elibrennan@gmail.com YES, I'd like to be on the email chain (or i guess we may just use Zoom to transfer speech docs).

Evidence: I am happy, very happy, to prefer the team with the better evidence on key questions, you just need to explain why your evidence is superior: be clear about which evidence you want me to read, why I will find it superior, and why that matters for the overall strategic situation of the debate.I haven't been reading much evidence at all after debates because the approach to extending the evidence lacks substantive warranting. In those situations, I prefer to just compare warrants provided by the debaters- to see who did the better _debating_. All that said, I really do like that policy debate can create stable strategic advantages for better research and better interpretation of that research.

Framework: I'm sympathetic to Framework arguments mostly in situations where the Aff. is apparently trying to avoid substantive clash. Many debaters who specialize in, or rely on, framework arguments fail to convince me that they could not have anticipated, or developed answers to, the Affirmative's arguments. Developing substantive responses to widely different kinds of arguments seems like something we should each be good at. I often sense that debaters are just not interested in literature they claim to have been unable to anticipate. All that said, if you have a solid set of answers to the questions our community brings to the topic, and your opponent makes it unreasonably difficult/impossible to engage in those debates, please by all means go for framework. Winning the quality of education component is usually the key to that ballot for me.

K Debate: I like policy debate and critical debate. Do what you do best, and I'll follow. Adapting your blocks to the specifics of the Aff is the easiest way to improve your chances. For the Aff to weigh their advantages against a K, defending the knowledge claims is more reliable than theory arguments (for my ballot). A lot of teams are letting alternatives off the hook, which creates a tough debate for the Aff. Putting both offensive and defensive pressure on the Alternative is a more robust strategy, in my view, than a framework argument giving theoretical reasons I should ignore evidence against the Aff perspective.

Theory: A lot of theory debates are messy because debaters overly rely on their blocks. It gets blippy and lacks the kind of comparisons that make ballots reliable. I do understand, and am sympathetic to, theory positions that are necessary to keep the rest of the debate under control for your side. You often end up needing to go "all in" if the substantive debate gets out of control. Just be sure to debate "access" to the terminal impact of education in a clear and comparative way. I'm probably more sympathetic to process counterplans and solvency advocate arguments than most of my colleagues, in that I like these debates to be resolved with the best research, rather than the best spin.

Global advice: Think actively during the whole debate, find a way to create and enjoy moments of excellence, and respect your opponents (or at least the people they could be). Make whatever arguments you feel/think best. Take the time to explain your argument most comprehensively at the places you are most vulnerable- always contextualizing one step further than your opponent (they say 'purple', you say 'sun-drenched lavender').

Most of my decisions result from setting the 2nr against the 2ar, controlling for new args (esp. new 2ar args), checking evidence, defaulting to meta-arguments (comparisons) from debaters, and then imposing (i hate it as much as you do) meta-arguments where necessary.

I'm happy to answer any questions you may have before, during, or after the debate.

*Sidequests: +.2 Speaker points on offer for the sickest burn on opposing authors.

Rylee Buchert

- Graduated Jenks HS in 2019.

- Currently debating CX for MSU and LD for TU.

- Qualified to the TOC twice and took 9th/3rd at NSDA my Junior and Senior years.

Top Line Stuff

- Add me to the chain: ryleebuchert@gmail.com

- Regarding online debate, I am more than willing to be patient and let everyone get their computers set up so the debate can flow smoothly. If at any point your internet cuts out or something goes wrong, just let me know and we will pause the round.

- Evidence quality matters a lot to me, I will reward you if you correctly assert that your cards are good.

- Do evidence comparison, it's the best way to boost your speaker points with me.

- Don't assert something was dropped if it wasn't.

CJR Topic

- I haven't done any research on this topic, but I'm picking it up pretty quickly. Just don't spread a bunch of acronyms at me without explaining what they mean first.

DA/CP/Impact Turns

- Yes

- If you're going to read spark (Or similar impact turns) I'm probably not the best judge for you.

