having good arguments.

Please stick to the topic.

Please treat everyone with respect.

LAY JUDGE

1. I have some experience in regional circuits. *Traditional, Conservative*

2. No theory- I don't appreciate it. I don't vote on it. I don't care for it. Waste your time if you want.

3. Follow the rules below to a tee, I vote strictly as say I will.

4. It's not your debate, it's mine. You must win me over.

5. Be funny. I want lively, charismatic speakers! :) *Everything is about delivery!*

Rules:

- Don't spread. Slow, beautiful, accented speeches win every time. I don't care one bit how much you have to say. Your points, how you articulate them, and how you defend them are what matters. Change your case if it relies on heavy spreading. I don't understand those cases and I don't vote for those cases. Ever.

- I am not a flow judge. Don't fight over the flows. You should engage in holistic, substantive debate throughout the round. *Experience means nothing to me. Great, experienced debaters have lost my ballot. I would argue I am one of the toughest judges. Put your effort into this one if you want to win. I don't like laziness.*

- I vote of presentation, points, logic, and VOTING ISSUES. Narrow your case down to the 1-2 key arguments. Make it understandable, not definitive, and logically reason. *Spend 2 minutes on voting issues.* It should be a speech, not an extension of debate. A call to action. Not mindless bickering.

-Weigh voting impact. Explain why your argument is better than the other person's. Don't tell me why their argument is bad, tell me why yours is good.

- Impact is important, but don't overdo it. I can weigh the impact. You'd waste critical time trying to justify it. Just state the impact like a normal person and move on. Don't linger.

- You may extend flows in 2NR, I'm open to new evidence. Be reasonable. I won't consider the argument if your opponent doesn't have time to respond comfortably.

- Dropping an argument is not a concession unless the other side extends the argument.

How to Win:

Literally, don't spread. I just don't care how much you have to say. Seriously. Don't try. You will lose. I'm aware this is a change in pace, but it's a good change in pace. Debate should be won on compelling oration on compelling ideas, not just nonsense being spewed out at 40 words per second. I just don't care for it.

Assume I know little about your topic. The less complex, the better. I like bold ideas, but you must bring me there. Entering guns blazing does not cut it. Make it believable, take me to your argument. Let me see the impact. Convincing me is the hardest thing in the world, ask my son, but if you can do it, you've succeeded.

Be smart. Be funny! :)

Hello! My fondest memories of high school are from high school debate (PF and Congress) tournaments! I also have memories of terrible judges - I will do my best to not fall into the latter category for you.

- The faster you talk does not = the better your argument.

- It doesn't absolutely have to have been in summary for it to be in final focus, but it really should be.

- Don't card dump in rebuttal. Don't read a new contention disguised as a response. If your opponents do this call them out for it and I'll drop the argument.

- Don't ask for more evidence than you need and use this as more prep time.

- You do not need to give an off time road map, in fact, perhaps do not.

- Winning in cross does not = the more speaking time you have. Ask and answer quickly, concisely and politely.

I'm a former high school debater from Thales Academy Apex and thoroughly enjoy the skill and sportsmanship that is present during a debate. I believe the ability to entertain and determine its value without bias is a sign of great skill.

I want solid arguments backed up by air tight evidence. Debaters should be courteous when defending their argument but show determination. Dropping arguments and spreading are things that I do not appreciate.

Above all else face your opponent's argument clearly and directly. Do not play around it and endlessly clash over definitions as this does a disservice to the art of debate.

I have judged debate since 2001. From 2014-2021 I coached Public Forum and Speech events. I retired after 8 years as the Co-Director of Speech and Debate at Cary Academy in North Carolina in 2021.

DEBATE: In debate (LD/PF) I look for clear claims, evidence and links to logical, clear impacts showing contextual analysis. I flow each round and look for you to bring your arguments through the round, tell me the clash and how I should weigh.

I judge as if this activity is preparing you for the real world. I won't flow what I have to work too hard to follow or translate (read speed). Asking for evidence for common sense issues won't count either. You can use flow jargon, but tell me why. You want me to flow across the round? cross apply? for instance, tell me why. Don't exaggerate your evidence. Finally - I'm not here to show you how smart or clever I am by pretending to understand some sesquipedalian or sophomoric arguments (see what I did there?)- that means. 1.) do a kritik and you are going to lose because you failed to acknowledge that ideas can conflict and are worthy of discussion; 2.) "the tech over truthers" and other silly judging paradigms don't make you a more articulate conveyor of ideas once you have to "adult". I will know the topic, but judge like a lay judge. Convince me. Have fun and enjoy the activity!

