-Please be respectful to each other

-Please no fast talking + spreading

-I'm a history teacher, so I care a lot about evidence + critical analysis

-signaling/signposting is awesome

I am a typical PF judge. No real paradigm since PF is not plan or value driven. I like to see well developed arguments and effective speaking. I will listen to any argument as long as it is reasonable.

I am in my second year of Judging Debate. My son started last year, and am so inspired with any student who is willing to compete in debate. It takes skill, preparation and ample amount of courage. I volunteer because I want to learn more about debate, and when I see a quality debate it is fun and engaging. I consider myself a naturally neutral individual. I will not favor a side because its what I believe, but will favor a side because you convince me to.

Speed:

I understand there is a lot to cover in small amount of time. This said, I prefer a clear concise style of speech. I believe this allows for a more persuasive and all around better style of debating. The faster you speak the more clear and concise you need to be. If i can’t track your argument because your speaking to fast then you didn’t make the argument.

Evidence:

I want to hear evidence that links well to argument. Does the evidence truly support your stance. Is the reference relevant to time period. I will buy the evidence if its clear, all conditions met, and it makes sense, and it actually proves a point. I will refer to reference if I feel a need to, but that means it wasn’t clear to begin with. I also like to hear multiple references to validate your argument.

Hello, my name is Tamara Townsend Faucette. I am an energy and environmental attorney. I really enjoy judging and am so impressed with the intelligence and professionalism of the competitors. Things I look for:

1) Energy- whatever side you are arguing, step fully into that role and persuade me that it is your preferred position. Often the passion and energy of a competitor shows their preparation and enthusiasm for the topic. Persuade me that you should win.
2) Responsive- Show your flexibility and depth of knowledge by specifically attacking your opponents case with logic and evidence.
3) Respect- A vigorous debate is encouraged but please maintain the highest level of professionalism and respect.

I have judged a lot of debate events. I do not mind spreading as long as I have a copy of the brief. If you plan to spread put me on the email chain.

I appreciate off-time roadmaps. Please do not spread during off-time roadmaps--that is a chance for me to understand your organization. Use words not lingo in your roadmap--it does not count against your time.

I do not like a ton of lingo or abbreviations, especially in policy debate. I understand the lingo but I would rather hear your analysis in full words not abbreviations.

Your debate experience will serve you well and build resilience. I hope you enjoy the process! Thank you, Tamara Townsend Faucette

Please include me in the email thread:

brettgillysja@gmail.com

I believe that debate is a game. I will not shift from that position. This does not mean that any form of debate is better than another. But it does mean that making individuals feel bad about themselves, and intimidating individuals is not necessary. The debate round is one among many and is NOT a matter of life and death. It should be a fun but competitive game.

I believe the most important part of debate is impacts. If left with no argumentation about impacts or how to evaluate them I will generally default to look for the biggest impact presented. I appreciate debate that engages in what the biggest impact means, and/or if probability and timeframe are more important. This does not simply mean “policy impacts”, it means any argument that has a link and impact. You could easily win that the language used in the round has an impact, and matters more than the impacts of plan passage. All framing questions concerning what comes first have impacts to them, and therefore need to be justified. The point is, whether you are running a Kritik, or are more policy based, there are impacts to the assumptions held, and the way you engage in politics (plan passage governmental politics, or personal politics). Those impacts need to be evaluated. I can't not make this clear enough the framing of which impacts matter is extremely important if you win the framing question then I will easily default on your impacts if you have them.

Role of the ballot- this to me is just framing for the impacts. So it's really really really hard for me to vote on this even if it's dropped but that's doesn't mean don't answer it.

I also prefer that teams explain their arguments so that a macro level of the argument is explained (Meaning a cohesive story about the uniqueness, link, or link and alternative are also necessary). This means piecing together arguments across flows and explaining how they interact with one another. My threshold for the possibility for me to vote on your argument is determined by whether or not I can explain why the other team lost.

I'm good with policy arguments. I've started to learn I lean more on smart analytical arguments to beat stuff but if they have evidence that says other wise I will default to the evidence. This is where spin becomes extremely important. It is possible to beat the majority of a da without a card but evidence helps a lot.

With links I think it's pretty hard to win 0 risk of the link and as I said above impact is where I judge most of my debates on.

A dropped argument is a dropped argument but you still need to extend it in a way that I understand it for me to vote on it. You don't need to spend much time on it but more than "they dropped smith 03 that takes out the uniqueness." Explain why it does and why it matters to me in my judging of the round.

