High school debate: Bay Area Urban Debate League (4 years) Cal Prep

College debate: 
Weber State University 2013-2014
Fresno State University 2014 - current 

Email: jason.auro95@gmail.com email me questions or anything really 

Debate Influences: Deven Cooper, Max Bugrov, Omar Guevara, Joseph Flores, Ryan Saxe, and Perry Green

You should feel comfortable running anything in front of me. I will try to make this debate space as safe and respectful as possible. Really I just want you to be you do whatever you want during this debate. I feel that judges are suppose to be educators and I will do my best to my ability acknowledge every argument you have, but you have to keep it warranted and consistent throughout the debate. I will always tell each team 1) Who won and why (unless there is something against this in the tournament rules) and 2) How each team can get a lot better.

I first learned how to debate and judge as a tabula rasa, but I soon learned that this is impossible, but I will do everything I can to be unbiased. Dont get me wrong I will vote on things that I disagree with despite personal beliefs. 

BE NICE. When you are mean, rude, condescending etc, be prepared for some of the bad speaker points. There is a clear delineation between competitiveness and being mean.

Case:

Make sure to always extend it… at least somehow please. I had been in too many debates where people don’t mention case after the 1ac makes me so sad.

Straight up AFF: Sounds great

Half policy - half critical Affs: Like them run it

Critical adv with plan text: You got me interested 

Critical adv w/o plan text: You better have a reason why you don’t have a plan text.

"Crazy" radical affs: I will be excited for the round, but will have "high" expectations for you

Anti-Resolution affs: Aff should have Switch Side answers down

DA:

They are great run them if you want.

CP:

They cool nothing really special to say.

PIC’s: I really like them and add a DA to them ooo you got yourself cooking

Adv CP: Better have a benefit and/or turn the other adv :)

K: <3

You got my interest. I love K debates I probably read or know most of the high theory args but this does not mean you get magic leeway for the argument. You still have to explain everything step by step.

Framework:
If no FW was read in the round I will evaluate all the impacts by who ever did the best explanation and importance of it. 

I absolutely HATE the argument that “Policy Debate is about competing policy ideas” or “Traditional policy debate frameworks are best for evaluating debates.” I believe these interpretations are anti-educational and unethical, however I will still vote on it if it goes conceded.

CX:

I will flow it if there is anything really important in there, but please try to make it powerful. The bright line in what I mean by important is if it is mentioned in the round by the other team.

Ethical challenges/“clipping”:

Also if there are any ethical challenges the debate will go in either two ways.

1. A. If it is true the team loses automatically with 0 speaker points, but the round will still continue and I will tell the points if they never made an ethical problem
2. B. The debate will continue but all the cards that were clipped will be taken out (Only in case of new debaters that never knew what clipping was).

Debate should be fun go have fun.

High school debate: Bay Area Urban Debate League (4 years) Cal Prep

College debate: 
Weber State University 2013-2014
Fresno State University 2014 - current 

Email: jason.auro95@gmail.com email me questions or anything really 

Debate Influences: Deven Cooper, Max Bugrov, Omar Guevara, Joseph Flores, Ryan Saxe, and Perry Green

You should feel comfortable running anything in front of me. I will try to make this debate space as safe and respectful as possible. Really I just want you to be you do whatever you want during this debate. I feel that judges are suppose to be educators and I will do my best to my ability acknowledge every argument you have, but you have to keep it warranted and consistent throughout the debate. I will always tell each team 1) Who won and why (unless there is something against this in the tournament rules) and 2) How each team can get a lot better.

I first learned how to debate and judge as a tabula rasa, but I soon learned that this is impossible, but I will do everything I can to be unbiased. Dont get me wrong I will vote on things that I disagree with despite personal beliefs. 

BE NICE. When you are mean, rude, condescending etc, be prepared for some of the bad speaker points. There is a clear delineation between competitiveness and being mean.

Case:

Make sure to always extend it… at least somehow please. I had been in too many debates where people don’t mention case after the 1ac makes me so sad.

Straight up AFF: Sounds great

Half policy - half critical Affs: Like them run it

Critical adv with plan text: You got me interested 

Critical adv w/o plan text: You better have a reason why you don’t have a plan text.

"Crazy" radical affs: I will be excited for the round, but will have "high" expectations for you

Anti-Resolution affs: Aff should have Switch Side answers down

DA:

They are great run them if you want.

CP:

They cool nothing really special to say.

