Since 2015, I have been judging for National High School Debate League of China, including dozens of online debates and offline regional tournaments in Chongqing, Chengdu, Shenzhen and Guangzhou.

For the whole debate, I expect clear expression with appropriate speaking speed, which actually is an essential requirement that many debaters neglect to meet. At the beginning of one debate, I pay extra attention to see if there’s a complete structure of the constructive speech, especially that the framework should be a requisite. As to the crossfires, I appreciate effective evidence to support strong logic. Bear in mind that an argument is a claim and warrant with an impact. I don't like arrogant debaters showing no respect to either the judge or their opponents.

Hey Everyone, I am Esther.

1. Please list your experiences competing in, judging, and/or coaching debate

Debating:

2019 7th Beijing Debate Chanllenge, Quarterfinalist
2018 Zhaoyang English Debate Open, Grandfinalist
2017 Fltrp & Sixiangka Guilin English Debate Workshop Training, Champion & Best Speaker

2017 Guangdong Debate Challenge, Semifinalist

2017 2nd Guangxi English Deabte League Online English Debate Competiition, Champion & Best Speaker

2016 Beihang World Debate Academy, Grandfinalist

Judging:

2017 NHSDLC Nationals (Beijing Offline)

2018 Fltrp Nanjing Debate Open - Indepedent Adjudicator

2019 Guangxi English Debate League - Chief Adjudicator

2021 NSDA Junior National Competition

2021 The 23th Fltrp Debate Nationals - Indepedent Adjudicator & Semi Final Judge

2. What are your preferred pronouns (he/him she/her they/them)?

She/her

3. Do you have any strong predispositions for or against any particular arguments? If so, what?

No, as long as your argument is not biased against anyone in this debate.

4. What is your stance on student delivery? Should debaters be fast or slow?

I prefer student speak slow in the beginning of their speech to enable me adjust their speaking style. And then the debater can speed up.

5. Do you call for evidence in debate rounds? What do you look for?

Yes, I would think evidence is very important to give during debating, but not highly necessary.

6. What do you tend to think the most important questions in a debate are?

The analysis, the crossfire and etc.

Please try to focus on the effeciency of your outputs,pay attention to the following aspects.

A.Specificity.Judges cannot always fully understand your points,so try to balance your output and specificity.Making judge fully understand your strongest statements is the most important.

B.Emphasis.Judges cannot always flow or remember all you mentioned,appropriate emphasis on winning issues like key rebuttals,evidence,statistics etc. will help a lot.

C.Stress.It is easy to get lost or miss the important information if your voice is monotonous.

Please pay attention to emphasize the importance and give explicit weighings

A.Emphasis on importance.Proving something true isnt the end,instead,only telling judges the importance of the matters ,can we realize how important it is,and how urgent it is,which help to fully realize these points.

B.Weighing.Without explict weighings,especially in arguments about opportunity cost.it is easy to waver if debaters dont tell judge why A outweighs B.Please pay attention to making sure that you win in weighing.

If you speak too fast or uncivil,you will lose me,

If you have great engagement ,focus on logic and are passionate,it will help you stand out!

So,overally,I vote by

A.how many clashes you win.

B.whether you can use fewer clashes to successfully weigh other team's clashes.

I have been engaged in public forum debate as a judge since 2016 and had been invited back to judge ever since.

In a debate, I believe comparison is a good way to show impacts to judges on top of the basics of logic, evidence, and connections.

I noticed some debaters tend to be fast talking in a debate. Personally I think is fine as long as words are clearly spoken. Speaking is about making yourself heard.

I also noticed some debaters tend to be aggressive in the debate. An appropriate degree but not too much of aggressiveness is helpful to win yourself more chances to present your case and ideas.

In terms of determining winner in a debate, I usually determine the winner by first comparing the impacts they present, and second looking at the logic and evidence as well as the connections of these to their case.

Last but not the least. Debate time is limited, therefore it’s best to focus on what’s important and deliver as much as you can and drop off those that are not so important i.g. arguing that opponents speak too much and didn’t let you speak.

I have 4 years PF debate experience and have attended several NSDA and NHSDLC regional and national tournaments in China, as well as Harvard, Stanford, and Berkeley annual debate tournaments. I've been coaching debaters in several debate camps in China during 2019, and I have worked as a PF debate coach from 2021-2022. In turns of judging experience I've judged several regional PF debate tournaments and the 2019 NHSDLC Nationals for both MS and HS divisions, as well as Stanford/Harvard annual debate tournament.

In terms of judging PF debate, I would like to hear more weighing and impact comparison from both sides, and debaters to directly engage with opponents' arguments instead of simply presenting defensive arguments. I prefer contentions with strong logic links and data/evidence and line-by-line rebuttal.