Quirks with Counterplans- I think conditionality can get out of hand. When conditionality does get out of hand it should be capitalized by the affirmative as justification to do equally shady/cheating things and/or be a justification to vote against a team, again up for debate.

My preset ideas on condo is 2 world's is generally acceptable usually a k and cp. T is not a world and nor are Das. This doesn't mean I will vote against you on condo if you have 3 world's by any means this goes back to debate is a game. Win condo if you have to and your game.

Kritiks- I enjoy Kritiks. Be aware of my threshold for being able to explain to the other team why they lost. This means it is always safer to assume I’ve never read your literature base and have no idea what you are talking about. The best way to ensure that I’m understanding your argument is to explain them with a situations that will exemplify your theory AND to apply those situations and theories to the affirmative.

Framework- I will evaluate framework in an offense defense paradigm. Solely impacting or impact turning framework will rarely win you the debate. You will need offense & defense to win framework debates in front of me. Its an issue that I believe should be debated out and the impact calculus on the framework debate should determine who I vote for.

Framework on the negative for me is also can have and act like a counter advocacy that the problems isolated by the affirmative can be helped by engaging the state. Topical version help prove how engaging the state can create better and meaningful changes in the world. There should also be historical and/or carded explanations as to why engaging the state can help with the problems of the 1ac.

I believe analytic arguments that prove no I/L's are pretty persuasive especially when using the other teams evidence as the basis. (That doesn't mean I will vote on just defense)

If you are worried I lean one way or the other on the clash of civs, I have ran every type of argument in debate (from preformance and narrative to big stick and terminal impacts turns to any mixture of them, such as policy with narratives) and I think all styles of debate are important and have their purpose.

Clash of Civilization Debates- I seem to almost exclusively judge these debates, which means I have seen a lot of them and here is what I am looking for. 1) Warranted arguments. 2) Good clash, don't just read your blocks answer the specifics to their arguments. 3) (which is basically an emphasis of 2) In-depth debates on why your style is good and why theirs is bad. I feel like without those things it's to easy for teams to win on "cheap shots" which just makes the round frustrating for me as a judge and for the team that loses, if you produce good clash, in most rounds, chances are I will vote for you.

Theory- I find it difficult to vote on theory unless it's clearly abusive and is a bad frame for debate. But as I said before go for it if you want just win it.

Cross Examinations- I do not flow these, but I do pay attention, while I don't necessary they are binding, I do believe that if you say something you will generally be held to what you said in cross x especially when it effects the other teams strategy. This is you're time to get links and find holes in their arguments/evidence, use it well because cross x is a huge part of how I determine speaker points. That being said, being unnecessary hostile in cross x will generally mean lower speaker points, If you are straight up rude you're rude (especially when you are factually incorrect about something but try to bolster that you know more than they do).

I won't read evidence during speeches but will follow during cross x and might look at them after round. (Yes I will check when you say a card is terrible or really good)

You can run any argumentation (i.e. progressive argumentation is great) as long as it is respectful towards your opponent.

If you run a kritik, I expect an alternative to prove how neg can solve.

I don't flow cross, and if speed/audio quality is an issue I will address it right away for the clarity and fairness of the round.

Good luck, and have fun!

I'm a first year head coach at Skyline High School. I have three experience as an assistant coach. I've mostly worked with speech events, but also congress and Public Forum with limited experience in Policy and LD.

Policy:

Overall: I don't believe I'm experienced enough to understand theory or be able to strongly evaluate Kritiks.

Speed: I'm OK with speed as long as you email me your speeches (tfhenry@granitesd.org) , but please slow down for your taglines.

RFD: I typically base my decision on the the stock issues of the plan on the Affs ability to defend it and prove that it is better than the status quo. The NEG wins if they can prove the plan is worst then the status quo or the status quo is better than the plan.

Former PF debater, but have been out of the circuit for a few years. Look to Jeff Miller's paradigm for more specifics on how I view rounds.

For policy, not big into k's unless they are extremely compelling.

I judged many years of debate and IE events except policy. I can handle any speed but do not like the speed of progressive policy. Every event has its rules and structures, I like road map and framework, they help a lot to see whether the person or the team is sticking with their flow.

LD, l look for things that whether the value and value criterion line up with their contentions. Evidence credible or not. Speaker has the fire along their speech or argments but not sound yelling?

PF, team needs to know their topic well. Time management on speech whether things are well organized by FW or flow, evidence always important in PF. Wrong information under my knowledge, definitely out some points from me. Plan should not be spending time during in PF, it is not policy event. Speaker point should be high with high convincing tone and voice but not yelling.

