I debated policy in high school and in college in from 1988-1994. I have coached policy, LD, public forum and now Congressional debate. Because of my policy roots substantiating your argument with evidence and refutation are important to debate. I fundamentally see Congressional debate as debate not as another form of extemp.

I am a retired teacher and debate and speech coach. I coached policy debate in the 1980s, and then coached Lincoln-Douglas from 1987 through early 2000s. Since then I have judged public forum and classic debate for many years, mainly at section and state tournaments. I believe debate is the best high school extracurricular activity there is!

In terms of arguments, I prefer fewer, well-developed arguments that are sustained throughout the round, rather than brief, one-line blips with no analysis or supporting evidence. I will flow your round and I will see if your opponent has or has not responded to your arguments (so don't accuse them of dropping an argument when they didn't). I like to see clear, direct refutation that is also developed and supported. I do not like mere assertions masquerading as solid argument.

Although I can handle speed, I don't really like it. I prefer delivery that is clear, understandable, and communicative (yes, I understand the need for speed with tight time limits, but I don't want you to speak so fast that I can't understand or flow what you're saying. It doesn't help you if I stop flowing because of your speed). You want me to get your arguments, right?

I like debates where the arguments flow and develop in light of the opponents' refutation. I like debates where you guide me to your position, weigh the issues, and provide clear focus, particularly in the summary and final focus speeches. Help me to see why you're winning; don't just tell me you are.

Finally, I believe in respect and good manners. Be polite throughout the round, particularly in cross-fires!

I do not give oral critiques or disclose, but trust me, I will write you a clear RFD on my ballot.

Hello! I am a coach/judge for Congressional Debate. I do occasionally judge traditional debate formats, so you may see me there, too. Back in school, I competed in congress in the off season from speech and at this point have been involved in speech/debate longer than not. I have a BA in Rhetoric and Advocacy, so I usually come at argumentation from that lens.

Some notes for all: contradictory evidence is just contradictory evidence. If you want me to believe the refutation, I need to know why your evidence should be believed over theirs. Otherwise you both have evidence and that's cool. I do not condone or reward racist, sexist, or otherwise problematic language or arguments. If you choose to make arguments with me that further negative stigma, use problematic language, or are downright harmful, expect the lowest score possible on your speech and to be in the bottom of my rank. I do not prefer arguments solely based on slippery slope fallacies (or any fallacies, really), so if you're trying to prove an extinction argument to me, please know I have never seen one adequately supported.

Tabroom has been eating my feedback, so you can find all my scoring/parli docs at linktr.ee/parlireneeb

State Tourmanemt Update

Throughout the season, I am in the camp of points don't matter. However, the state tournment is and should be held to a higher standard. Here's the breakdown for points

+6: every speech will start here

-1: scripted content as opposed to extemporaneous

-1: insufficient evidence or citations

-6: problematic language, stigmatizing arguments, racist/sexist/phobic/classist/all the -ist arguments

MSHSL rules state that making statements as part of questioning should be discouraged since it is an abuse of the questioning time. Competitors who prefer questions to statements will be higher in my rank at the end of the round.

There are no explicit citation requirements in the MSHSL rulebook for Congressional Debate. I am expecting the NSDA requirements (primary author and year) at a bare minimum.

Congressional Debate Overall Comments
Ultimately, I am here to watch a debate. I am not a recess monitor and I do not want to be one. Please use the time allotted to debate, whether on the legislation itself or amendments. Yes, I know you're told that judges don't like amendments -- which is usually true, but they are better than watching a recess. On that note, while we are not judging what happens in recess, if it occurs in front of the judges, we now know what was discussed. That means that if you state you don't have a speech on the next legislation but you can pull one together, I commend your willingness to do this on the fly, but I now know that the speech you're about to give is minimally prepared.

You should also know that I read the manuals, handbooks, guides, etc for fun -- so I've likely read through the entire set of rules at both the national and state level at least 3 times thus far in the season. Does that make me a nerd, yeah - but I am a well prepared nerd. So, if you tell me you're going to follow those rules, please do so. For example, please do not call for a motion to open the floor for debate.

Please, leave the traditional debate jargon in traditional debate. You can talk about the status quo, impacts, contentions, and voters without labeling them for us -- we will still know what they are. Congress is a debate event, but it is a completely different animal and I would prefer it stay that way.

Congressional Debate as a Scorer
I will generally default to more speech points over less every time. This means that I will almost always score a 5 or 6 unless there was something overtly offensive or inappropriate. I do prioritize extemporaneous delivery over full-text, prewritten speeches. Speeches that contain improperly cited evidence will be scored down. I only need the required elements per the rules, so it's easy enough to cover. Please, give me a well constructed speech (intros, previews, signposting, concluding statement at minimum).

When ranking the top 8 at the end of the session, I will consider speeches, questions asked and answered, decorum, and understanding of parliamentary procedure. Presiding Officers will often rank in my top half. When competing, I was a PO more often than not, so I know that this is a challenging role and can be a great fit for some competitors. With that in mind, I will give more feedback to the PO than a lot of other scorers. It is all given from a place of constructive feedback and to consider with your coaches.

Congressional Debate as a Parliamentarian
My job as the parli is to focus on the PO. I am happy to help as much or as little as needed. I do assume, though, less assistance from the parli is needed at the varsity level.

Always feel free to raise points of inquiry from the floor or ask questions/clarifications as the PO - I am happy to answer them from both sides. My favorite memories of Congress as a competitor were the interactions with parlis in the lower levels to help us become the competitors that we were in upper divisions.

As my attention is focused on the PO and the chamber running effectively, please expect limited speech level commentary from me. I will provide overall comments to competitors regarding their questioning, decorum, and chamber level things. I am looking for all competitors to have a solid understanding of Parli Pro and the rules (both guides and manuals). I am also looking for fair and efficient chambers that still allow for POs to have an active role within the dynamic of the room AND not so efficient that we don't allow space for motions from the floor or people that need a bit extra time to process.

For final rankings, I will consider everything that has occurred in the room -- this will mean that the best speaker will not get my 1 if their conduct in the chamber, questions, and understanding of the rules/parli pro are not congruent with their speaking ability.

Traditional Debate
It isn't very frequent that I am in these rounds, but sometimes I am. So - consider me a lay judge. I have plenty more than the basic knowledge of the events than the typical lay judge. However, I am not impressed by how well you can cater your arguments to my preferences. Adjusting to your audience is important, but it alone will not result in a win from me. Give me a clear and clean debate that is paced at a speed that is understandable and I will be content. Also,please define your jargon the first time you use it.

Background: Head Coach at Robbinsdale Armstrong and Robbinsdale Cooper HS in Minnesota. There I coach LD, PF and Congressional Debate.

Most Important: Debate should be about comparing and weighing arguments. In LD (and optional in PF) there should be a criterion (standard) which argument are weighed through. The purpose of the criterion is to filter out arguments. So simply winning the criterion does not mean you win the debate. You should have arguments that link to the winning criterion and those arguments should be weighed against any opposing/linking arguments. If the debaters do not weigh the arguments, then you force the judge to do that weighing for you and that is never good.

I will not vote on disclosure theory. Come ready to debate.

Overall: Debate should be inclusive and available to all people. If your goal is to speak as fast as possible and run the most obscure arguments ever to exclude people, then this isn't a winning strategy for you. My suggestion would be to run topical arguments at a pace that is inclusive to all students. Speed within limits is ok. The more obscure the argument the more time you should spend on explaining it. Don't just throw out random words and assume I'll fill in the blanks for you. No need to ask if I want to be on the email chain, job of debate is to communicate the evidence to me.

Congressional Debate: Read everything above because it is still valuable information. Congressional Debate is debate by nature. It is not a dueling oratory round. In general, the first cycle is there to set up arguments in the round. The author/sponsor speech should be polished. All other speeches should have elements of refutation to other students and arguments in the round. If you are giving a speech in the fourth cycle and never refer to another person's argument, you are not going to score well in front of me. Simply dropping a person's name isn't refutation. You should tell me why their argument is wrong. With evidence it is even better.

You should do everything in your power to not go back-to-back on the same side. I will flow little of a second speech back-to-back on the same side. If you are the third speaker on the same side in a row, I'm not flowing any of it. Debaters should be prepared to switch sides if necessary. Lastly, there is a trend for no one to give an author/sponsor speech as they are worried, they will not score well. That isn't true in front of me. All parts of the debate are important.

The questioning period is about defeating arguments not to make the person look good. Softball questions are not helpful to debate. Do it multiple times and expect your rank to go down. All aspects, your speech, the quality of sources, refutation and questioning all go into your final rank. Just because you speak the prettiest does not mean you are the champion. You should be able to author/sponsor, refute, crystalize, ask tough questions, and defend yourself in questioning throughout the debate. Do all in a session and you are in decent shape.

Presiding Officers (PO): The PO will start with a rank of six in all chambers for me. From there, you can work your way up or down based on your performance. PO's who are clearly favoring the same school or same circuit students will lose rank. A PO can absolutely receive the one in my ranks likewise they can be unranked if you make many errors.

The current trend is for "super wordy" PO's. You do not need to say things like "Thank you for that speech of 3:09. As this was the 3rd Affirmative Speech, we are in line for 1 minute block of questioning. All those who wish to ask a question, please indicate." If you add up the above through an entire session, that adds up to multiple speeches that were taken by the PO. Watch how many words you say between speeches, question blocks, etc. A great PO blends away in the room. Extra language like "The chair thanks you", "this is speech 22", etc. All of this is just filler words for the PO taking time away from the debate. Lastly, a "chair" doesn't have feelings. It is not rude to be efficient.

I track precedence/recency in all sessions. I keep a detailed flow in all rounds debate - Congress, LD and PF.

Disclosure: I typically do not give any oral critiques. All the information will be on the ballot.

Eagan High School, Public Forum Coach (2018-Present), National Debate Forum (2016-2019), Theodore Roosevelt High School, Public Forum Coach (2014-2018)
She/Her Pronouns
Also technically my name is now Mollie Clark Ahsan but it's a pain to change on tabroom :)
Always add me to your email chain - mollie.clark.mc@gmail.com

Flowing
I consider myself a flow judge HOWEVER the narrative of your advocacy is hugely important. If you are organized, clean, clear and extending good argumentation well, you will do well. One thing that I find particularly valuable is having a strong and clear advocacy and a narrative on the flow. This narrative will help you shape responses and create a comparative world that will let you break down and weigh the round in the Final Focus. I really dislike blippy arguments so try to condense the round (kick out of stuff you don't go for) and make sure you use your time efficiently.

Extensions
Good and clean warrant and impact extensions are what will most likely win you the round. Extensions are the backbones of debate, a high-level debater should be able to allocate time and extend their offense and defense effectively. Defense is NOT sticky— defense that is unextended is dropped. Similarly, offense (including your link chain and impact) that is unextended is dropped.