Theory

- Aside from condo, most theory args are a reason to reject the arg not the team.

- Condo is good (I will not likely vote for it unless it's dropped). I had 1NCs with 4+ condo off, I don't really care if you have 50 CP's/K's in the 1NC. (Updating this as I voted for Condo bad in a round - I will not vote for this unless the neg severely mishandles it, please don't).

- Please slow down on theory, if you spread through a chunk of text, I will only vote on what I get down.

- If your theory shells in the 2AC are one line long, chances are I won't vote for them.

T

- I think most teams spend too much time explaining the impact to things like limits/ground and not enough on the internal links. Especially on this topic, I would like to see teams really flesh out the specifics on why the aff's interpretation is bad and not just rant about limits and ground being important.

- If you extend T, I would prefer it be a full extension, not just a blippy one minute time skew.

- Competing Interps > Reasonability.

K

- Didn't go for many K's in high school but have enjoyed judging these rounds a lot.

- I am most likely not familiar with any lit base outside of Cap/Security, so please don't spread through a three minute overview without explaining things.

- Be specific on the links and relate them to the aff.

- I will probably let the aff weigh their case against the K unless they really mess up the theory debate.

- If your arguments are death good or debate bad, don't pref me.

FW

- I think that all Affs should be connected to the topic in some way.

- I think impacts like topic education and others of the sort can be very persuasive if framed the correct way.

- This is the one argument where a long overview is acceptable to me in the 2NC, as long as it frames the ballot well and lays out the impacts you're going for.

- I wouldn't extend every impact in the block/2NR but instead collapse down and explain.

K debate is the best, I really don't care what ypu run just convince me what I should be voting on. That being said mosts cps are abusive so I normally err towards aff.

spreading is fine, flash your evidence prior to speeches.

most likely wont vote on T

make sure to do some type of framing in your rebuttals

I'm the Program Director for the Tulsa Debate League. I coach all events but my focus is policy debate. I'm open to all styles of debate and I try to minimize judge intervention in my decisions. With that in mind, I’m more concerned with argument form than argument content. Arguments can come in many forms (e.g., traditional policy arguments, kritikal arguments, narrative arguments, etc.) but I think all arguments should have warrants and impacts. I also think line-by-line and clash help me minimize judge intervention. If your debate style eschews line-by-line, that's okay, but the clash should still be present, even if it's implicit. Ultimately though, I will do my best to evaluate your round according to the terms you establish in the round. With all that said, the rest of this paradigm covers a few technical aspects of debate that I consider important.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Speech Docs

Please include me in the email chain: michael.haskins@tulsadebate.org

Flowing

I will flow where you tell me to flow. If you don’t tell me where to flow, I will flow in the way that makes the most sense to me. I'm hesitant to cross-apply for you so sign-posting and explicit cross-applications are important.

Evidence

I prefer fewer pieces of evidence better explained and better applied than many pieces of evidence poorly explained and poorly applied. I think the debate community as a whole has done a poor job of teaching debaters how to evaluate competing evidence. Credentials and expert status hold less sway in my mind than the empirical and logical analysis contained in the evidence. On that note, I tend to give more weight to analytical arguments that use common knowledge examples and reasoned analysis than most judges. I consider this an important check against teams that run intentionally obscure offense on the hope that the other team will lack the evidence to respond.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Feel free to ask me questions. I love to talk debate.

Contact and Email Chain (include me in email chain and for any questions) : Shawna Hight - hrhshawna@gmail.com

You can call me Shawna or Hight, pronouns are she/her

Secondary Language Arts/Math Instructor / PhD student in Literacy and Logic, experience judging and competing in CX (pref), LD, and speech both JH,HS, and college.

Basics

I want an organized, line by line debate, but I want you to tell me how I should vote. Don't leave it up to me to figure out. Tell me why you are winning and how your arguments make your case stand. Tell me when you link/flip/turn cards and tell me what flows through - point out drops.

Speed is fine, but articulate your plan and analysis. I will not vote on what I don't get down.