Please do not spend time in rule argument, I want hear your opinions on the topic!

Who Am I? My name is Joseph Serrano. I participated in Public Forum for Bingham High School. I graduated in 2017, My sibling participated in debate from 2018-2020. I accept any and all pronouns, (barring it/its) I enjoy Fighting Games, Cars, and Photography. I have been involved in the debate scene as a judge longer than I was involved as a debater, I love this community and what it means to me. My coach was Hannah Odekirk née Shoell

Paradigm- General for Debates (Cross Ex, Weighing, Preferences)

Flowing is probably the most important thing about debate, Winning on the flow is pretty much a guaranteed win for me. Keep your ideas organized, I like to see you flow speeches, yours and your opponents. Defense on your own case is undervalued(back up your own ideas, shut down attacks from your opponent.)

I like CX, anyone can read their cards from a laptop, it takes good understanding of the subject matter to be able to answer questions in the crossfire/cross ex. I will flow questions I think are great in Cross Ex/Crossfire. If you had a great answer or tripped up your opponent in CX, bring it up in your speeches.

Clash is one thing that I see missing from most rounds, its like two ships passing in the night. I'm here to see good debate, challenge each others arguments directly. If you ignore things you don't have an answer to, I count that as flowing through on their side. It

I'm fine with Speed if your opponents are, less fine with Spreading but I understand its' purpose . If it gets too fast I'll let you know a few times before I have to stop flowing.

I'd prefer it if you'd time yourselves but I will also have a timer up to see if you're going over during speeches. I will give hand signals, if requested

I'm cool with swapping evidence Off-Time but if it takes longer than what should be necessary, it will cut into your prep time. (For example: if you read the card in the 1AC/1NC, it shouldn't take 5 minutes to find where its located.)

I don't carry a copy of the events rules, but if I feel something is abusive I will look into it. I have been trying to get more involved in Speech events, and I do not know many of the small parts of the rules yet, still working on it.

I do ask for cards that I think might be suspicious or if I just want to see the stat in front of me rather than hear it.

Paradigm- PF

If your argument is only good bc of a highly specific framework within your case its not that great of an argument in my opinion. I don't really care for conflicting definitions that do the same thing, if you only 'win' arguments in your case by using a specific/abusive definition from a non credible source, I don't buy into those things as a judge. Both speakers are important! Do not let others tell you otherwise.

Paradigm- LD

Utah has this weird mix of Traditional/Progressive LD debates. I'd say that most judges will buy into Progressive arguments here in the state. I feel like I'm more Traditional leaning when it comes to LD. I value morality, rhetoric within speeches, and more of the philosophical why. I have and will vote Progressive but neither form of debate is a guaranteed ballot.

Paradigm- Speech/ Congress

Speech and Congress is a nice change of pace from when I judge debates- I'm super lay and relaxed and really care most about delivery and if you seem like you're having fun. Speech events are hard because its all about who shows up on any given day- you can't really prepare in the same way as you do in Debate.

It's ok to take a breather if you feel rambly. For Impromptu I'd rather you end your time early than try to fill it with repeating the same thing multiple times.

I'd appreciate Trigger Warnings for sensitive topics for the sake of your fellow competitors but I will be ok as a Judge. The single trigger that might make me emotional is Sibling Death.

Speaker Points.

Speak loud enough so that I can clearly hear you but please don't yell / strain your voice. Be respectful in and out of round, If I see or hear something super offensive in or out of round, I will be letting your coach know. Banter between schools is fun but keep it civilized, nothing directly harmful to each other personally. Respect people's pronouns please!

"I don't know" is a perfectly good answer, It is best not to say something you'd regret in round or make something up, concede the point and move on.

Being respectful is also a big thing for me, you can be aggressive in rounds without sounding condescending so if I hear you being a little too snappy to your opponents you'll probably get docked a bit

I have no preference sitting or standing during speeches, I will provide reasonable accommodations if asked of course.

I do flow online. It will always be in the individual comments section of Tabroom after round so you can see what I did and did not understand/ get from your speeches, Please don't assume that I'm not paying attention or that I don't care about what you're saying, I just don't make eye contact much during speeches.

(serranojoseph99@gmail.com)- for email chain in Policy/ if your coaches have any questions.

THANK YOU!

I have experience in a wide range of debate and speech events. Here are my paradigms for some.

