Hi! My name is Abby and I debated in PF all four years of high school and dabbled a little in congress as well! I have competed on the local circuit in New York and Iowa as well as the national circuit, so I have been exposed to many different styles of debate.

I am 100% Tech > truth. I will vote for completely bogus arguments if they are not properly refuted, but I will be sad so please don’t make me do that.

Add me to the email chain: abbybonat@gmail.com

Speed: I can handle fast paced rounds but if you are going to spread I expect you to send a speech doc to everyone in the room/zoom call.

Framework: I don’t really like framework because it limits the possibility for an interesting weighing debate, but that’s just my opinion. I will not penalize you for running it as long as you warrant it. Don’t just state your framework without telling me why I should prefer it over util.

**Please tell me which side of the flow you are starting on before giving your speech! With that being said, do not give a 5 minute off time roadmap.

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE signpost clearly!!

First Rebuttal: just use this time to respond to your opponent’s case and weigh if time permits. You do not need to go back and extend your case since there is no ink on it yet.

Second Rebuttal: you should always frontline in second rebuttal (especially turns!) i also think it's strategic to collapse here! If there are turns on a contention you MUST either concede to any delinks or frontline the turn. Dropping the contention does not drop the turn!

DO NOT EXTEND THROUGH INK

Summary: I do not require defense in first summary but I do think it is strategic to extend turns! You should also start weighing here if you haven’t already!

Weighing: Your weighing must be comparative! I will be very sad if you just say “we outweigh on magnitude” without any further explanation. Thats not weighing!! I will be very pleased to see metaweighing or at least see you respond to your opponents’ weighing and tell me why I should prefer your’s. Also, I would really like to see evidence weighing. If there are two pieces of conflicting evidence in the debate you must tell me why to prefer your's instead of just repeating your evidence over again.

I have ZERO tolerance for any sexism, racism, homophobia, etc. If i see anyone behaving inappropriately or overall making the debate space uncomfortable i will drop you and report to tab without hesitation.

Cross fire: I will not flow but I will listen. If something important happens it must be brought up in a speech. Mentioning in cross fire does not equal extending!

Please keep a consistent narrative through the round! Do not decide to collapse on a contention and then change your mind. This means your final focus should follow the same format as your partner’s summary.

I will not call for evidence that is not refuted in the round. However, if i read your evidence and it does not say what you say it says, I will be less likely to buy anything else you read. If you feel your opponent is practicing bad evidence ethics, feel free to use that as a voter in the round. Nothing makes me more mad than power tagged evidence!!

Extend claim, warrant, and impact! Do not just extend your impact evidence and expect me to vote off it.

I graduated from Montville Township High School in 2018 and from Wesleyan University in 2022. I did PF for 4 years and I now work for the New York City Urban Debate League.

I can keep up with PF speed and a bit beyond that, but please don't go crazy. I probably won't flow from a speech doc. I'm fine with game-like things like kicking case and going for turns. I'm okay with some level of tech/progressive argumentation, but I don't want that to be a game-like thing--I probably won't vote for a shell/K that I think is read solely because the other team doesn't know how to handle it.

Second rebuttal doesn't need to frontline. Feel free to, but don't feel like you have to.

First summary does not need to cover defense unless second rebuttal frontlined. First summary should include turns if you want them as offense, but they can go rebuttal to FF as defense (unless they were frontlined in second rebuttal).

I really, really appreciate collapsing in both summaries. And, of course, weighing.

Iowa City High school 2012-2016

Northwestern University 2016-2020

Northwestern University Coach 2020-???

I want on the email chain: josephweideman01@gmail.com

--I generally know more about policy arguments, but I'm happy to vote for the K/think it is very strategic and usually answered badly.

--In K debates, both sides need to do a much better job of: 1) using examples/contextualizing their offense; 2) debating the other team's argument instead of a caricature of their argument; 3) evidence based debating

--I care a lot about evidence quality. I'll usually read a good chunk of the cards during the debate.

--I think a lot of debates are determined by which team has the better strategic vision/ability to weave the different pieces of a debate together into a win. I do not like having to piece together a debate without instruction from debaters on how to do so.

--I will be very quick to ignore evidence composed of sentence fragments that make no grammatical sense when put together.

--Inserting re-highlighting of the other team's ev is fine, but you must explain what you're inserting/why you think it helps you.

--T-USFG/FW: I think the vitriol with which this argument is approached by many people on both sides of this issue is bordering on the absurd. FW has argumentative merit. So do the answers to FW. Clash is good (If you want to convince me otherwise you'll need to explain what debate is without clash). I care less about fairness gripes. Stop saying things are intrinsic goods and instead use descriptive language to explain why they matter. Aff teams' impact usually outweighs but I consistently vote neg when the aff shotguns offense and fails to answer the neg's defense/tricks and/or because clash turns aff offense.

--I am uninterested in adjudicating personal attacks/arguments about things that happened outside of the debate.

--Conditionality = Good

--T vs Plans: Least favorite type of debate to judge (other than theory debates...maybe). I think evidence quality/predictability matters a lot and its usually silly to put limits above everything else.

--Make choices please.