Hi!

I competed in LD and Extemp for Isidore Newman from 2014-2018, so it's been a hot second! arenaslaura18@gmail.com

I was never great at understanding spreading then, and that remains now - I'm fine with some speed, just be sure to enunciate, and signpost. I'll yell clear if you're unintelligible or if your internet is making it hard to hear

I'm fine with most arguments as long as you make the impact clear. Not a huge Theory person, but again, if you wanna do it, make sure you tell me why it matters - don't just throw tactics against the wall and see what sticks

This is LD, I think the Value and VC are important

Don't be mean and be respectful to one another! and have fun!

I am a parent judge new to speech and debate, expecting students to speak slowly and clearly. Please just assume that I would sometimes know about the topic beforehand. In addition, I might need students to explain their voting issues clearly.

Don't spread. If you insist on it - at least make sure I can actually understand you. I consider myself a trad judge. Strike me for tricks/dense Phil/ theory/ Kritiks. Be topical.

In the event that you have me as a judge and you really reallycan't help but read something not trad, please slow down, I do not want to follow a doc (though I am more than capable of doing so).

I don't disclose speaker points but I will disclose the result of the round.

frasatc@gmail.com - I want to be on the email chain! Please do not send me emails regarding my final decisions.

I understand that I may be on panels with two circuit judges and the round will inevitably be a progressive LD round.

here is a list of circuit arguments I have voted off of

DAs (love these, basically circuit trad)

Ks (set col specific)

Determinism (I didn't want to vote on this either)

Rule following paradox (it was dropped, I do not want to vote on tricks :( )

Overall my "circuit" preferences are LARP (policy) and the K (identity K's think: set col)

If you slow down towards the end of your speech with some clear judge instruction (yes, even if you are spreading) I will figure it out--

Don't post round me- I voted the way I did and demanding I change it or concede that I was wrong is not productive for anyone.

Nice to meet you! I'm Keira, call me Keira. I go by she/they.

Ask me anything before the round starts. I am reasonable!

Quick tips:

- Jokes + analogies = I am entertained = more speaks for you

- Don't be rude asdlkf

- Time yourselves, run the round so that I don't need to call on the next speaker for you. No need to ask "is the judge ready?" before every speech; I am always ready unless I say otherwise!

Add me to the email chain if there is one: kyraximin@gmail.com

About

I'm still a student. I'm still figuring out what debates/styles I prefer over others. That means you can run whatever you want!! :D

That being said, I'm NOT a lay judge. I flow. If you have them, explain K/T/Theory thoroughly.

Speed

haha I do policy

If we're online, be aware of your background noise/not-so-great mic/spotty Wi-Fi/etc., and adjust your speed to accommodate for those things, because it's up to you to clearly get your messages across to your opponents and me.

Speaks

You'll get high speaks (28-30) UNLESS you're egregiously bad or doing something stupid (being rude, racist, sexist, homophobic, anything along those lines)

Might as well put this here too: ask questions, but don't argue with my decision at the end of the round. You can be salty, just don't be a [insert bad word here].

Policy

People like talking fast in this debate style but please be clear if you decide to do so. I'll try to clear twice before giving up on flowing. Giving the order before starting your speech helps a lot.

Explain your links and cards at least a little when you extend them. Just saying "extend Bob '22" doesn't cut it, I need to know why.

I don't flow cross, but being mean in cross probably costs speaker points.

Yes theory is the highest layer but if you do not explain standards/voters properly then it doesn't work. Also, if you're going for theory, you collapse on theory ONLY.

Rhetoric is great.

It greatly pains me to vote for extinction impacts just because "oh no everyone's going to die." Please explain it compellingly- respond to the probability argument.

Public Forum

Clarity > Tech > Truth. If it sounds like your case doesn't matter to you, it doesn't matter to me either. Explain all your stuff, explain why it matters and sound at least kind of dedicated to it. Don't be mean to people with less experience. Actually, just don't be mean, thanks

I don't flow cross-ex but I do listen. Bring those points up in the next speech.