PIC’s: I really like them and add a DA to them ooo you got yourself cooking

Adv CP: Better have a benefit and/or turn the other adv :)

K: <3

You got my interest. I love K debates I probably read or know most of the high theory args but this does not mean you get magic leeway for the argument. You still have to explain everything step by step.

Framework:
If no FW was read in the round I will evaluate all the impacts by who ever did the best explanation and importance of it. 

I absolutely HATE the argument that “Policy Debate is about competing policy ideas” or “Traditional policy debate frameworks are best for evaluating debates.” I believe these interpretations are anti-educational and unethical, however I will still vote on it if it goes conceded.

CX:

I will flow it if there is anything really important in there, but please try to make it powerful. The bright line in what I mean by important is if it is mentioned in the round by the other team.

Ethical challenges/“clipping”:

Also if there are any ethical challenges the debate will go in either two ways.

1. A. If it is true the team loses automatically with 0 speaker points, but the round will still continue and I will tell the points if they never made an ethical problem
2. B. The debate will continue but all the cards that were clipped will be taken out (Only in case of new debaters that never knew what clipping was).

Debate should be fun go have fun.

Assistant Coach at Harker.

PF Paradigm

1) Everyone wins an argument. My job becomes difficult when you don't tell me why the argument you won is more important than the argument your opponent won.

2) The second speaking team must respond to the their opponents case, as well as the responses their opponent presented in the first rebuttal, during their rebuttal.

3) Any arguments you want me to vote on should be in the summary and final focus.

4) Please tell me the number of the contention that you are referencing rather than just the argument's subject area.

5) If you are a paperless PF team you should have a viewing computer or be willing to fully give up your own computer if the opposing team wishes to view a piece of evidence you brought up in the round. If you are not comfortable doing this, just put the evidence on a flashdrive so that that your opponent has ready access to it.

Email:

traviswaynecochran@gmail.com

Affiliations - Present:

Currently coaching for Troy and Oxford at the TOC.

2023-2024 Updates:

1. Everyone should slow down. Debate would be better. Does this mean you might have to read less in the 1NC? YES!Does this mean that 2As might have to make less/better answers? YES!Does this mean you need to slow down on prewritten extensions and analytics? YES!I want to fully grasp EVERYTHING in the debate and not just get the gist of things.If you do not want to adapt to this, then you have prefs and strikes. I suggest you use them accordingly ...
2. Debaters that flow and give speeches from their flows, as opposed to their prewritten speech docs, are the gold standard.
3. Great debaters use the full spectrum of human emotion to persuade judges. Anger, sadness, humor, fear, hope, love, and all the other things we feel, connect us to the arguments we're making. If your debates only have one emotion (or none), then it will probably be pretty boring.

Top Level Stuffs:

1. Speech docs: I want to be included on any email chains; however, I will be flowing based on what I hear from year speech and not following along with the speech doc. I will use my flow to determine the decision, which can be different from speech docs, especially if you aren't clear and give me enough pen time. Also, I never was the best flow as a debater and I still am not as a judge!

2. All of you are smarter than me. I'll work hard to be a good judge, but I won't promise I will get everything that is happening in the round. Your job will be to explain very complex concepts to a very simple mind.

3. I'm an only-parent of two young children. Always a chance that something happens where I have to take a few minutes of judge prep. I'll work hard to minimize these instances, but cannot promise they will not happen.

4. The "ideal" number of off-case positions in a round for me when I am in the back of the room is anywhere from 0-5. You can absolutely read more, but I get angrier as the number of counterplans in the 1NC rises. I think 1-2 counterplans in a 1NC is reasonable. I prefer 1NCs without throwaway positions but still have a lot of block/2NR optionality. Basically, I am a fan of clash and vertical spread.

If you still think it's good to have me in the back of the room after you know this, then continue reading and see if you still feel that way when you're done.

Argument Feelings:

Topicality: It is up to the debaters to determine how I evaluate topicality. I tend to default to reasonability. Slow down a tick on T or you will make me sad. I cannot keep up with you reading your 2NC/1NR blocks at full speed.

Counterplans: The more specific the better, but I’m game for whatever. Consult CPs are fine. Delay is fine. Conditioning is cool tooI. PICs are the bees knees. However, I am open to theory arguments that any of these should not be allowed. I do not like counterplans with a lot of planks that the negative can jettison at will. Such counterplans will leave me sympathetic to affirmative theory arguments.