Evidence
Ethical use and cutting of evidence is incredibly important to me, while debate may be viewed as a game it takes place in the real world with real implications. It matters that we accurately represent what's happening in the world around us. Please follow all pertinent tournament rules and regulations - violations are grounds for a low-point-win or a loss. Rules for NSDA tournaments can be found at https://www.speechanddebate.org/high-school-unified-manual/.

Speed, Speaking, & Unconventional Issues
- I can flow next to everything in PF but that does not mean that it's always strategically smart. Your priority should be to be clear. Make sure you enunciate so that your opponent can understand you, efficiency and eloquence in later speeches will define your speaks.
- Please be polite and civil and it is everyone’s responsibility to de-escalate the situation as much as possible when it grows too extreme. I really dislike yelling and super-aggressive crossfire in particular. Understand your privileges and use that to respect and empower others.
- Trigger/content warnings are appreciated when relevant.
- Theory and K debate are not my favorite, but I'll hear you out and evaluate it in the round. But talking to folks I'm pretty convinced that I'd enjoy a round with a performance K! So please consider this an invitation (though note that I really only want to see it if you're really passionate about it and truly believe in it).
- If push comes to shove I'm technically tech>truth with the caveat that I believe strongly that debate has real-world implications. So I reserve some discretion to deal with arguments that are outrageous or harmful in a more traditional PF way.

Speaker Point Breakdown
30: Excellent job, you demonstrate stand-out organizational skills and speaking abilities. Ability to use creative analytical skills and humor to simplify and clarify the round.

29: Very strong ability. Eloquent, good analysis, and strong organization. A couple minor stumbles or drops.

28: Above average. Good speaking ability. May have made a larger drop or flaw in argumentation but speaking skills compensate. Or, very strong analysis but weaker speaking skills.

27: About average. Ability to function well in the round, however analysis may be lacking. Some errors made.

26: Is struggling to function efficiently within the round. Either lacking speaking skills or analytical skills. May have made a more important error.

25: Having difficulties following the round. May have a hard time filling the time for speeches. Large error.

Below: Extreme difficulty functioning. Very large difficulty filling time or offensive or rude behavior.

pronouns: she/her/hers

email: madelyncook23@gmail.com & lakevilledocs@googlegroups.com (please add both to the email chain) -- if both teams are there before I am, feel free to flip and start the email chain without me so we can get started when I get there

PLEASE title the email chain in a way that includes the round, flight (if applicable), both team codes, sides, and speaking order

Experience:

• PF Coach for Lakeville North & Lakeville South in Minnesota, 2019-Present
• Speech Coach for Lakeville South in Minnesota, 2022-Present
• Instructor for Potomac Debate Academy, 2021-Present
• University of Minnesota NPDA, 2019-2022
• Lakeville South High School (PF with a bit of speech and Congress), 2015-2019

I will judge the debate you want to have. Go at whatever speed you prefer - I enjoy fast AND slow rounds as long as the warranting is good. A conceded blip barely means anything to me. I want to see a well executed collapse strategy with good cohesion between summary and final focus. Probably not the best judge for theory or kritiks, but I've listened to and enjoyed both when done well. If you plan to do either, please read the more detailed sections below. I'll give an RFD after the round.

General:

• I am generally happy to judge the debate you want to have.
• I wish more teams would full send evidence violations - way too many teams let opponents get away with egregious rules violations. I will jump for joy if this occurs when there is a legit evidence violation :)
• The only time you need a content warning is when the content in your case is objectively triggering and graphic. I think the way PF is moving toward requiring opt-out forms for things like “mentions of the war on drugs” or "feminism" is super unnecessary and trivializes the other issues that actually do require content warnings while silencing voices that are trying to discuss important issues.
• I'll drop you with lowest speaks allowed by the tournament for racism, sexism, transphobia, etc.
• I can probably keep up with whatever speed you plan to go. For online rounds, slow down more than you would in person. Please do not sacrifice clarity or warranting for speed. Sending a doc is not an excuse to go fast beyond comprehension - I do not look at speech docs until after the round and only do so if absolutely necessary to check evidence.
• Silliness and cowardice are voting issues.

Evidence Issues:

• Evidence ethics in PF are atrocious. Cut cards are the only way to present evidence.
• Evidence exchanges take way too long. Send full speech docs in the email chain before the speech begins. I want everyone sending everything in this email chain so that everyone can check the quality of evidence, and so that you don’t waste time requesting individual cards.
• Evidence should be sent in the form of a Word Doc/PDF/uneditable document with all the evidence you read in the debate.
• The only evidence that counts in the round is evidence you cite in your speech using the author’s last name and date. You cannot read an analytic in a speech then provide evidence for it later.
• Evidence comparison is super underutilized - I'd love to hear more of it.
• My threshold for voting on arguments that rely on paraphrased/power-tagged evidence is very high. I will always prefer to vote for teams with well cut, quality evidence.
• I don't know what this "sending rhetoric without the cards" nonsense is - the only reason you need to exchange evidence is to check the evidence. Your "rhetoric" should be exactly what's in the evidence anyway, but if it's not, I have no idea what the point is of sending the paraphrased "rhetoric" without the cards. Just send full docs with cut cards.
• You have to take prep time to "compile the doc" lol you don't just get to take a bunch of extra prep time to put together the rebuttal doc you're going to send.

Specific Preferences:

• I think this should go without saying in 2024, but frontline in second rebuttal. Dropped arguments in second rebuttal are conceded in the round. You should cover everything on the argument(s) you plan on going for, including defense.
• Collapse in summary. It is not a strategy to go for tons of blippy arguments hoping something will stick just to blow up one or two of those things in final focus. The purpose of the summary is to pick out the most important issues, and you must collapse to do that well.
• Weigh as soon as possible. Comparative weighing is essential for preventing judge intervention, and meta-weighing is cool too. I want to vote for teams that write my ballot for me in final focus, so try to do that the best you can.
• Speech organization is key. I literally want you to say what argument I should vote on and why.
• The way I give speaker points fluctuates depending on the division and the difficulty of the tournament, but I average about a 28 and rarely go below a 27 or above a 29. If you get a 30, it means you debated probably the best I saw that tournament if not for the past couple tournaments. I give speaker points based on strategic decisions rather than presentation.
• I'm not going to vote on an argument that doesn't have an internal link just because the impact is scary - I'm very much not a fan of war scenarios read by teams that are unable to defend a specific scenario/actor/conflict spiral. I do really enjoy war scenarios that are intricate and specific, probably much better than a lot of other extinction scenarios.
• I feel kind of paradigmatically (and morally tbh) opposed to arguments that necessitate asserting death is good. I think there is a substantial burden on the team making this argument to prove that life doesn't have inherent value and substantial warrant work that needs to be done to prove why suffering is worse than death and/or why death prevents worse impacts on scope. I find myself in spark rounds (which I've judged an unfortunate amount lately) frequently feeling as though I am not making the most "technically" correct decision because I am just unwilling to fill in conceded warrants for teams in the same way that I sort of am with conceded case arguments. If you want a more coherent decision from me, I would advise you avoid choosing this strategy.

Theory:

I’ve judged a lot of terrible theory debates, and I do not want to judge more theory debates, like even a little bit. I generally find theory debates very boring. But if you decide to ignore that and do it anyway, please at least read this:

• Frivolous theory is bad.
• I probably should tell you that I believe disclosure is good and paraphrasing is bad, but I will listen to answers to these shells and evaluate the round to the best of my ability. My threshold for paraphrasing good is VERY high.
• Debates that seek to establish much narrower interpretations to frame your opponents out of the debate are not debates I would like to judge as they generally feel like a waste of time.
• Even if you don’t know the "technical" way to answer theory, do your best to respond. I don't really care if you use theory jargon - just do your best.
• I am not sympathetic to answers that amount to whining/complaining about having to participate in a theory debate. These are not arguments. If your coach requires you to do x norm (doesn't let you disclose, etc.), they should be preparing you to defend x norm in round.
• not a fan of RVIs
• or IVIs for that matter
• I will say that despite all the above preferences/thoughts on theory, I really dislike when teams read theory as an easy path to ballot to basically "gotcha" teams that have probably never heard of disclosure or had a theory debate before. I honestly think it's the laziest strategy to use in those rounds, and your speaker points will reflect that. I have given and will continue to give low point wins for this if it is obvious to me that this is what you're trying to do.
• But teams debating in the varsity division at big national circuit tournament who paraphrase and/or don't disclose should probably be prepared for theory debates.

Kritiks:

I have a high threshold for critical arguments in PF because I just don’t think the speech times are long enough for them to be good, but there are a few things that will make me feel better about voting on these arguments.

• I will listen to anything, but I have a much better understanding and ability to evaluate a round that is topical. I have read a lot of cap and IR theory, and I think these debates are very fascinating. Critical arguments rooted in rejection of the aff or defending the resolution are debates I generally enjoy.
• I often find myself feeling a little out of my depth in K rounds, partly because I am not super well versed on most K lit but also because many teams seem to assume judges understand a lot more about their argument than they actually do. The issue I run into with many of these debates is when debaters extend tags rather than warrants which leaves the round feeling messy and difficult to evaluate. If you want to read a kritik in front of me, go ahead, but I'd do it at your own risk. If you do, definitely err on the side of over-explaining your arguments. I like to fully understand what the world of the kritik looks like before I vote for it. If I can't articulate the kritik back to you in my rfd, it's not something I'm going to feel comfortable voting for.
• Any argument is going to be more compelling if you write it yourself. Probably don't just take something from the policy wiki without recutting any of the evidence or actually taking the time to fully understand the arguments. K lit is very interesting, and getting a good understanding of it requires going beyond reading the bolded text of cards cut by someone else.
• I think theory is the most boring way to answer a kritik. I'll always prefer for teams to engage with the kritik on some level. I have just as frequently voted for k turns + extended case offense outweighs as I have for the k itself. I'm still kind of figuring out how I feel about this with the more K rounds I judge, but I think this rule doesn't apply with non-topical Ks that do nothing with the topic. T is probably a pretty effective way to answer these arguments, although I do not want theory to come at the cost of reading solvency answers and such.