Do weighing whenever you want, but make sure you have something you can actually weigh- I'm not going to vote for a half-developed argument.

Explain why I should prefer your evidence.

Prove that you're better, not that they're worse- have offense.

On dropped arguments- tell me that they dropped the argument and if that is true in my flow, I'll be less likely to consider it.

Thank your opponents at the end of the round :)

Two primary beliefs:

1. Debate is a communicative activity and the power in debate is because the students take control of the discourse. I am an adjudicator but the debate is yours to have. The debate is yours, your speaker points are mine.

2. I am not tabula rasa. Anyone that claims that they have no biases or have the ability to put ALL biases away is probably wrong. I will try to put certain biases away but I will always hold on to some of them. For example, don’t make racist, sexist, transphobic, etc arguments in front of me. Use your judgment on that.

FW

I predict I will spend a majority of my time in these debates. I will be upfront. I do not think debate are made better or worse by the inclusion of a plan based on a predictable stasis point. On a truth level, there are great K debaters and terrible ones, great policy debaters and terrible ones. However, after 6 years of being in these debates, I am more than willing to evaluate any move on FW. My thoughts when going for FW are fairly simple. I think fairness impacts are cleaner but much less comparable. I think education and skills based impacts are easier to weigh and fairly convincing but can be more work than getting the kill on fairness is an intrinsic good. On the other side, I see the CI as a roadblock for the neg to get through and a piece of mitigatory defense but to win the debate in front of me the impact turn is likely your best route. While I dont believe a plan necessarily makes debates better, you will have a difficult time convincing me that anything outside of a topical plan constrained by the resolution will be more limiting and/or predictable. This should tell you that I dont consider those terms to necessarily mean better and in front of me that will largely be the center of the competing models debate.

Kritiks

These are my favorite arguments to hear and were the arguments that I read most of my career. Please DO NOT just read these because you see me in the back of the room. As I mentioned on FW there are terrible K debates and like New Yorkers with pizza I can be a bit of a snob about the K. Please make sure you explain your link story and what your alt does. I feel like these are the areas where K debates often get stuck. I like K weighing which is heavily dependent on framing. I feel like people throw out buzzwords such as antiblackness and expecting me to check off my ballot right there. Explain it or you will lose to heg good. K Lit is diverse. I do not know enough high theory K’s. I only cared enough to read just enough to prove them wrong or find inconsistencies. Please explain things like Deleuze, Derrida, and Heidegger to me in a less esoteric manner than usual.

CPs

CP’s are cool. I love a variety of CP’s but in order to win a CP in my head you need to either solve the entirety of the aff with some net benefit or prove that the net benefit to the CP outweighs the aff. Competition is a thing. I do believe certain counterplans can be egregious but that’s for y’all to debate about. My immediate thoughts absent a coherent argument being made.

1. No judge kick

2. Condo is good. You're probably pushing it at 4 but condo is good

3. Sufficiency framing is true

Tricks

Nah. If you were looking for this part to see whether you can read this. Umm No. Win debates. JK You can try to get me to understand it but I likely won't and won't care to either.

Theory
Just like people think that I love K’s because I came from Newark, people think I hate theory which is far from true. I’m actually a fan of well-constructed shells and actually really enjoyed reading theory myself. I’m not a fan of tricky shells and also don’t really like disclosure theory but I’ll vote on it. Just have an actual abuse story. I won’t even list my defaults because I am so susceptible to having them changed if you make an argument as to why. The one thing I will say is that theory is a procedural. Do with that information what you may.

DA’s

Their fine. I feel like internal link stories are out of control but more power to you. If you feel like you have to read 10 internal links to reach your nuke war scenario and you can win all of them, more power to you. Just make the story make sense. I vote for things that matter and make sense. Zero risk is a thing but its very hard to get to. If someone zeroes the DA, you messed up royally somewhere.