CONGRESS: Well researched unique takes on a resolution are important. Simple stock arguments and analysis is easy. I look for you to look deeper into the consequences/outcome of passage. Don't rehash, not only is it boring but it suggests you needed to listen more closely. Refutation of previous speeches shows careful analysis in the moment and it shows you have more than the case you wrote the night before (even if you did :)). Presentation is also important. I don't like BS for the sake of being a good presenter but a balance of solid research, thoughtful analysis, ambitious and relevant refutation from a persuasive speaker will get high marks!

This is my third year of judging. Use good communication skills, be clear and concise, and be professional and respectful to each other. I want to hear factual evidence that is logical and well-researched to prove to me why you should win over your opponent. Some other highlights...

Speaker Points:

I generally stick to a range of 25-29, with 25 being average or slightly below, 26 being decent, 27 being good, 28 being very good, and 29 being exceptional. I'll reserve 30 for a speaker who knocks it out of the park. If you are being unnecessarily rude, condescending to your opponent, or use racist/sexist/homophobic/etc. language, then I will rank you lower than this range.

Speed:

For me, this is related to speaker points. I'm okay with you speaking somewhat quickly, but be clear and concise. Be aware that the faster you speak means I may miss important arguments that could win the round for you or your team, so take that into consideration when it comes to speaking and clarity. I also am not a fan of spreading. If you spread, I will not select you as the winner and will lower your points.

Feel free to ask me questions at the beginning of the round if you want to know anything else. Most of all, have fun!

I competed in PF at Nova High School in South Florida from 2014 to 2019. I just graduated from Duke University and am finishing up my fourth year coaching PF at Durham Academy.

For Nats 2023, please put me on the email chain- smith.emmat@gmail.com.

How I make decisions-

I tend to vote on the path of least resistance. This is the place on my flow where I need to intervene the least as a judge in order to make a decision. Explicitly identifying your cleanest piece of offense in the round, winning that clean piece of offense, completely extending that clean piece of offense (uniqueness, links AND impacts in BOTH summary and final focus), and then telling me why your cleanest piece of offense is more important than your opponents' cleanest piece of offense is usually an easy way to win my ballot.

General Stuff-

- Do all the good debate things! Do comparative weighing, warrant your weighing, collapse, frontline, etc.

- Please preflow before the round. Holding up the tournament to take 15 min to preflow in the room is really annoying :(

- Warrants and full link chains are important! I can only vote on arguments I understand by the end of the round and won't do the work for you on warrants/links. Please do not assume I know everything just because I've probably judged some rounds on the topic.

- I won't read speech docs, so please don't sacrifice speed for clarity.

- I have a really low threshold and 0 tolerance for being rude, dismissive, condescending, etc. to your opponents. I'm not afraid to drop you for this reason. At the very least, I'll tank your speaks and write you a kindly worded educational ballot about making rounds unnecessarily hostile.

Evidence-

- I personally feel that calling for evidence as a judge is interventionist. I will only do it if 1- someone in the round explicitly tells me to in a speech or 2- reading evidence is literally the only way that I can make a decision (if this happens, it means both teams did a terrible job of clarifying the round and there is no clear offense for me to vote on. Please don't let this happen).

Progressive Stuff-

- I'll vote on Kritiks if they are clearly warranted, well explained, and made accessible to your opponents. (I am admittedly not a fan of K's but will vote on them if I absolutely must.)

- I will also vote on theory that is clearly explained, fleshed out, and well warranted. I believe that theory should ONLY be used to check egregious instances of in-round abuse and reserve the right to drop you for frivolous theory. I won't buy paraphrase or disclosure theory.

- HUGE DISCLAIMER: My biggest pet peeve in PF right now is the use of progressive args to make rounds inaccessible to teams who don't know how to handle them. Reading progressive args against a clearly inexperienced team to get a cheap win is an easy way to auto lose my ballot. ALSO I am really not confident in my abilities to evaluate progressive arguments. If you choose to run them, you take on the risk of me making the wrong decision despite doing my best. Proceed with caution!

- If you plan on reading arguments about sensitive topics, please provide a content warning before the round.

I am a former collegiate debater who has 3 years of experience in high school public forum debate and 4 years of experience in collegiate parliamentary debate.

I flow each of the rounds and for that reason I discourage spreading and encourage you to speak at a reasonable pace. I also encourage roadmapping at the top of speeches and explicitly stating contention taglines (ie. "contention #1 [tagline], contention #2 [tagline], contention #3 [tagline]").

Be as concise as possible. Do not leave me to do the mental gymnastics of making your points.

Empirical evidence is preferred, but you will not win on a piece of evidence alone. I like to see evidence woven into the overall story being created by the pro/con. A statements full of numbers without analysis will not win. (PF)

Do not overuse jargon. These debates are meant for lay people to understand and overuse of jargon or any trickery may cost you the round.

Be civil and have fun!

