Last changed on
Wed February 13, 2019 at 9:27 AM CDT
Ryan Wiegert- English Teacher/Debate Coach, Millard West
2 years judging PF, 1 year judging LD, 3 years judging Congress
Here is my overall paradigm, followed by changes for individual styles:
Speed of Delivery- I am strongly opposed to spreading and policy-style speed. While speaking at a clip is expected in a debate round, reading at “auctioneer” speeds occludes communication, games the system, and is frankly just irritating. I won't weigh anything I don't clearly hear.
Civility/Decorum- I absolutely expect politeness and civility in debate. You might still win the round, but I will be harsh on speaks.
Role of the judge/Meta- My role as a judge is to sign the ballot. That's all.
Kritiks- I usually just straight-up drop a k. I've made exceptions, but I would seriously recommend running an alternate case or using a strike on me.
---Specific Style Paradigms---
Congress:
While Congress has more of a delivery component than other debate styles, it still needs to involve debate. I need evidence, I need clash. After the initial authorship/first negation and maybe the first aff/neg exchange, the delivery style should be primarily extemporaneous and needs to address prior speeches directly. I grade repetitive/reheat speeches pretty harshly, unless they are summary/crystallization speeches. I'm not a fan of beating a dead horse, so when it's time to move the question, move it.
Public Forum:
I definitely subscribe to the idea that PF is supposed to be lay-accessible, and I encourage debaters to treat me like a lay judge despite the fact that I'm a coach. I'm not a fan of trying to win on technicalities and shenanigans.
I drop kritiks, plans/counterplans/topicality and any changing to the wording of the resolution.
The team that speaks second needs to address both the first team's case and rebuttal. This makes up for the advantage of having the last word in the round.
Extending your arguments is critical, and you have to extend them. I'm not going to do it for you. By the same token, if your opponents drop an argument, you need to call that out.
I like my summaries line by line. The final focus needs to include voters.
I don't flow cross-examination. That exchange is for the debaters to help develop the speeches which follow.
I do not weigh new arguments introduced in grad cross or later.
Lincoln-Douglas:
I tend to prefer traditional cases to the weird stuff. You can still win with the weird stuff, but you need to make sure I understand it.
Policy Style Arguments: I will drop you if your opponent runs even a basic LD style argument. If you want to do Policy debate, there's a whole division of the tournament for just that.
Lincoln-Douglas is the style of debate where I will accept theory and philosophy. Debaters in LD are not required to provide implementation.
I do not flow cross-examination in LD. Those exchanges are for you in preparation for the rebuttals to follow.
The aff debater cannot use the 2AR to "make up" for dropped arguments in the 1AR. The neg debater cannot introduce new arguments in the NR.
Don't speed. I cannot stress this enough. I won't flow what I don't understand.
I will drop you if you change even a single word of the resolution. I've seen this on cases lately and I'm not here for it. If you want to change the nature of the argument, you need to do that in framework.
The way to get my ballot is to show me how your value and criterion would improve the status quo, even if your better world is hypothetical.
I'm not a fan of trying to win on technicalities.
Dropped arguments need to have actual weight in order for me to consider voting on them.