Counterplan Theory: Sketchy counterplans should lose to theory. However, theory violations should be well developed and it is up to the affirmative to prove why I should reject the team and not the argument. It's no secret that I am not the quickest flow, so slow down for me on theory debates.

Theory: I almost always think that education > fairness, but ... I think negatives are getting away with too much. People can run multiple contradictory counterplans/advocacies all they want in front of me and I will not automatically vote them down for it. However; I am sympathetic to well articulated theory arguments as to why it is a bad educational practice, as well as sympathetic to affirmatives that use negative shenanigans to justify affirmative shenanigans. Play dirty pool at your own risk in front of me…aff or neg. I do not like cheap shot theory. I try to not vote for cheap shot theory arguments, even if they are dropped. However, I will use cheap shot theory arguments as a way out of difficult rounds in which both teams were making my job painful. I try not to let cheap shots determine the outcome of rounds that are well debated on both sides. I reward good smart debate. No New AFFs is not a good arg in front of me. Pref Sheet Disclosure is not a good arg in front of me.

**** If you're reading this as an LD'er: I am a very bad judge for Tricks debate. Very bad ...

Disads: The more specific the better. I prefer 1 or 2 good uniqueness cards to 10 bad uniqueness cards. I prefer 1 or 2 good warrants to 10 bad uniqueness cards. Disads are great and are a fundamental part of policy or critical strategies. Yayy DAs!

Criticisms: The more specific the better. You probably know more about your specific criticism than I do. However, debate is not about who knows the most about a topic; it is about how much you can teach me within the time limits of the round. If I cannot explain your position back to you at the end of the debate, then I cannot vote for it. I believe that AFFs get perms, even critical AFFs. I believe that Ks can win based on winning 100% defense, so, yes ... you can kick the ALT and go for presumption in front of me.

Framework: Sure. You can go that route, but please slow down. I prefer substance to theory, meaning that I almost always believe education > fairness. I don't find the procedural fairness stuff that persuasive. Institutions good and training is a much better route with me in the back. TVAs are persuasive to me. So, will I vote on framework? If it is based on why you have a better educational model, then absolutely! If it is based on procedural fairness, then I might still vote on it, but it's an uphill battle. I almost always think the better approach is just to take them up on the case page or offer a counterplan ...

Performance/Nontraditional/Critical AFFs: I’m cool with it. I don't find your argument persuasive that these AFFs shouldn't get perms. If I can't explain your AFF back to you then it will be really hard for me to vote for you. I have no problem voting NEG on presumption if I don't know what you do or if the NEG has a compelling argument that you do nothing.

Case: I wish more people debated it more. I honestly think that a well developed case attack (offense and a heck of a lot of good defense) with a disad or a critique are much more effective than multiple disads/critiques/counterplans. Case debate is good and underrated.

I’m open to any kind of argument you have as long as it is intelligent, arguably true, and not problematic.

My Idiosyncrasies:

One thing that everyone should know is that I naturally give a lot of nonverbal (sometimes verbal) feedback, even in the middle of rounds. If I think your argument is really smart then you will probably see me smiling and nodding. If I think your argument is not smart or just wrong, my face will look contorted and I will be shaking it in a different direction. If this happens…do not freak out. Use it to your advantage that you know which arguments I like and do not like. Other times, I look unhappy because I am in pain or very hungry (my health ain't the best), so this might throw you off ... sorry! Debate tournaments are hard on all of us. I'm not going to pretend like I'm a machine for longer than two hours while I judge your round.

I will also intervene in cross x if I think that a team is being particularly evasive on a point that needs to be clarified to conduct a good clean debate. I do not believe that the gold standard for judging is to avoid intervention at all costs. I believe intervention is almost always inevitable ... I'm just one of the few people who are willing to say that out loud.

Additionally, I usually make fairly quick decisions. I don't scour through evidence and meticulously line up my flows all the way until the decision deadline. Sometimes I will do that if it is warranted to decide the round. However, for me, it doesn't usually require that. I believe that debate is a communication activity and I judge rounds based on what is communicated to me. I use my flows to confirm or deny my suspicions of why I think someone is winning/losing at the conclusion of the debate. Typically, I am making my mind up about who is winning the round and in which ways they might lose it after every speech. This usually creates a checklist of what each team would need to do to win/lose. While listening to 2NRs/2ARs, I go through my checklist & flows to see which ones get marked off. Sometimes this is an easy process. Sometimes it takes me a lot longer to check those boxes ...

