Put me on the email chain: swapdebate@gmail.com

I've debated CX for four years at Chamblee High School and four years at the University of Georgia. I will try to intervene as little as possible in debate rounds, so be clear and frame the debate. Don't be rude or offensive - I usually give pretty high speaks but this is one way to to hurt them. I have judged ZERO debates on the immigration topic so I likely have not heard your aff/DA/acronym before. I usually read along with the speech doc, so I will handle clarity/clipping issues.

FW - I think that debate is a game in which the affirmative defends hypothetical enactment of a policy and the other side argues that the policy is bad. I enjoy listening to kritikal affs and think they can be valuable, but I also think they engender a worse model of debate that is unfair to the negative. That being said, I will vote based on what happened in the round. I think you're in a much better position on framework if your aff is at least in the direction of the topic and you answer DAs.

Case/DA - I love these throwdowns. I will vote on presumption if there is no risk of the case, just as I am comfortable assigning zero risk of a link. Relevant impact differentials and turns case analysis are persuasive to me, especially in close debates. I also love a good impact turn debate. No one goes for dedev, heg bad, or china war good anymore... :(

Topicality - It's always a voting issue and outweighs theory unless told otherwise. I think this is an underutilized argument in debate - don't let affs get away with murder via small reforms. Providing a good view of the topic under your interpretation and defending that view is very persuasive, but I am also sympathetic to aff arguments about interp predictability. Lack of effective impact work is why I find myself voting aff on reasonability.

Counterplan - I can be persuaded that most counterplans are legitimate, but winning process or international fiat theory will be an uphill battle for the negative. I will not kick the counterplan for you under unless I'm told that's an option. Unlike some judges nowadays, I can be persuaded that conditionality is bad. Please slow down when you're spreading your theory block.

Kritik - I'm comfortable with some of the K literature that is read often in debate, specifically cap and afropess stuff. However, don't assume I know your specific Baudrillard evidence. Contextualized link analysis and turns case args often persuade me to vote negative. The framework debate is also very important for setting metrics for winning the round. I think a lot of negative teams get away with no solvency explanation on the alternative - aff teams need to press them on what the alternative looks like in practice/why that's relveant. Theory arguments against alternatives are underutilized in my opinion.

Noah Baker – Pine Crest ’15 – Emory ‘19
Email: nbakerdebate@gmail.com
@Yes, I want to be on the evidence chain.

*Note I update my paradigm frequently; whenever I change my mind or feel the need to elaborate/emphasize something, I will make that change on here.*

I will format some of this the way debaters can understand by using a similar "tag and card" structure. This way you can get the main ideas, but still have clarification if necessary. Not all tags have cards. I use the @ symbol to mark any "MUST READ" notes, so be sure to look at those.

_______Short Version_______

I have become increasingly nihilistic about debate. I will reward hard work and the will to win. Read what you want, and I will evaluate it based on the arguments made in the round. Wanna read a plan? Wonderful. You don't? That's cool too. If you make this enjoyable for me and do the better debating, you'll win and get good speaks. Further questions? See below or feel free to ask before the round.

_______Long Version_______

--- Prologue ---

Judging's hard but I'll do my best
As a judge, it is difficult to make the best decision (notice I said "best" and not "right" decision), but I promise I will try my hardest to evaluate the debate in the best and most fair way that I can. Please understand, though, that judges make mistakes. I apologize in advance if you feel I made the wrong decision, however, once I have made my decision, I will not change it.

Always open to respectful discussion and feedback
I am always more than happy to elaborate/answer questions, but only if everyone is being respectful. If you feel that I or another team is being disrespectful, I'd love to know so that I can do right by you and fix it. If you don't feel comfortable speaking up in the moment, please feel free to have your coach contact me.

I've debated, coached, and judged
I debated in high school for four years at Pine Crest under the coaching of Jeremy Hammond. I debated in college for two and a half years at Emory, where I am currently a senior studying business. I have broadly similar thoughts about debate as my past coaches and teammates, as those are the people who I spent the most time discussing this strange activity with. Those people are Jeremy Hammond, James Herndon, Stephen Weil, Jason Sigalos, Saul Forman, and Tanner Lewis. A tip for you would be to look at my old college wiki because that might give you an indication of what I like to hear if that is what I read.

Biases exist but persuasion is more important
There’s no such thing as “Read anything in front of me because I have no biases.” Everyone has biases. However, that does not mean I cannot be persuaded. The more persuasive you are, the less likely my bias may influence my decision.

--- I. General Debate ---

Debate is a game
At its core, policy debate is a game. Yes, there are other valuable aspects that are (arguably) more/less important than winning a game. However, I am making a descriptive, not normative, statement that debate is fundamentally a game. It’s supposed to be fun. @Don’t ruin that by being a jerk. I have and will continue to call people out for this, and I am not afraid to make your speaker points reflect it.

Arguments need warrants - no tech/truth preference
I don’t have a preference on tech over truth. A dropped argument is a true argument if and only if it is warranted/explained (A dropped tag is not an argument.) You don’t always need cards; sometimes analytics get the job done. Of course I prefer warranted cards to warranted analytics.

Clarity over speed
Clarity is more important than speed. Speed is measured by number of arguments a judge can understand, not how many words per minute you can speak.

The 2AR isn't the time to make new args
I have been both a 2A and a 2N so I know how annoying new 2AR arguments can be. I don’t give you much leeway on new arguments. If the argument was in the 2AC, not in the 1AR, and then in the 2AR then I will not evaluate it.

@Don't steal/abuse prep
Use your prep time wisely, but don't steal it. I'm pretty lenient on most things (i.e. technology issues or bathroom breaks), but you and I both know when you're stealing prep. Doing something to get a competitive advantage while not taking prep is cheating. I promise that it’ll be reflected in your speaker points. If it's getting egregious, I will say something.

Presumption toward less change
Presumption goes to less change, not necessarily the neg. I will vote on it, and I will vote on absolute defense. In almost all instances, I don't think presumption can be a net bet benefit to a counterplan because less change isn't a quantifiable benefit between the two.

@Don't cheat - you'll lose
A team caught cheating will be given 0 speaker points and a loss. There are some times where I will follow along with the docs, so I'm definitely willing to vote against you even if the other team doesn't bring up an ethics challenge. If you make a clipping accusation, you need a recording.

@Communication is key
Debate is a communicative activity, and speeches have time limits for a reason. If I don't understand something, it's your fault for not explaining it well. Don't assume I understand something just because you do. If you're pointing things out post-round, it's not going to convince me any differently; you should've said it in the round or explained it better.

Bad evidence makes me grumpy - lying about bad evidence makes me really grumpy
I hate bad evidence a lot. I don't care if you're making it sound pretty and your extrapolation of one word sounds good. If your evidence is garbage then you're going to be in a bad spot. I hate evidence that has random portions across that card painted together to make a sentence so you can read the card a little bit faster. I hate choppy/unnatural highlighting. I hate evidence that only highlights claims. I hate evidence that is cut out of context. I hate evidence that cuts the first and last paragraphs of an entire article. And I really hate when people lie about what their evidence says. I promise you that reading one A/B+ card is just far better than five C cards that make no arguments and just repeat each other.

--- II. Topicality ---

Smart topicality is great - last resort topicality is not
I’m not very familiar with the high school topic, so keep that in mind. I enjoy debates over the meanings of words, so feel free to employ it to your advantage when possible. I don't love last resort topicality arguments because they're usually too generic, artificial, and/or don't make sense. But, I get why you have to go for T when you do.

Offense over defense
You need to have good reasons for why they are not topical and why that’s bad. I’m not going to vote on blippy impacts that you don’t explain. I need to know why they make debate worse or why you make debate better. I think you’re reasonable if you explain why including your aff isn’t enough to trigger the impacts.

Some T args are not winners
I strongly suggest that you don't read/go for any impact about debaters dropping out (and similar variations), A-Spec, or O-Spec. Vagueness arguments are plan/topic dependent, so I'm staying neutral there.

--- III. T-USFG and Framework ---

T-USFG and framework are different
The two are distinct. Framework is an exclusion of their argument type. T-USFG is saying that they can still talk about those arguments, but they need to be topical under the resolution. These things are not interchangeable, so don't try to have any sort of ethos moment where you call one of them by the other name for emphasis.

The topic exists for a reason
There is a topic--that's non-negotiable. Everything else is up for discussion. But we're not going to pretend that there isn't a topic that was chosen. If you're blatantly not related to the topic, it's going to be an uphill battle.

Clash is good - it stems from preparation/the ability to prepare

Switching sides is good

Definitions should match the correct words/phrases/terms of art
"United States federal government" is a phrase. "United States" is not you the people. “Resolved:” is different than “Resolve”. “Resolved:” means to introduce a policy into legal forum. It is definitely not to reduce by mental analysis.

Procedure comes before content
The neg should always make an argument that procedure comes before content and that you can't weigh the case. I am very sympathetic to this. I'll default to this if it is not brought up.

--- IV. Theory: ---

I love theory - don't make them late breaking debates
I find myself becoming more entertained with very technical and interesting theory debates. I do have predispositions on certain things, but if you're willing to go in on something like "No Neg Fiat" then great! I've been waiting for this, especially because nobody is really ready for a great theoretical discussion. That being said, view all of this through the lens that debate is a game. Theory is usually late breaking, so don't pretend to extrapolate on things that you never said.

Conditionality - I lean neg
Having been both a 2A and 2N, I have thought a lot about conditionality. When it comes to all of the random debate-ish arguments people have made about it being good or bad (i.e. info-processing, ideological flexibility, etc.), honestly at the end of the day, conditionality really exists becuase the aff has it so easy and it's the only way to make the 2AC hard enough to get the neg back to a fair shot. I think it's really hard to quanitfy this in context of what the threshold is for how many conditional options allows the neg to make it fair without it becoming too unfair for the 2AC. How I see it is that 2 options is fair for the neg and aff, 3 is probably still fair unless there are other theoretical reasons the things they read were bad (i.e. they contradicted, they didn't have solvency advocates, one of them was a 2NC CP, etc.), and 4 is probably too many for the neg. Note - I will not vote on conditionality if it is a new aff.

Counterplans and alts must be competitive
You must be both textually and functionally competitive. I am definitely willing to vote on a perm that proves that disproves either textual or functional competition. I've been waiting a long time for the 2AR to go for "you must be both textually and functionally competitive, but you're only functionally competitive." Process, International, PICs, and Agent CPs aren’t bad, but they must be competitive. Conditions, Threaten, Consult, Delay are usually dumb, so I tend to lean aff on perm do the counterplan for these.

Object fiat is bad and counterplans should not result in the aff

Judge kick is meh
I default to not judge kicking something, but feel free to convince me otherwise.

2NC counterplans are only for answering add-ons

1NR impacts are never discussed
I'm one of the very few people who is willing to not allow new 1NR impacts to a DA, but you have to tell me why. I think they're definitely legit though if its not external but rather acting as turns case. I'll default to allowing them if nobody says anything.

--- V. Disads and Counterplans ---

Impact Calc is key

I am neutral on the politics DA
I read politics/elections/midterms a lot when I debated. However, the current political climate is strange, so be sure to explain scenarios well. I am definitely willing to vote on smart intrinsicness arguments, but I haven't thought about it in a while. Since judging, nobody has gone for it, but you should.

Link turns need uniqueness

I like counterplans - the more specific, the better
Counterplans can get tricky, of course. I really like when teams read aff/advantage specific counterplans, but make sure to do a good job on solvency/solvency deficit explanation. You always need a net benefit, however, even the tiniest of net benefits can win if the counterplan solves the entirety of the aff.

--- VI. Case Debating ---

Please debate the case
Debating the case is one of the most underutilized things in debate. Do it well and you will get an increase in speaker points. Affs are really dumb most, if not all, of the time. Finding logical holes in the aff is quite easy these days. I am really willing to vote neg on presumption. More and more I find myself wishing I could give the 2NR on why the aff is so dumb and why I should prefer the status quo. I'm still waiting for someone to go for 5 minutes of neg on presumption.

