A bit of my background. I am a full professor of communication at Southeastern Oklahoma State University. I am also the Director of Forensics. The forensics team at Southeastern is a comprehensive speech and debate team competing in both individual speaking and both individual and team debate events. The types and formats of debate in college have different titles than those in high school, yet the goal is still the same – to have the judge vote in your favor. Note...I'm writing this paradigm for both audiences since I do volunteer judge throughout the year at Regional and State high school tournaments in Texas and Oklahoma. Back to my paradigm, debate provides a venue for hypothesis testing. In debate, a proposition or resolution is given provisional acceptance and through argumentation it is determined whether acceptance should continue or should be rejected after thorough reasoning. Whichever individual or team is successful in convincing the judge that its test of the proposition or resolution is accurate, “wins” the debate.

With that being said, in general, I consider myself a traditional judge. Let me explain...the more rhetorically agile debaters, more criterion-based arguments, and more acute rebuttals and refutations are the types of arguments that I seem to be most persuaded or convinced by. I believe all is fair in love and war, so I don't mind debaters using more progressive debate tactics. Yet, I suppose this should be for every debate round judge, but I know it is not. More technically speaking, though, I strongly believe in the fundamentals of “debate,” like I explain above. Thus, the affirmative has the burden of proof based on the stasis issues which are determined through the wording of the proposition or resolution. Like most decision-makers, the better you define and clearly articulate the stock issues and argue persuasively for them, the better and more organically a decision seems to materialize for me. I find it most helpful when a value criterion has been clearly defined and continually reinforced throughout the debate round. I often say, "make it stupid...simple," On the flip side, the negative has the burden of rejoinder. I believe it is crucial to the negative's case construction to refute all arguments offered by the affirmative from their constructive. Dropped arguments will be given to the opposition. In my experience, during a debate, the round crystalizes, and some arguments gain more traction than others, however if the negative has come to agree with a perspective advocated for by the affirmative, its better, in my mind, to acknowledge that has indeed happened and use it as an opportunity to employee the refutation strategies of minimizing or outweighing.

Lastly, I do seem to value counter plans introduced by the negative as well, when appropriate and well-argued, mainly because I'm of the opinion that a good offense always overtakes a good defense. I will flow the round, mainly because it helps me to stay engaged yet I do not consider myself a flow judge - I do not simply make decisions based on the flow.

So, in sum, I look strongly at the ethics of the case and the philosophy that is behind it, especially when it comes to the value structure. I DO NOT look highly upon spreading, most people cannot follow spreading, and debaters have a moral obligation to create an inviting space for educational dialogue. However, unlike some other traditional judges, I do enjoy counterplan arguments and kritik.

Former Parlimentary Debate competitor at Cameron University (2005-2007). Coach PF- 5+ years LD - 3 years. Basically I understand policy, but I don’t like judging it, necessarily.

I will entertain any arguments in-round as long as they are developed with appropriate impacts/voters. If you want to argue topicality for an entire round, fine (I love words. Words are important). Just tell me why it's crucial to do so. Kritiks, sure! Just tell me why I need to vote here first. Is there abuse in-round? Tell me where, and specifically how it harms you/the activity, etc. and why that matters. This is your round to strategize in however you see fit; I don't have any real predisposed dislike for any argument. However, poor arguments are still poor arguments and will not win. Irrelevant arguments won't win either, no matter how fancy they sound.

Clear, significant impacts make it easy for me to vote for you. Don't make me do the work for you or your team, because I won't.Sure, it would be nice to end the contention at "and this leads to more discrimination." Spell it out for me, otherwise I will shrug and say, "So what? Who cares?" Be sure to pull them through to your final speeches.

One thing that will work against you: Speed. I know you have a lot of material to cover, and often both teams will be fine with speedy arguments. I'm not going to vote against you for spite, but I WILL drop arguments on the flow. If you are okay with that, just be prepared for the vote to possibly not go your way... even if you put 87 responses on your opponent's disadvantage. I'm not a speed debater, so I won't be able to follow you. If you feel your opponents are using speed against you as a tactic, I will listen to a speed K and possibly vote on it... IF IT'S WELL DEVELOPED. As I said, I won't vote for a speed K simply because I don't prefer this style; Poorly developed arguments will not win me even if I tend to share your viewpoint. Bottom line: If you want to improve your chances of winning, don't speed one another out of the round-- you'll likely flow me out of the round too.

— I’ve gotten MUCH better over the years. I don’t encourage speed, still, but I’m pretty good at

getting it all down.

I do enjoy debators who at least attempt to add some persuasive flare in their speeches, but I do NOT wan you to focus on delivery at the expense of content and analysis.

If I do get stuck in an LD round, you must spend some time convincing me that your value and criteria are better than your opponents. I've had two sides argue with fantastic evidence to support their values, counter-values, with NO clash about which one is superior. I'm a libra, so it's already a task for me to try and choose between two equal, yet differing options. INCLUDE A FANTASTIC JUSTIFICATION FOR YOUR VALUE IF YOU WANT TO WIN ME IN LD.