Plans

YAY. Read you nice plans. Be ready to defend them. T debates are fairly exciting especially over mechanism ground. Similar to FW debates, I would like a picture of what debate looks like over a season with this interpretation.

Presumption.

Default neg. Least change from the squo is good. If the neg goes for an alt, it switches to the aff absent a snuff on the case. Arguments change my calculus so if there is a conceded aff presumption arg that's how I'll presume. I'm easy.

LD Specific

Tricks

Nah. If you were looking for this part to see whether you can read this. Umm No. Win debates. JK You can try to get me to understand it but I likely won't and won't care to either.

I prefer no spreading, don't worry if you just talk quickly but anything extremely fast is definitely not preferred since that will make it harder for me to flow and that does not help you win my ballot

Please don't use a large amount of technical jargon as that only makes the debate harder to follow and therefore harder to judge.

I do not prefer Kritiks and I will probably drop them, i might consider them if they are very clearly explained and you are not doing something that makes no sense(like saying that nuclear weapons are not bad using Nietzsche K or something) but don't bet on it

Cards should be clearly cited and it should be easy to follow it through the flow, any exchange of cards should be done in under 2 min otherwise i will penalize you for being disorganized.

You live and die by your value; if you do not link your arguments to the value, it does not matter in the flow. Also a response to an argument that is not sufficient to turn, negate, or refute its impacts is not enough for me to drop the original argument, even if the opponent drops it in the next speech.

At the end of every speech i want impacts/weighing, I should be able to clearly understand why you believe you are winning the debate and why the other team is losing. I vote off of flow and impacts and unless you win both I will prioritize impact over flow unless the difference in flow is dramatic. Essentially I want you to convince me that your argument is stronger than your opponents and the impact that you are proving is more substantial as well.

I graduated 2022. Debated four years in LD, two in congress, and did speech categories in forensics for all four years. Add me to the email chain ihoffm2003@gmail.com.

General notes: Run whatever you want as long as it's not offensive. If there is anything that might be considered triggering please give a warning. Be respectful, be passionate, and have fun. If you have any questions about anything, please don't hesitate to reach out.

LD (or PF or Policy) : This is by far the category I'm most comfortable with. I've competed in the circuit a bit so I'm good with speed and progressive arguments(NO TRICKS) but that doesn't mean I hate lay debate. If you're going to spread, please case share because I won't flow what I don't catch. Tech over truth. Framework comes first!!! Low key, I think value debates are dumb. I care a lot more about the value criterion. Make a story with clear impacts and voters. Tell me why I'm voting for you. I won't connect your dots. Love me a good power tag but please make sure that your card actually says something kinda relevant to the tag. It's not enough to say "the debater dropped x contention so flow my initial response through." Tell me what that initial response was again. Sign post like your life depends on it. It makes everyone's life easier.

Congress: I've competed in circuit so you can rest assured I'm not another parent judge. This is a DEBATE category. Get aggressive during cx! Please for the love of god interact with other representatives with your speech. Impacting good. Evidence good. If you want more specifics look at my speech paradigm.

Speech categories: Although this might not be interp, feel free to get a little theatrical. I weigh content like 1/2 of what I do your delivery(do what you want with this, obviously it doesn't apply to radio). Creative hooks/analogies will always make me happy but it has to make sense. If you're not super confident with your content, pretend like you are.

I’m a college student judge who competed in PF. I currently compete in APDA (college debate). I also have a sibling who does LD, so I am versed in both PF and LD. I will vote based on your framework and provided impacts. Connect everything to your framework/ values that you provide. Please keep your arguments in the same order and keep your flow organized, I want to be able to keep track of your arguments and the responses, etc. I appreciate roadmaps.

Please do not spread. Break down your arguments into simple, explainable arguments in your later speeches. Provide proper evidence. I will call for cards if I need to (if the round is close), do not misconstrue or frame your cards. Have your cards ready and organized to show your opponent if required.

andrea.peterson-longmore@neenah.k12.wi.us thats my email before you ask.