--- VII. Kritiks ---

I have an interesting relationship with Ks
I read Kritiks. I don’t hate them, but I don't love them. The simpler, the better because often times teams don't explain anything about their K and just insert random buzzwords. You'll be in a bad spot if you're being vague and/or don't explain how the aff links and how the alt solves. Seriously, teams just never explain alts or alt solvency, and I can't stand that. If I don't know what the alt is and/or what it does, I'm not going to vote for you.

Util good, extinction outweighs, and death is bad
The death part isn't really negotiable. You can try to persuade me otherwise, but you're most likely not going to.

I lean aff on kritik framework and hate PIKs

--- VIII. Other ---

Auto-Losses include, but are not limited to...
- Arguments about judge prefs
- "Roasts"
- "Rape Good" arguments

Being rude will hurt your speaker points
Shaking your head, scoffing, rolling your eyes, etc. in response to the other team is something that will really hurt your speaker points. These things aren't cheating, but they're going to make find ways to not vote for your. Snarky comments about the other team/school is unacceptable. I've been in debates where personal attacks were made, and I can tell you that if I see this, there will be a significant deduction in speaker points. I don't care if you're doing it to have ethos or pathos. I don't care if it's part of your appeal for me to vote for you just to make them look silly. I will not let it happen. If you make fun of the other team or the other team's school, you will be getting a low-point win if you win, but you probably won't because I really won't want to vote for you.

Don't play music before a round
DO NOT play music before a round. I'm not going to say anything to you, I'm just going to reduce your speaker points. Up to you what you want to do with this information.

Other ways to hurt your speaker points include...
--Offensive Language
--Offensive Arguments
--Taking too long
--Hurting your partner over in cross-x
--Being a jerk

You can increase your speaker points with...
--Smart Arguments
--@Jokes (Debate gets boring. Make them. I won’t deduct speaker points for poorly executed jokes. Don’t make jokes at the other teams expense.)
--Good Cross-X

Bill Batterman
Associate Director of Debate — Woodward Academy (2010-present)
Director of Debate — Marquette University High School (2006-2010)
Assistant Debate Coach — Marquette, Appleton East, Nicolet, etc. (2000-2006)
Last Updated 9/17/2021

Twitter version: Debate like an adult. Show me the evidence. Attend to the details. Don't dodge; clash. Great research and informed comparisons win debates.

My promise: I will pay close attention to every debate, carefully and completely scrutinize every argument, and provide honest feedback so that students are continuously challenged to improve as debaters.

Perspective: During the 2010s (my second full decade of judging/coaching debate), I coached and/or judged at 189 tournaments and taught slightly more than 16 months of summer debate institutes. I don't judge as many rounds as I used to — I took an extended sabbatical from judging during the 2020-2021 season — but I still enjoy it and I am looking forward to judging debates again. I am also still coaching as actively as ever. I know a lot about the water resources protection topic.

Pre-round: Please add billbatterman@gmail.com to the email chain. Respect your opponents by sending the same documents to the email chain that you use to deliver your speeches. If you create separate versions of your speech documents (typically by deleting headings and analytical arguments) before sharing them, I will assume that you do not respect your opponents. I like debaters that respect their opponents. I will have my camera on when judging; if it is off, confirm that I'm ready before beginning your speech.

1. I care most about clarity, clash, and argument comparison.

I will be more impressed by students that demonstrate topic knowledge, line-by-line organization skills (supported by careful flowing), and intelligent cross-examinations than by those that rely on superfast speaking, obfuscation, jargon, backfile recycling, and/or tricks. I've been doing this for 20 years, and I'm still not bored by strong fundamental skills and execution of basic, core-of-the-topic arguments.

To impress me, invite clash and show off what you have learned this season. I will want to vote for the team that (a) is more prepared and more knowledgeable about the assigned topic and that (b) better invites clash and provides their opponents with a productive opportunity for an in-depth debate.

Aff cases that lack solvency advocates and claim multiple contrived advantages do not invite a productive debate. Neither do whipsaw/scattershot 1NCs chock-full of incomplete, contradictory, and contrived off-case positions. Debates are best when the aff reads a plan with a high-quality solvency advocate and one or two well-supported advantages and the neg responds with a limited number of complete, consistent, and well-supported positions (including, usually, thorough case answers).

I would unapologetically prefer not to judge debates between students that do not want to invite a productive, clash-heavy debate.

2. I'm a critic of argument, not a blank slate.

My most important "judge preference" is that I value debating: "a direct and sustained confrontation of rival positions through the dialectic of assertion, critique, response and counter-critique" (Gutting 2013). I make decisions based on "the essential quality of debate: upon the strength of arguments" (Balthrop 1989).

Philosophically, I value "debate as argument-judgment" more than "debate as information production" (Cram 2012). That means that I want to hear debates between students that are invested in debating scholarly arguments based on rigorous preparation, expert evidence, deep content knowledge, and strategic thinking. While I will do my best to maintain fidelity to the debate that has taken place when forming my decision, I am more comfortable than most judges with evaluating and scrutinizing students' arguments. I care much more about evidence and argument quality and am far less tolerant of trickery and obfuscation than the median judge. This has two primary implications for students seeking to adapt to my judging:

a. What a card "says" is not as important as what a card proves. When deciding debates, I spend more time on questions like "what argument does this expert make and is the argument right?" than on questions like "what words has this debate team highlighted in this card and have these words been dropped by the other team?." As a critic of argument, I place "greater emphasis upon evaluating quality of argument" and assume "an active role in the debate process on the basis of [my] expertise, or knowledge of practices and standards within the community." Because I emphasize "the giving of reasons as the essential quality of argument, evidence which provides those reasons in support of claims will inevitably receive greater credibility than a number of pieces of evidence, each presenting only the conclusion of someone's reasoning process. It is, in crudest terms, a preference for quality of evidence over quantity" (Balthrop 1989).

b. The burden of proof precedes the burden of rejoinder. As presented, the risk of many advantages and disadvantages is zero because of missing internal links or a lack of grounding for important claims. "I know this argument doesn't make sense, but they dropped it!" will not convince me; reasons will.

When I disagree with other judges about the outcome of a debate, my most common criticism of their decision is that it gives too much credit to bad arguments or arguments that don't make sense. Their most common criticism of my decision is that it is "too interventionist" and that while they agree with my assessment of the arguments/evidence, they think that something else that happened in the debate (often a "technical concession") should be more determinative. I respect many judges that disagree with me in these situations; I'm glad there are both "tech-leaning" and "truth-leaning" judges in our activity. In the vast majority of debates, we come to the same conclusion. But at the margins, this is the major point of disagreement between us — it's much more important than any particular argument or theory preference.

3. I am most persuaded by arguments about the assigned topic.

One of the primary reasons I continue to love coaching debate is that "being a coach is to be enrolled in a continuing graduate course in public policy" (Fleissner 1995). Learning about a new topic area each year enriches my life in profound ways. After 20 years in "The Academy of Debate" (Fleissner 1995), I have developed a deep and enduring belief in the importance of public policy. It matters. This has two practical implications for how I tend to judge debates:

a. Kritiks that demonstrate concern for good policymaking can be very persuasive, but kritiks that ignore the topic or disavow policy analysis entirely will be tough to win. My self-perception is that I am much more receptive to well-developed kritiks than many "policy" judges, but I am as unpersuaded (if not more so) by kritiks that rely on tricks, obfuscation, and conditionality as I am by those styles of policy arguments.

b. I almost always find kritiks of topicality unpersuasive. An unlimited topic would not facilitate the in-depth clash over core-of-the-topic arguments that I most value about debate. The combination of "topical version of the aff" and "argue this kritik on the neg" is difficult to defeat when coupled with a fairness or topic education impact. Topical kritik affirmatives are much more likely to persuade me than kritiks of topicality.

Works Cited
Balthrop 1989 = V. William Balthrop, "The Debate Judge as 'Critic of Argument'," Advanced Debate: Readings in Theory Practice & Teaching (Third Edition).
Cram 2012 = http://cedadebate.org/CAD/index.php/CAD/article/view/295/259
Gutting 2013 = http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/02/19/a-great-debate/
Fleissner 1995 = https://the3nr.com/2010/05/20/chain-reaction-the-1995-barkley-forum-coaches-luncheon-keynote-speech/

Maggie Berthiaume Woodward Academy

Current Coach — Woodward Academy (2011-present)
Former Coach — Lexington High School (2006-2008), Chattahoochee High School (2008-2011)
College Debater — Dartmouth College (2001-2005)
High School Debater — Blake (1997-2001)
maggiekb@gmail.com for email chains, please.

Meta Comments

1. Please be nice. If you don't want to be kind to others (the other team, your partner, me, the novice flowing the debate in the back of the room), please don’t prefer me.

2. I'm a high school teacher and believe that debates should be something I could enthusiastically show to my students, their families, or my principal. What does that mean? If your high school teachers would find your presentation inappropriate, I am likely to as well.

3. Please be clear. I will call "clear" if I can't understand you, but debate is primarily a communication activity. Do your best to connect on meaningful arguments.

4. Conduct your own CX as much as possible. CX is an important time for judge impression formation, and if one partner does all asking and answering for the team, it is very difficult to evaluate both debaters. Certainly the partner not involved in CX can get involved in an emergency, but that should be brief and rare if both debaters want good points.

5. If you like to be trolly with your speech docs (read on paper to prevent sharing, remove analyticals, etc.), please don't. See "speech documents" below for a longer justification and explanation.

6. I am not willing or able to adjudicate issues that happened outside of the bounds of the debate itself — ex. previous debates, social media issues, etc.

7. In debates involving minors, I am a mandated reporter — as are all judges of debates involving minors!

8. I’ve coached and judged for a long time now, and the reason I keep doing it is that I think debate is valuable. Students who demonstrate that they appreciate the opportunity to debate and are passionate and excited about the issues they are discussing are a joy to watch — they give judges a reason to listen even when we’re sick or tired or judging the 5th debate of the day on the 4th weekend that month. Be that student!

9. "Maggie" (or "Ms. B." if you prefer), not "judge."

What does a good debate look like?

Everyone wants to judge “good debates.” To me, that means two excellently-prepared teams who clash on fundamental issues related to the policy presented by the affirmative. The best debates allow four students to demonstrate that they have researched a topic and know a lot about it — they are debates over issues that experts in the field would understand and appreciate. The worst debates involve obfuscation and tangents. Good debates usually come down to a small number of issues that are well-explained by both sides. The best final rebuttals have clearly explained ballot and a response to the best reason to vote for the opposing team.

I have not decided to implement the Shunta Jordan "no more than 5 off" rule, but I understand why she has it, and I agree with the sentiment. I'm not establishing a specific number, but I would like to encourage negative teams to read fully developed positions in the 1NC (with internal links and solvency advocates as needed). (Here's what she says: "There is no world where the Negative needs to read more than 5 off case arguments. SO if you say 6+, I'm only flowing 5 and you get to choose which you want me to flow.") If you're thinking "nbd, we'll just read the other four DAs on the case," I think you're missing the point. :) It's not about the specific number, it's about the depth of argument.

Do you read evidence?

Yes, in nearly every debate. I will certainly read evidence that is contested by both sides to resolve who is correct in their characterizations. The more you explain your evidence, the more likely I am to read it. For me, the team that tells the better story that seems to incorporate both sets of evidence will almost always win. This means that instead of reading yet another card, you should take the time to explain why the context of the evidence means that your position is better than that of the other team. This is particularly true in close uniqueness and case debates.

Do I have to be topical?

Yes. Affirmatives are certainly welcome to defend the resolution in interesting and creative ways, but that defense should be tied to a topical plan to ensure that both sides have the opportunity to prepare for a topic that is announced in advance. Affirmatives certainly do not need to “role play” or “pretend to be the USFG” to suggest that the USFG should change a policy, however.