Pet Peeves:

• Paraphrasing.
• Long evidence exchanges - just send docs.
• I don’t flow anything over time, and I’ll be annoyed and drop speaker points if your speeches go more than 5 or so seconds over.
• Pre-flow before you get to the room. The round start time is the time the round starts – if you don’t have your pre-flow done by then, I do not care, and the debate will proceed without it.
• The phrase "small schools" is maybe my least favorite phrase commonly used in debate. I have judged so many debates where teams get stuck arguing about whether they're a small school, and it never has a point. Literally any school can be a "small school" depending on what metric you use.
• The sentence "we'll weigh if time allows" - no you won't. You will weigh if you save yourself time to do it, because if you don't, you will probably lose.
• If you're going to ask clarification questions about the arguments made in speech, you need to either use cross or prep time for that.
• Tricks are cheating and impossible to resolve fairly. I am not a fan of arguments with the sole purpose of trying to avoid clash in the debate. This is probably one of the most uneducational decisions you could make in the round.
• I think "kicking the lay judge" on panels is unstrategic and unfun - volunteer parent judges are a necessary part of this activity in order for tournaments to run, and judge adaptation is an important skill learned in debate, plus I have very often watched the decision in the round come down to the lay judge because the two "techs" disagree.
• In round issues of safety are things that should be resolved out of round via the tournament's tab staff and ideally equity committee. If someone feels genuinely unsafe, I do not think that should be something that is debated about.

Congress:

I competed in Congress a few times in high school, and I've judged/coached it a little since then. I dislike judging it because no one is really using it for its fullest potential, and almost every Congress round I've ever seen is just a bunch of constructive speeches in a row. But here are a few things that will make me happy in a Congress round:

• I'll rank you higher if you add something to the debate. I love rebuttal speeches, crystallization speeches, etc. You will not rank well if you are the third/fourth/fifth etc. speaker on a bill and still reading new substantive arguments without contextualizing anything else that has already happened. It's obviously fine to read new evidence/data, but that should only happen if it's for the purpose of refuting something that's been said by another speaker or answering an attack the opposition made against your side.
• I care much more about the content and strategy of your speeches than I do about your delivery.
• If you don't have a way to advance the debate beyond a new constructive speech that doesn't synthesize anything, I'd rather just move on to a new bill. It is much less important to me that you speak on every bill than it is that when you do speak you alter the debate on that bill.

If you have additional questions, ask before or after the round or you can email me at madelyncook23@gmail.com.

Updated for MSHSL State (nothing too significant).

Preface

Speech and Debate are educational activities. My goal as a judge is to pick the debater(s) who best argues their case or the speaker(s) who best meet the criteria of a given event. But I also am seeking a round that is educational. Abusive arguments and rhetoric have no place in debate. Treat each other with kindness. We are all here to learn and expand our knowledge and experience. Racist, sexist, ableist, homophobic, transphobic, xenophobic, etc. arguments should not be made. Everyone is welcome in the debate community, do not marginalize and silence folks with your argumentation.

Also, since speech and debate are educational activities, feel free to ask me questions after the round. I'm here to help educate as well. As long as we have time before the next round has to start (and I've got enough time to submit my ballot before Zach Prax comes looking for me), then I'm always happy to answer questions.

Background

Director of Debate at Wayzata High School (MN) since Sept. 2020, I've been coaching and judging locally and nationally since 2013. I also coach speech at Wayzata and at the University of Minnesota.

I am a licensed, practicing attorney. I work as a criminal prosecutor for a local county in Minnesota and I have a MA in Strategic Intelligence and Analysis with a concentration in International Relations and Diplomacy.

Public Forum (but also generally applies to everything so maybe just start here)

Likes

- Voters and weighing. I don't want to have to dig back through my flow to figure out what your winning arguments were. If you're sending me back through the flow, you're putting way too much power in my hands. Please, please, please make your voters clear.

- Clear sign posting and concise taglines.

- Framework. I like a solid framework. If you have a weighing mechanism, state it clearly and provide a brief explanation.

- Unique arguments. Debate is an educational activity, so you should be digging deep in your research and finding unique arguments. If you have a unique impact, bring it in. I judge a lot of rounds and I get tired of hearing the same case over and over and over again.

Dislikes

-Just referencing evidence by the card name (author, source, etc.). When I flow, I care more about what the evidence says, not who the specific source was. If you want to reference the evidence later, you gotta tell me what the evidence said, not who said it.

-Off-time roadmaps are often a waste of time. If all you are doing is telling me that the Neg Rebuttal is "our case their case" then you don't need to tell me that. If you are going to go FW, then some cross-application, then your case, then their case, then back to FW, then that is something you should tell me. More importantly SIGN POST, SIGN POST, SIGN POST.

-SPEED. This is Public Forum, not Policy. If you spread, you're probably going to lose. I flow on my computer so that I can get as much on my flow as possible, but if you're too fast and unclear, it's not on my flow. If it's not on my flow, it's not evaluated in the round.

-Evidence misrepresentation. If there is any question between teams on if evidence has been used incorrectly, I will request to see the original document and the card it was read from to compare the two. If you don't have the original, then I will assume it was cut improperly and judge accordingly.

-Shouting over each other on CX. Keep it civil. Don't monopolize the time.

-"Grandstanding" on CX. CX is for you to ask questions, not give a statement in the form of a question. Ask short, simple questions and give concise answers.

-One person taking over on Grand CX. All four debaters should fully participate. If you aren't participating, then I assume it's because you do not have anything more to add to the debate and/or that you aren't actively involved in the debate and I likely will adjust speaks accordingly.

-K cases. I do not like them in public forum, especially if they are not topical. However, a K that is topical and actually engages with the topic and is generally within the topic meta is something I *may* vote off of. But it must be topical, otherwise I will not vote off the argument.

-Loud, annoying, alarms at the end of speeches. Especially the rooster crow. Please no rooster crow.

-Speaking of timers, if you're going to critique your opponents for going over time, you should probably make sure that you aren't going over time yourself. Also, you don't need to turn your timer to show me that your opponent is over time. I'm aware of their time, it just comes across as rude.

General

-I'm generally a flow judge, but I don't always flow card authors/names. My focus on the flow is getting what the evidence claims and what the warrant is, rather than who the source was. Referring back to your "Smith" card isn't enough, but giving a quick paraphrasing of the previously cited card, along with the author/source is much more beneficial and effective. Similarly, "Harvard" is a collegiate institution, not an author. Harvard doesn't write anything. Harvard doesn't publish anything. They may have a publishing company or a magazine that publishes, but Harvard does not, and last time I checked, John Harvard has been dead since 1638, so I doubt he has anything pertinent to support your argumentation.

-I'm an expressive person. I'll make a face if I believe you misstated something. I'll nod if I think you're making a good point. I'll shake my head if I think you're making a poor point. This doesn't mean that I'm voting for you or against you. It just means I liked or didn't like that particular statement.

-I like CX, so I tend to allow you to go over time a bit on CX, particularly if team A asks team B a question right before time in order to prevent them from answering. I'll let them answer the question.

-Evidence Exchanges. If you are asked for evidence, provide it in context. If they ask for the original, provide the original. I won't time prep until you've provided the evidence, and I ask that neither team begins prepping until the evidence has been provided. If it takes too long to get the original text, I will begin docking prep time for the team searching for the evidence and will likely dock speaker points. It is your job to come to the round prepared, and that includes having all your evidence readily accessible.

-If anything in my paradigm is unclear, ask before the round begins. I'd rather you begin the debate knowing what to expect rather than complain later!

Lincoln Douglas

I'm a PF coach, however I'm almost exclusively an LD judge on the weekends because I typically need to hire more LD than anything else.

- I find that it is best to treat me as a "flay" judge... I will flow, but I'm lay. I am very familiar with most of the traditional value/criterion/standards. If you have some new LD tech that is popular on the circuit or something, then I'm probably not the judge for you to run that. Unless you are going to fully explain your unique FW or whatever out, you probably shouldn't run it in front of me because I probably don't know it. (Read that last sentence again. Please fully explain your unique FWs or whatever because I'm looking for trad debate more than non-trad, and if you're going to be non-trad, then you need to make it digestible.)

- Speed kills you every single time. I do not want to have to strain myself trying to flow your speech. I do not want you to email me your case in order for me to be able to follow it. As noted above in the PF section, if I do not get it on my flow, it probably does not end up impacting the round. I am very unlikely to say speed or clear in round because by the time it's become obvious to me that you're just going to spread at me, it's usually too late. You can speed test me before round if you want, but every time that's happened the speed test has not matched the in round speed, so maybe make sure you actually speed test at the speed you plan to debate at...

- K debate. I really have no interest in judging a K.

Congress

- I really want some speech variety from y'all. If I am judging Congress, I'm often serving as a parliamentarian so I'm with you for several sessions. As a result, I should be able to get to see you do a variety of different speeches. I actually have a spreadsheet I use to track everyone's speeches throughout the round, what number speech they gave on each bill, which side they argue for, how often they speak, etc. After the round is over and I'm preparing my ballot, I will consult that to see whether you gave a variety of speech types. Were you consistently in the first group of speakers giving constructives? Did you give mid-cycle speeches where you bring clash and direct refutation? Did you mainly give crystallization speeches? Or, did you do a mix of it all? You should be striving to be in the last category. Congress is not about proving you can give the best prepared speech or that you can crystallize every bill. It's about showing how well-rounded you are.

- Speaking of prepared speeches. My opinion is that you should only come in with a fully prepared speech if you are planning to give the authorship/sponsorship or the very first negative speech. After that, your speeches should be no more than 50% canned and the rest should be extemporaneous. The later in the cycle you speak, the less canned your speech should be. This is a debate event. It is not a speech event. Prepared speeches in the mid and late cycles of debate are a disservice to yourself and your fellow congresspersons. And trust me, we can tell when you’re scripted. You aren’t that good at hiding it.

- PREP. I have judged a lot of congress over the years. I've judged prelims, elims, and finals at NSDA, NCFL, and the TOC. I am frankly COMPLETELY AND UTTERLY TIRED of y'all having to take a 10+ minute break in between every piece of legislation to either A) prep speeches; B) establish perfect balance between aff and neg; or, C) do research on the bill. A and C really frustrate me. I know y'all are busy. I know that sometimes legislation comes out only a few days before the tournament. And I know that sometimes there are a lot of pieces of legislation to research. But y'all should be spending time to prepare your arguments and have research so that all you're doing mid-round is finding evidence to refute or extend something that happened in the round. And the way tournaments are structured these days, it is rare for a round to have so many people in the chamber that not everyone can speak on a bill. Do the research on your own time, prep speeches on your own time (or, I dunno, give an extemporenous speech maybe?), and stop wasting the judges time.

POLICY

Never thought I’d be adding this section but here I am. If you read everything above, you should have a pretty good idea of my background and what I like/dislike in other debate events. You’ll notice that I really don’t like speed. That’s still true for policy. I want to be able to understand the debate not have to read it. You’ll also notice I don’t like K debate. That’s much more related to PF (where there’s little value in having a K debate) and LD (where I don’t think there’s enough time or ability to effectively develop the K) so ignore that I guess? Hopefully you're a novice and I haven't wandered into a JV or Varsity round, but if for some reason I have, please just go slow. I'm not going to vote for you just because you said more stuff. I want to actually know why I voted for someone and be able to find the answer on my flow.

