Email: niahdebates@gmail.com

Hi humans!

About me:

My name is Zaniah. I did policy debate for four years and recently earned my B.A. in Political Science from The College of New Jersey.

I am new to judging Speech but have observed rounds before and familiarized myself with the landscape through NSDA

Policy Debate

I am open to hearing just about anything as long as you know your argument well enough to explain it as if I was a child/ be thorough. Do not run arguments that you are not comfortable with as it will lower your speaker points and just ruin the debate. Keep the flow clean! Let me know when you are moving from one flow to the next. ( K, DA, Case)

In your rebuttals, give me a clear line on how I should frame my ballot. What does having the ballot mean for you? Do not say "we are winning every flow," instead tell me what offense you specifically have on that flow that I should evaluate.

• I’m completely fine with voting on presumption. Just make a clear statement about what specifically your opponent is missing that requires me to vote that way

• You can make analytical arguments, especially if you feel there is an obvious argument to be made in the debate. I’m fine with you drawing on personal experiences or current policy issues but these should not serve as your primary evidence
• If your opponent drops an argument let me know why it is important that I evaluate the argument they dropped. “They dropped it” is not an extension.

Be sure to engage in framework throughout the round and let me know reasons to prefer yours. I will not do the work for you.

Spreading

You can speak at a moderate speed. I will not pretend that I know what you are saying. If you are not clear I will put down my pen. I will say clear three times then stop flowing.

• “Slow” means you’re going to fast
• “Clear” means you need to annunciate clearer

Speaker Points

• Use your evidence to answer arguments and do a line-by-line, you do not have to read 1000 cards that all say the same thing.
• Have structure, tell me what flow I should be putting your arguments on and what you are answering, this creates a cleaner debate.
• Ask good questions that are conclusive and give you links in CX. I am fine with open cross but please do not dominate your partner's cross examination.
• Be strategic about what you decide to go for in the 2nd rebuttal speech

Hi Im Noah I did policy debate for 4 years at Calvert Hall

email: noahiydebate@gmail.com

Hey!

My email is: akashkaukuntla1224@gmail.com

I mainly debated Policy through high school but I haven't debated recently so I am not familiar with the topics of any event (I probably won't understand any shorthand terms etc.)

I never dabbled in K's, only Policy arguments so don't assume I know any specific theory. If you decide to run a K please explain your theory very well.

Overall, I tend to score highest based on clarity and cohesiveness throughout each individual speech and the complete debate in general. I am not great with speed so I would suggest slowing it down a bit if you want me to fully understand your arguments. Please slow down for analytics!

Good Luck!

I would like to be on an email chain - georgeli135022@gmail.com, but if the internet is broken, I'm fine with flash drives as well.

I was a policy debater for like 2 years, but I prefer a clear-cut debate rather than a lot of theory and K's. You can still make those arguments, you're just gonna have to make them clear to me and also your opponent.

TLDR- be respectful to the opposing team, and let's make sure to make debate an enjoyable experience where we can all learn something.

Policy

It's been like 3 years since I actually did policy debate, make sure to extend your technical terminologies for me to more easily understand your arguments. As an old-school (kinda) taught by old-school debaters, I prefer large tangible impacts to small soft ones, but if you make a good argument for that I will still favor it.

Some other stuff:

While arguments y'all make should be supported by evidence and reliable sources, they should also make logical sense. Please don't make me pull my hair out trying to decipher what you just said.

Policy debate is about making real-life policies. I will refer to the real tangible impacts of the plan over arguments like theory or Kritics. If you do use theories and Ks, make them understandable, if you start spouting words I hear from my philosophy class it will most likely fly past me. Especially if you're using Ks, please elaborate on how the alternative is better than the plan.

Public Forum

PF is pretty similar to Policy Debate so I'll probably judge it as one. All my points about the clash and evidence from above still apply, especially on Ks and Theory. There is less time in PF to fully flesh out the intricacies of a Kritic or Theory so it should be even more clear.