I have shrunk my paradigm after reading so many for prefs. If you want to see some of the longer sections, feel free to go here. Its nothing particularly interesting.

I have sections below for LD and Congress. If I am judging you in something else, click the link above.

Experience: I'm qualified to be your judge, no matter what style you are in. Enough said. If you don't believe me, just flip over to my judging record. I think its super cringy to read paradigms that list accomplishments from high school or whatever.

In round behaviors: I am early to my rounds, please be as well. I want to start on time to help tournaments run smoothly. For every minute we are late starting I start docking speaks from the opponent causing us to be behind. Also, please think about the space when choosing where to sit/stand. You don't want to be too far away or in a position that makes you difficult to understand (like facing away from me or sitting under a vent) or unable to charge your device if you need to. I tell my team all the time that they have been a human long enough to know how to care for one. Please care for your human. Go to the bathroom before round. Bring water or snacks in case your human gets hungry. Make sure your human is comfortable in the room. I will do the same.

"I have 5 minutes and wanted to check your paradigm quick, whats the headlines?"

Congress is my JAM. I love it and I prefer to see that level of enthusiasm/preparation from the participants.

Be nice to each other- respect will get you far with me

Don't try to shake my hand. I really don't like it. I love the thought, but the germs and lack of handwashing I've seen at tournaments icks me out.

Impact calc and weighing of final arguments is the best with me

Don't argue with me in RFD. If I drop you and you think you should have won, explain it better next time. Post round me and I will go to tab to lower your speaks. I am fine with a quick question or two, but usually I am jonesing for more coffee so let me go back to the judges lounge!

I can handle spreading, but if you can't... don't. It's awkward to have to tell you that you don't make sense and my interrupting you to say "clear" just throws you off of your time anyways.

Use a timer, and stick to it- I hate it when kids go over time. I stop flowing within 5 seconds of the end of your time. I will not warn you about this- you know your time limits.

Congress

Behavior: You are acting as a member of congress- keep that in mind in how you behave! Please make sure to respect the rules of your parli and PO. For the love all that is good, please pay attention to the round. This is far more fun when everyone participates! If I see you on your phone for more than a minute at a time I will be annoyed. Obviously you can answer a text or check the time quick, but if you are disengaged I will notice and I will not be happy.

Speeches: I LOVE *actually* extemporaneous speeches. Please breathe some life into your words- you are trying to make your fellow congresspeople vote for or against the bill! Make sure you include stats, citations, and some analysis of other speaker's points. I believe that if legislation is up for debate, there is current research to be read about it, thus I expect you are only using sources from AT MOST the last 5 years. Better if they are from the last 3. A good, weird AGD is fun, as long as it fits the rest of your speech. Bonus if you can make me a crack a smile with it! (not really a "bonus," but I remember them when I am doing my rankings- which helps your placement)

PO's: Have a CLEAR sheet for people to follow, keep it updated. If you make a mistake, fix it and move on quickly. LEARN your chamber's names. It is so awkward to hear POs continually mess up the names in the chamber. If you need it, put a phonetic pronunciation spot in your sheet and ask them to put their name in that way for you. I tend to rank PO's high, as long as they are engaged and well versed in the congress rules, (or at least learning them!) if they are not engaged and EFFICIENT, they can expect a low ranking. I can't stand it when a PO says a whole 30 second thing after every speech and questioning block. Your job is to make everyone else shine- don't take their time!

Questioning: Ask short, clear questions. Don't have a ton of lead up. I don't mind if you need to argue with each other a bit, but keep it civil and don't cut each other off unless its clear they are wasting your time or are not answering the question. It drives me insane to have a silent room for questions and no opposition to a bill, please ask lots of questions! It plays into my ranking- great speeches will only get you so far with me! If you don't ask any questions in a bill cycle, don't expect a rank of over 6 from me. This hold true even if you didn't speak on the bill. It doesn't require research to think critically and ask thoughtful questions. Your questions help make the debate interesting and help others to build later round speeches.

