Congress- For Congress, I'm mainly looking toward your presence in the round. If I see your name repeated, or you are actively engaging with the session I will rank you up. I absolutely love, rhetoric and refutation in Congress and both of those are key factors I look at when I am ranking. For middle school tournaments, I will usually be your presiding officer, and overall I wouldn't recommend Poing, because, between a good speaker and PO, I will always rank up the speaker. I prefer speaking style over content. I might or might not fact check so don't assume you can get away with fake sources, but I won't rank you last or anything if it makes sense logically without the source.

PF/LD/CX-I firmly believe that clarity within rounds is critical. There is minimal point in a debate where everyone is just spreading arguments and going for the quantity game. Furthermore, no real debate will ever involve speaking at an incomprehensible speed. Thus I heavily prefer better speakers because quite frankly if I don't understand your argument, I will not count it on the flow. I'm game for any plans, k, whatever again just argue it well and you'll do fine.

Extemp:

Answer the question.

Have good humor.

Quality links and content, backed up by specifics. Make complicated topics simple and easy to interprate.

Solid, formal, yet conversational speaking.

Congress:

Don't spread. :)

I love speech and debate!! Yay go you!!

hello

i mainly judge congressional debate and extemp as i actively compete in those two events; however, i'd be down to judge other events such as HI, DI, PF, or any other speech and debate event.

congressional debate-for speakers, i will judge based off of a balance of your speaking and your argumentation; for example, unfortunately, i can't rank you high if you're a bad speaking but good arguments and vice versa. for presiding officers, i will rank you according to your performance in round, and i will not disadvantage your rank for volunteering to preside.

extemp- similarly to congressional debate, i will only rank you higher if you have both good content and good speaking. many judges let speakers get away with bad content by simply being strong speakers.

good speakers-

1. vocal variations; not being monotone
2. fluent; not having fluency breaks
3. vocally articulate
4. positive use of facial and hand expressions
5. confident with what you are saying

good content-

1. flushed out logic chains
2. follows a strong link of claim-warrant-impact
3. have a strong mixture of evidence and analysis
4. extend impacts; so many debaters forget about this
5. use credible sources

Congress:

Your delivery will have an impact, but good content is what wins you the round. On that note, reference another speakers and interact with arguments made on both sides. The best debaters can not only blindly refute, but tie together the round with refutation, weighing, and extension. Speaking too is valued, as I do value good rhetoric, especially in closer rounds.

Most of all I love to see innovation and new things. Try things that haven't been done in congress, like a new structure or smth. I don't want to hear the same speech structure or cadence for every cycle. Show me something I've never seen before. Have some fun, and theres just a chance you will get the one.

PO: If you PO and make a precedence/recency mistake, you'll probably see it reflect in your ranks. On the other hand, PO's will start at the minimum break for the round (mostly) and go down if they are inefficient.

Extemp:

Answer the question and be yourself. I don't value any one style or idea. You have 7 minutes, do what you want.

Hi everyone! I'm a current freshman at UT Austin, and I'm excited to be judging you. I mainly competed in International Extemp in high school, though I'm also familiar with US Extemp, Congress, and Worlds.

For Extemp, PLEASE answer the question, and (if needed) preface how you're going to answer the question in your intro. In general, I value analysis more than presentation, but I always like a good joke.

In Congress, I care most that the speech you give matches where you are in the round. If you're beyond the first cycle, please refute previous speakers!

Have fun! I made my best friends from debate :)

If you need to contact me/add me to the chain: aprasannaco23@gmail.com

Hey everyone! I've competed in speech and debate for over 6 years, primarily in both sides of extemp. I also have experience in virtually every speech and debate event, barring interp. I've competed on the TFA, UIL, and National circuits and have accolades such as winning the Emory University tournament, finals at TFA State, numerous TOC, ETOC, and NIETOC bids, and making late outrounds at many other large national circuit tournaments. I also offer private coaching, so if you are interested, just shoot me an email.

In General:

Be kind. Bigotry, bullying, or hate speech of any kind can/will get you downed and will not be tolerated.