Best practice would probably be for you to ask me questions before the round. We’ll both learn something that way.

I am very unlikely to give oral disclosure.

Irondale High School - social studies teacher, classic debate coach, speech coach

LD

· I am a more "traditional" judge who prefers a slower debate.

· I do not currently coach LD so I might not know jargon or acronyms specific to the current topic.

· I expect arguments to clearly link to a value/criterion or some other sort of framework.

· I've only seen a couple rounds where I thought the level of abuse from a debater truly justified theory. Don't run theory as just another argument; I prefer that you debate the resolution.

· Other off-case arguments are acceptable if they're presented in a manner that is accessible to your opponent. If your opponent is not familiar with this style, do not run these arguments as a strategic advantage; I will give you low speaker points. I don't have much experience evaluating off-case arguments so run at your own risk. It'd be more strategic to incorporate creative and critical arguments within your case.

PF

· Evidence should consist of direct quotes, not paraphrasing. If your opponents are paraphrasing, I encourage you to ask for the cut card from which this paraphrased statement is based.

· In the 2nd rebuttal, it is recommended that you cover the major arguments the 1st rebuttal made on your case (especially turns).

· On the line-by-line in the summary, please signpost -- tell me where you are on the flow. Refer to arguments by their card name and which contention/subpoint they are in. Don't just say "Remember that Smith tells you..." as an extension without saying where it is on the flow and fully responding to what the other team said against it.

· First summary should focus on extending offense, though extending defense on what you think the second summary will go for can be strategic. Respond to the second rebuttal's arguments as well.

· If an argument isn't extended in both summary and final focus, I won't vote on it.

· I have a high threshold for extensions in the final focus. Even if it was dropped by the other team, I expect you to spend more than one sentence or five seconds extending it. Reexplain the card and explain why it matters in the round.

· No theory, kritiks, etc. If there is real abuse, such as oppressive language or misconstruing evidence, definitely call it out during the round, but do not run one of these types of arguments. I do not believe they should be in PF.

Congress

· I will flow the content of your speech and treat it like a mini-extemp speech in terms of thesis, argumentation, and presentation.

· Direct questioning is awesome. If you use it to respectfully point out a flaw in someone's argument, I will be impressed.

· My highest ranks will go toward speakers who make original arguments (not summarizing or copying others) early on in the debate that have a substantial impact on the overall arc of a bill. That being said, referencing previous speeches and responding to them can also be rewarded.

· I will rank POs highly if you are organized, make little to no mistakes, and maybe even allow a little humor or personality to show through in a way that helps shape a unique session. I have ranked POs first in the round before.

Miscellaneous (mainly LD and PF)

· Be nice during cross-x. Do not be aggressive, sarcastic, or condescending. I have high expectations for decorum and respect during cross-x.

· I won't call for evidence unless its validity comes into question in a speech and this challenge is extended across the flow through the end of the round.

· I judge based on my flow and have never given an "automatic loss" to a team. However, I'd consider an automatic loss if there is racist/oppressive/inappropriate conduct, or if PF partners excessively communicate with each other during individual speeches and crossfires.

· I currently coach classic debate. I appreciate that this type of debate is inclusive to new programs, and that it encourages students to respect their opponents and develop real-world argumentation and communication skills. I teach students how to engage in both flow-based and lay debate, depending on who their judge is. This statement hopefully gives you some insight into how I am as an LD or PF judge.

Feel free to ask me questions before the round!

Updated 1/7/25. With MSHSL sections/state upcoming, moving PF/LD up and Congress down. PF/LD people - put me on the chain, email is right below this.

Two important rules (all formats)

1. Be respectful. If you say anything offensive (racist/sexist/homophobic/etc.) I will not hesitate to give you the auto-loss or the worst score I can.

2. I'm always down to give you more feedback, email is great (arthurpaulharris at gmail dot com) or just come find me at a tournament. I will answer any question about something on ballots I put out.

Background:

Graduated Bloomington Jefferson HS in 2012. Did Policy and Extemp Speaking plus a little Congress, but I was pretty mid at all of these events tbh.

Coach Bloomington Debate team 2018-present. Our program is now exclusively a Congress team, we did some PF in 18/19. Judge mostly Congress, but get ~12 assorted PF/LD rounds a year.

I work in finance doing institutional asset management when I'm not coaching. I also play and coach ultimate frisbee in my free time and watch a lot of sports, do with that what you will. I'm also always looking for new music to listen to, feel free to drop a recommendation post-round.

Naz Reid.

Disclosure:

I love to discuss specific feedback, either email (above) or find me after a round. Email after a tournament (Congress especially) is great if you want more feedback. I like to disclose post round when allowed.

Short Paradigm [PF/LD/CX]

If there's an email chain pls add me, email above. The debate will be best if you do what you do best - I'll do my best to adapt to you.

For PF/LD: I will vote on what's on the flow (or do my absolute best to). I flow on paper but my pen is still decently fast (see below about speed). I'm probably dead center on tech vs truth if you think those are contradictory, but if you want this to be circuit LD/PF and it's a MSHSL tournament, you'll be disappointed.

PF people - I reviewed most of the judge paradigms for the listed judges for MSHSL sections/state '25. I'm pretty sure I align closest w/ Christian Vasquez if that is a helpful shortcut for you, or if you want to read a well written paradigm vs. the garbage below (I am not a great writer or thinker tbh).

PF/LD thoughts:

1. Your speed is probably fine, your clarity probably needs work, you should def slow down for anything you want on my ballot at the end of the round and an argument made in your first speech needs to be extended in your other speeches to weigh at the end of the round. PF PEOPLE - I used to have a section about how y'all read your tags/cards backwards but I think I figured you out - I still would prefer if you made my life easier and didn't read everything at one speed, but increasingly that feels like a battle I will not win.

2. I def don't know any of your topic specific jargon and I almost certainly don't know any of the conventions/norms/customs of your event (the jargon/acronyms ESPECIALLY true for the Jan 25 topic). That means - you probably want to explain an acronym if it'll be important and you'll want to have clear explanations and impacts to your "speed bad" theory or whatever event specific theory (disclosure theory I guess?) you read.

3. Prep time abuse is bad. If it becomes an issue in round I will insert myself and start keeping the prep time myself. When you are out of time you have about 5 seconds to start talking before I get annoyed at you wasting time or stealing prep. Also - I've noticed a huge increase in rebuttals that go 4:10 or summaries that go 3:08. I will put my pen down at the end of the allowed speaking time, you're welcome to keep talking but none of it is going on the flow. I know it seems marginal (and that you don't have enough time as is), but those extensions net you 3-5% extra speech time and someone (probably the judge!) needs to hold the line.

4. I assume that when you read evidence you are reading directly from the source. If you are paraphrasing (apparently allowed in PF) you need to make it clear you are doing so (but also just don't do that). Failure to provide the evidence you paraphrased to the other team in a reasonable amount of time when asked is grounds for a loss. If you set up ev sharing, you should 100% send all cards before you start speaking. This will save time and make everyone's life easier, please just do it this way.

5. I think teams have been most frustrated with my decision when they're read more cards/arguments but didn't spend much time in the last rebuttals/final focus explaining the role of my ballot and weighing. good concessions and more time weighing usually gets a team a win. Smart cross applications and analytics will also get you a long way in front of me. Specificity of uniqueness/link and impact scenario will go a long way, and teams that read a specific scenario have beaten teams reading generic turns quite frequently.

Thoughts on things in debates (not sure how many of these are in LD, pretty sure very few are in PF):

Ks: I'm not a bright or well read individual. I understand the basics of what I believe y'all refer to now as "soft left" Ks, but my lack of substantial liberal arts education means I'm not familiar with anything more critical than them. I will do my best to judge you, however on kritiks as with any other arguments I need to hear a clear, specific link, a reason the kritik is competitive and solvency. You can try to convince me some or none of these are needed, but it'll be an uphill battle for you. LD people - I think (think) this means that if you read a consequentialist framework I'll track you, if you go for something ontological I'm going to need some extra hand holding (rephrasing your authors will go a LONG way). If this sentence makes no sense, you see what I'm trying to say re: me being not the smartest :)

CPs: Are good! I don't really want to hear like 14 of them, but a good plan vs CP debate?? Love it.

Theory: Theory with a voter of dropping a team: really high bar, need to prove in round abuse. Theory to drop an arg: Somewhat lower bar, would still like in-round abuse. As I get older I find reasonableness to be a better standard for judging theory. Your theory probably needs an interpretation, a violation, an impact and a voter. I've come to understand there's a subset of theory in PF called "tricks" - if your trick doesn't meet this burden I probably don't care for it. In PF, if you want to read "Topicality", I think the most reasonable voter is to drop any argument that isn't topical. You still need to run an interpretation, have a violation and explain what the impacts of non-topicality are. I can be persuaded you should win on T if your opponent reads non-topical advantages, but the burden is high on you to win the impact/voter level.

DAs: Obviously these are fine, need a clear uniqueness and link story. The more complicated your link chain the higher your explanatory burden will be and the lower my bar to evaluating defense for the other team will be.

Keeping this (modified) disclaimer from the Section 230 topic since it's widely applicable: Unlike most of the judging pool I'm not a lawyer and am therefore easily bamboozled by lies about the legal system. On the flip side I (maybe) understand financial markets better than most judges.

Short Paradigm [Congress]

1. Debating makes up ~80% of your rank in front of me, speaking is ~20%. Argument quality is an important sub-element of debating (creative link chains are acceptable, you just need to explain them well). I am a human though, so masterful rhetorical skill can get you a good rank if you have it. Six years into judging and I still need to see WAY MORE CLASH once we move past the first cycles.

2. POs - I am PO friendly in that every PO starts somewhere in the top half of my ballot. I track P/R for speeches/questions. If you make no P/R mistakes (or correct yourself quickly if you do), call speakers/questioners about as fast as I can track, have a handle on the rules for motions/votes and keep the round running smoothly, you'll probably do well. You can find detailed examples of how to move up/down as the PO in my extended paradigm linked below. I think the PO leniency has bent too far in favor of POs, so mistakes in P/R will start to carry harsher penalties in Varsity/Open rounds.