I KNOW that you all work VERY HARD for each and every round. I take that very seriously. But, me deciding rounds quickly is not dismissive of you or your work. Instead, my "thoughtful snapshots" of rounds are meant to give some sort of fidelity to the round I witnessed instead of recreating it post hoc. Some people go to concerts and record songs to remember the experience later. I don't. That's not out of disrespect to the artists or their art, rather, it's my own version of honoring their efforts by trying to honor the moment. Some of y'all think that is some BS justification for me to do "less work" after a round, and that's fine, you're entitled to that opinion, as well as where you place me on your strike sheets.

Finally, I am unabashedly human. I am open to the whims of fatigue, hunger, emotions and an overwhelming desire to do what I think is right, no matter how inconsistent and possibly misguided at the time. I try desperately to live my life in a way where I can look in a mirror and be okay with myself (not always successfully). I do the same thing when I am a judge (again, not always successfully). This is just a fair warning to any of you that will be inevitably upset if my decision seems to vary from this judging philosophy. I'm not a robot and sometimes my opinions about my role and this activity changes while judging a round. The truth is that y'all are good at what y'all do, and sometimes you make me change my mind about things. These are the facts of having me in the back of the room, and these facts, no matter how fact-y they might be, are facts that y'all have to deal with :-)

Debate is fun…at least it should be. If it's not, you're doing it wrong!

FEB 2020 NOTES:

1. When you read evidence about UBI being successful and the evidence is from experiments where recipients also received means-tested welfare, you should probably be aware of this when asked by an opponent.

2. Please don't yell at me. I shut down and struggle to listen to what you are trying to communicate when you scream at me in a round.

3. If you need a speech doc to advance your arguments in the round because you are communicating at a speed that alienates people who walk into the room then you should post that case publicly (not an email chain sent in round) prior to the round so the *public* forum can be prepared to debate you without spending their prep time reading a speech doc. Otherwise communicate at a speed accessible to the *public* forum.

Public Forum (Not PoFo - there is no O in Public) Paradigm

1. Framework is not a voter. It's a way to frame voters. Frame them.

2. Both sides will suprisingly win something. It's how those things interact that make the debate. Don't make me figure it out. Weigh. Clash. Give me something to prefer.

3. This may be a shock but I actually expect a debater to respond to the speech right before them. In other words, the second rebuttal ignoring the first means they are AVOIDING ACTUAL DEBATE. The first summary can feel free to then extend and explain why all those drops are important. It is probable that the second team will lose at that point if they forgot to address the first rebuttal's speech.

4. I WILL DROP A TEAM THAT IS UNCIVIL OR PLAYS EVIDENCE GAMES BEFORE EVALUATING THE ROUND. LET'S PLAY NICE IN THIS *PUBLIC* FORUM AND KEEP THE ACADEMIC INTEGRITY OF THE ACTIVITY IN TACT!

Have fun. Because if you aren't having fun you are losing. Even if I vote for you.

Email: debate@inboxeen.com

**Be kind. Have fun. Don’t be afraid of me! I was once you and I know what it’s like! When I award speaks, they are heavily influenced by the level of kindness and congeniality shown in round. I am judging because I love the activity as much as you, and I want to help you do better if I can!**

School Affiliation(s)

Current Affiliation: East Chapel Hill HS

Current Role at Institution: I'm currently the Associate Director for Digital Communications at the Yale School of Management, but dedicate my off-time to S&D!

Previous Affiliation(s) and Role(s)

The Bronx High School of Science (Bronx, NY)

I coached primarily Public Forum Debate and Legislative Debate (Congressional Debate) at the Bronx High School of Science from roughly 2011-2015. I judged across all events – speech included. I began my coaching career at Bronx as an extemp coach.

River Valley High School (Mohave Valley, AZ)

I have judged and coached (primarily Public Forum) throughout the years since graduating from this school.

Debate Experience

River Valley High School (Mohave Valley, AZ)

I competed primarily in policy debate at River Valley High School in Mohave Valley, AZ. I also competed in other speech and debate events.

Columbia University in the City of New York (New York, NY)

I was a member of the Columbia Policy Debate team and competed for one year during my time in college.

Other

Tell me what to do – i.e. ‘tabula rasa’ insofar as one might even exist, and insofar as it might be helpful to roughly describe my ‘paradigm’.

Please ask specific questions at the beginning of the round for further clarification. E.g. my threshold for buying a reasonability standard has significantly heightened with age.

Run whatever you’d like – hypotesting, retro theory, nothing at all! I can handle it!