This is my third year as a parent speech and debate judge. I have been judging public forum during this time. As a judge I need to be convinced that the resolution (con or pro) needs to be adopted.

In addition these are some additional considerations:

1) Manage your time well
2) No new arguments in the final focus
3) Be prepared with material for evidence - do not search for evidence during the debate.
4) Effective communication, logical reasoning and leverage relevant evidence to strengthen your argument

This paradigm is written mostly for LD debates, which I frequently judge. Towards the end, I have specifics for PF debates, which I also judge, though less frequently.

What preferences do you have, as a judge?

Any progressive arguments, tricks, theories, I can't evaluate. Substantive arguments only, please.

Keep in mind that I am a lay judge. Most lay judges don't have knowledge of or even interest of knowing the nitty-gritty of public debates, and I am certainly one of that kind. You can think of lay judges as ordinary Americans watching politicians debating on TV, or as jurors sitting in a civil court and watching lawyers presenting their cases.

Generally speaking, if you defend your contentions well and put serious dents on your opponent's, you would have a good chance of winning the debate.

In a neck-and-neck round where AFF is winning this argument but NEG is winning the other, I would weigh the importance of each argument. If that still cannot break the tie, it may boil down to tiny things here and there that I won't elaborate here. Fortunately, I rarely had to do a coin flip for tie-breaker.

Logistics

I prefer normal conversational speed because English is not my native language.

If you plan to spread during the debate, it's imperative that you send your scripts/docs in advance, with clear highlighting. Tabroom's doc share feature is good enough, but if you'd like to include me in the email chain, here it is: michael.zhou@gmail.com.

Along the same line, please reduce the usage of jargons to get the most credit out of your claims and arguments.

It's my habit to take notes during the debate and write comments while debaters use their prep time. The purpose is to give instant and candid feedback to both debaters from a judge's perspective and lay out my reasoning for win/lose decision. I hope that helps debaters improve their cases, sharpen their skills and prep for next rounds.

How should debaters approach constructive speeches?

A few well-developed arguments prove more persuasive than a larger quantity of arguments. I am an engineer and practice the principle of reducing complex concepts to the simplest meaningful terms. You may often hear Alert Einstein being quoted "if you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it well enough." Sometimes, less is more.

Arguments should each be addressed individually in a concise manner, with a clear pause before moving to the next argument.

Now, the most important thing! Arguments should be coherent. Let me give an example. If you claim US military presence is the main factor of regional instability and next second you suggest US forces be redeployed from Middle East to Indo-Pacific region, that creates a self-inconsistence. These types of logical mistakes are extremely detrimental to your case's credibility. It's like shooting yourself in the foot. Let me stress this: logics and coherency.

How should debaters approach rebuttal speeches?

I prefer each rebuttal making a brief reference to the specific issue advanced in constructive speeches.

Same as constructive speeches, rebuttals should be delivered succinctly, with emphasis on the key issues.

How should debaters approach evidence?

Citations after article introduction.

How should debaters use values, criteria and arguments to support a value position?

Build the value that is not overly complicated, relatable, and criterion should not be over technical.

What arguments (such as philosophical, theoretical or empirical) do you prefer to support a value position?

Empirical.

Here are the reasons.

I am genuinely interested in many disciplines but I rarely read philosophy books, so I can't judge if you approach the resolution from a philosophical angle.

An ideal world exists only in a utopian ideology but we are living in a real world, and an imperfect one. Countless things theoretically ideal or with wonderful intentions have led to total disasters in human history.

So I prefer empirical arguments ONLY.

Please explain your views on critical arguments.

Critical arguments should provide substantial evidence for their support.

How should debaters run on case arguments?

Make sure all claims are supported with specific, defined examples, no paraphrasing.

How should debaters run off case arguments?

Make sure they have a purpose or illustration for the case at hand.

For PF

While most of content above is still generally relevant for PF, I am adding a couple of points specific to public forum debates that help you understand my preferences.

• Have a clearly outlined constructive speech. It would be a huge plus if you start with each of your critical points in an emphasized one-liner, because that saves me time to summarize it for you.
• I generally don't question or ask for evidence, unless your statements are outrageously contradicting with common sense or my knowledge. That does not mean the opponents won't poke holes and challenge you. Which brings my next point.
• I value quality rebuttals and that counts heavily toward decision making of who wins/loses. Meaning if you cannot refute your opponent's critical points effectively, those points will stand. You can think of this process as point reduction. Both you and your opponents start at a perfect 30-point. Every time you have a strong rebuttal, you are reducing points from your opponents. Every time you defend your constructive points well, you are reserving/keeping points for yourself.
• Last but not least, substance is more important than presentation. It's even okay to stutter during debates, and it won't count against you unless your arguments are not cohesive, which shows you are less prepared.