3. If there is a broken cycle (i.e. no one stands for aff so there are two negs in a row or vice versa) - giving that broken cycle speech is almost always the way to move to the bottom of my ballot. You need to bring new refutation to the table and it needs to be a clincher for the round .You're almost always better off moving previous question and taking your P/R to the next bill - this continues to be an issue with little movement in the right direction...maybe 24-25 season we give this some more thought? Two important caveats that happened recently - first, breaking cycle to give the last crystal of a round (common in 12 person chambers, as w the PO out there's 11 debaters) is fine - I don't think you should always have to give the aff crystal to "not break cycle" - but I do want that crystal to be good! Second, there was also a scenario recently where no one stood for the 3rd aff and cycle broke so 2N->3N->3A, etc..., but after that debate continued inline(i.e. alternative aff/neg until the 6th cycle). In this situation I have a hard time seeing the 3N as the one to "break cycle" and not the 3A that DIDNT STAND UP AND GIVE THE 3A! Also in this case that 3N did the first rebuttal speech to the 2 aff constructives, which is what needs to happen there anyway.

4. I am probably one of the more friendly judges for you if you like to run critical arguments. I can't say this will ever be a good strat for you because I'm never your only judge, but if shooters gotta shoot - let it be you.

5. Questioning time should be for asking questions, not making statements (as the questioner). I'm not flowing OR giving out ranks for questions asked, nor do I consider a question an "argument" to be referenced later. You can and should set up an argument you plan to give later by getting key concessions in questioning, but this never happens by asserting your own argument and asking the speaker if they agree with you. Tactical mastery of question asking is an "area of focus" for me in the 24-25 season on the MN circuit.

5. Please remember to have fun. If you aren't having fun there's really no point to any of this.

Assorted Musing/Long Paradigm:

2024-2025 Congress thoughts

Offense/defense is becoming my go-to framework to evaluate neg speeches - you need some offense on the neg in order to do well. I think negs struggle with offense for a couple reasons - bills lean aff heavy and defense tends to be where the (more truthful) lit base exists. To check this back, negs should probably employ more tradeoff disads or sequencing disads.

Rebuttal speeches are still incredibly mediocre. I would love to see someone give me a rebuttal speech where they go line-by-line and give me multiple responses to each point on the other side - at present the best I get is a "they say / we say" singular refutation style speech. If you're going to do this style, I need some weighing after you tell me your response - why should I prefer your argument to theirs? You don't need to hold off on weighing until the crystal (which no ones does well / at all anyway).

Older Congress thoughts that are still correct

I think the bias in the aff/neg split has firmly entrenched itself on the neg - this is probably due to a) poor bill quality in MN and b) assuming an authorship means prepping a 1N is more "guaranteed". That said, I think going aff can be very advantageous this year, especially given the quality of neg args that folks seem to be running against legislation that is, big picture, a *good* idea.

At locals: The trend of putting every bill authored by someone in the chamber on the agenda needs to stop. The legislation people are putting out in MN is NOT good enough for authorship to guarantee the floor, and because y'all refuse to move on at an appropriate time these bills kill speech ranks for ~2-3 cycles of debaters. I promise you you will not lose ranks in front of me for being "mean" and voting against dockets that have bad bills on them just because someone wrote that bill - in fact if I observe you lobbying against poorly researched and/or "shallow cycle" bills in the face of opposition from folks "just trying to be nice" I'll probably be more inclined to use that as a tiebreaker to move you up in rank for recognizing that debate needs ground on both sides to happen.

PO bias seems to have bent back in favor of POs - in order to compensate I will have a much stricter tolerance for PO mistakes on precedence/recency for both questioners and speakers. Additionally I will start to judge PO speed on a stricter scale when it comes to selecting questioners in particular (obviously accounting for debaters that may take too long to stand or stand mid questioning).

Also for POs - please cut down on the words you say. We don't need to know how long the speech was. We know and TRUST YOU to know how many questioning blocks are next. We only need to know if aff or neg is next speaker, not which number it is. If you really need to thank everyone, please do it off the clock after the round.

I used to have a whole lot of words here about the way I think about and judge debate. I probably won't update it a lot but I probably won't change it a lot either. I've moved that to a google doc which you can view here. Everything is still up to date and accurate as of December 2021.

Extemp Speaking Paradigm, updated pre MN State Tournament 2023:

How to win the ballot, Extemp Speaking:

1. Answer the question.

1. Actually answer the question that was asked, not a variant or similar question. At state this is going to pick trickier than usual (probably), because the questions tend to be multifaceted.

2. Usually, the easiest way to make sure you answer the question is to have a thesis, instead of just a yes/no. You are usually then forced to make sure your subpoints of analysis always link back to the thesis, which in turn answers the question.

3. Whether or not you use a thesis, you want to spend time explaining why your subpoints reinforce or prove your thesis correct, and if you do have a thesis you need to explain why it is the best answer to the question

2. Analysis

1. Depth > breadth - that is, I’d rather see you really focus on proving the logic behind a single claim per sub point rather than having a ton of different points of analysis or facts crammed into two minutes.

1. For example, if your first subpoint is that the ECB raising rates would but European banks under pressure, my preference is for you to explain a theory for why and develop out a clear picture of how and why banks would be in trouble in a rising rate environment (using maybe 1 or 2 sources), rather than telling me that 4 different sources show that 4 different European banks said they’d have trouble with an asset-liability mismatch if the ECB raises rates.

2. Another way of saying this is - I want you to demonstrate that you have an advanced understanding of what you’re talking about, rather than that you were able to read a bunch of headlines. Whatever you can do to give me that impression, do that.

2. Source quality - this is one area of “flash” that I can be impressed - deploying underutilized sources (and explaining why they are great sources) is something I personally really like.

1. Even if you don’t have any books or papers or super underutilized sources to run out, using higher quality sources of common usage (i.e. think tanks and analysis pieces) instead of common news sources (i.e. the NYT, Reuters, etc) is usually good.

3. Delivery - I am pretty firmly in camp analysis > delivery, but am probably an outlier on any panel in this regard. If its the State final you’re all going to be delivering at a level that clears my threshold, so really the key is to not get mentally down on yourself if you stumble or aren’t as smooth as you’d like early on because I don’t care about that at all.

4. Probably the best way to think about winning a round is to treat answering the question like you’re engaging in a debate vs an imaginary opponent who is trying to disprove your answer to the question. This will force you to:

1. Defend the veracity of your claims, which in turn will make them more persuasive

2. Will likely lead you to conditioning your claims with “even-if” statements, which again will increase their persuasiveness

3. Probably means you’re presenting a more nuanced picture of the world, which is good.

Todd Hering-PF Paradigm

I have coached debate since 1991 in a variety of formats.

Evidence ethics are important to me. Debaters should accurately represent the conclusions of credible authors. I do not support paraphrasing, but if you do, it needs to strictly conform to the original source.

I prefer fewer arguments that are well-developed with clear warranting. “Blippy” debate—many claims with limited explanation—is ineffective and unpleasant. I am unlikely to vote for an argument that isn’t developed over the course of the round. Please take the time when you first introduce an argument to clearly explain your reasoning. Arguments that have academic merit (rather than debate fiction) are more appealing to me.

Stylistically, I do not enjoy fast debate. In my ideal world, debate would develop and reward communication skills that are relevant beyond the world of competitive debate. I do understand that there are some competitive realities with time limits that force debaters sometimes to speak quickly. Also, being polite in cross-fire is expected.

I have been judging debate in MN regularly since at least 2004. I judge at invitationals, Sections, NatQuals, and State. I started judging LD debate, but as PF has grown in MN, I now judge mostly PF debate. I also started coaching PF in 2017.

When judging debate I want you, the debaters, to prove to me why you should win my ballot. I listen for explanations as to WHY your contention is stronger or your evidence more reliable than the opponents' contention/evidence. Just claiming that your evidence/arguments are better does not win my ballot. In other words, I expect there to be clash and clear reasoning.

I listen carefully to the evidence entered in to the debate to make sure it matches the tag you have given it. If a card is called by the other team, it better have a complete source cite and show the quoted material either highlighted or underlined with the rest of the words there. The team providing the card should be able to do so expeditiously. I expect that author, source, and date will be presented. Author qualifications are very helpful, especially when a team wants to convince me their evidence is stronger than the ev presented by their opponents. The first time the ev is presented, it needs to be the author’s words, in context, and NOT paraphrased. Later paraphrased references in the round, of course, is a different story.

The affirmative summary speech is the last time new arguments should be entered in the debate.

If arguments are dropped in summaries, they are dropped from my flow.

When time expires for a speech, I stop flowing.

I expect that debaters should understand their case and their arguments well enough that they can explain them clearly and concisely. If a debater cannot respond effectively to case questions in Cross Fire, that does not bode well.

I expect debaters to show respect for each other and for the judge. Rude behavior will result in low speaker points.

PF and LD are separate debate events, but I don't think my view as a judge changes much between the two activities. I want to hear the resolution debated. If one side basically avoids the resolution and the other side spends some time answering those arguments PLUS supporting their case on the resolution, I will likely lean towards the side that is more resolutional. In other words, if one side chooses to run something that does not include looking at the pros and cons of the actual resolution, and chooses to ignore the resolution for the majority of the debate, that choice probably won't bode well for that team.

I only give oral critiques and disclose when required to in out-rounds. I promise I will give a thorough RFD on my ballot.

Chris McDonald (He/Him) - cmcmcdonald58@gmail.com

Use the above email for any email chains during the round.

Head Coach Eagan High School in Minnesota

While I mainly have coached and judged Policy Debate for the past 37 years I do judge my fair share of LD, Public Forum and Congressional Debate Rounds.

Items for all formats to consider:

1. Disclosure theory: While I understand why this started out as something good for the community it has unfortunately morphed into an abusive argument and as such I will not consider it in my decision for the round.
2. Evidence sharing: Have a system for sharing evidence setup before the round begins. This will make this more efficient and your judges happier. If you are asked for a piece of evidence you just read and it takes you more than 10 seconds to find the card, you can use your prep time locating it or the argument will become unsupported by evidence.
3. Paraphrasing in Debate: I dislike paraphrasing and even though the rules allow it I find that is has become abused by some debaters. I would ask that teams read actual quotes from evidence and not paraphrase. If you do paraphrase your evidence must comport with current NSDA rules concerning how paraphrasing works in line with MLA standards.

Policy Debate - Please know that while I used to judge a lot of rounds throughout the season in policy debate it has been a few years since I judged more than a handful of policy rounds. I do work with my school's novice and varsity policy teams, so I should be fairly up to date on key arguments on the current on topic.

My philosophy has pretty much remained consistent throughout my career. I consider policy debate to be a test of policy based ideas between two teams. How those teams approach the topic and frame the debate is entirely up to them. Below are a few things to know about me on some specifics but please know my primary objective is for us to have an enjoyable round of debate.

Delivery Speed - Since it has been a few years for me since last judging lots of policy debate my ability to listen to really fast debate has faded. Please keep it to a slightly slower speed of delivery especially when using the online platforms. I will let you know if you are unclear or going too fast by verbally indicating such during your speech. On a scale of 1 to 10 with 1 being oratory speed and 10 being approaching the sound barrier (only joking here) I would place myself as a 7 these days.