Most importantly, this is an educational activity and I believe in Debater/Debate -- i.e. you are more important than the round, so please speak up if you feel uncomfortable and tell me/your coach/tab immediately if something bothers you. I believe in the platinum rule - treat others as they'd like to be treated. Be kind to each other and have fun!

POLICY DEBATE PARADIGM

ME: Alex Kosmach

CURRENT AFFILIATIONS:

COLLEGE: N/A, HS: Capitol Debate, Juan Diego CHS

FORMER AFFILIATIONS:

COLLEGE: UNLV, HS: Green Valley HS

SCHOOLS I STRIKE:

COLLEGE: UNLV, HS: Green Valley HS, all schools affiliated with Capitol Debate

NUMBER OF ROUNDS ON 2014-15 TOPIC:

COLLEGE: 0, HS: 20

YEAR JUDGING:

6th

I am currently in my NINTH year of policy debate and my FIFTH year of coaching

EMAIL: kosmach@capitoldebate.com

Philosophy last updated 11/4/14

PAPERLESS CHEAT SHEET

• Prep goes until you pull out the flash drive.
• Jump all cards before the speech - if you add cards during the speech that were not in the original speech doc, they have to be jumped by your partner during the speech or before the start of the ensuing cross-x.
• I will dock points for not following these guidelines. Usually a .2 point penalty for every time I have to restart prep because of paperless nonsense.

I am currently an assistant coach at Capitol Debate and at Juan Diego Catholic High School, formerly the assistant coach at Green Valley High School in Henderson, NV and I debated at UNLV from 2009 to 2011. I taught at the Sun Country Forensics Institute and currently work for Capitol Debate Summer Camps. You are individuals participating in an activity which is a complicated game that can be a lot of fun and incredibly valuable. Thus, you should treat it with the respect it deserves. Ethos is key. Act like you're taking the debate seriously, and I'll take you seriously. Reciprocity, simple as that.

I also think that, while raw factual information is often much more reliable than verbal spin, the two are mutually complementary. In simple terms, present a bad argument persuasively and with passion, and the argument becomes more believable. If you're poorly evaluating a good argument, it doesn't look good to those evaluating the argument. I don't care how good your cards are, you have to convince me that they're even worth reading or thinking twice about. That's what makes debate so tricky. You have to set a trap for the judge to always favor you when taking a second look at your arguments. Those who do this well will be rewarded with things like ballots, speaker points and nicknames.

As for substantial debate matters, I don't have many predispositions. Most affs are probably topical, most counterplans are probably competitive, and most K alternatives are probably not as vague as you think they are. I think a better way to get you all to debate the way I want you to would be to give you a general list of things to do and not to do in terms of the substance of most debates.

DOs: Make deep link analysis; explain what your [alt/CP/perm] functionally does, and what the world after your [alt/CP/perm] looks like; make overviews that are efficient and make the rest of your speech more efficient; do good line-by-line debating, but know how to strategically group arguments; answer the other team's theory block; split the block properly; be clear; be concise; tell me to call for cards if you don't have enough time to explain how terrible they are; explain your cards and how spectacular they are, instead of having me call for them; frame theory voters as impacts; treat topicality like a disad; experiment with new arguments; read arguments you believe; debate well

DON'Ts: Call your [opponents, opponents' arguments, judge, partner] any sort of slur, epithet, or other disparaging name. Besides, it's much cooler to call something "asinine" than it is to call it "crappy"; read the Khalilzad 1995 evidence; read any card by a debate coach that says kritiks are bad; drop arguments; ignore arguments; underviews; overviews that are 2+ minutes long; say "it's a voter" without explaining why; put "that's an independent voter" on 7 2AC arguments; read a K when you don't know the fundamental philosophy it is rooted in; "brief off-time roadmap"; be wrong about historical facts; only extend taglines; forfeit; fail to give 100%

Also, when you go for T, it has to be all five minutes of the 2NR. It's a single world and needs to be treated as such. I don't ever recall voting on a topicality argument that the round wasn't fully staked on.

I'd also like to address a few pet peeves of mine.

