LD: Looking for best crystalization of the round in relation to the resolution.  Clarity of case, links, and impacts is key.  A value case has the same burden. Crystalization.

Policy: Clear speaking, respect for all participants, using words that reflect the real world and not the shorthand of debate, supporting your case and rebutting the opponent's case with evidence.  Linking evidence, to your position and having the strongest argument is how the debate will be judged.  I am fine with spreading.  I flow.  Slippery slope arguments do not tend to be persuasive to me.  Slamming fact after fact after fact without connecting the facts becomes noise instead of debate.  Good facts supporting the aff or neg and used in concert with the back and forth of the debate will carry a great deal of weight.  Building a case to solve is a process.

http://judgephilosophies.wikispaces.com/Bartels%2C+Bill

I am a former high school and college debater. I competed in Lincoln Douglas and Policy debate in high school and CEDA debate in college (1990 - 1995 as CEDA was becoming more policy oriented). I coached college debate teams at Saint Louis University and the University of Missouri at Saint Louis. I am currently a teacher of art history and philosophy at Cleveland High School's Humanities Magnet in Reseda, CA. I have been coaching high school debate for over 15 years and have sent at least one team to the quarter-finals of the CA state debate tournament for the last seven years.

What I like to see in debate rounds.

I can handle a moderate speed policy round and a full spread Parli or LD round. I have lost hearing in my left ear and wear hearing aides, so I simply cannot flow a full speed policy debate round, but have had no problems in LD or Parli. I prefer plan versus counterplan and disad debate. I try to be a tabula rasa judge, but I admit that I am not a fan of performance debate and find most kritik debate to be too esoteric to vote on in most rounds. I will vote on critical theory, but it needs to clearly articulated, providing a specific alternative and weighing mechanism versus the plan or case offered by the affirmative. Reject the aff is not a persuasive alternative for me. I also do not like most plan inclusive counterplans (PIC's). I find them abusive because the negative is basically affirming the plan/resolution in order to negate. I automatically sever any topical portions of the PIC and just evaluate the non-topical portions versus plan benefits. I rarely, if ever, vote on PICs. I also despise rude debate. You can be assertive without being aggressive and rude. I will deduct speaker points for debaters who are overtly rude, abusive, or have offensive body language (rolling eyes or laughing at opponents - even if you are trying to be discrete).

Bottom Line

Be smart, be courteous, debate well, and tell me why you win the round (write my ballot for me in the final speech), and you are likely to win the round and get high speaker points in the process.

Pronouns: She/Hers/Her

Experience: 4 years of high school Forensics (as for which events specifically, that's for me to know and you to find out later). I now compete on the collegiate level for the University of Kentucky Speech and Debate Team.

Judging Experience: Since 2012 for Public Forum, Lincoln-Douglas, Policy, and Parliamentary.

General:
I have some personal preferences that extend to every form of debate. Firstly, please be courteous. Forensics is a fun, academic activity that allows people to communicate in the most persuasive manner possible. Being rude or purposefully distracting while your opponent is speaking will severely impact your speaking points. Secondly, please stand when speaking or being questioned. It makes it easier on everyone. Additionally, I flow every round, so please be clear with your tags. The neater my flow is the more clearly I can follow your arguments. Finally, have fun!

Also, I do not appreciate spreading. I have seen spreading in literally every debate event I have judged and I am still not endeared to it. If you do spread, I will drop my pen, when you slow down, I will pick it back up, but I will only allow this to happen twice, the third time I drop my pen, I won’t pick it back up.

Public Forum:
I will be as tabula rasa as possible*. However, what is most important to me is that the arguments are complex, well analyzed, and succinct.

Please be sure to have all the necessary parts. This means framework, realistic weighing mechanism, evidence with citations, tags, and definitions, just to name a few. Also, remember to impact and weigh every argument. Tell me why it matters and give me clear warrants. Additionally, be sure to interact with your opponent’s case. I would rather not have to judge a round with two cases just there, but not clashing .



*However, that doesn't mean I accept blatantly false statements. Ex. "Beyoncé is terrible." or "Global climate change doesn't exist."

What you need to know:

1.) I'm Kelly.  College debater, late to the debate game.  Parli sucks; I do it anyway.  