Topicality - I enjoy a good topicality debate but have found that over the years teams are taking too many shortcuts with the initial development of the topicality violation. I prefer topicality to have a clear definition, a clearly developed violation, standards for evaluating the violation and reasons why it is a voting issue. For the affirmative side you really need to engage with the topicality violation and provide a counter interpretation that supports your interpretation of the resolution. Topicality is distinct from framework.

Framework - I also enjoy evaluating a debate when framework is clearly articulated and argued by both the affirmative and negative sides. Framework is focused around how you would like me to evaluate the arguments in the round. Do you prefer a consequentialist framework, a deontological framework, etc..

Critiques - I am fine with critical approaches by the negative and the affirmative sides. For the affirmative please keep in mind that you will need to defend your critical affirmative as either a topical representation of the resolution or why it is important for us to debate your affirmative even if it isn't necessarily within the boundaries of the topic.

Flow - Please label all arguments and positions clearly throughout the debate. Signposting has become a lost art. Debaters doing an effective job of signposting and labeling will be rewarded with higher speaker points.

Disadvantages - Please be certain to articulate your links clearly and having clear internal links helps a great deal.

Counter plans - I think counter plans are an essential tool for negative teams. Please note that I am not a big fan of multiple conditional counter plans. Running a couple of well developed counter plans is better than running 4 or 5 underdeveloped counter plans. Counter plans should have a text to compete against the affirmative plan text.

Theory - General theory in debate rounds like conditionality are fine but have rarely been round winners without a lot of time devoted to why theory should be considered over substance.

If you have any questions please let me know and I will happily answer those questions.

Lincoln Douglas

1. I am not a fan of theory as it plays out in LD debate rounds. Most of the theory that is argued is pretty meaningless when it comes to the topics at hand. I will only consider topicality if the affirmative is presenting a plan text in the round or isn't debating the resolution we are supposed to be considering at that given tournament. I ask that the debaters debate the topic as it is written and not as they would like it to be.

2. Beyond my dislike for theory you are free to pretty much debate the round as you see fit. Please keep your speed to a level where you are clear.

3. Evidence should be shared using an email chain. Please include me at cmcmcdonald58@gmail.com

4. If you have specific questions please ask. I will disclose at the end of the round but I will also respect the tournaments schedule and work to keep it on time.

Public Forum

1. Evidence is very important to me. I prefer direct quotation of evidence over paraphrasing. Please make note of the NSDA rule regarding paraphrasing. Source Citations: make sure that you present enough of a source citation that I should have no problem locating the evidence you present in the round. This would include the author or periodical name and date at a minimum. So we are clear Harvard '23 is not a source citation. Harvard is a really great University but has, to my knowledge never written a word without the assistance of some human that attends or works at Harvard.

2. There is to be no game playing with regards to evidence sharing during or after the round. If you are asked for evidence by your opponents you must produce it in a timely manner or I will discount the evidence and only treat the argument as an unsubstantiated assertion on your part. Even if it means handing over one of your laptops you must provide evidence for inspection by the other team so that they may evaluate it and respond to the evidence in subsequent speeches.

3. Prep Time - you are only provided with 3 minutes of prep time, unless otherwise stated by the tournament you are attending. Please use it wisely. I will only give a little latitude with regards to untimed evidence sharing or organizing your flows, but please be efficient and quick about it.

4. Argument choices are completely up to the debaters. I prefer a good substantive debate with clear clash and that the debaters compare and weigh the arguments they feel are important for their side to prevail as the debate comes into focus but the substance of those arguments is completely within the control of the teams debating.

5. Please respect your opponents and treat everyone involved in the debate round with the utmost respect. Speaker points will be effected by any rude behavior on the part of a debater.

6. I will disclose and discuss my decision at the end of the round so long as there is time and the tournament stays on schedule.

7. Finally, please remember to have fun and enjoy the experience.

Pronouns: They / She

My Debate Experience: Been in the debate-o-sphere since 2011. Competed in high school and college as well as coached for about 5 years. Experience with LD, PF, and Congress.

For all Formats: Any arguments that are offensive are not going to be evaluated, you WILL lose speaker points (and probs the round). Please don't make me stop the round by saying something offensive.

LD Paradigm:

TL;DR: Run whatever you want, but make sure you are clear and can explain the arguments to me. Do clear impacting and weighing for me, don't make me search through the flow (hint: I won't do it for you). Have clear voters. Be respectful of your opponent and the debate space.

I have realized that most of y'all go way faster than I can flow (especially with analytics). Please slow down a little bit... thanks. Take your max speed level and go about 60% of that in front of me. Note: I will not yell clear. I will just stop flowing. Therefore, I encourage you to look up for the taglines and impact analysis to make sure I am still with you.

I am down with mostly anything. I believe that debaters are at their best when they run case positions that they are confident and comfortable with running. I will do my best as your judge to understand and follow what you are saying. I am flow-oriented so I will not intervene on arguments so... you need to tell me where I need to vote and why.

Pro Tip: Don't just read things to read them, have a strategy and purpose behind them.

PF Paradigm:

TL;DR: Do not paraphrase evidence. Be prepared to have cards called if needed. Impact evidence and arguments and connect to the bigger picture of the round. Easier for me to flow issue-by-issue rather than the line-by-line after the summaries. Also, Take your fastest speed and go about 50% of that in front of me if you are doing a lot of nitty gritty analytic responses or weighing. I have a really hard time catching the relevant analyses if you fly through it faster than my brain can even process it.

- Do NOT paraphrase evidence and make sure your evidence has warrants. I am not the person to paraphrase cards in front of... I will not evaluate them. Nor am I someone who will buy the one sentence card that is supposedly the end all be all evidence. You need warrants.

- Make sure that you are impacting your contentions. I NEED weighing on the contention level to evaluate between two opposing claims. If you are running short-term impacts and your opponent is running long-term impacts, I NEED the clash and weighing between which is preferable for me to evaluate on.

- Speaking of clash - please do it.

- I am open to any type of arguments/styles in PF. If you want to try out some new strategies, DO IT! This is your time to run what you want to. I can give you feedback on what strategies worked and what didn't work in front of me.

- I am very flow oriented. Extended through ink is one of my greatest pet peeves. Also, if you are making a new argument in the final focus, I will recognize that and probably will not evaluate it.

- 2nd Rebuttal - you need to go over your own case. At the very least, I need you to cover the turns that are on the flow. On the flip side... do not go over your own case in 1st rebuttal, you are wasting time in my book.

CD Paradigm:

TL;DR: Clash. Clash. Clash. Second cycle of debate and beyond should be rebuttals and then crystallization, NOT constructive speeches. Build off of and directly respond to main issues and points presented by the opposing side. Remain active in the chamber. Even after you speak, ask questions and be present in the chamber!

Pro Tip: Leverage your recency/precedence to your advantage to give a different type of strategy speech. If you give a constructive (author/sponsor/1st neg) on the first bill, give a rebuttal or crystallization on the second. I want to see your skills as a debater!!

- Top ranking students in chambers that I judge remain active throughout the session (multiple high-quality speeches, questions, and noticeably paying attention to other speakers) and have nuanced analysis that builds off of other speakers (refutations or supportive analysis oriented).

- Canned speeches are not super welcome unless it is the first aff or first neg speech.

- Clash is the most important aspect missing from CD. Build off of other speakers, add analysis, and respond to the opposing claims when appropriate.

- Remain as active as possible in chamber throughout the session. I pay attention to who is asking the questions and the types of questions you are asking. If you get a 30 second block, use the whole time!

- Analysis and warrants to support you claims is critical. Lower speaker points (under 4) demonstrate a lack of content or analysis of the arguments. If you wish to obtain a score of 4 or higher in your speech, make sure you are using sources and explaining the context surrounding your warrant/data and build off of other speakers before you.

I am a teacher and coach at Eastview High School (MN) - the 2023-2024 school year is my 21st year coaching and my 25th year involved in speech and debate. Full disclosure: I don't judge a whole lot. I'm usually doing other things at tournaments. But: I do actively coach, I enjoy judging almost every time I get to, and I like to think I'm fairly predictable in terms of what I look for and prefer.

You can ask me questions in round if you wish.

PF: I can "handle speed", though I don't know that I've seen many fast PF debaters. I have seen many blippy PF debaters. To me, speed does not equate to 40 cards, of varying word count, that are blippily extended. I very much prefer depth and extension of ideas than extension of tons of author names that all don't say a whole lot.

Congress: What I most value in this event include:

(1) Debating! Pre-scripted speeches (with the exception of an authorship) don't do much for me. Each speech should be somehow moving the debate forward; when speeches are merely read, they don't have that power. This also means that rehashing of points should be avoided. If you do discuss arguments previously made, what can you do to move them forward and develop a deeper line of analysis? Some type of impact analysis, new weighing, perhaps a new facet of the problem? Just repeating argumentation doesn't help move the debate forward.

(2) Thesis-driven speeches. I like to see a clear framework, clear organization, and a coherent structure that all supports some major theme within your speech. A hodgepodge of impacts and arguments that feel unrelated don't have as much weight as a speech that has a central, core idea behind it.

(3) Evidence. Moreso than an author name, I do like to hear credentials and dates. Not only that, evidence comparisons are so often key to the debate - why should I prefer your evidence over other evidence that has been heard so far in the round?

(4) Diversity of Cycle Position. If I hear a debater give me four first negative speeches, I don't feel like I get a true sense of the skill of that debater. Preferably, I'd like to hear each entry speak in different parts of the cycle. If you give me a first negative, maybe work to have a speech near the end of the debate to show my your crystallization skills. If you have a mid-cycle speech, maybe work to have a constructive speech next time. Obviously, your precedence and recency determines some of your order, but work to showcase differing skills in the round.

(5) Cross-x is important, but not everything. Speeches carry far more weight than questions. I do listen to questions, take into account your chamber activity, and really enjoy hearing c-x's that bring up holes in a position (or expertly bolster a position). But too often, I see debaters hurting themselves in c-x more than helping themselves. Overly aggressive, snippy, demeaning c-x's just don't help build a debater's eithos. Two competent debaters can have a good discourse without resulting to being mean. In c-x, I like to get proof that you truly "know your stuff" - that you're researched, have a handle on the topic, and didn't just read some brief that was given to you.

(6) Knowledge. The very best debaters, in my opinions, are the ones that have a fundamental understanding of the issues and can communicate them in a clear, impactful way. That simple statement is really hard to master. It is fairly clear when a person is well read, can respond to arguments with substantiated claims on fly, and can think on a deeper level. Show me your mastery of the content and you will be rewarded.