I enjoy topicality debates more than the average judge as long as they are detailed and well-researched. Examples of this include “intelligence gathering” on Surveillance, “health care” on Social Services, and “economic engagement” on Latin America. Debaters who do a good job of describing what debates would look like under their interpretation (aff or neg) are likely to win. I've judged several "substantial" debates in recent years that I've greatly enjoyed.

Can I read [X ridiculous counterplan]?

If you have a solvency advocate, by all means. If not, consider a little longer. See: “what does as good debate look like?” above. Affs should not be afraid to go for theory against contrived counterplans that lack a solvency advocate. On the flip side, if the aff is reading non-intrinsic advantages, the "logical" counterplan or one that uses aff solvency evidence for the CP is much appreciated.

What about my generic kritik?

Topic or plan specific critiques are absolutely an important component of “excellently prepared teams who clash on fundamental issues.” Kritiks that can be read in every debate, regardless of the topic or affirmative plan, are usually not.

Given that the aff usually has specific solvency evidence, I think the neg needs to win that the aff makes things worse (not just “doesn’t solve” or “is a mask for X”). Neg – Please spend the time to make specific links to the aff — the best links are often not more evidence but examples from the 1AC or aff evidence.

What about offense/defense?

I do believe there is absolute defense and vote for it often.

Do you take prep for emailing/flashing?

Once the doc is saved, your prep time ends.

I have some questions about speech documents...

One speech document per speech (before the speech). Any additional cards added to the end of the speech should be sent out as soon as feasible.

Teams that remove analytical arguments like permutation texts, counter-interpretations, etc. from their speech documents before sending to the other team should be aware that they are also removing them from the version I will read at the end of the debate — this means that I will be unable to verify the wording of their arguments and will have to rely on the short-hand version on my flow. This rarely if ever benefits the team making those arguments.

Speech documents should be provided to the other team as the speech begins. The only exception to this is a team who debates entirely off paper. Teams should not use paper to circumvent norms of argument-sharing.

I will not consider any evidence that did not include a tag in the document provided to the other team.

LD Addendum

I don't judge LD as much as I used to (I coached it, once upon a time), but I think most of the above applies. If you are going to make reference to norms (theory, side bias, etc.), please explain them. Otherwise, just debate!

PF Addendum

This is very similar to the LD addendum with the caveat that I strongly prefer evidence be presented as cards rather than paraphrasing. I find it incredibly difficult to evaluate the quality of evidence when I have to locate the original source for every issue, and as a result, I am likely to discount that evidence compared to evidence where I can clearly view the surrounding sentence/paragraph/context.

Overview

I'm a junior at UC Berkeley and debated in high school. Broke at national and state tournaments.

I was a 2A at Northview High School in GA. I was the 2N in a few tournaments.

I'll listen to anything, but I have more experience in policy-related arguments. That shouldn't discourage you from reading Kritikal arguments, but I will hold you to a higher threshold for them for explanations and warrants.

2AR/2NR needs to have a strong outline for why I should vote for you. Paint my ballot.

Add me on email chain amalbhatnagar@berkeley.edu

AFF

-Keep it traditional. If you're running a non-traditional aff, you have to really explain everything and the threshold for everything is a lot higher. That being said, don't not read a non-traditional aff if that's the kind of debater you are, just make everything clear.

-Focus on case. This is your offense. If you do weak case extensions and analysis, then that does not play out well for you. Paint a picture.

-For FW, how do research and debate look like under your interpretation? How does this round set precedent?

NEG

-Make sure your neg strat makes sense. Don't read 234823423 off case just because you think the 2AC won't be able to answer it. Be strategic and smart about your choices.

-Explain the K. Go ahead and read the most absurd Kritiks if you want but a) prove why I should care b) explain it thoroughly. The alternative should solve the case for the K to be convincing. As a 2A, I hate hitting K's that do not solve the case. Make sure it does. Also, I'm not familiar with a lot of the K literature, so explaining the argument is really important.

-I love a good CP and DA 2NR

-Topicality's great, but case lists are important. I hold T to a higher threshold.

Other

-Do not be block reliant. Debate is about understanding different perspectives of arguments and learning as much as you can. Of course, everyone wants to win, but you won't ever be able to win a big tournament if you just count on blocks and do not understand what you're reading. Judges can smell BS before you even start spreading.

-Condo. 2 is fair. 3 is stretching it. 4 is abusive.

-Don't call me judge

-Easy to get speaker points in CX. Focus on finding flaws in argument and identify warrants in cards.

Background:

• I debated for Niles West in high school and West Georgia in college.
• BA in Philosophy.
• Currently coaching at Niles West.

Email:

• gershom000@gmail.com

Top level things:

• If you engage in offensive acts (think racism, sexism, homophobia, etc.), you will lose automatically and will be awarded whatever the minimum speaker points offered at that particular tournament is.
• If you make it so that the tags in your document maps are not navigable by taking the "tag" format off of them, I will actively dock your speaker points.
• Quality of argument means a lot to me. I am willing to hold my nose and vote for bad arguments if they're better debated but my threshold for answering those bad arguments is pretty low.
• I’m extremely hesitant to vote on arguments about things that have happened outside of a debate or in previous debates. I can only be sure of what has happened in this particular debate and anything else is non-falsifiable.
• Absolutely no ties and the first team that asks for one will lose my ballot.
• Soliciting any outside assistance during a round will lose my ballot.

Pet peeves:

• Lack of clarity. Clarity > speed 100% of the time.
• The 1AC not being sent out by the time the debate is supposed to start.
• Email-sending related failures.
• Dead time.
• Stealing prep.
• Answering arguments in an order other than the one presented by the other team.
• Asserting things are dropped when they aren't.
• Asking the other team to send you a marked doc when they marked 1-3 cards.
• Marking almost every card in the doc.
• Disappearing after the round.
• Quoting my paradigm in your speeches.
• Sending PDFs instead of Word Docs.

Ethics:

• If you are caught clipping you will receive a loss and the lowest possible points.
• If you make an ethics challenge in a debate in front of me, you must stake the debate on it. If you make that challenge and are incorrect or cannot prove your claim, you will lose and be granted the lowest possible points. If you are proven to have committed an ethics violation, you will lose and be granted the lowest possible points.
• If you use sexually explicit language or engage in sexually explicit performances in high school debates, you should strike me.

Cross-x:

• Yes, I’m fine with tag-team cx. But dominating your partner’s cx will result in lower points for both of you.
• Questions like "what cards did you read?" are cross-x questions, and I will run the timer accordingly.
• If you fail to ask the status of the off, I will be less inclined to vote for condo.
• If the 1NC responds that "every DA is a NB to every CP" when asked about net benefits in the 1NC even if it makes no sense, I think the 1AR gets a lot of leeway to explain a 2AC "links to the net benefit argument" on any CP as it relates to the DAs.

Inserting evidence or rehighlightings into the debate:

• I won't evaluate it unless you actually read the parts that you are inserting into the debate. If it's like a chart or a map or something like that, that's fine, I don't expect you to literally read that, but if you're rehighlighting some of the other team's evidence, you need to actually read the rehighlighting.

Affirmatives:

• I’m fine with plan or planless affirmatives. However, I believe all affirmatives should advocate for/defend something. What that something entails is up for debate, but I’m hesitant to vote for affirmatives that defend absolutely nothing.

Topicality:

• I default to competing interpretations unless told otherwise.
• The most important thing for me in T debates is an in-depth explanation of the types of affs your interp would include/exclude and the impact that the inclusion/exclusion would have on debate.
• 5 second ASPEC shells/the like have become nonstarters for me. If I reasonably think the other team could have missed the argument because I didn't think it was a clear argument, I think they probably get new answers. If you drop it twice, that's on you.

Counterplans:

• For me counterplans are more about competition than theory. While I tend to lean more neg on questions of CP theory, I lean aff on a lot of questions of competition, especially in the cases of CPs that compete on the certainty of the plan, normal means cps, and agent cps.

Disads:

• If you're reading a DA that isn't just a case turn, it should go on its own sheet. Failure to do so is super annoying because people end up extending/answering arguments on flows in different orders.

Kritiks:

• The more specific the link the better. Even if your cards aren’t that specific, applying your evidence to the specifics of the affirmative through nuanced analysis is always preferable to a generic link extension.
• ‘You link you lose’ strategies are not my favorite. I’m willing to vote on them if the other team fails to respond properly, but I’m very sympathetic to aff arguments about it being a bad model for debate.
• I find many framework debates end up being two ships passing in the night. Line by line answers to the other team's framework standards goes a long way in helping win framework in front of me.

Theory:

• Almost all theory arguments are reasons to reject the argument, condo is usually the only exception.
• Conditionality is often good. It can be not. I have found myself to be increasingly aff leaning on extreme conditionality (think many plank cps where all of the planks are conditional + 4-5 more conditional options).
• Tell me what my role is on the theory debate - am I determining in-round abuse or am I setting a precedent for the community?

Framework/T-USfg:

• I find impacts about debatability, clash, and iterative testing to be very persuasive.
• I am not really persuaded by fairness impacts, but will vote on it if mishandled.
• I am not really persuaded by impacts about skills/the ability for debate to change the world if we read plans - I think these are not very strategic and easily impact turned by the aff.
• I am pretty sympathetic to negative presumption arguments because I often think the aff has not forwarded an explanation for what the aff does to resolve the impacts they've described.
• I don't think debate is role-playing.

• If the aff drops SSD or the TVA and the 2NR extends it, I will most likely vote neg.

COVID UPDATE:

IF PREP IS NOT RUNNING YOU SHOULD NOT BE MUTED. IF PREP IS NOT RUNNING YOUR CAMERA SHOULD BE ON. IF THE SPEECH HAS NOT STARTED YOU SHOULD NOT BE SCROLLING THROUGH THE DOCUMENT.

YOU CAN OBVIOUSLY MUTE YOURSELF TO PREP, THAT IS A-OKAY! MUTE YOUR CAMERA FOR ALL I CARE, WHAT I CARE ABOUT IS TIMES WHEN THERE IS DOWNTIME AND NO TIMER IS RUNNING.

THIS IS FOR PEOPLE WHO STOP PREP AND THEN TAKE A MINUTE TO SEND THE EMAIL, STOP PREP AND THEN MUTE THEIR CAMERA AND MIC, AND THOSE WHO BLANTANTLY STEAL PREP TIME. IF PREP TIME IS NOT RUNNING AND YOU ARE NOWHERE TO BE FOUND I WILL ASSUME YOU ARE STEALING PREP.

TL;DR: DON'T STEAL PREP, DON'T BE SUS.

YOU HAVE AN EQUAL PREP TIME TO SOLVE TECH ISSUES. IF YOU DO NOT FIX TECH ISSUES IN THE ALLOTTED TIME, I WILL START YOUR ACTUAL PREP TIMER, IF YOU USE UP ALL YOUR PREP TIME I WILL START YOUR SPEECH TIME.

CLARITY IS NOW MORE IMPORTANT THAN EVER. SPEAK CLEARLY. SPEAK AT A RATE OF SPEED THAT ALLOWS YOU TO MAINTAIN CLARITY.

Basics:

Give an order, speak clearly, do not exceed the speed at which you can speak, do not whisper, do not interrupt your partner excessively, give warrants, talk about evidence, time yourself, use all your speech time, go in order, only go for one thing in the 2NR, make a tonal distinction between cards and tags, tell me when you go from one sheet of paper to another sheet of paper, go for dropped arguments and extend dropped arguments don't just say "they dropped ______."

Argument preference:

You do you. I'm okay with any style of debate.

I will vote for any argument that is explained, warranted, and impacted.

If you are reading policy arguments explain them a bit more, I did critical debate for 6 years.

Clarity is important.

No ties.

Clipping will result in a loss & lowest possible points.