Recesses: Keep them short. Do not ask for more than 5 minutes between bills- I am not willing to extend the end of the session to accommodate the chamber wasting time during the session. I hate seeing chambers take tons of recesses and then complaining that they didn't all have a chance to speak.

Overall Preferences: I can't stand it when kids want to break cycle to just give a speech. I realize this isn't your fault, but that means the debate is stale and we need to move on. Unless you are giving a whole new perspective on the bill, you are far better off moving on to a new bill and giving a speech there. I am especially critical of these speeches in terms of quality of content and sources, because if you are insisting we listen to your extra speech, it must be REALLY good and worth not moving on. The only time I am lenient with these speeches is if I see you stand to speak for multiple cycles and you just have low precedence, and you finally get to speak as a broken cycle.

Lincoln Douglas

*** Keep this in mind- I come from a small conservative circuit and a small(ish) school, so when I am writing this I am writing from the perspective of a coach who does not spend a ton of time on the national circuit. I have also had to console students after experiencing much of the things mentioned here, so I am trying to prevent that for other "small school" kids, one round at a time!

Preferences:LD is what the majority of my students do. I encourage you to run whatever you like (minus disclosure- see below!), but explain it very well, especially if it is not something common. Err on the side of caution if you are not sure if it is common- like I said I am not well versed in most of the different arguments. In terms of speed I can handle pretty much everything I have seen on the circuit so far in my judging career, but if you aren't clear, I will raise my hand to let you know I can't understand you. I don't flow from the doc, but I will open it in case if I hear you say a word I didn't understand. I also will look at evidence on occasion, especially if I have reason to believe it might be miscut.

K's: I help my kids write them. I listen to them regularly, and I feel like I understand them. I am a decent judge for them, but if your K is built around your identity or is tied to your mental health, please strike me. I don't like being put in the "if you don't vote for me you are telling me my voice isn't meant to be heard" position. I almost always drop these cases, simply because I believe that it is abusive to run and puts your opponent in an unwinnable position, which is not in the spirit of debate. I want you to be able to explore your identity and learn, but not at the expense of the other debater who is forced to be against your identity in order to win the round.

Theory: I enjoy legit theory debates, as long as it is debate theory- not things from outside the round (ESPECIALLY not disclosure) I really dislike disclosure theory. Stop it. Please, stop. It makes me really frustrated every time I hear it. It's not believable when you try to claim you couldn't possibly have been prepared for what they run when you follow this up with 12 blocks and a disad- which hurts your credibility as a competitor. With that in mind, if you do choose to run disclosure (or other theory) I default to drop thearg, not drop the debater. I don't consider time skew or disclosure to be legitimate theory debate, because when I see them in a debate I see them not as a legitimate argument about fairness, but as a random throwaway argument to ensure a win instead of an actual discussion on the debate space. If you run a "fairness" argument that you couldn't prep against your opponent and then you have a case against your opponent, expect me to completely drop your fairness argument. You just proved that you could prep that argument by responding to it at all! Use your time to prepare blocks and responses instead of generic or frivolous theory shells.

Topicality: I have a pretty high threshold for T arguments. For the living wage topic my kids ran a bee case (bees deserve a living wage!) and a birthday balloon case for the fossil fuels topic last year just to help you understand how I view Topicality. You have to be way out of left field for me to buy that your opponent is outside the expected realm of topicality. We are a "small" team with no backfiles or camp students- if we can come up with this stuff, so can you! Its part of the fun of the activity.

Phil: It has become more and more common to use really dense philosophies in your framing- this is something I have little experience with. Make sure to explain your super specialized philosophy carefully or I can't use it as a weighing mechanism. I enjoy learning about new philosophies, but if you are being intentionally confusing about your philosophy to try to win the round, I will tank speaks. Win fairly or don't win. I hate watching rounds where one kid is clearly lost and trying to ask about the phil on CX and the other kid is being confusing on purpose to make sure their opponent can't respond.