Ofcourse, I want you to explain the logic of your arguments clearly and make sure to engage in as much clash as possible. Beyond that, as long as it makes sense it's good enough for me.

General Notes

Debate is not just about dumping evidence on your opponent and then hoping something sticks, please clash with your opponent. Extend your arguments and answer your opponents' arguments. If you don't extend arguments after your opponent drops them I will put much less weight on them in my decision.

I will take logical arguments over some flimsy evidence. Just saying we have evidence doesn't cut it, explain and extend why that's important to the wider debate and the plan.

As a policy debater, I've seen pretty fast speeds before so I can understand them. However, as a judge, I would much rather you make a few clear and concise arguments than try to overwhelm your opponent with 10 different disadvantages and counterplans. I'm also not going to read your document if you spoke incomprehensibly to fill in my flow sheet, I'll just disregard that argument in my decision. I'm not saying speaking fast is bad since there is a lot to get through, I'm just saying don't abuse it.

Of course, the point of debate is to educate and have fun. As someone who follows politics and policies, I want to learn something from the debate. Use common sense and we'll have an enjoyable experience.

The Aff must present and defend some type of topical plan. How the Neg wants to argue against that is really up to them, but it has to relate to the resolution for the year and the aff plan. I will not reject the resolution.

Speed is fine as long as I can actually hear and comprehend what you are saying. I have not had to let someone know that I cannot understand them, but will if need be.

Please have fun.

If you have any questions, please feel free to ask me before the round.

Hey, my name is Justin Thomashefsky and I'm a coach at Truman High School. I competed in LD/PF from 2008 - 2010 and Policy during the 2010-2011 season. I've been judging / coaching debate since 2012 and have circuit Policy/LD experience

General debate things

I'm good with speed.

I'm good with K's (see policy for more info)

Disclosure theory is pretty meh to me. But if you make good arguments on it I guess ill vote for it.

Please analyze warrants in your evidence! This should go without saying.

Policy

I'm much more comfortable judging a policy round but I have a decent amount of experience judging critical rounds.

T - I default to reasonability but you can definetly convince me to evaluate competing interps if you win it on the flow. You need to win in round abuse to get my ballot. This goes extra for theory

K - I'm familiar and comfortable with standard K's (security, capitalism etc.) but you may lose me with high theory literature.

Please frame my ballot in your last speech. It should be clear what I'm voting for at the end of the round.

Open cross is fine but let your partner speak!

LD

For lay rounds: Debate warrants! Don't waste time on the Value/VC (Meta-ethic/standard) debate if you're both functionally the same framework. All the framework debate should come down to is what lens I should evaluate the round through

For circuit rounds: I'm not huge on the squirrel theory stuff that's been going on in circuit LD. I'll try to evaluate whatever you put in front of me but just like with T you really need to win in round abuse to get my ballot. For the rest just read policy stuff

I prefer to see lay rounds in LD. So if you're at a tournament with me that has a weird mix of lay and circuit you might want to default to lay. BUT I'll weigh whatever arguments you put in front of me in any style.

As a judge, I appreciate the dedication, hard work, and passion of every individual participating in speech and debate events. For debate, I am looking for a framework which provides reasoning and evidence to clearly define arguments with logical construction tying all of the relevant pieces together. The understanding of the opposition’s arguments should be inherent through effective and thorough cross and rebuttals. For speech, I will utilize the normal judging criteria depending on the type weighing each criteria piece and the impact on the overall effect of the performance. In summary, I expect individuals to be confident, respectful, and assertive during the events while challenging their colleagues in a spirited competitive nature. Thank you for the opportunity to judge you. Best of luck in your pursuit of greatness!

yuharry000@gmail.com

Strath Haven '22, Penn '26

Did policy debate in high school.

I do not debate in college and I do not know much about the topic, so bear with my lack of topic knowledge.

Line by Line preferred.

I will be voting based on the flow.

Big fan of counterplans, disads, impact turns.

I'm not great for the K.

Please have debate etiquette, be respectful.