College:

If policy team vs policy team the one who does more explanation and judge instruction wins.

If clash, do what you do. Don't shy away from Cap K/FW; if it works run it. More than willing to vote on FW if it is won. Same goes for Aff vs K, if you win it I will vote for it.

If K team vs K team the one who does more explanation and judge instruction wins.

EMAIL CHAIN: nickcharles888@gmail.com

College Prep ‘14
Emory ‘18

Woodward 2018 Note: Really excited to judge the budding minds of debate's future! Please make sure that you speak clearly (even if you sacrifice some speed). You really need evidence about your counterplan in relation to the aff. Its super boring listening to a generic CP/DA with no nuance or specific link/solvency analysis.

I do want to be on the email chains: mollie.fiero@gmail.com

Very few rounds on the Education topic - watch your acronyms/assumed topic knowledge, this is ESPECIALLY TRUE in T debates when its difficult to assess what is "core ground"

Re: Trump -- Durable fiat does not include things your solvency cards say but aren't in your plan text. Understand the executive branch and its power. CX should lay out what is within the scope of the plan and what is up for Trump/his cabinet to decide. I do NOT want to vote on a Trump good politics DA. Don't make me.

1. Be smart, engaging, and nice. Debate in a way that makes you and your coaches proud. Respect your opponents and your partner. Be aware of the gendered and racial implications of the way you speak to/interact with your opponents and partner. Trust that I know what I'm doing, and I'll give you the same courtesy.


2. Flex is good
No insurmountable policy or K bias. I went for T and read a no plan aff at my last tournament. Its good to be a games player, but if one side has an affective argument, or reasons why their argument implicates debate itself those are usually things the other side must at least acknowledge. That being said I am highly literate in 'conservative' policy debate (7+ years of big DA and case debates under my belt) and think those debates are super fun.

AFFS WITHOUT PLANS: You need to have a good explanation (in cx) of - why is this being presented in debate? what is the role of the judge? the negative?

3. Explanation wins debates
Whether it’s the link turn to politics, the K alt, or counterplan solvency, the team with better depth and argument analysis usually wins.

4. Evidence isn’t the end-all be-all
Indicts are great and so is comparison, what I really mean is that true analytics are slayer.

5. I take my task very seriously and will work hard to make the right decision. Even after 4 years of judging high school I'm still learning about myself as a judge, but I am determined to continue to work hard because I respect your time and effort in debates. You and your coaches should be conscious of the way you interact with all judges, but especially (younger) women, queer, and POC judges in post-round interactions.

Finally -- have fun and talk to me if you're interested in Emory debate!

sauljhonathanforman@gmail.com

The #1 tip I can give you is that debate is about comparisons - no matter what you're going for, explain why I prefer your stuff even if they win their stuff

1. Cliff Notes

- Not familiar with the topic

- No preference for the number of issues in a debate.

- An argument isn't dropped just bc there's no ink next to it

- Having to choose from non-specific strategies, I prefer politics/case d, a topic t arg, or a topic kritik to process counterplans and kritiks about death and omissions in the 1ac

- I'm going to try to find any way not to vote on cheap shots, so if you're going for "Neg fiat or perms are a voting issue" close all doors

- K frameworks that change the decision from yes/no policy can be won, but even if you win "the role of the ballot is to form ethical subjectivity" you still need to win why the Aff's subjectivity is bad, which sometimes requires beating the case

- Counterplan competition - I generally think of it as textual / functional competition - CPs that contain all of the words in the plan are usually cheating

- The only relevant question for T is the most predictable interpretation

- Neither "uniqueness controls the link" nor "link controls uniqueness" mean anything - they're both uncertain estimates of the future

- I probably won't vote on reasonability

- I like jokes, but I also like taking speaker points from people who make unfunny jokes at other people that make them feel bad

- An argument has both an explanation of its validity (warrant) and of how it alters the way I think about the rest of the debate (impact)

- Critiques - both teams should debate the alternative - even if it's a critical pedagogy or something, explain how that solves both your and the other team's impacts

2. T-USFG

(Note: these are my gut leanings - I'm not emotionally attached to these and could be convinced to vote the other way)

- The Affirmative should defend a topical plan

- That does not mean the Neg gets a free pass - you should still defend why a more limited topic is more important than their offense

- Still do impact calculus - it's even more important here - why is having a limited topic more important than the existence of a general antagonism outside of the debate

- Fairness/predictability is an impact because debate is a competitive activity centered around argument

- Connect your offense to the ballot - if debate is dead and the ballot is structurally exclusionary then I need to understand why an Aff ballot would then resolve that

- I probably won't think it's a reverse voting issue

- Critiques of the topic are not a reason "being topical" is bad

- Critiques of debate as "Truth forming" are not a reason argument is bad

- You don't need a "Topical Version" of the Aff - just that your model of debate preserves their form of education / subjectivity / whatever

3. Speaker points

- Basic scale – 29.2-29.5: one of the top 3 speakers at the tournament; 28.8-29.1: top 10 speakers at the tournament; 28.4-28.7: very good, expect to break; 27.9-28.3: pretty good, shows some competence, but lacking technical skills in other areas; 27.5-27.8: below average, lacking technical ability in more areas than not; 27.0-27.4: poor, doesn’t fully participate in the debate or exhibits one or two moments of comprehension; 26.9 and below: you were offensive – it doesn’t mean you are a bad person, but something you did was deeply unsettling or hurt someone else in the round

I debated at Emory from 2015-2019, where I also coached for a year. I've since been out of the activity as I've been working on my PhD in political science.

I love debate. Thank you for the opportunity to judge your round.

As a judge, I promise I'll listen to you and flow carefully. That said, I don't have much patience for arguments that demonstrate a lack of serious research, but it is the responsibility of the other team to point that out.

Do what you do best. Still, I would recommend doing the following:

• Make fewer, better arguments.
• Read a topical plan.
• Organize your arguments so they are easy to follow. I do not find run-on paragraphs to be an effective way of communicating, and I will not be reading along in the speech document.

Good luck--and have fun!

(Updated 12/22/16)

Emory University

School Strikes

Mount Vernon Presbyterian School

PV Peninsula High School

General Information

There was a time when I was really invested in the activity (I did policy) and this paradigm was longer and more nuanced, but those days are pretty far gone. I think the best debates happen when people are both passionate and informed about the arguments they read. The worst debates I’ve ever judged happen when neither side really wants to be there, and I honestly consider those a waste of my time.

I’m a chemistry major and read a LOT of science-related material in my spare time. If you like making arguments that depend on science or data, I expect you to have done the proper background research. If you’re debating against said arguments, disqualifying a source is everything (i.e. “this study doesn’t take into account X”, “that’s not how global warming models are made”, “that’s not how drugs work”, “here’s an article that takes into account Y and concluded the other way”, etc.)

Quality research is as valuable as quality debating

There is such a thing as absolute defense, and “any risk” logic is nonsense. Additionally, I’m skeptical of “shifting qualitative risk,” as I call it. “War is likely” doesn’t magically become “war is inevitable” just because it was dropped.

I lean slightly left-of-center on the economy, slightly right-of-center on trade, and fairly liberal on everything else.

I flow on paper.

While I do love coffee, if you see me with a cup of it in the round, please start slow.

I think affirmatives should actually do things. This is not the same as reading a plan text, though I used to read mostly "traditional" or "soft-left" affs, and I still really like those.

My favorite anime is Bungou Stray Dogs. I highly recommend it. Watch season 2, episodes 1-4 before season 1. Quality references are appreciated.

Case and topic-specific DA debates are cool.

I’m always down for a good theory or T debate. I hate frivolous T/theory arguments (and so should you).

I will not vote for the "ctrl+F language K." I will vote on the “what the fuck, you should never say that again” language K.

LD Specific

"If your strategy involves skep, permissibility, or some logical syllogism that relies upon analytic philosophy showing that the other side can't be proven, you probably don't want me as your judge" –Scott Wheeler

RVIs are an uphill battle. RVIs on T are like mountain climbing. If you don’t know how hard mountain climbing is, I can tell you a cool story about my biochem professor.

Someone told me I should have a line here about flashing, which makes me sad. I will dock 2 points if you intentionally don't provide a copy of your evidence to the other team prior to your speech.

Kant = :(

Wayzata (MN) '15

Emory University '19

tiffany.s.haas@gmail.com

Things that might be important:

Topicality -

Against no-plan affs: I generally think that defending the hypothetical implementation of a policy action is good. Fairness is definitely the truest arg, and if you can find a topical version of the aff, you basically won my ballot. That being said, I can also be easily persuaded to vote against framework, as I have been on both sides of the debate and can respect different types of arguments. Framework against a "high theory aff" is particularly persuasive, whereas framework against an identity aff is not.

Against plan affs: I'm a 2A and I've been frustrated the most by losing to T, especially because my aff is my baby and being told it's "not topical" after months of reading it is always a heartbreaking experience. Negative teams will have a hard time going for T in front of me unless you can specifically point out the violation and how that effects limits/ground and what that means for the topic/debate.

Kritiks -

I view the K more as a DA - explain the impact and how it interacts/turns the aff. Do that and you're good.

I find the perm persuasive if the K doesn't actually provide an opportunity cost to the aff. Reading a bunch of links on the perm debate can make sense if they're well-applied and explained, but I'd rather you explain why the perm itself is nonsensical (why the K and the aff are mutually exclusive).

High theory K's are less likely to make sense to me, as I'm not familiar with the lit - don't say "not our baudrillard" because it's probably your baudrillard.

Case - please do it - should be around 4 minutes of the 1NC and a large focus of the block

Politics/DA's - This is a good and bad thing - I'm pretty well-informed on what's going on with 'tix every weekend, so if you're bs-ing I'll be able to tell and your speaks will be punished. It's better to go for what you want, rather than to overadapt and become a politics debate just because I'm in the back.

Jokes are well appreciated (puns, or jokes about Kate Gehling) - add a cat gif to the email chain and <3 <3 <3.

Michigan '21

Westminster '17

Add me to the email chain- thelasthall@gmail.com

*PF Version

I debated & judged in Policy for about 10 years- this is the first time I have experienced Public Forum debate. Please bear with me as I learn the procedures and rules.

I value well-reasoned arguments that can account for, overcome or dismiss the opponents' arguments. Evidence/cards are good, but need to be explained within the context of your argument.

I'm fine with speed, as long as I can understand what you're saying. Flowing/note-taking is good, I will be doing it. Argument wins debates, style is fun.

I will enter all debates with an unbiased perspective on the arguments.

* Policy Version

NDCA Update

I am the judge to read risky arguments in front of. Some arguments I miss hearing and weirdly have a lot of experience with: dedev, co2 good, anthro, buddhism, t substantial (Neg: do the math, Aff: say math is arbitrary), International fiat. Maybe someone reads Malthus. Keep it interesting.

But there's a caveat. Here are some arguments I never understood and would rather not judge: Heg Bad, Courts Disads, the generic Security K, high food prices good/bad. Basically anything relating to IR...

Read what you want, just don't be rude. Plan or no plan, just win it, champ. I've gone for most arguments. I like bold strategies (think 8 minutes of politics, or just an impact turn, etc.)

Teams can win either side of Framework in front of me. I've read plans (most years), I've read no plan (2 years). That said, my voting record might show a bit of Neg leaning on Framework. Affs trying to beat that: win the TVA is bad and doesn't solve your offense, win the impact debate.

While I hope nobody prefs me, I'm a good* judge for nearly anything.

- *I don't like to use my noggin very much, so go for the easy win. I prefer teams going for the path of least resistance than necessarily taking the core of their arguments head-on (I'd rather judge a pic than a big deterrence good/bad debate). But if that's your thing, then by all means.

General Notes

- I'm very flow-centric. Dropped arg is true, but you gotta give me some semblance of a warrant for it to actually matter. I'm not big on judge intervention, but keep in mind that if neither team explains how I should evaluate some arguments/their implications, I'm probably gonna have to sort that out myself.