2.) If you're funny and/or irreverent, I want to vote for you.  I won't without good reason to.  

3.) Tech>Truth

4.) Process Counterplans are gross. I'll hear you out but ew.

5.) Theory=debating about debate.  Give me something more substantive than education/fairness please. Impact debate is best debate.

6.) Ignore me though; I'll listen to anything, and I'd rather you tell me both how to vote and what to vote on.  

7.) Slow your theory down. Way down. 

8.) Don't be a jerk. 

9.) Flex prep is obviously fine.  Keep each other honest by timing opponents' prep.  

10.) I am pretty easy with speaker points.  I don't really give out 30's (means there's no room to improve, and there always is).  If you're a jerk, I'll drop your speaks a lot.  If you jump around the flow and are messy, don't explain things, make my job annoying, I'll drop your speaks a little.  But I'm generally pretty generous.

Plan text debate?  Yeah.  Of course.  The more specific, the better though. And yes, all planks are up for debate.

Krit Affs? Yes. Love.  You will have a legit hard time convincing me they have no place in debate. Familiar with most of the lit.  Go nuts.

Disads?  Yeah, of course. Linear, nonlinear, politics, yep. 

Counterplans? Covered.  Yes, (though conditionality is a thing I like to see, please have this debate if Neg has at least one conditional world) PICs are fine.  

P.S. Cross applying your overview to the line-by-line in rebuttal speeches is annoying.  And I hate underviews, I don't know why people do this; don't be this person; save a tree.

A word on LD and PoFo though (I get stuck judging these a lot)

DON'T BE A JERK.  

FOR LD: Capitalizing on the time differential on the neg by running excessive theory is gross.  I won't drop you for running theory mainly.  But I kind of wish you wouldn't, and my sympathy will go Aff because I think it's really unfair to capitlize on something your opponent literally can't do anything about.

RVI's aren't a thing. Spreading is not inherently abusive.  

FOR PoFo: PoFo=net benefits debate.  I honestly don't think there's enough time for a real framework debate in this format, and it's kind of a waste of time.  

Qualifications:

Polytechnic School '15

Washington University in St. Louis '19

Debated 4 years in high school at Polytechnic, two time TOC qualifier. Currently coaching/judging for Polytechnic.

Quick philosophy:

- Anything goes, don't be offensive. I will vote for policy and K arguments, and I have no problem listening to and voting for performance arguments or no plan affs. I only evaluate what is said in the round. Speed is fine, slow down on the tags, and tech over truth in most cases.

Longer:

http://judgephilosophies.wikispaces.com/Hathaway%2C+Richard

Hello y'all!

It's everyone's favorite time, to read the philosophy of the judge so they can bs their way to winning rounds.

Background:

My background is pretty baller. I did speech for 4 years of high school and was ranked in the state. I did debate for 2 years, mid lay level LD and parli. After I graduated, I started coaching at Chaminade College Prep. To my dismay, they were mostly a policy school. I cried for weeks about this.

I've been the assist head coach there for 2 and half years and now the head coach for the past year. Surprisingly, no one has died. I've now judged rounds of all debate events in California, at almost all levels, except Varsity Policy, because I'm not too masochistic.

Here are some general things, then you can look at event specific things below:

I try my best to not put my beliefs onto the flow. I don't mind any critical arguments, just realize most of you run them wrong/weak links. Don't do that. Be clear and articulate, explain to me how it impacts the round. Don't just say "Dumb judge, I win because of (fancy jargon word)" Explain why you win. If you're going to cross apply, explain how it cross applies. "Cross apply this to all of my contentions because in reality, I have no answers, but want to seem like I didn't drop everything on the flow"

Don't run K's with no clear link. If I feel you've run this K against every aff you've hit, not matter the topic, I won't be happy. Make the link very clear. This comes off as lazy to me.

Speed: I'm alright with speed. Usually by the rebuttal level, I'm fine. I'd say in policy try to go 70% your fastest. LD you can go 80% your fastest. I have yet to have an issue with speed in PF and parli, so don't worry. You'll want to go slower with me, mostly because I tend not to give any indication if I can't understand what you're saying because I'm trying so hard to understand what you're saying.

Also, when spreading, there is this thing called enunciating. Do that. I like that.