Finally, (7) Just Debate. I enjoy Congress - but when debate devolves into games and tricks designed to disadvantage any given speaker, I get frustrated. In my humble opinion, the very best debaters work to get their wins through mastery of the content, clear argumentation, and a firm but kind debating style. Resorting to games is beneath that. Have fun, for sure, but don't do so at the expense of others.

No School Affiliation - NH

Updated for MSHSL State: Please slow down and enunciate when you read author names or argument tags. I really want to catch those because they are incredibly important as the round proceeds.

Experience: I have been coaching since 2017. I competed in speech and debate for three years in high school and four years in college. I have experience coaching or competing in Public Forum (PF), Parliamentary, Classic Debate, and Extemporaneous Speaking (Extemp).

Substance: I firmly believe that argumentative substance and technical proficiency are the foremost factors in evaluating a round of debate. Providing cogent argumentation and doing so in an organized manner (signposting) is the best way to win my ballot. Please be sure to provide a comparative analysis of arguments as the round proceeds. I must understand why your narrative is more important in order to vote for it.

Delivery: The stylistic aspects of debate are very important. I strongly prefer teams to speak at a conversational pace. If you speak fast, I will likely miss something, which won't help you as a debater or me as a judge. Try to avoid debate jargon as much as possible. Debate, particularly Public Forum, should be accessible to anyone watching a round.

Evidence: Evidence ethics are incredibly important to me. Ensure cards have properly written citations and accurately represent the author's opinion. Evidence exchanges should be resolved quickly. I strongly dislike paraphrasing. If you choose to paraphrase, remember: "Paraphrasing may be used to shorten or clarify one specific portion of an original source." Please use evidence cards judiciously—I want to hear your analysis!

I am a head debate coach at East Ridge High School in Minnesota with 12 years of debate under my belt and 17 years of speech coaching / judging experience as well. I love both activities, and I love seeing creative / unique approaches to them. I've sent several students to Nationals in both speech and debate categories for the past several years.

In 'real life' I'm an intellectual property attorney. I love good arguments in all types of debate. But I will NOT make logic jumps for you. You need to do the legwork and lay out the argument for me, step by step. I LOVE legal arguments, but most of all I love a good Story. Frame your arguments for me. Make the impacts CLEAR. (e.g. in PF / LD - WEIGH them.) Tell me how and why to write my ballot for you and I probably will!

Voting Values
I vote on topicality in any type of debate that I judge. If your arguments are non-topical, and you get called on it, they will be struck from my flow. Everyone got the same resolution / bills, that's what I want to hear arguments about.

I am NOT a fan of Kritiks - you got the resolution ahead of time. Debate it.

SPEED

THIS IS A COMMUNICATION ACTIVITY. Your goal is to effectively communicate your arguments to me. If you are talking too fast to be intelligible, you are not effectively communicating.

If you make my hand cramp taking notes, I'll be crabby. I am a visual person and my notes are how I will judge the round. If I miss an argument because you were talking at light speed, that's your fault, not mine! :)

Attitude / Aggressiveness

100%, above all, you are human beings and citizens of the world. I expect you to act like it. I HATE rudeness or offensive behavior in any debate format. Be kind, be inclusive. By all means, be aggressive, but don't be rude.

Public Forum: I am a huge framework fan. You have the evidence, frame the story for me. If you give me a framework and explain why, under that framework, your evidence means I vote for you, I will. Don't make me do summersaults to get to a decision. If only one team gives me a framework, that's what I'll use.

Re: Summary / FF - I expect the debate to condense in the summary / final focus - and I expect you to condense the story accordingly. Look for places to cross-apply. I do need arguments to extend through every speech to vote for them - but I do not expect you to reiterate all evidence / analysis. Summarizing and weighing is fine for me.
WEIGH arguments for me. Especially if we're talking apples and oranges - are we comparing money to lives? Is there a Risk-Magnitude question I should be considering?

Re: new arguments in GC/FF - I won't weigh new ARGUMENTS, but I will consider new EVIDENCE / extensions.

Re: Argument / Style - I'm here to weigh your arguments. Style is only important to the extent you are understandable.

I generally don't buy nuclear war arguments. I don't believe any rational actor gets to nuclear war. I'll give you nuclear miscalc or accident, but it's a HIGH burden to convince me two heads of state will launch multiple warheads on purpose.

Lincoln-Douglas: If you give me a V/C pairing, I expect you to tie your arguments back to them. If your arguments don't tie back to your own V/C, I won't understand their purpose. This is a values debate. Justify the value that you choose, and then explain why your points best support your value.

Congress: I need a thesis statement in your speech, and signposting when you move from point to point. No thesis statement ==> I won't understand your speech structure ==> I won't follow it ==> you won't get ranked well. Speech structure is SO important to being persuasive!

That said, this is debate. Beautiful speeches, alone, belong in Speech categories. I expect to see that you can speak well, but I am not thrilled to listen to the same argument presented three times. I expect to see clash, I expect to see good Q&A. I love good rebuttal / crystallization speeches.

I DO rank successful POs - without good POs, there is no good Congressional Debate. If you PO well in front of me, you will be ranked well.

World Schools: This actually is my favorite form of debate. I want to see respectful debate, good use of POIs, and organized content. I've judge WSD at Nationals for the last several years and I do adhere to the WSD norms. Please do not give me "regular debate" speed - I want understandable, clear speeches.

Background:

• I teach English 11, Journalism, and College Writing at Moorhead High School. This is my 11th year at MHS.
• I have coached speech for the past 11 seasons, primarily PA events (Discussion, Ex. Speaking, GS, Info, OO).
• I was the Head Debate Coach at MHS from 2017 when we revived the program to 2024. Over those seven years, I coached PF and Congress. Our team also competed in LD.
• I regularly judged PF and Congress during the regular season and have judged Congress and PF at State for the past four years. I've also judged PF at national circuit tournaments and NSDA Nationals. In speech, I've judged all events at the local, regional, and national level since 2015.

A more detailed paradigm is below but, regardless of the event, please know that respect, integrity, and decorum are paramount. Offensive language, condescension, and aggression at any point in the round will ensure a loss/lowest possible rank. In short, be kind.

Public Forum:

• Speed is fine so long as it doesn't come at the cost of clarity. Quality over quantity usually prevails. Clear signposting and extending voters goes a long way toward winning the round. Take the time to ensure that 'dropped' contentions are fully explained.
• Please do not bombard us with cards. Evidence (directly and appropriately quoted) is important but I am far more interested in your analysis and deeper explanation. Demonstrate your understanding and show us how that evidence functions with regard to your opponent's claims and the case you are building.
• Stay cool and composed, especially during cross. Shouting matches serve little purpose. When you ask a question, I expect that you actually want to hear the answer.
• Timing - While I expect debaters to honor time restrictions and keep record, I will also keep track and will hold you to those parameters. Please don't abuse it.

Congress:

• Much like PF, it's quality over quantity for me. Two, or maybe three, sub points defending or negating a piece of legislation with sound, clear analysis is more important than a lengthy list of reasons with little time to explain. Long intros that meander before reaching the thesis, to me, are not the best use of time (I know, I sound like a curmudgeon. Have fun with it but not at the expense of dropping or rushing a point previewed in the intro).
• Demonstrate your understanding of the bill/resolution and its language. Reference specifics within the legislation (section and/or line numbers are helpful). I think it can be easy to find small, grammatical or typographical errors and point solely to that as a reason for negating (and in some cases, those issues should be noted), but please take the time to debate the merits of the legislation as well.
• Active listening - Above all, this one stands out to me the most and usually becomes my tiebreaker when ranks are super close. This can be as small as directly referencing -- by name -- previous speakers and their points or even making occasional eye contact while others are speaking . . . Active listening also means building upon established claims/reasons in your speeches and in questioning. If there's nothing new or insightful to add, it's best to move to previous Q to retain your spot in line. On a related note, please make an effort to correctly pronounce the names of your fellow competitors (and if yours is mispronounced, please correct them...and correct me too).
• POs - I tend to start POs in the top 5-6 of my rankings and adjust based on the overall organization, order, and smoothness of the round. I try to track P/R when scoring and definitely do as a Parli. Small errors can be forgiven (we're all human) if recognized but, especially late in the season, running for PO tells me that you are comfortable with the job. As such, I will hold POs to that standard much like the standards set for Reps/Sens in the round.

Background: Debate and Speech Coach at East Ridge High School in Woodbury, Minnesota. Retired Attorney.

Regarding PF:

-Your speed needs to be conversational; if I cannot get it on my flow, you did not say it.

-I need to hear excellent warranting and narrative - I do not prep the PF topic, so make it make sense.

-I consider myself a truth-over-tech judge.

-I like quantifiable impacts.

-Off-time roadmaps are good for me.

-Voters and weighing are key to my ballot.

-Make the Summary and Final Focus what they should be, not a Rebuttal 2.0.

What I am looking for in Congressional Debate:

-an introduction to your speech, a roadmap, and some signposting/transitions are helpful

-arguments that include the necessary evidence to support them

-citations that give me enough information to find them, if needed

-the authorship/sponsorship speech that is polished and should include the status quo, the problem in the status quo, and how your bill solves

-speeches after the authorship/sponsorship speech should include refutation and clash with previous speakers - this is debate, not oratory

-questioning should further debate, so favorable or same-sided questions should be avoided

-if you are giving a mid- to late-round speech and do not include refutation, you will rank poorly in front of me

-avoid talking over each other and snark during questioning

-no rehashing of previous points, please

-breaking the cycle of debate is a risky move in front of me; flipping sides or saving your recency for the next piece of legislation is preferable

What I am looking for in a Presiding Officer:

-EFFICEINCY! The more wordy you are, the more your score goes down

-you should announce your procedures thoroughly at the very beginning

-you are not required to offer an electronic precedence and recency spreadsheet. The onus is on the debaters in the chamber to flow the debate and keep track of the P & R

-No auctioneering is needed. Call for a speech, seeing none, call for the next.

-a PO is there to allow the most debate to happen. Narrating the entire round with extra words fails to meet this objective.

-a PO should be able to get through about 12 speeches in an hour. Make that your goal.

-unless the Tournament says otherwise, the NSDA has no rule against breaking cycle and the number of same-sided speeches that can occur. You do not need to admonish the chamber each time it happens.

-You should not call for “Orders of the Day” unless you have a tabled piece of legislation you left on the table. “Orders of the Day” is not a time to state how many speeches and questions the chamber got through. Check out Robert’s Rules of Order if you are curious.

-DO NOT SAY: “Thank you for that speech of 3:09. As this was the 3rd Affirmative Speech, we are in line for a 1-minute block of questioning. All those who wish to ask a question, please indicate." INSTEAD SAY: “Speech time 3:09. Questioners, please indicate.”

