Jeffrey Bile, Professor Emeritus Spalding University, PhD Rhetoric and Public Culture

Previously judged and coached debate at WVU, Ohio U, Akron, EIU, SIU, Utah, and for several high school programs

First, let's avoid sticker shock. I’m old. I’ve judged tournament debates in six decades. In college, I judged deep elims at NDT-CEDA-NFA-NPDA national tournaments. My teams exceeded expectations in all of those formats-and I coached CEDA national champions--but that was a long time ago.

I'd be a little careful about jargon and especially the valence you assume attaches to some god/devil terms in tournament debate (e.g., conditionality, dispositional, floating pic, perm, etc.) or the dominant culture (e.g., growth). It's debatable. The culture of debate has evolved a lot since 1971, but the distinction between better and worse argument has had a home in all those decades and in all of the “debate cultures” that I know (policy and non-policy, high school and college, 2-person and LD, off-topic and on, curricular, co-curricular and extra-curricular). It all comes back to argument in my experience.

I judged PF at the 2023 UK Tournament of Champions. I last judged high school policy on China engagement. I was last actively involved in debate on the 2015 Oceans policy topic (CX). On that topic, I worked with our debaters on ecological exploration and dolphin communication affirmatives and negative positions on a space exploration tradeoff and critiquing frontierism-discovery ideologies and anthropocentric worldviews.

This may give you a good sense of the genres of arguments that I am especially attuned to. It seems hard for me to "get" unidirectional risk "death penalty" procedurals. But I LOVE good, smart theory debate about who "owns" certain first links in arguments (affirming/negating). I also love good debate about last impact (is economic growth good?). First cause and last effect debates that most often need to happen in the rounds I judge often don't as academic debaters far too often become victimized by the same obsessions as the dominant culture and its clearly staked out assumptions. Academic debaters are allowed to find those debatable.

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My first priority as judge is to respect the conditionality of my invitation. I will not want to behave inconsistently with any formal rule of this tournament, and I give some presumption to what can be most immediately inferred from those. Cultures, on the other hand, evolve. I give little heed to norm and “unwritten rules” -- those are always in flux. Argument makes them that way. As an argumentation educator and cultural citizen, I do have preferences about the direction of debate culture evolution. These manifest as assumptions/presumptions (there is some burden of proof in overcoming them). In order . . .

Until explicitly argued otherwise . . .

(1) There is an enormous presumption in favor of formal rules (time limits, topic, etc.). It is hard to imagine an argument that would overcome their priority. [Please explicate them as formal rules if your argument is premised on them]

(2) We were invited to a debate ABOUT something. Not to general disagreement in the abstract but only to a formally focused competition to which we have agreed to associate ourselves. I assume that the announced proposition is what we were invited to a debate ABOUT. I assume that the affirmative is tasked with affirming, and the negative with negating that proposition.

(3) Debate is a contest in collaborative argumentation. [see below*]

(4) I give substantial presumption to arguments that seem to be accepted by the other team.

(5) I do not assume that talking, ethos, pathos, persuasion, or performance are ends in themselves . . . but, at best, means to the ends of comprehensive debate (engaged rule-bound arguments of affirmation/negation).

(6) Outside of those required by #1, and perhaps in part #2, I don’t know a sufficient reason to privilege either side regarding rights and responsibilities. I presume bi-laterality of affirmative/negative procedural burdens/presumptions and equal access to argument. This seems simple enough, but I encourage you to think through some of the implications before planning your strategy (e.g., you need some offense to win). I don't presume change per se is worse that the status quo.

(7) I also assume that the weight I should accord to an argument in my decision is roughly assessed by multiplying outcome x probability. I want you to explicitly debate the relative importance (i.e., outcome, impact) of arguments (e.g., through criteria, decision rules, impact analysis, etc.) and find such weighing to be far more important than debaters generally realize. I don't mean that I want you to take time out from the flow for a new overview on "weighing" in rebuttals-- I mean I want you to construct complete relevant arguments (including impact), from the first constructive. I want you to extend the arguments you want, with impact. I want to know why you think the words that are coming out of your mouth matter in their real-time debated context.

(8) I try to flow. I don't listen as fast as I did when I was in better practice. This is not an aesthetic or educational preemption--just a disclosure that time has had effects. There are a lot of things I don't do as well as I used to--however hard I try. I flow arguments not words. I flow the anatomy of your argument not the wording of the evidence. What matters first is the relevance you are inferring from the evidence and the argument that constructs. If you are not crystal clear in communicating the anatomy of the argument you are constructing, in constructives, it doesn’t matter how slow you deliver your words. Construct in constructive speeches--rather than in rebuttal "weighing" overviews or other late, out-of-the-flow of debate, interruptions. And I definitely won't be using your written materials post-debate to construct your argument for you--only to resolve an extended claim contesting the content of a quotation or to clarify language for ballot. Construct arguments, in constuctives.

You will probably be able to tell from my non-verbal expressions if I have stopped flowing—which I may do if I have lost the structure of your argument or its place on the flow that you are intending it to be applied. I may try to flow even if I’m pretty lost so it is good practice to be redundant in reinforcing/signposting your argument’s anatomy so that I will have a better flow. If you don’t want me to flow some or all of the debate, make that argument.

(9) Of course, it is pretty much all debatable. Absent successful argument, I will default to these assumptions. I think these are pretty much in order, from strong presumption / burden of proof for #1 (hard to imagine me changing my mind) to weak presumption at #7 and 8 (all you need is an argument).

* On Argument

• If debate is a contest in argumentation, then the arguments are important. I privileged process over product models of argument, preferring dialectical processes that are as collaborative, comprehensive and critical as circumstances permit.
• At the product level, the best arguments are invitations to intellectual empathy since they share good reasons to believe what you are asserting. Better argument products have better reasons, more reasons, better support for those reasons, or are more substantively important.
• Evidence is support for your argument—it may ground a reason for affirming/negative—it is not itself the argument. What are you inferring from the evidence? Why is that relevant? What is your argument?

Something else? Just ask!

Congratulations and good luck. I hope everyone debates their best and has fun (in my experience, these usually go hand-in-hand).

I'm currently a competitor for Trinity High School in the Varsity Division. I've competed for three years now and have specialized in Public Forum Debate.

I will judge exclusively based off the best argumentation. Just make the best argument you can. Don't forget to tell me WHY you should win. I'm a big fan of impacts and weighing. Don't leave anything up to my interpretation. Make sure you explain things to me and make sure you card-call. Don't make me have to draw a link myself, because chances are I will just discount your argument.

I'll award speaker points as I see fit. If you fill the speaking time and make a good argument, then I'll be more generous with speaker points. I like to be as generous as I can, but I do have a few pet peeves:

• Declaring arguments "non-unique" without proof. I don't mind declaring arguments non-unique, but just make sure you prove how an argument is actually non-unique.
• Being rude or disrespectful. Attack your opponents' case, but don't be condescending or rude. There is a line. Do not cross it.
• Making crossfire uncivilized. Cross is meant to be a civil discussion. Make sure you keep it that way. It's okay to ask follow-up questions, as long as your opponent allows it. If you start to not let your opponent speak during crossfire or constantly interrupt them, then I'm going to give you very low speaker points and I might have to intervene.

Other than that, I'm a very flexible judge. I'm looking forward to hearing your arguments and a great debate! Good luck!