- Don't be mean to your partner or opponents.

- I don't know what the high school resolution is, and won't know beyond a surface understanding. Don't make assumptions about community consensus or acronym usage.

Theory

- Win your impact outweighs/turns theirs, and deal with the line-by-line.

- I want to reject the argument, not the team for all theory except Conditionality.

- I lean Neg instinctually on all theory, but, again, if you win I should vote Aff on Conditions CPs bad, then you win. Shooting your shot won't affect your speaks too, if there was good reason to do so.

- Perms are tests of competitions - don't advocate the perm in the 2AR unless they've dropped a normal means argument or something and it's actually useful.

CPs

- Goes hand-in-hand with theory, I never liked judges imposing their own views here. If you win it's legit, then it's legit.

- I've always been a big fan of the CP/DA 2nr. I almost always recommend that over DA/Case.

- I always view a CP through sufficiency framing. If the Neg wins that the CP solves most of the Aff, and that the net benefit outweighs the small risk/impact of a solvency deficit, I vote Neg.

- For the Aff, make all the arguments in the 2AC. Links to net benefit, perms, solvency deficits, etc etc. I know I said I'm Neg on theory, but I also will vote Aff on an intrinsic perm if the Neg fails to win that intrinsicness is bad. To beat sufficiency framing, you've gotta really explain and impact the solvency deficit - why is this more important than the net benefit?

Disads

- Usually filter it through the link primarily, but obviously uniqueness is important too.

- Impact calc is huge, especially turns case.

K (read: Planless) Affs

- I'm pretty familiar with most of the lit/arguments read in these debates.

- Framework isn't an auto-ballot for me. Neither is framework-bad.

- Teams should establish and win why I should give them the ballot.

Ks on the Neg

- Please don't just read pre-scripted blocks. This applies to all arguments, but I see it most frequently with these debates. I don't like big overviews because they incentivize teams to forego line-by-line debating.

- Whatever your big piece of offense is, explain why it matters. If you win framework, what does that mean for the rest of the flow? Same for the links.

- I'm not a great judge for Ks that rely on framework for winning. It's really hard to convince me not to weigh representations/assumptions in the context of the plan. I also rarely hear solid explanations for what it means for the Neg to win framework, and how that implicates the rest of the debate. If I can, I will deprioritize framework in my decision

- Link debating is also really important. Specific lines from 1AC cards will go a lot farther than generic reform-bad links. If possible, every link should have its own impact.

- I think Affs should get perms. Just like with a CP, the perm means the Neg has to prove exclusivity.

- I don't know what the word "Semiotics" means.

- If you read the Lanza card and give a warrant, I'll give you +.2 speaker points.

Ks on the Neg vs K Affs

- I will probably vote Aff on the perm. Obviously this depends on how the debating happens (including what the links and alt are), but this is my first instinct. Neg needs to win exclusivity.

- If the Neg wins that the Aff shouldn't get perms, then there ya go. But I hope the Aff can actually debate why they should get perms because I want to vote Aff on the perm.

- I don't like authenticity testing. There are always competitive incentives in debate that at least play some role.

Framework

- First, win why your impacts outweigh theirs.

- TVA is really useful for dealing with a lot of Aff offense, as are switch side, ballot not key, and whatever other tricks you got up your sleeve.

- Fairness can be an impact, it can not be an impact. Up to how the debate goes down. If you wanna win fairness as a terminal impact, you gotta be heavy on explaining that and why I should care.

T

- Been a while since I threw down on T. See earlier note- I don't know this resolution.

- Be clear about what the topic looks like under your interpretation.

- Neg needs a caselist, clear interpretation and violation, and most importantly: impact work.

- I've never understood the requirements for an Aff to beat T. If you win We Meet, then you don't need to win a counter-interpretation. If you win overlimiting, you also have to win why that's more important than the Neg's impacts.

http://judgephilosophies.wikispaces.com/Hesu%2C+Alan

**Just a brief update for the high school community on the Inequality topic:

T - Taxes and Transfers - Heavily lean Aff here, but the Neg can win it I guess.

Process CPs - Good luck with these in front of me.

If you feel the need to not take prep before the 2AC or 2NC, good luck with that as well in front of me.

**Updated Summer 2023**

Yes I would like to be on the email chain: jordanshun@gmail.com

I will listen to all arguments, but a couple of caveats:

-This doesn't mean I will understand every element of your argument.

-I have grown extremely irritated with clash debates…take that as you please.

-I am a firm believer that you must read some evidence in debate. If you differ, you might want to move me down the pref sheet.

Note to all: In high school debate, there is no world where the Negative needs to read more than 5 off case arguments. SO if you say 6+, I'm only flowing 5 and you get to choose which you want me to flow.
In college debate, I might allow 6 off case arguments :/

Good luck to all!

Evan Katz (eakatz123@gmail.com)
Westminster 2015
UGA 2019 (didn't debate)
Duke 2021

I graduated from Westminster with four years of high school debate experience and had a decent amount of success, but I've been out of debate for several years now, which has greatly changed my perspective on the activity. I have not kept up with high school debate, so don't automatically assume I know anything about the topic you're debating.

Run what you want and do what you're best at. Like everyone, I naturally have opinions about arguments, but as a judge I'm generally good at divorcing my own biases from the round. If you're winning on the flow, you'll probably win the debate. That being said, I am a poor judge for clash of civ debates because teams often fail to engage in clash, causing me to get cranky and default to my policy-oriented biases (I'm quite sympathetic to framework), so order your prefs accordingly.

As far as specific preferences are concerned, DA/case debates with good clash and impact calculus are probably my favorite type of debates to judge. I strongly believe the affirmative should read a topical plan and defend both its material implications and broad underlying assumptions. I dislike judging obscure high theory K's, hyper-generic process CP's that do the entirety of the aff, and affs that don't defend a plan, but I'll still vote for these arguments if you're winning. I'm unlikely to vote for silly procedurals and blippy theory arguments, so don't waste your time.

Reuben Lack
Alpharetta High School '12
Emory University '16

I debated four years at Alpharetta and qualified to the TOC in my senior year before debating for Emory University. Currently, I'm a dubbing producer & director for Disney, with a specific focus on anime & animation content.

My top-line advice if you have me in the back of the room is do what you do best. These are general predispositions, not immutable laws of judging, and you're always best off advancing a strategy you know well.

Please add me to the email chain: reubenlack1@gmail.com.

We only have 5 minutes before the round, what should we know about you?
I consider myself a 'middle of the road' judge on most meta debate issues. When I was in the activity, I did everything from Politics DA 2NR's to more obscure 1-Off Kritik strategies. I'm comfortable with pretty much anything. I'm neither a "K judge" nor a "policy judge," and will do my best to examine the debate from the arguments you give me. Tactically, judge instruction and comparative evidence analysis are appreciated. My thresholds for theory arguments are probably lower than most judges.

To the extent I have certain leans on close calls, or musings about debate issues, I've done my best to illustrate those below.

Are you OK with K's/Critical Affs/Planless Affs/Performance/Non-Traditional Affs?
I've run everything from super 'policy' affs with giant heg and econ advantages to 1ACs that consisted largely of a poem and leftist arguments. In high school and college, I went for stuff like Security, Badiou, Derrida, and had a good share of 1NCs that were 1-Off Kritik. That said, it's been years since I've delved into these arguments, so explanation is a must for any high-theory strategies.

When it comes to framework and framework-related arguments against these types of Affs/K's, your 2NR/2AR 'story' should focus on the educational implications of each side's approaches. I'm interested in the question of how to make debate an educational and useful activity for students. How does your position interact with those considerations?

As for how to align your strategy, I'm more likely to be persuaded by a direct challenge to the efficacy of the non-traditional team's method/model for debate than a procedural fairness claim, which often falls short. It's always better to go on offense. There are serious & legitimate objections to K Aff's/performance Aff's that Neg teams should feel comfortable to make as part of their FW arguments. I have a particular soft spot for turns of the "cede the political" variety (e.g., withdrawing from the state/policy-making leads to state apparatuses controlled by conservatives).

Thoughts on the Politics DA & DA Strategy?
Love them. My senior year was almost entirely me taking that week's Politics DA in the 1NR. My favorite 1NR's dig deep into the aff evidence, tear it apart, and make solid comparative analysis. For the aff, don't be shy about putting all your firepower against 1 or 2 serious logical holes in the DA (this goes for any, not just Politics/Elections). The internal linkage between a particular bill passing to a terminal impact is typically pretty flimsy, and Aff's that push that point will do well in front of me. Zero risk of the disad is an RFD I've given.

Should I ever make Theory arguments an option in your rounds?
I'm probably more willing to vote on theory arguments than your average judge. That said, if you want to make "Conditionality Bad," "50 State Fiat Bad," or other theory arguments an option, you need to focus on what debate looks like under the other side's interpretation. What happens to prep, strategy, research, and why is it bad? Do the impact work, talk about what your vision of optimal debate looks like. These debates tend to be especially messy, so minimizing theory jargon is recommended.

Anything else you really like?
Impact turns, advantage counterplans, highly-specific case debates.

Any strong opinions about Topicality?
I enjoy a good T debate and was something of a "T Hack" for the first few years of my high school career. Reasonability is hard to win in front of me, but strong counter-interpretations are underrated. Like Theory debates, jargon is overused in T 2NR's/2AR's; I recommend focusing on the impact level, i.e., what happens to the topic if X is/isn't considered topical.

At the end of the round, how do you usually go about making your decision?
When the round ends, I take a note of all the key questions to resolve, then work through them one-by-one. This means framing arguments and judge instruction ("prioritize X," "view the [X] through the lens of [Y]," "here are the 2 ways to vote [X]") are great ways to win my ballot. My default state, unless guided by arguments in-round, is to assess the debate through an offense-defense paradigm, weighing how one area of risk interacts and/or outweighs another. I also rarely call for cards unless a nexus question of evidence quality decides the round. To borrow from Ed Lee's paradigm, "while I am a huge fan of quality evidence, my decisions will privilege a debater’s assessment of an argument over my reading of a piece of evidence."

What can I do to get high speaks if you're my judge?
Have fun! Be nice! Utilize cross-x effectively. My favorite debaters were all fairly slow at spreading, yet extremely strong speakers. And hey, I work in the anime industry, so pandering with references never hurts.

Any pet peeves we should know about?
Two pet peeves. First, please, please, please email/flash speeches in a timely fashion. Second, there is no "flow clarification" segment in policy debate, i.e., if you're asking what cards a team read, that's part of CX. You should always be flowing, with the speech doc as a reference, but not as the source of truth. There's been an unfortunate trend away from strong flowing skills, please don't let needless mistakes happen to you.

"Don't forget. Believe in yourself. Not in the you who believes in me. Not the me who believes in you. Believe in the YOU who believes in yourself."
- Kamina, Gurren Lagann
I wish you the best of luck and hope my feedback will help for future rounds. I love the activity and the fantastically cool people in it. I’ll do whatever I can to support you and help you grow as a debater.

I'm open to pretty much any arguments as long as they are well-explained and contextualized to the round. Tag team CX is fine but don't overpower the person who is supposed to be answering questions. I don't really have a K/policy preference. I've read some K affs so I'm down with that too, but I definitely have more experience with policy arguments. As for spreading, be clear because if I can't understand you I just won't flow. 

Experience: Debated nationally at Pace Academy. First-Year student at Emory. 2A.

General: My ideal debater shows interest in the round, speaks clearly, treats opponents and partners respectfully, reads specific strategies, frames the debate as a whole and impacts individual arguments, and knows their evidence. I care much more about how you debate than which arguments you read. However, I am human, so I do have some biases, which I will explain in the following sections. I try to keep a good flow but expect you to clearly flag important arguments that you don't want to risk me missing. 