And in spreading, I know that tends to turn into yelling, try not to do that. As a speech a coach, I feel horrible for your vocal cords that your abusing and misusing. Also, no one likes to be yelled at for an hour.

There's no reason to be rude. I will tank your speaks if you're a jerk. Be passionate by all means, but making your opponent cry, or just being a "meanie face" will not make me like you. I will still give you the win in the round, if you won the round, but you can say bye bye speaker award, because your speaks are destroyed. Moral of this story: Win, but let your arguments win, being a jerk doesn't gain you ground on your arguments and it hurts your speaks for me. Being a meanie poo (I'm avoiding curse words, for if some reason my school I work at finds this) isn't educational and won't help you in the real world.

I generally enjoy rounds where the topic and cases are engaged. I'm more of a straight policy/LD person. However, trust me when I say, I'm totally fine with any arguments you want to run, just please make it follow a clear train of logic.

I'm cool with flex prep, if everyone agrees. In the prepared debate events, especially LD and policy, if your opponent is misrepresenting evidence, and you call that out, I love that.

LD:

Yo, LD, I like that event.Since it's LD, I'm a big fan of the values debate. Otherwise just go into policy.

Policy:

If I'm judging a policy round, I'm already crying inside. Don't make those tears turn into a full out sob. Meaning, clearly explain everything, go slow on your tag lines. I won't time "flash" time towards prep, but don't go super slow.

Parli:

I love parli. As a judge, I realize that you've only had 20 minutes of prep. For this reason, unless you cite where you are getting your information, I'll probably assume you're lying.

I'm definitely fine with any critical arguments you want to run. However, I'm not a huge fan of parli in which the topic is ignored entirely. If it's a poorly written topic, call that out, but don't refuse to debate it because you think it's poorly written. If we're getting a resolution on if we need to send aid to the Sahel region, I don't want the aff to come in an talk about how we need to stop oppression in America or an entirely different case for a resolution (unless there is a very clear link to the resolution) Again, if you feel the topic is horribly skewed, explain that in round, but I don't like when the aff comes in with a new topic, It just comes off as lazy and not willing to engage the debate and topic.

Public Forum:

I've never had any issues with speed or anything in Public Forum. Basically, if you're in Public Forum, do you boo. PF you understand me and I love you for that public forum.

Also, because I'm fat, I'm receptive to receiving donuts, cheesecake and fettuccine Alfredo. It won't give you the win, but I'll give me something to cry into during the policy rounds.

Jimmy Z.

Polytechnic School ‘14

Stanford University ‘18

Last Updated: August 2014

Background: I debated all four years in high school in both LD and policy. This is mainly due to the fact that I debated at a small school where partnerships and schedules were not always consistent (LD=maverick policy). I didn’t really compete on the national circuit as much as I would have liked to, but I have done so in both LD and policy.

General: I’m ok with most arguments in either policy or LD. I do come from a policy background, so I do prefer plans, DAs, CPs, etc. in LD over like meta-ethical framework heavy cases, but I will vote on either.

T and Theory: I actually enjoy watching these debates when the debater can have specific interpretations (i.e. more than one conditional CP bad vs. all condo bad). For most areas of theory, there is a good middle ground so wording of your interpretation is pretty important. I default to competing interpretations on T. I also lean towards condo good (unless it’s like something absurd like seven conditional CPs), but I can be swayed, especially in LD.

CPs/DAs: These are good, but hopefully your link chains aren’t too crazy and your solvency advocates are somewhat qualified. I do believe in terminal defense, but that claim should be made in round with some warrants.

Ks: Have a very clear thesis with these. Most Ks don’t have to be very complicated, but they do have a lot of jargon, and I’m not a fan of jargon. You shouldn’t assume I know what a master signifier is or what the discourse of the hysteric means as an alternative. If your opponent is confused and does not cover the K well, there is a higher standard on you to explain the K because 1) I could be confused and 2) you probably will have the time to make these explanations since most of their answers are not responsive.

Non-traditional arguments: Not very familiar with these, but I do understand if you tell me what the role of the ballot is and the framework on how I should decide who best meets the ROB and how your cases does that, then I will most likely vote for you.

Any other questions, just ask.