LD-

I did LD for 3 years. I love a good ethical, ought and should debate- if the topic allows for it. Please note that I don't think solvency of the problem is what LD debate is. We need to touch on how the actions we take will impact in the real world, but to win my ballot you must win the moral and ethical debate- ought we to do something not just would it solve the problem (unless you use Consequentialism for V or C and win framework). I studied some philosophy and ethics in college but please make clear what your value and criteria are. That way both me and your opponent's know exactly what you mean. Make your contentions clear and logical. Framework is important and I like you to tell me what you think the voters should be for the round. Clash will always keep me more engaged and I think it is a key part of any debate, so I will be factoring that into my decision. If you run K's or progressive you better make sure they are VERY good, topical and still allow for clash.

Impromptu-

I love impromptu. Please try new things. I will judge based on devilry and content. I love if you can include some humor, because we all need a good laugh! I like structure in a speech and a take-away. What should I get out of listening to you for the last 7 minutes?

Policy or Team-

I did team my first year of debate. I can flow fairly fast but if I put my pen down you have lost me and it might be worth your time to go back a bit and catch me up. I don't mind well done spew but if I can't understand you it won't matter how fast you deliver your content. For policy I don't mind topicality, solvency or similar arguments.

Exempt-

I follow both domestic and foreign events so present information that is current and correct. I will judge on content and delivery.

When reading my ballots please understand that I try to offer some ways you can improve with every round. I always liked ballots like this because I felt I could take that and be a better debater. These are NOT my RFD. My RFD may include some of those. For example, if you failed to make an argument that was necessary to refute your opponent than I might put it both places. I am not a huge fan of K debate so if you run one, you better make sure you get better solvency and/or lower impacts and MAKE THAT ARGUMENT. If it's in LD you better also make the argument that it is the most ethical course of action. I promise to always try my hardest to be fair and make my RFD be who had the better round.

I am an enthusiastic and open-minded individual who has been judging the past two years and I love debating. I studied Economics and Finance for my undergraduate and spend most of my time reading novels, debating, writing and traveling. The metrics I mostly use when judging are:

Truth Assertion:

The claim a team provides must contain strong evidence and should explain what the debate is about. The second proof of claim is responding to the rebuttals provided by your opponents. This is important since they can argue a link of truth that might discredit the points given. In the end, it can cause your impacts to be disregarded and reduce your chances of winning the debate.

Classification:

It is important for you to give good reasoning on why your claim is true. This is done by showing why or how your claim is true and important in the debate. The more well-proofed the evidence is, the higher chances of you have winning the argument. The claim should also within reasoning and proven.

Weighing:

Take your opponent's best case and make a comparison to the case provided from your bench. You'll have earned a solid win if you can show me that even if your side's best case fails, your average or worst case scenario is still much better than your opponent's case. This is also done through providing strong reasons supported by clear pieces of evidence. Prove to us why you believe the arguments provided by your opponents is unlikely the case and why its also false.

Framework:

It is important to lay out a structure in a simple and direct format that is easy for me to understand. You can also do this by showing me your breakdown before you begin your speech. Having a simple structure with in-depth analysis makes it easy for me to judge and helps your opponents understand your arguments. Having a coherent speech with logical flow makes it easy for me to understand your speech word for word.

Team Chemistry:

How you and your partner present yourself is also quite important. I will need strong well-structured points to strengthen the cases presented. Having your teammate support your arguments or defend the points initially made is very important and it will be an add-on during weigh-in.

Lastly, it is very important to respect your opponents during debates. Avoid using obscene or rude remarks during the debate. I encourage you to have fun and be as creative as you can when interacting with different people in the debate forums.

Notes:
I am primarily a PF/LD coach. I have experience in writing briefs and do deep research into the topics. I am happy to chat after rounds if you want oral critiques.

DEBATE EVENT PARADIGMS:
-do not spew, but speaking at a moderately fast pace is fine (I did college parli and can understand fast paced talking, but some other teams find speed abusive) TLDR: if you're quick, be clear, be courteous
-I do not flow cross ex, but I flow everything else
-Do not simply repeat your contentions after the first constructive. Narrow down the round to the points that are most important. Debate is a funnel--narrow arguments and impact them out
-value clash: personally, I prefer when LDers take on both V/Cs and show how they solve regardless. This is not always possible, but I enjoy good value clash when they are applied to impacts and why the view matters.
-don't use sayings like "my opponent dropped my entire case" no, they probably didn't. Debate "hot button" words do not mean anything substantial to me as a coach who flows the entire round and I can see what they've dropped