Evidence: Your evidence can only hurt you. This means that I will only evaluate warrants and explanation you have given in a speech, not default to better evidence despite worse debating. On the other hand, if you make a claim that seems to require evidence to back it up, I will ignore your spin if your evidence quality is poor. I will only look at unhighlighted parts of evidence if the opponent brings it up.

DAs: I don't understand "link controls uniqueness" or vice versa. There can be zero risk of the DA (I am also more likely than most to vote neg on presumption). The politics DA is silly, though I will not hesitate to vote for it if the aff doesn't debate it well.

CPs: I weigh the CP against the status quo, not the aff. My default is that perms are a test of competition, but I can be convinced otherwise. 

Ks (Neg): I don't think I am bad for the K, but I do hold neg explanation to a high standard. I generally default toward the neg getting to read their K but the aff getting to weigh the effects of the plan. However, the critique can definitely bring the aff's solvency and predictions into question. I think most reps and epistemology Ks are repackaged case defense. You can fix this by impacting your specific links. Explain why what the aff said/why their specific scholarship was bad. "The aff securitized China which causes endless violence" is insufficient. Affs should either impact turn the K or attack alt solvency.

Ks (Aff) and T-USFG: You should have some relation to the topic. The closer to a resolutional US policy action, the more likely I am to vote against T. The aff should demonstrate that it is predictable, generates good neg ground, and is incompatible with the "T version." Debated evenly by both sides, I am not super persuaded by fairness bad, productivity bad, or predictability bad. The aff's best bet is winning their education outweighs a marginal loss in fairness. The neg will have an easier time defending fairness and argument testing than decisionmaking or other skills impacts

T: I'm kinda weird about T. Personally, I think the only thing that matters is the predictability of each side's definition. If the aff has the more predictable definition or neither side has a predictable definition, the aff wins. Otherwise the neg wins. Reasonability only makes sense if it is a claim that the aff's definition is approximately as predictable as the neg's. Obviously, this is not the norm, so I am happy to judge a typical limits/ground/topic education T debate as well. Just know that I am easily persuaded by "predictability turn x impact" arguments.

Theory:

General: Explain it well starting in earlier speeches. Slow down on your theory blocks. 

Conditionality- I lean neg. I don't see much of a problem with conditionality or even multiple conditional options. I am much more likely to vote aff if the aff can explain and impact an in-round contradiction or strategy skew that made the debate illogical or severely harmed the aff's ability to garner offense.

Process/agent/international/states- I lean heavily aff.

PICs- I evaluate competition based on the plan text. I am more likely to change my mind if the neg convinces me that the aff's plan is unfairly vague, the aff is too shifty, or the aff's solvency advocate clearly advocates something distinct from the CP.

Intrinsicness- Easier for the aff to win on CPs than DAs. I'm generally sceptical of intrinsicness unless the neg reads a CP that competes artificially or a net benefit that doesn't link to the plan.

Random things I don't like:

Death good- I'll vote for it if you outdebate the other team, but I find their arguments very persuasive. This includes dedev.

Making debates personal- If you like to win by attacking your opponents' character or discussing their activities outside the round, you should not pref me.

Prompting partners/taking over their cross-ex- It's okay every now and then, but if it gets excessive I will hurt both of your speaks.

Saying "they conceded" when they didn't- Self-explanatory.

Try or die without aff solvency- You can definitely win this framing, but you need a coherent explanation of how the aff may solve. If you say "an asteroid is coming so you might as well vote aff," you are probably not in a great position to win.

Topicality- I will vote for any Topicality argument that is well explained and impacted. Education needs to be impacted beyond that the discussion is uneducational. 

DA/CP- Do impact calc.

K- I like K's and what they are meant to do; run any K as long as you explain it fully. Don't assume I know about your specific K or your authors.

Theory- Condo is fine (3 advocacies is probably too many though).

In general, try to be clear and signpost/roadmap. I like organized debates; just try to present the best case. 

Updated for immigration - I found out the topic was about immigration 5 minutes before round 1 :eyes:
__________________

Ive debated for 4 years in highschool and a year in a half in college.

I only read policy arguments for my first three years, and only high theory for my last 3 years of debate

I dont care what arguments you make as long as you explain them well and explain why you should win the debate.

Conceding an argument means nothing if you dont explain why the argument is important and why their concession is important for the overall debate.

It seems like everyone is reading the K even if they dont know what it means... If you dont know what 2/3rds of the words in your evidence means... dont read the arguments or it'll be very obvious and your speaker points wont be as happy

The only argument im slightly biased on is "capitalism is bad", I dont think its bad in the abstract, but ive thought a lot about capitalism and theres one reason which has convinced me its evil. Thats up for you to figure out.

I teach math and serve as chair of the math dept at Isidore Newman School in New Orleans. I retired from coaching high school at the end of the 2017-2018 school year. I coached Policy and LD (as well as most every speech event) for over 25 years on the local and national circuit. In the spring of 2020, we started a Middle School team at Newman and have been coaching on the middle school level since then.

I judge only a handful of rounds each year. You will need to explain topic specific abbreviations, acronyms, etc. a little more than you would normally. You will also need to go slower than normal, especially for the first 30 sec of each speech so I can adjust to you.

Email chain: gregmalis@newmanschool.org

My philosophy is in three sections. Section 1 applies to both policy and LD. Section 2 is policy-specific. Section 3 is LD-specific.

Section 1: Policy and LD

Speed. Go fast or slow. However, debaters have a tendency to go faster than they are physically capable of going. Regardless of your chosen rate of delivery, it is imperative that you start your first speech at a considerably slower pace than your top speed will be. Judges need time to adjust to a student's pitch, inflection, accent/dialect. I won't read cards after the round to compensate for your lack of clarity, nor will I say "clearer" during your speech. In fact, I will only read cards after the round if there is actual debate on what a specific card may mean. Then, I may read THAT card to assess which debater is correct.

Theory. Theory should not be run for the sake of theory. I overhead another coach at a tournament tell his debaters to "always run theory." This viewpoint sickens me. If there is abuse, argue it. Be prepared to explain WHY your ground is being violated. What reasonable arguments can't be run because of what your opponent did? For example, an aff position that denies you disad or CP ground is only abusive if you are entitled to disad or CP ground. It becomes your burden to explain why you are so entitled. Theory should never be Plan A to win a round unless your opponent's interpretation, framework, or contention-level arguments really do leave you no alternative. I think reasonable people can determine whether the theory position has real merit or is just BS. If I think it's BS, I will give the alleged offender a lot of leeway.

Role of the Ballot. My ballot usually means nothing more than who won the game we were playing while all sitting in the same room. I don't believe I am sending a message to the debate community when I vote, nor do I believe that you are sending a message to the debate community when you speak, when you win, or when you lose. I don't believe that my ballot is a teaching tool even if there's an audience outside of the two debaters. I don't believe my ballot is endorsing a particular philosophy or possible action by some agent implied or explicitly stated in the resolution. Perhaps my ballot is endorsing your strategy if you win my ballot, so I am sending a message to you and your coach by voting for you, but that is about it. If you can persuade me otherwise, you are invited to try. However, if your language or conduct is found to be offensive, I will gladly use my ballot to send a message to you, your coach, and your teammates with a loss and/or fewer speaker points than desired.

Section 2: Policy only (although there are probably things in the LD section below that may interest you)

In general, I expect that Affs read a plan and be topical. K Affs or Performance Affs have a bit of an uphill climb for me to justify why the resolution ought not be debated. If a team chooses this approach, at minimum, they need to advocate some action that solves some problem, and their remedy/method must provide some reasonable negative ground.

I think K's need a solid link and a clear, viable, and competitive alt, but I best understand a negative strategy if consisting of counterplans, disads, case args.

Section 3: LD only (if you are an LDer who likes "policy" arguments in LD, you should read the above section}

Kritiks. In the end, whatever position you take still needs to resolve a conflict inherent (or explicitly stated) within the resolution. Aff's MUST affirm the resolution. Neg's MUST negate it. If your advocacy (personal or fiated action by some agent) does not actually advocate one side of the resolution over the other (as written by the framers), then you'll probably lose.

Topicality. I really do love a good T debate. I just don't hear many of them in LD. A debater will only win a T debate if (1) you read a definition and/or articulate an interpretation of specific words/phrases in the resolution being violated and (2) explain why your interp is better than your opponent's in terms of providing a fair limit - not too broad nor too narrow. I have a strong policy background (former policy debater and long-time policy debate coach). My view of T debates is the same for both.

Presumption. I don't presume aff or neg inherently. I presume the status quo. In some resolutions, it's clear as to who is advocating for change. In that case, I default to holding whoever advocates change in the status quo as having some burden of proof. If neither (or both) is advocating change, then presumption becomes debatable. However, I will work very hard to vote on something other than presumption since it seems like a copout. No debate is truly tied at the end of the game.

Plans vs Whole Res. I leave this up to the debaters to defend or challenge. I am more persuaded by your perspective if it has a resolutional basis. For example, the Sept/Oct 2016 topic has a plural agent, "countries" (which is rare for LD topics). Thus, identifying a single country to do the plan may be more of a topicality argument than a "theory" argument. In resolutions when the agent is more nebulous (e.g., "a just society"), then we're back to a question as what provides for a better debate.

Pine Crest (’14)

Emory University (’18)

ericmarcus24@gmail.com – Include me on email chains, and feel free to ask me questions about decisions or Emory Debate

General Things:

I think of debate strictly as a highly technical game. Part of my job as a judge is to reward teams that play the game well. Technical concessions, even small ones, may have more impact with me than most judges. I also am likely to disregard arguments, even truisms, that are first presented in the 1AR/2NR/2AR, unless an explicit response to an argument made by the other team that could not have been answered in an earlier speech.

The 1NR is not a constructive. New DA impacts are fine, but new CP planks or case arguments are not.

Cards that use robust statistical or expert analysis > cards from staff writers with strong rhetoric.

Topicality:

Debate operates on a sliding scale, and my job is to keep the scale in the middle. I am likely to vote for neither the most limiting interpretation of the topic nor the one that makes debate easiest for the aff. Limits/Grounds/Aff Innovation impacts couched in terms of a list of arguments available to the other side and why that preserves an equitable division of topic literature are more likely to win.

Reasonability makes more sense to me than competing interpretations. Minor modifications always exist that can create an incrementally better model of debate, but if I am unconvinced the aff interpretation creates a substantive strategic imbalance for the neg, I likely will vote aff.

DA’s:

“Always a risk” logic does not make much sense to me. Even past a conceded argument, well contested arguments that are either a yes/no question or that I decide conclusively in one team’s direction can reduce the risk of a DA to statistical noise.

I will reward aff teams that strategically undercover bad DAs in the 2AC. This means one or two well-reasoned analytic arguments, as well as maybe an impact defense card to cover your bases.

CP’s/CP Theory:

Conditionality is either good or bad. Interpretations/Counter-interpretations as “compromises” aren’t particularly compelling to me.

All debating equal, I probably lean neg on all theory issues with the exception of counterplans that compete based on immediacy/certainty.

Intuitive counterplans don’t need solvency advocates to be theoretically legitimate.

I think judge kick is bad. If it is an explicitly stated 2NR option not answered by the 2AR, I will judge kick, but with equal debating by the affirmative, I likely will not judge kick.

K’s:

I am unlikely to vote neg if I do not believe that there are material bad consequences that happen as a result of the plan. If links are descriptive of the status quo, and I do not feel the alternative resolves those link arguments, I will almost assuredly vote aff at the end of the debate.

Given this, I am most likely to vote neg if I believe there is a problem with the plan/status quo larger than the impacts solved by the aff, the alternative resolves that problem, and the plan is mutually exclusive with a successful alternative.

If I believe the methodology used to defend the 1AC internal links and impacts are true, I will likely determine utilitarianism is the best moral framework.

Value to life does and always will exist.

Root causes and proximate solutions are not the same thing.

Links of omission are not links.

