For Lincoln-Douglas debates, I look for clearly articulated value and criterion, with opening case statement arguments that are closely related to the value and criterion.

Arguments that are overly structured with complicated subset points begin to lose effectiveness; a clean, clear structure is more convincing.

The pace of speaking should not be so rapid, in haste to make as many points as possible, that the judge cannot clearly discern the arguments being made. A well designed argument is more convincing than rushed speaking where the judge may not be able to acutally discern the points the debater is trying to make.

NEG should focus in the case statement period more on building a strong argument rather than using an inordinate fraction of time to initiate rebuttal; if the case statement is made stronger, and minimal time devoted to the beginning of rebuttal, the NEG argument will probably withstand AFF rebuttal better.

Both AFF and NEG should avoid such phrases in rebuttal like "...if you don't buy that argument..." Such language suggests uncertainty in the argument just presented, which undermines its effectiveness.

Hi, I'm Elijah -

Email chain: nastudent21@gmail.com

North Allegheny '21

Carolina Chapel Hill '25 | Psych major

Quals -

a) competitive success: broke at 1st circuit tourney I attended (Yale '19), octas Princeton '19, 11th prelim seed/9th speaker Loyola '20, NSDA Academic All-American, qualified to nat trad tourneys (NSDA/CFL/PHSSLs) all 4 HS years, won some locals

b) leadership: HS deb8 VP (senior year), secretary (junior year), event leader (HS+MS), and camp coordinator

How I judge -

Read anything that isn't repugnant. I've cut/spread everything from hard-right heg good to hard-left pess Ks. So pull out your aprioris/indexicals/paradoxes, theoretical phil NCs, radical pess Ks, fav extinction policy disad, or a K/performance aff. My goal is to judge as robotically/tabula rosa as possible to avoid judge intervention. Weighing is super important (you tell me if extinction outweighs oppression or if reps come before content). I flow off what I hear, not the doc (spread however fast you want and if its too fast for me I'll just say slow/clear. However, I think I'll be good). I only use the doc for ev ethics/quality checks if its disputed in round.

I'm still happy to judge traditional/lay deb8 (again, it's your deb8 = you do you).

Feel free to ask me any questions you have and call me Elijah/Eli/judge (whatever makes you feel most comfortable).