For the postseason tournaments:

I will intervene if I don't see a value to a theory debate in public forum. Times are too short to turn a debate into a sandbagging contest, and I won't listen anymore. Whether debate is a simulation or a game, I don't think these debates should determine the outcome of championships or bubble rounds. You initiating a theory debate means you have to believe there's truly something egregious going on. Disagree? You're welcome to, please strike me.

I do think people are still overestimating me in K debates. I have a passing understanding on most issues, but anything beyond the beaten path will leave me to my own thoughts on how an argument works, which isn't fair to any party involved. The last time I was reading anything close to most K literature was at least five years ago, and I'm more than likely far behind the times. Really, I have enough background knowledge to be dangerous but not helpful when left alone.

Who am I?

Assistant Director of Debate, The Blake School MN - 2014 to present

Co-Director, Public Forum Boot Camp(Check our website here) MN - 2021 to present

Assistant Debate Coach, Blaine High School - 2013 to 2014

During the season, I am typically involved in topic work for my team and read quite a bit. However, I’m finding that students will frequently make up acronyms now that might not exist in the original literature. If it’s something you made to try to cut down on time, chances are I will still need to be told what it stands for anyway.

My preferred debates are ones in which both teams have come prepared to engage each other with some reasonable expectation as to what the other team is going to read. Debaters should have to defend both their scholarship and practices in round. If you've chosen to not disclose, are unable to explain why the aff doesn't link to the K, or explain to me why you should be rewarded for being otherwise unprepared, you're fully welcome to try to explain why you should not lose in a varsity level competition. However, strategies that are purposefully meant to run to the margins and seek incredibly small pieces of offense in order to eke out a win due to the reliance on shoddy scholarship, conspiracy-peddlers, or outright fabrication will be met with intervention. If your argument will fall apart the moment I spend maybe thirty seconds to confirm something for my RFD, you should strike me.

This activity only exists so long as we implement practices that allow it to. All of our time in debate is limited(though some rounds can feel like an endless purgatory or the tenth layer of hell) but the implications of how rounds are conducted and behavior that is put forth as an example will echo far into the future. You should want to win because you put in more effort and worked harder. If you don’t want to put real effort and clash with arguments in a round, why are you spending so much time in these crusty high schools eating district cafeteria food when you could be doing literally anything else?

Prior to the round

Please add my personal email christian.vasquez212@gmail.com and blakedebatedocs@googlegroups.com to the chain. The second one is for organizational purposes and allows me to be able to conduct redos with students and talk about rounds after they happen.

The start time listed on ballots/schedules is when a round should begin, not that everyone should arrive there. I will do my best to arrive prior to that, and I assume competitors will too. Even if I am not there for it, you should feel free to complete the flip and send out an email chain.

The first speaking team should initiate the chain, with the subject line reading some version of “Tournament Name, Round Number - 1st Speaking Team(Aff or Neg) vs 2nd Speaking Team(Aff or neg)” Sending google docs that are unable to be downloaded/will have access rescinded immediately after the round is unacceptable and shows that you’re relying more on smoke and mirrors than proper debate. No one is going to care that you’re reading the same China DA or “structural violence framing” that everyone in the tournament has been reading since camp.

I do not care what you wear(as long as it’s appropriate for school) or if you stand or sit. I have zero qualms about music being played, poetry being read, or non-typical arguments being made.

Non-negotiables

I will be personally timing rounds since plenty of varsity level debaters no longer know how clocks work. There is no grace period, there are no concluding thoughts. When the timer goes off, your speech or question/answer is over. Beyond that, there are a few things I will no longer budge on:

1. You must read from cut cards the first time evidence is introduced into a round. The experiment with paraphrasing in a debate event was an interesting one, but the activity has shown itself to be unable to self-police what is and what is not academically dishonest representations of evidence. Comparisons to the work researchers and professors do in their professional life I think is laughable. Some of the shoddy evidence work I’ve seen be passed off in this activity would have you fired in those contexts, whereas here it will probably get you in late elimination rounds.
   
   

2. The inability to produce a piece of evidence when asked for it will end the round immediately. Taking more than thirty seconds to produce the evidence is unacceptable as that shows me you didn’t read from it to begin with.
   
   

3. Arguments that are racist, sexist, transphobic, etc. will end the round immediately in an L and as few speaker points as Tab allows me to give out.
   
   

4. Questions about what was and wasn’t read in round that are not claims of clipping are signs of a skill issue and won’t hold up rounds. If you want to ask questions outside of cross, run your own prep. A team saying “cut card here” or whatever to mark the docs they’ve sent you is your sign to do so. If you feel personally slighted by the idea that you should flow better and waste less time in the round, please reconsider your approach to preparing for competitions that require you to do so.
   
   

5. Defense is not “sticky.” If you want something to count in the round, it needs to be included in your team’s prior speech. The idea that a first speaking team can go “Ah, hah! You forgot about our trap card” in the final focus after not extending it in summary is ridiculous and makes a joke out of the event.

6. I will not read off of docs during the round. I will clear you twice if I am not able to comprehend you. Opponents don’t get to clear each other. Otherwise why would I not just say clear into oblivion during your speech time?

7. Theory is not a weapon or a trick. Hyper-specific interpretations meant to box the opponent out of a small difference as to how they’ve conducted a practice are not something I’m willing to entertain. Objections based on argument construction/sequencing are fine though.

Negotiables

These are not set in stone, and have changed over time. Running contrary to me on these positions isn’t a big issue and I can be persuaded in the context of the round.

Tech vs truth

To me, the activity has weirdly defined what “technical” debate is in a way that I believe undermines the value of the activity. Arguments being true if dropped is only as valid as the original construction of the argument. Am I opposed to big stick impacts? Absolutely not, I think they’re worth engaging in and worth making policy decisions around. I personally enjoy heg, terror, and other extinction level scenarios. But, for example, if you cannot answer questions regarding what is the motivation for conflict, who would originally engage in the escalation ladder, or how the decision to launch a nuclear weapon is conducted, your argument was not valid to begin with. Asking me to close my eyes and just check the box after essentially saying “yadda yadda, nuclear winter” is as ridiculous as doing the opposite after hearing “MAD checks” with no explanation.

Teams I think are being rewarded far too often for reading too many contentions in the constructive that are missing internal links. I am more than just sympathetic to the idea that calling this out amounts to terminal defense at this point. If they haven’t formed a coherent argument to begin with, teams shouldn’t be able to masquerade like they have one.

There isn’t a magical number of contentions that is either good or bad to determine whether this is an issue or not. The benefit of being a faster team is the ability to actually get more full arguments out in the round, but that isn’t an advantage if you’re essentially reading two sentences of a card and calling it good.

I am not a fan of extinction/death good debates. I do not think teams are thoroughly working through the implications as to what conclusions come from starting down that path and what supremacist notions are lying underneath. If a villain from a B movie made in the 80s meant to function as COINTELPRO propaganda would make your same argument, I don’t really want to hear it. Eco-fascism is still fascism, ableist ideas of what it means to have a meaningful life are still ableist, and white supremacists are still going to decide in what order/what people are going to the gallows first.

Theory

In PF debate only, I default to a position of reasonability. I think the theory debates in this activity, as they’ve been happening, are terribly uninteresting and are mostly binary choices.

Is disclosure good? Yes

Is paraphrasing bad? Yes

Distinctions beyond these I don’t think are particularly valuable. Going for cheapshots on specifics I think is an okay starting position for me to say this is a waste of time and not worth voting for. That being said, I feel like a lot of teams do mis-disclose in PF by just throwing up huge unedited blocks of texts in their open source section. Proper disclosure includes the tags that are in case and at least the first and last three words of a card that you’ve read. To say you open source disclose requires highlighting of the words you have actually read in round.

That being said, answers that amount to whining aren’t great. Teams that have PF theory read against them frequently respond in ways that mostly sound like they’re confused/aghast that someone would question their integrity as debaters and at the end of the day that’s not an argument. Teams should do more to articulate what specific calls to do x y or z actually do for the activity, rather than worrying about what they’re feeling. If your coach requires you to do policy “x” then they should give you reasons to defend policy “x.” If you’re consistently losing to arguments about what norms in the activity should look like, that’s a talk you should have with your coach/program advisor about accepting them or creating better answers.

Kritiks

Overall, I’m sympathetic to these arguments made in any event, but I think that the PF version of them so far has left me underwhelmed. I am much better for things like cap, security, fem IR, afro-pess and the like than I am for anything coming from a white pomo tradition/understanding(French high theory). Survival strategies focused on identity issues that require voting one way or the other depending on a student’s identification/orientation I think are bad for debate as a competitive activity.

Kritiks should require some sort of link to either the resolution(since PF doesn’t have plans really), or something the aff has done argumentatively or with their rhetoric. The nonexistence of a link means a team has decided to rant for their speech time, and not included a reason why I should care.

Rejection alternatives are fine(Zizek and others were common when I was in debate for context) but teams reliant on “discourse” and other vague notions should probably strike me. If I do not know what voting for a team does, I am uncomfortable to do so and will actively seek out ways to avoid it.

My pronouns are she/her/hers. My background: high school social studies teacher, competed in PF throughout high school, have spent the past 4 years judging both PF and LD.

Have fun! Take the round seriously, but also realize that you are not actually shaping world policy, so be chill. My main things I want to see in a round:

- be a good person in general: no -isms, don’t be rude to opponents, don’t steal prep or go way over time

- come prepared: have plenty of evidence and produce it quickly (evidence matters lots to me), know your speeches well and be ready for cross. I will call for cards if you tell me to or if they are hotly contested. Summarizing is okay, just be honest with it and have the full card ready right away.

- guide me through the round: narrow down to key voters, strategically collapse as needed, tell me where and why I should vote for you, and please for the love of god weigh. DO NOT say 'extend John Doe '15' without telling me what John Doe '15 says. I don't flow the name of the card, I flow the evidence itself.

-speaking skills: eye contact, pace of speaking (I am okay with spreading, however realize that if I cannot understand you, you will loose speaker points), enunciation, clarity, etc - especially important in constructive, since you should know the speech well enough to give it well. Also, in cross, please don't yell or talk over your opponent. Just be polite.

- I vote off the flow, essentially, so make my flow clear. That being said, a note on cross-fire - I love cross-fire, and as a result I very rarely flow crossfire. Therefore if something important comes up in cross, bring it up in a speech to be sure that it makes it on my flow.

A note on theory: I'm not a huge fan of theory. Unless there is super clear abuse, then I will likely not vote for theory. Also, I will never ever buy disclosure theory. Debate is about the resolution, stick to it.

Let me know if there’s anything I can do to make debate more accessible to you before the round-- trigger/content warnings related to sexual violence in particular are appreciated in making debate a more accessible space. If you have any questions before the round, ask away. Looking forward to a great round!