I do not believe someone’s personal identity and experience is independently sufficient to either prove or disprove any arguments made in the debate.

T-USFG:

Yes, it’s a topicality argument. No, it’s not “Framework”.

Affirmatives should defend a topical plan. While whether the political efficacy of that plan determines who wins and loses is up for debate, the presence of a topical plan is a minimum necessity for debate to occur.

Debate is a game. You chose to play this game. Games should be fair.

Topical versions of the aff are compelling to me. TVAs don’t need to solve the aff, they simply need to be able to access the same type of discussion that the counter-interpretation allows.

If you are affirmative and not planning to read a topical plan, you are unlikely to win on arguments about debate impacting subjectivity. The most compelling aff ballots include a well-defined and limited counter-interpretation with a reason topical debate trades off with essential skills or education.

I am very policy orientated. Open to all arguments including critical but please explain all of your arguments. Also, I am new to the topic so please avoid acronyms.

Hello! My name is Aditya Mehta and I am currently a Senior at UGA. Go Dawgs! I previously debated at Chattahoochee High School

IF YOU'RE READING CRITICAL ARGUMENTS TRY TO READ AS LITTLE FROM YOUR COMPUTER AS POSSIBLE!!(I.E. Explain)

Debates Judged on the China Engagement Topic:

20

Debates Judged on the Surveillance Topic:
17

Debates Judged on the Oceans Topic:
40

Debates Judged on the Latin America Topic:
22

TL;DR:
- speed is okay, prefer clear, human speech to barely audible spreading
- no preference on argumentative choices, i.e. go with what you're good at
- understanding of da/case will probably be greater than understanding of specific/ obscure k literature
- be nice please especially in cross-x

Tech vs truth - TECH matters. Truth still matters somewhat - arguments need a claim and warrant + spin is hugely important for how I read evidence. Also, make sure to answer arguments like "turns case" and "counterplan leads to the plan" in the 1AR, even if you know your evidence is infinitely better.

Debate matters more than cards. that doesnt mean i wont ever call for them, but id rather go off my flow. if i have to read cards then i usually reconstruct the debate based off of the evidence as opposed to the actual debating. Flowing is important; the biggest flaw of paperless debate (among many) is the transition to over relying on the speech doc

any sort of ethical violation (clipping cards, cross reading) will result in an immediate loss and a 0 given to the violator, if sufficient evidence exists. if you dont have enough evidence, dont stake the debate on it

Speed/clarity - debate is a communicative activity. If I don't comprehend an argument then I'm not going to flow it. I'm not sure who the source of this quote is, but it's great advice: "Speed is the number of arguments you make that the judge thinks the other team has to answer".

Edited for Woodward 2017

TL; DR: I’m cool with whatever, have fun 

Rohan Menon

Northview High School ‘17

Northwestern ‘21

Add me to the email chain 😃 : rohmann98@gmail.com

Tech>Truth. This paradigm is just my views on debate, generally if you debate what you like well enough you should be able to get my ballot.

Have fun and make jokes 😊

Paperless

I won’t take prep for flashing BUT DO NOT ABUSE THIS. I can tell when you’re deleting analytics, its not worth the prep time/getting caught for stealing prep.

K Affs/Framework

I pretty much exclusively read affs that defend the rez. I think that to win a K aff in front of me, you really need to win that you are either resolutional (and defend why that is sufficient on the framework debate) or you need to prove that you are prior to doing the resolution. As a result, affs that vaguely mention the word China probably won’t be the best in front of me.

I liked going for framework and I think that the aff should defend a topical plan, but that doesn’t mean you’ll automatically win in front of me. I think you really need to try to access the impacts that the 1AC tries to access with your defense of normative debate. Hold the Aff to an advocacy and debate them there.

Theory

T outweighs theory

To win a theory argument (esp something other than condo) you will need to put in a LOT of work impacting out the argument. Just saying Fairness/Education is not enough, you need to go further.

Condo is probably good, but I can be persuaded otherwise

Kritiks

I read a lot of kritiks freshman and sophomore year but I shifted to more traditional policy args in my Junior and Senior year (@thePoliticsDA). As a result, I don’t think I’m the person to judge really really left debates, but I can probably understand the argument if you read it. I’m more comfortable with Kritiks like the Security K as I am more familiar with those more Right-Leaning types of arguments.

CP/DA

I like these. I think whether or not a counterplan is legitimate is up to the debating being done, I don’t have a predisposition.

Challenges:

1.       If you can win a debate and your only answer on the politics DA is intrinsicness, I will give you a 29.5 as my MINIMUM.

2.       Debate without prep time: If you take no prep the entire debate you will definitely get good speaks

gl;hf

• Please go slower with me than you normally would
• I vote for anything as long as it's well explained. I am not super familiar with k's and framework, so make sure there's extra and coherent explanations on those.
• Please emphasize any voters or reasons to reject the team.
• Tag teaming is ok as long as you don't overpower the partner who is asking/ answering questions.
• Please be considerate and polite; if you are rude or condescending in crossex or blatantly insult the other team, I will dock your speaks.
• If you are a novice, please try and be quick with flashing/sending files. I don't take prep for either of those unless it's an excessive amount of time.
• If you do start an email chain, my email is lydiamoll625@gmail. Feel free to send me any questions there after the round as well.
• For spreading, I prefer clarity. If you are too fast and/or unclear, I might miss some arguments, and even if you said something crucial, you want to make sure it's on my flow or else I won't vote on it.
• Please be slower with theory arguments!
• Once prep time is over, stop talking to your partner/typing/writing/clicking. I'll warn you the first time, but after that, I will take your prep and probably dock your speaks. 
• Time your own speeches and prep. I will also be timing it in case there's a mishap, but it's best to manage your own time accordingly instead of relying on me to do it for you.
• Signposting is very important! Please do that so I don't get lost in your speech.

he/they

Coaching affiliations: Atlanta Urban Debate League Debate Ambassadors (Grady, Decatur, Drew Charter, etc.), 2018-2022; Emory University, 2022-

Scroll to the end for non-policy

ADD ME TO THE CHAIN - mnav453[at]gmail[dot]com

SEND OUT A TEST EMAIL 5-10 MINUTES BEFORE THE ROUND. Subject should be formatted something like: "Tournament Name and Year - Round Number - Aff team vs Neg team." For example, "ADA 2023 - Round 1 - Greendale Community College AA vs Springfield University BB"

ONLINE DEBATE NOTES: If I am judging you online, please go slower, especially when you are starting your speeches; my audio set up is not the best. You should also get some sort of confirmation that everyone is present before starting your speech. If I have my camera off, I am not there and you should wait until I have turned my camera back on before starting your speech or CX.

Feel free to email if you have questions about anything I've written here or if you thought of a question after post-round feedback.

I have organized the policy portion into a short version for the pre round and a long version for prefs. After that is some procedural stuff, i.e. how I handle ethics violations.

NDT 2024 UPDATES

I have not judged since the first semester, so I am pretty unaware of topic innovation and metagame shifts from Wake onwards. I am also trying to rely less on docs when flowing, so you may want to go slower than you normally do.

TL;DR (FOR THE PRE-ROUND)

If I'm judging you in person, then I would appreciate wearing masks when you're not actively speaking or eating/drinking. It's not a requirement and I won't change your speaks for it, but we are still living with COVID and I'd rather minimize risk if possible. Thank you for the consideration.

Do you and make choices. I am most experienced judging policy aff v policy neg and policy aff v critical neg debates, but I will try my best to judge the arguments in front of me in the ways that the debaters want me to. Just make sure to choose the most important arguments and resolve them in the final rebuttals. In other words not every argument on a sheet of paper needs to be extended into the final speeches.

I care a lot more about the flow then the card doc. I will read along during speeches, but I try not to read cards after the debate unless either the debaters have explicitly instructed me to do so or I feel that I have to in order to resolve an important argument. As a result, go slower and follow the line by line. That doesn't mean numbering every argument you make, but rather sticking to the arguments in the order they were originally presented in and explicitly saying so when you deviate from that order.

In the event that you want me to read cards, please do some evidence comparison: tell me how I should read, not just what, i.e. what does your ev assume that theirs doesn't, is their evidence rhetorically powerful instead of argumentatively substantive, etc. This can help in determining close debates.

I care more about big picture storytelling and substantive engagements than cheap shots and minor technical concessions. I'd rather decide a debate on the basis of well warranted evidence or great judge instruction than "multiple perms are a reason to reject the team".

If you're extending a negative advocacy (CPs & Ks), assume I know nothing about your mechanism/literature/whatever, and spend some time in the block just explaining the premise(s) of your argument.

2023-2024 college policy topic thoughts: Judged a few debates at Kentucky and UMW. More comfortable with the core affs/core DA's. Don't have a strong opinion on T questions.

LONG VERSION (FOR PREFS)

Still figuring myself out as a judge, so what follows are not my indelible Thoughts on Debate but rather what I happen to think at this moment in time. I will try my best to adjudicate the debate in the way(s) the debaters want me to. That being said, I think how someone approaches judging will be much more useful to you as you fill out prefs than the whats of their pre existing biases.

Most people seem to be debating to the 2AC/block and card doc instead of the 2NR/2AR and the flow these days. I don’t say this because I want to show off my flowing skills (I am pretty average with respect to flowing ability, perhaps slightly worse on a laptop), but because this an easy way to extend arguments but not resolve them. You can read all of your impact turns to T in the 2AC or every neg UQ card on politics in the 1NR, but extending all of them without saying why you’re extending them in a strategic sense makes it difficult to determine what the most important arguments are and how to resolve them. It also doesn’t help that most people blaze through their blocks without slowing down on tags, using transition words, or otherwise making their speech palatable to the human ear.

As such, I will try to reward strategic decision making and judge instruction more than just who read more cards. This does not mean I hate cards – obviously well-researched and well-prepared arguments are better than badly-researched and ill-prepared ones – but rather that, unless the debaters have instructed me to read specific cards or I feel I must do so in order to resolve an important argument, I will try not let the evidence speak in place of the debaters. I will note however that in close debates, good evidence comparison can be a massive help in resolving the debate. By “good evidence comparison” I mean telling me what parts of the evidence I should prioritize, what the implications of the comparison is, etc. In other words, evidence comparison is another aspect of judge instruction.

In terms of how this actually affects your debating, you should generally go slower and prioritize your flowability. Start the 2AR/2NR by isolating what is the most important argument to resolve and why resolving that one argument filters the rest of the debate. From there you pick the most important arguments on your flow, follow the line by line, and explain why each argument is a necessary component of my decision, and explain why I should resolve them in your favor. If you want me to read a specific card or set of cards, then you should tell me to do so.

What follows are my biases and thoughts on different genres of debates.

K aff v T: While I have run the occasional aff without a plan, most of my debate experience, whether competing or coaching, is policy affirmatives against either some version of CP/DA or K strategies. Most of how I think about debate follows on from this style. This does not mean that T versus an aff without a plan is an auto-win in front of me, but rather that I have less experience and knowledge about these types of affirmatives. I think that affirmative teams should at least have some relation towards the resolution and should try to offer some sort of model of the topic and/or debate in general. Conversely, negative teams need to explain why fairness/education/whatever your standard is would be a preferable to whatever standard the affirmative proposes. In other words, you can win fairness is an impact but still lose if you don't win it outweighs the aff's impacts. I am sympathetic to limits arguments, but only to the extent they resolve some kind of impact that interacts with the opponent’s impacts. TVA’s and switch side arguments can serve as useful tiebreakers for the negative. I also think these affs should defend some departure from the status quo.