Tricks: I have little experience with this- my students have just started getting into this. I am probably not your best judge for this type of argument, but I will try if you can explain it to me.

Misc. Stuff for any style debate:

-I am not about speaker points- I think its a really biased system, but I do it because its required. I would not consider myself generous with points, but I try to be fair with the way the system is set up. That said, if you’re mean to your opponent I will substantially dock your speaks. If you can’t control your round without being disrespectful there is something wrong. Since I have been asked, I average about 28.4 for speaks.

-I don't flow/weigh things from CX unless I am told to. I find it to be one of the more telling parts of any round about who has stronger arguments and better understands the content, but if you want it to weigh in to my decision, you need to bring it up in speeches.

-Please understand whatever you’re running before you run it in front of me- it is super frustrating to hear kids hem and haw about defining terms when they didn't take time to understand what they are saying.

-If you make a new argument or straight up lie about the round in your last speech (like in the 2AR in LD) I will drop it all. I have seen too many judges who don't listen until the last two speeches and then a kid takes advantage of that and makes up a ton of stuff in the last speech.

-I dislike timing rounds and I've found I'm extremely inaccurate. I will keep time, but it is best if we have multiple timers going to ensure accuracy. Please time yourselves and hold your opponent accountable so that I don't have to. I HATE having to cut people off because they are over time- I actually prefer if their opponent has a timer that goes off so I can hear it.

TLDR: Be respectful, know & define your stuff, use current sources, watch your time.

Run whatever cases you want just signpost well and extend them clearly.

ellisonroycroft@gmail.com

I am a novice judge. I would appreciate participants speaking clearly and not rushing. Also please try not to be too aggressive! Let’s all have a good experience!

I am a parent judge and so I am not professionally trained. However, I have been judging since last few years (mainly judging LD these days).

I care about technical aspects of debate and expect you to follow those (such as, if there are specific tournament policies/expectations then you must be aware of and follow those). Beyond that I am very open minded and look for your passion when you present your case and do rebuttal.

I like debater who understands that there is line between "being assertive" and "being aggressive". Show sportsmanship.

Your speed - I would prefer if you present your case with normal speed as that will help me understand it better but I am fine if you prefer to go fast. That would not go against you. I normally read your case.

I assess overall proceedings but rebuttal is very critical to me - try to respond to all the objections/questions of your opponents but more important is how and what you respond with - in terms of data points, justification, impact and, through that, how you strengthen your case/argument. During CX, I like to see how to find loopholes in opponents case/argument and how you build trap.

To me - it's not that big point if you come across dominating (through your speaking style/tone/body language or speed etc). That's an advantage but not everything. I give more weightage to things such as, how structured and logical you are in handling conflicts, building traps, etc and strengthening your case.

Please email me your case and the documents at raj_may6@yahoo.com

Speak clearly, Dont spread, use studies and evidence that are not manupilated and most importantly have fun while expressing your point of view in simple yet impactful manner.

About me:

I am a mother of 1 high school child. This is my 3rd year judging in LD, PF and OO, OI, DI, Impromptu speeches. I have been in the academic field for the past 6 years. Prior to that, I was in a start-up and corporate environment.

My paradigm is:

Judging Debate

All participants should act with civility, be respectful and gain respect.

I am ok with all speaking styles as long as it is followable. If I miss something I will ask the teams for the cards and reference documents.

If using technicalities please make sure it is explained in short as I do not have to not score according to what you deserve for not understanding a concept.

Impacts and their relevancy to the topic have a lot of weight in my scoring.

Avoid controversial topics unless absolutely necessary.

I take notes throughout to avoid going off-topic or adding random facts or comments.

points given based on how you speak and how you conduct yourself in cross. If you are blatantly rude, offensive, racist, sexist, etc you will be marked down to the lowest.

Let your opponent complete their thoughts in cross before interrupting.

Judging Speech:

I follow the tabroom room rubric closely.

General:

I do not shake hands.