First, PAPERLESS DEBATE IS NOT HARD. As someone who has put things on flash drives many, many times in my life, I don't understand why it's so difficult to put things on flash drives. If you show up at the tournament, debating paperless, and your computer is not paperless debate-ready, that's the equivalent of showing up to a tournament with your files printed front-and-back on the paper or without a timer or pens or flow paper. The introduction of computers into the common accoutrement of debate is likely the greatest advancement in debate since digital research, the K, or energy drinks. Thus, I treat the use of computers as part of the greater debate round. This means your level of courtesy and skill at paperless may affect your speaker points, positively or negatively. A basic rule of thumb so as to not make me frustrated with you: ALL CARDS YOU INTEND TO READ OFF YOUR COMPUTER IN ANY SPEECH MUST BE JUMPED TO THE OTHER TEAM BEFORE THE SPEECH. In the event that you have to add cards mid-speech, put them on a jump drive FIRST, THEN give your partner the laptop, THEN give the flash drive to your opponents, and then and only then can you go back to flowing or whatever it is you were doing. That's only fair.

Prep time ends when you pull the flash drive out of the computer, because it's the only way I can know conclusively that you're done prepping the speech.

Second, never ever ever read a card from an email in front of me, ESPECIALLY if you weren't the one who the email was sent to. I cannot tell you how disturbed I am at the renaissance of "email cards" in debate. It's the intellectual equivalent of having someone do your homework for you. It's nothing more than emailing the author of a card and tricking that author into writing a new, different card that directly answers the argument that you can't seem to figure out how to answer on your own, using your brain and the Google machine. I hate it, it's a sign of the beginning of the end of debate.

Third, debate should be a welcoming and safe place for any and all people who choose to take part in it as an activity. That being said, if I perceive in any way that you, as a member of a debate community within a debate that I'm adjudicating, are making debate an unwelcoming, unsafe, or discriminatory environment for your partner, opponents, or me as a fellow member of the community, you will be punished with speaker point deductions, sometimes even losses if the infraction is a big enough deal, and I will almost always go out of my way to make your coach aware of your behavior. Does this apply to a framework argument that says "your K isn't good for policy debate?" No. But am I looking out for behavior that can make people want to not debate anymore? Yes.

It's all pretty simple. If you have questions, make them good, but feel free to ask them. I'm with my friend Kyle here, the term "threshold" doesn't mean much to me. Judging's subjective. You'll never pin me down to ALWAYS voting one way or another on specific arguments.

Enjoy the debate and enjoy debating.

PUBLIC FORUM PARADIGM

ME: Alex Kosmach

CURRENT AFFILIATIONS:

Capitol Debate, Juan Diego CHS

FORMER AFFILIATIONS:

Green Valley HS

SCHOOLS I STRIKE:

Centennial HS (Maryland), The Master School, any school affilated with Capitol Debate

I am currently in my SECOND year of coaching Public Forum and THIRD year of judging it

EMAIL: kosmach@capitoldebate.com

I come into most PF debates with the perspective that it's my job to determine who makes the best arguments. My threshold for a "good" argument is relatively high compared to most laypeople that judge Public Forum debates, but even those people still have an idea for what makes a good argument.

That being said, I look out for debaters who have the ability to control context and content. Those are the ones who can steer the direction of the debate in their favor by having superior evidence, superior "spin," and superior knowledge of the topic/arguments. All this means is I want you to sound pretty, don't be mean or curt, and confidently use your evidence to defend your claims. I can handle a bit of fast-talking and will not have a problem keeping up with whatever it is you do. So, just get up there and do what you do best. In my own humble opinion, that's the easiest way to win a Public Forum debate in front of me; do what you do best better than your opponents do.

Here's a quick list of dos and don'ts to help you make me enjoy the debate:

DOs: Make deep link analysis; make overviews that are efficient and make the rest of your speech more efficient; know how to strategically group arguments; be clear; be concise; experiment with new arguments; read arguments you believe; debate well

DON'Ts: Call your [opponents, opponents' arguments, judge, partner] any sort of slur, epithet, or other colloquial insult that would make you look like a tool; drop arguments; ignore arguments; underviews; overviews that are 2+ minutes long; be wrong about historical facts; just extend taglines; forfeit; fail to give 100%

Also, debate should be a welcoming and safe place for any and all people who choose to take part in it as an activity. That being said, if I perceive in any way that you, as a member of a debate community within a debate that I'm adjudicating, are making debate an unwelcoming, unsafe, or discriminatory environment for your partner, opponents, or me as a fellow member of the community, you will be punished with speaker point deductions, sometimes even losses if the infraction is a big enough deal, and I will almost always go out of my way to make your coach aware of your behavior.

Enjoy the debate and enjoy debating.