Be professional and courteous, and respect identities and pronouns. There is a fine line between being an intimidating opponent and rude, don't cross it. I love debate because I believe it is a place for respectful discourse. But I'm a teacher and parent first and if you are rude, I reserve the right to reduce speaker points or drop you.

Aff : Make your plan clear, don't skirt around neg.

Neg: I like DA args but your uniqueness must be recent. Link needs to be specific. I'll vote on Topicality if there's really an issue with Aff plan, otherwise, that's a stall.

I enjoy a good Theory/K, but explain it, especially if it's a new argument. You have to show me why it wins. Side note, I do see these as DA/Counterplan type arguments and want to see the uniqueness.

I'm sure there's more, but I'm writing this fast...

4 years policy in high school at bishop kelley in oklahoma (marine natural resources-national service), and 1 year in college at UCO (constructive engagement). judged high school cx and ld for 12 years, locally and nationally.

i'll generally default to a mixture of policy and flow in the absence of a specific role of the ballot argument. the team with the better analysis and better control over how the arguments interact will probably win. i have zero problem dropping teams that do some real bullshit, though. read religious arguments, morally repugnant stances, etc. at your own risk.

i try not to actually *watch* debaters during the debate. it's a thing, it's not me trying to be rude. i don't like being referred to as "judge"- i have a name. so if you have a habit of saying "look to x flow, judge" or whatever, you can replace judge with cory, dude, buddy, or even disregard addressing a specific person and say "look to x flow". it won't hurt your speaker points, just a matter of personal preference.

i encourage any questions for clarification or if i left it out. i would rather you have a clear idea of what i will/will not vote on than you charging blindly and hoping for the best at the end of the round. for questions outside of the round, you can use my gmail, cory.g.wilson

POLICY PARADIGM

t, procedurals, theory, etc: i'll vote on them, but take it with a grain of salt. to win my ballot on these issues, you need to do all four of the following things: a) articulate a clear abuse story b) prove in-round abuse c) win the flow and d) give standards and voters. in the case of theory especially, BUZZWORDS ARE NOT WARRANTS. you need to explain what you're talking about for me to actually give a damn about what you're saying. i don't think that potential abuse is a voter most of the time, but it has a time and place. if you do go for it, you need a pretty good story about why i should care. i tend to buy reasonability within, well, reason.

disads: i would most definitely prefer a specific one to a generic one, but i do understand that sometimes you don't have something specific. if you're going to go for it, however, i do expect a story on the disad in the 2nr explaining what i am voting on and why you link to the aff and why your impact outweighs.

counterplans: pretty legit. net benefits are really awesome. be competitive. i don't think that presumption automatically shifts aff when a counterplan is read- like with everything else, justify why (or why not).

kritiks: when it's bad, it's bad. when it's good, i thoroughly enjoy it. i'm not going to pretend to be very well versed in the literature and arguments that exist, but i like to think i'm on the better side of most. in order to be on the safe side, you should do the same thing for the kritik as you do the disad in the second rebuttal- tell me why the other team links, why it's bad and outweighs their impacts, and how the alternative gains solvency. an idea of what the world would look like post-alternative would be a great addition to your story. additionally, you should probably know how to pronounce your author and at least act confident in pronouncing (and knowing) things like "ressentiment" or other specialized words/phrases that pop up in the literature that you read.

speed: i'll yell clear if i can't understand you.

LD PARADIGM

this is mostly colored by my policy background (so arguments about keeping the event pure aren't going to be met with much enthusiasm), but i've gotten more comfortable with the event as i've gone along . the biggest thing for me is clash and clear articulation of what your value means vis a vis the resolution and why it is the best for the resolution. the criterion debate seems to fall in line with the value debate, but if it comes down to whose criterion gains better access to the value, then i expect good analysis as to why yours is the best.

i'm apt to consider "voting issues" if presented at the end of the nr and the 2ar over sifting through the flow.

i'm also willing to listen to off-case arguments if presented properly and with a clear warrant as to why the aff or neg links and why it impacts my ballot.