If you are running a case/speech that can be triggering, please use a trigger warning. If it disturbs the round, you may be downed.

Do your best and have fun: don't forego the reason why you do this event for the competition.

PF:

Treat me like a flay judge: I'd prefer if you didn't spread but I will flow arguments.

Weighing the debate with comparative analysis and impacting is really important. Don't drop an argument or an impact unless it's absolutely necessary. Having a few quality arguments is far better than introducing many smaller, yet less impactful arguments. If you don't weigh the debate for me, I will do so myself.

Framework debates are great and I'm happy to evaluate one, but a framework by itself won't win you the round-it only affects the precedence of arguments and impacts when deciding the winner of the round.

Tech > truth, but make sure your arguments are within the scope of reason and valid judgement. As long as a valid link chain is clear, I'll weigh the argument.

Make sure you signpost! Oftentimes, I won't be able to keep up with your rebuttals or summaries if they are just dumps of information.

While I have reservations with running Ks and theory in PF, I will hear them out if done well. I have some understanding of Ks and theory, but not enough, so please be explicit and patient with your explanations: I probably will not know the literature you run. Reasonability > competing interps. Make sure these are layered within the debate so you have substance to fall back on.

Please don't run tricks.

Speaks start at 27 but I will give 29 to a great debater with fluency, argumentation, and humour. A 30 is the perfect debater.

Congress:

Remember, this is still a debate event. Not every speech should read like a first or second cycle speech: if you speak later, I expect to hear refutations or crystallization. Clash, rebuttals, summary, and crystallizing are all important aspects to this event.

Evidence is key to making good arguments, but analysis and impacts matter more. Explain your evidence in a way that matters to the round and to the judges, and be clear with your explanations. Weighing your impacts is what can help win you the round: this isn't a line-by-line style rebuttal, but rather an emphasis of the importance and influence of the argument. Make sure to explain a world with/without the legislation and what the aff/neg does/doesn't do right.

Establish your presence in the round. Be active, ask questions, and make sure your inputs are good enough to change the whole debate. This is what gets you a good rank.

Don't be afraid to play into your character: this is what puts the Congressional in Congressional Debate.

Extemp:

Answer the question!!! This is the most important thing in extemp and it will be the primary factor in deciding who wins the round. Don't answer a similar question, make sure you answer the question given adequately.

If you don't use standard speech structure/substructure, there should be a valid reason behind it. In this scenario, make sure to signpost well and make your different subpoints clear and concise.

Make sure your points are distinct and clear from each other, but that they all fall under your umbrella answer/thesis. Be specific in your warrants and impacts.

Please don't fake your sources.

While I don't mind the occasional canned AGD/on-top, originality matters. Extemp isn't a cookie-cutter event, so make sure to be yourself and have good delivery. The more fun you have, the more I'll enjoy the speech.

Speech:

Remember, you are the expert in your topic/piece. I may not know as much as you do, so make sure you are clear and effective in your communication. Don't assume that I may know a niche term or idea: it is your responsibility to teach and inform us.

Cohesion in your speech is important. This can refer to anything from speech structure to delivery. Make sure your points flow from one to the next while being unique. Unless you missed an important part of your speech, don't focus on your stumbles: just move on and keep going.

Show your originality through humour, rhetoric, energy, and passion. You don't have to make me cry or laugh to get my 1, but you do have to resonate.

Interp: make sure your characterization and blocking are clear and easy to understand. Every action should be intentional. Remember, you are the character, so show that through your choices, interpretation, or pantomime.

I competed in Extemp and Worlds for Plano West and graduated in 2023.

I'd like to see 1) warranting and 2) good clash. This means arguments with reasonable and well-explained impacts; i.e. tell me why your impact occurs, the extent to which it occurs (the degree of harm/benefit), and why it is unique to your side. In terms of clash, I will feel more compelled to vote for you if you weigh both mechanisms and impacts (e.g. why your mechanism is more likely or, assuming both mechanisms work, why your impact is more important).

If you have any questions, ask before round. Good luck!