I don't judge often, so excessive speed is counterproductive on the debaters' part. I follow where the rounds are going, and expect to be led to the big arguments for either side, which I hope will somehow conflict with one another. In the average PF round I've seen, decisions boil down mostly to a couple of points, so if each team has three voters separate from the other side's voters, you're asking me to intervene. Pick the arguments you really want me to decide on.

Jeffrey Miller

Current Coach -- Marist School (2011-present)
Lab Leader -- National Debate Forum (2015-present), Emory University (2016), Dartmouth College (2014-2015), University of Georgia (2012-2015)
Former Coach -- Fayette County (2006-2011), Wheeler (2008-2009)
Former Debater -- Fayette County (2002-2006)

jmill126@gmail.com and maristpublicforum@gmail.com for email chains, please (no google doc sharing and no locked google docs)

Last Updated -- 2/12/2012 for the 2022 Postseason (no major updates, just being more specific on items)

I am a high school teacher who believes in the power that speech and debate provides students. There is not another activity that provides the benefits that this activity does. I am involved in topic wording with the NSDA and argument development and strategy discussion with Marist, so you can expect I am coming into the room as an informed participant about the topic. As your judge, it is my job to give you the best experience possible in that round. I will work as hard in giving you that experience as I expect you are working to win the debate. I think online debate is amazing and would not be bothered if we never returned to in-person competitions again. For online debate to work, everyone should have their cameras on and be cordial with other understanding that there can be technical issues in a round.

What does a good debate look like?

In my opinion, a good debate features two well-researched teams who clash around a central thesis of the topic. Teams can demonstrate this through a variety of ways in a debate such as the use of evidence, smart questioning in cross examination and strategical thinking through the use of casing and rebuttals. In good debates, each speech answers the one that precedes it (with the second constructive being the exception in public forum). Good debates are fun for all those involved including the judge(s).

The best debates are typically smaller in nature as they can resolve key parts of the debate. The proliferation of large constructives have hindered many second halves as they decrease the amount of time students can interact with specific parts of arguments and even worse leaving judges to sort things out themselves and increasing intervention.

What role does theory play in good debates?

I've always said I prefer substance over theory. That being said, I do know theory has its place in debate rounds and I do have strong opinions on many violations. I will do my best to evaluate theory as pragmatically as possible by weighing the offense under each interpretation. For a crash course in my beliefs of theory - disclosure is good, open source is an unnecessary standard for high school public forum teams until a minimum standard of disclosure is established, paraphrasing is bad, round reports is frivolous, content warnings for graphic representations is required, content warnings over non-graphic representations is debatable.

All of this being said, I don't view myself as an autostrike for teams that don't disclose or paraphrase. However, I've judged enough this year to tell you if you are one of those teams and happen to debate someone with thoughts similar to mine, you should be prepared with answers.

How do "progressive" arguments work in good debates?

Like I said above, arguments work best when they are in the context of the critical thesis of the topic. Thus, if you are reading the same cards in your framing contention from the Septober topic that have zero connections to the current topic, I think you are starting a up-hill battle for yourselves. I have not been entirely persuaded with the "pre-fiat" implications I have seen this year - if those pre-fiat implications were contextualized with topic literature, that would be different.

My major gripe with progressive debates this year has been a lack of clash. Saying "structural violence comes first" doesn't automatically mean it does or that you win. These are debatable arguments, please debate them. I am also finding that sometimes the lack of clash isn't a problem of unprepared debaters, but rather there isn't enough time to resolve major issues in the literature. At a minimum, your evidence that is making progressive type claims in the debate should never be paraphrased and should be well warranted. I have found myself struggling to flow framing contentions that include four completely different arguments that should take 1.5 minutes to read that PF debaters are reading in 20-30 seconds (Read: your crisis politics cards should be more than one line).

How should evidence exchange work?

Evidence exchange in public forum is broken. At the beginning of COVID, I found myself thinking cases sent after the speech in order to protect flowing. However, my view on this has shifted. A lot of debates I found myself judging last season had evidence delays after case. At this point, constructives should be sent immediately prior to speeches. (If you paraphrase, you should send your narrative version with the cut cards in order). At this stage in the game, I don't think rebuttal evidence should be emailed before but I imagine that view will shift with time as well. When you send evidence to the email chain, I prefer a cut card with a proper citation and highlighting to indicate what was read. Cards with no formatting or just links are as a good as analytics.

For what its worth, whenever I return to in-person tournaments, I do expect email chains to continue.

What effects speaker points?

I am trying to increase my baseline for points as I've found I'm typically below average. Instead of starting at a 28, I will try to start at a 28.5 for debaters and move accordingly. Argument selection, strategy choices and smart crossfires are the best way to earn more points with me. You're probably not going to get a 30 but have a good debate with smart strategy choices, and you should get a 29+.

This only applies to tournaments that use a 0.1 metric -- tournaments that are using half points are bad.

Former coach, more often in tab rooms than at the back of the room with a ballot, electronic or otherwise. As a judge, I’m probably considered a very traditional flow judge. I’m likely not as well-read on the resolution as you are, haven’t taught LD in any camp or class, and don’t judge LD especially often. To me, a good LD round involves a debate between two individuals using logic, reason, and clarity around the resolution at hand; if I find myself open to critical approaches to the resolution I’ll update my paradigm accordingly.

No exhaustive list of my thoughts on different arguments, though these 3 are pretty representative of my general thoughts on LD:

1. Disclosure theory is a non-starter. Use it if you want, but I will not vote on the basis of whose case is or isn’t on the wiki so in front of me it’s a waste of time.

2. I’m not interested in time skew. I trust that you were aware of the structure of an LD round before walking into the tournament.

3. Debate is an educational activity. The role of the ballot is to communicate to you, your opponent, and your coach(es) observations about how effective your argumentation was in a given round and offer suggestions for improvement. The ballot may be an opportunity for me to learn and grow as well, but my ballot will not affect grand societal change no matter how hard we try.

I ultimately want to vote for something at the end of the round. To accomplish this, take the following into account:

1. Like I said, I don’t judge often which means I likely won’t be able to keep up at the rate many circuit debaters prefer. About half as fast as your maximum is probably acceptable for me to flow and think (but no faster).

2. I don’t want cases flashed to me or share a Google Doc during the round. If I wanted to read argumentation I would pursue competitive essay-grading.

3. Your ideas and those of your opponent should engage with one another. Trying to cram as many responses against each point made by your opponent doesn’t do this and won’t help you win my ballot or earn very high speaker points. Neither will ignoring your opponent’s case and insisting that yours is the only thing that matters in the round.

4. Effective crystallization is critical. For me to vote for you I need to know specifically what arguments you won, why, and how.

Assume I want to be added to your email chain: andre.d.washington@gmail.com

Andre Washington
Rowland Hall St. Marks
Assistant Coach

IMPORTANT CHANGES: After 5 years of judging a wide range of debate styles, I think I've come to the conclusion that I just can't connect with or enjoy the current iteration of HS high theory debate. Being able to act as an educator is an important reason for why I judge, and I don't think I can offer that in your Baudrilliard debates anymore.

This will be my sixth year with the program at Rowland Hall, and 10th year of debate overall.

I love debate and want students to love it as well.

Do what you want, and do it well. ---

Kritiks: Despite the revision above, you absolutely should still be reading the K in front of me. I am fine with the K. I like the K as it functions in a greater neg strategy (ie, I'd rather judge a 5 off round that includes a K than a 1 off K round). However, I went 1-off fem K in highschool for many rounds, so I am genuinely pretty accepting on this issue. Given that I don't spend a great deal of my time working through K literature, I think it's important that you explain these to me, but that's basically what a good K debater should expect to do anyway.

Disads: I cut politics every week. I love both sides of the politics debate and can benefit you as a judge on how to execute these debates well.

Counterplans: Counterplans of all shapes and sizes are a critical place to form a strategy and I enjoy these debates. Theory is to be argued and I can't think of any predisposition.

Topicality: I think that debaters who can execute "technical" args well are enjoyable enough to watch and judge, and I think I can probably benefit as a judge to any technical debater. I think that any violation, on face, has validity and there are no affs that are so "obviously" topical that they cannot be beaten on T.

Kritikal affs: I am not ideologically opposed to K affs at all and even enjoy these debates, although I primarily work on and with policy affs so I would say explanation is still key.

Framework: I find that good framework debaters know how to make the flow accessible to the judge. I think that there are a number of compelling claims and debates to be had on framework, and they can be just as strongly argued as anything else (including your kritik or kritikal aff).

Framework itself is not an argument, and don't have one if you won't use it.

Any evidence not made readily and fully available to the other team won't be evaluated.

Provide a weighing mechanism, explain why it's preferable to your opponent's (if different) AND actually weigh your arguments or I'll do it for you, and you may not like the outcome.

I flow and will know if you drop things.