Policy aff v K: I find that the two basic ways to win a K in front of me are either to explain why I should change my decision calculus from utilitarianism and/or consequentialism to a different model (“framework”) or why I should prefer a different way of approaching the world/politics than standard USFG action (“alt”). “Links as linear DAs” I don’t find super persuasive. With regards to more framework-type strategies, you need to explain the implications of winning framework: does it change how I evaluate the link debate? Is winning framework enough to justify a ballot? This also applies to the aff: you need to explain why I should care about your framework arguments beyond “now we don’t lose on framework”. I also find role of the ballot/role of the judge arguments not super useful, since they seem to be round about ways of doing framework and impact analysis; they most frequently appear in my RFDs when the other team has conceded them. For framework strategies, it may be useful to forefront your defense and minimize how much the other team can access their offense. For alt-type strategies, you should explain why the alternative is competitive with the affirmative's intervention and how it resolves the affirmative's offense and/or your offense. My biggest comment to affirmative teams is to pick the focus of disagreement in advance and not just let the negative dictate the terms of the debate.

Policy v policy: Please, go for "substantive" strategies and not cheap shots; those debates are maybe harder to execute well but are much more rewarding for everyone involved. Case debating is a lost art these days, between the rise of massive multi plank CPs that fiat everything possible and most people prioritizing impact defense in their 2NR case coverage. Cases tend to be weakest in their internal link chains and solvency, so negative teams should think about what the weakest part of the case is and not just what you have backfiles to answer. In other words I am willing to vote negative on presumption. I am not good for complex process CPs or CPs that fiat in offense. To go for that strategy, I find it requires a lot of theory debating, which I have more thoughts on below, but also the ability to impact your theory and competition arguments. I also don’t find “sufficiency framing” a useful argument in a vacuum since I don’t know what counts as sufficiently solving the case. I like DAs and impact turns, since they more or less force disagreement over some part of the case. Just make sure to highlight the important cards you want me to read after the round. You also need to explain why winning certain parts of the flow are enough to win you the debate even if you are losing other parts. For example, in a debate about de-development/degrowth, my ballot gets a lot easier to decide if you win that sustainability is more important than a transition or vice versa.

K v K: I have the least experience judging these kinds of debates. I need some sort of clear idea of what the aff does and why its intervention is important and a departure from the status quo, and the negative needs some reason why that intervention is not desirable. I would describe my knowledge of critical literature as broad but shallow: I have some idea of the main arguments of many of the most cited authors but either haven’t read most of the primary works or haven’t thought about how they function in the debate context. If you want to go for the cap k as a policy team versus an aff without a plan, you should explain why I should care about extinction impacts or the desirability of your political project as compared to the negative's.

T and Theory: I think of T against policy affs as fall back options for when substantive strategies don't work out. If you want to win T then you need to explain why the aff's interpretation of the topic so unlimiting so as to make the topic not worthwhile from either an education perspective or games playing one. Condo is pretty much the only theory argument for which I would reject the team. To win on condo as the aff you need to explain why the practice of conditionality makes debate uniquely worse, i.e. why is the skew in this instance worse than skew as a result of a lot of DAs and T violations. I think going for condo is all or nothing; there is no reason why 1 condo is good but 2 is bad, and so on. The negative should explain why the practice of conditionality makes debate uniquely better. I won’t judge kick unless told to do so. All that being said I think that CP theory is an underutilized toolkit for the aff considering how prevelant massive CPs are in contemporary negative strategies. I care more about functional competition than textual competition, at least with respect to process CPs.

PROCEDURAL STUFF (POLICY)

An accusation of an ethics violation i.e. clipping will result in the immediate stop of the round. The accusing team will need video/audio evidence of this accusation.

I am not fond of "insert this re highlighting." If you think the other team's evidence actually concludes in the opposite direction of their argument, you should be confident in re reading the evidence. The only insertion of evidence I would prefer is if your evidence is a chart/graph/visual information, something that doesn't translate into words/speech very well.

Arguments I will never vote on: death/self harm good; pref sheets args; out-of-round incidents

LD-SPECIFC STUFF

tl;dr I don't know much of the activity and thus you should approach like in a "policy-esque" way. Additionally, it would behoove you to do less theory work than you might be used to. Overall, my advice is to pref me only if you are comfortable with a standard policy debater judging; if not, then don't.

I have very little understanding of the nuances of the activity, i.e. what constitutes a well-constructed case for me might be different than what is generally considered to be such in the community. I'm also a policy debater by training and so I probably lean towards "progressive" trends than some (as in, I am fine with spreading). I also have ZERO knowledge of the topic and you should be prepared to break down its complexities for me. One other thing: I will probably use my policy speaker point scale from the beginning of this philosophy but I have no idea if that scale is typical of current LD numbers or not.

PF-SPECIFIC STUFF

PLEASE kick scenarios by the end of the debate; my ideal debate has each side go for 1-2 impacts and most of the final focuses being spent on impact comparison (Mr. T, for example).

Most crossfires I have seen are filled with bad or leading questions. Instead of asking "You failed to respond to our card about (insert issue here), so doesn't that mean we win" you should be asking questions like "why should the judge prefer your evidence over ours"

Pet peeves - offenders will be docked speaks:

don't say "we tell you about (insert issue here)": just say what you want to say about the issue

DO NOT END YOUR SPEECH WITH "FOR ALL THESE REASONS I STRONGLY URGE A (INSERT SIDE HERE) BALLOT": I know what side people are on and will intuitively understand what you say is a reason to vote for you...

I am a coach and teacher at Isidore Newman School in New Orleans. I have been involved with debate on the local, regional, and national circuit as a competitor, judge, and coach for more years than I care to put in print.

Non-traditional Debate Warning: If you are looking for a judge that is into non-plan, non-topical K affs, poetry, or other interp affs, I am definitely not the best (or even second best) judge for you. I love a good POI, Oratory, and DI, but I love them in those event categories.

Speed: Once upon a time, I kept a fairly fast and thorough flow. I think that I still keep a good flow, but perhaps not as fast. I am older now (it happens to us all), and my hands hurt a bit more, so I find that I need a little time to warm up to the pace. Another issue concerning speed is that debaters, more often than not, think they are clearer than they actually are. Paperless debate has made this worse. I'll usually try give one "clearer" or "louder" warning per speaker, but after that, either you or your partner had better be paying attention to my facial expressions and whether I’m flowing. I have a terrible poker face, so it will be pretty obvious. If I don’t flow the argument or card text then that argument or card text it is not in the round and I am definitely not going to ask about it. I am inclined to be more impressed with a debater who is clear, efficient, and persuasive who speaks slightly slower than a debater who feels the need to show me their mad spreading skills. In terms of speed and T, theory, and k’s: SLOW DOWN - slow way down (see notes on kritiks). Please read my comments at the end of this page concerning the ever growing negative aspects of paperless debate.

The Role of the Affirmative: I expect the affirmative to advocate the resolution through TOPICAL PLAN action. Yes, the aff must have a plan and it must be clearly stated in the AC. If you want to run a critical aff stating that the resolution is racist, ablest, ageist, or anything else that suggests an unwillingness to affirm the resolution at hand, as written, then I am not going to be a good judge for you. I am possibly willing to listen to a critical aff that advocates the resolution. (Please see my notes on kritiks later). Performance/Project teams will probably find it a challenge to meet my view of the affirmative's role.

Topicality: It’s a voter. I like a good T debate that involves actual evidence and a description of why the aff does not meet the interpretation. The standards debate should include a viable limits argument. Why is the affirmative's interpretation of limits bad for debate? If you are going for ground, make sure you impact why it's a big deal to you in the round, and/or even for debate as a whole. Negative teams who plan to go for topicality should be prepared to go “all in." At best, you could weigh “T” and one other position. You’re unlikely to get much ground or be terribly persuasive if T is one of 3 or 4 positions in the 2NR (And really, why have four positions remaining in the 2NR?). Impact analysis on T is just as important as it is on any other position. Don’t bother to kritik T with me in the room. T is not racist. Do not run RVI’s on T. It is worth noting that a T debate needs to be a bit slower due to its needed explanation, but it does not need to be handled as slowly as a kritik.

Counterplans: Preferably, counterplans are non-topical, which creates a clearer division of ground. Counterplans also need to be clearly competitive. A CP that is basically just steals the plan is probably not competitive and is just stealing ground, but the idea of PICs can be debated in round. Conditional CP’s are probably a bad thing, but the debate as to why must be specific. A clear net benefit is better for competiveness. If going for the CP in the 2NR, the negative does not automatically get the assumption of the Status Quo as the alternative in place of the CP as a voting issue. This choice must be explained in the 2NR. The aff should definitely argue whether the neg can operate in multiple worlds, or must treat the CP as their new advocacy. Note: I find most severance perms abusive. When I have voted on such a perm, it has usually been because the neg mishandled the flow and allowed the aff to get away with it. The neg needs to note that it is the affirmative’s job to advocate their plan, in its entirety, through the 2AR. It is one thing for the Aff to kick an advantage, but it's an entirely different thing to sever part or all of the plan. Affirmatives should not argue that the "neg does not get any fiat." That's ridiculously limiting.

Disadvantages: I’m old school policy, so I like disads. Disads should have a comparable risk to the net benefits of the AC and/or serve as a net benefit to the CP. There should be a significant link debate (offense/defense) and a clear impact calculus. I hate it when teams wait until the 2NR/2AR to finally weigh the impacts. Reading more cards is not weighing an impact; it’s just reading more cards. An impact calculus requires clear analysis. I will put as much effort into weighing the disad risk as a decision calculus as you spend trying to persuade me that the argument is worth the vote.

Kritiks: Despite Newman having a new director that is well known for his love of the K, I have not grown to love kritiks. This is definitely true in terms of non-topical K affs and neg kritiks that probably have little to do with the actual plan. Some teams have become overly reliant upon them (running the same position every single year) and use them to avoid having to debate the topic or debate policies they don’t like. I find that most kritiks have ambiguous implications at best and the alternative (if there is one) is often not an alternative at all. I have found myself voting for some of these arguments, despite my not even understanding the position, because the other team failed to explain clearly why the argument has little bearing in the round or fails to point out the shortcomings of the alt. You should also be aware that I most likely have not read the critical literature you are referencing and citing. I have a rudimentary understanding of philosophy. I was not a philosophy major. I do not plan to go back to graduate school to study philosophy. If you plan to run any critical positions in my presence, you must do the following:

1) Slow Down. Really. Slow. Down. I mean conversational speed slow down

2) Explain your position clearly – no blippy tag lines or argument extensions

3) Have a specific link

4) Have a clear alternative – something more tangible than “being part of the ___ mindset," “avoiding the evils of capitalism,” or "do nothing." Huh??

Despite my personal disposition on the kritiks, the opposing team will still need to say more than “The K is bringing down policy and should go away.”

Performance/Project Debates: I’m still a cost-benefits analysis policy judge at heart. I have not changed my mind on the position that performance/project positions leave little ground for the opposing team. I have no idea how to weigh your performance against the other team’s position (performance or traditional) for the purposes of winning a debate.

Cross Ex: CX is important for fleshing out a strategy and provide clarification of arguments; I generally think that answers in cross ex are binding. I actually listen to cross ex, often take notes and even find it interesting. I also find it not that interesting on many occasions. Tag team CX is okay, but avoid taking it over. Not being able to handle your cross ex will result in lower speaker points. Taking over a partner’s CX will also result in lower speaks. CX starts when the speaker is finished. If you need 30 seconds to “set up” then that will come out of prep.

Role of the Ballot: My ballot determines who wins the round. That is all. If you win, you are (perhaps) one round closer to clearing. If you lose, you are (perhaps) one round closer to not clearing. My ballot does not send a message to the debate community; it is not a teaching tool; it is not an endorsement of a particular action or philosophy.

Theory: Save theory debates for when they really need needed and warranted. Too many debaters are running theory as their “go to” argument. Debating theory as a "default" argument every round cheapens the arguments and makes judges less likely to take them seriously. Do not run any theory arguments against Topicality (see above).

Miscellaneous:

Paperless Debate: Speaking style has simply become worse with paperless debate. Card reading has become choppy, debaters have problems toggling back and forth on the computer, debaters are taking liberties with prep while flashing or emailing speech docs, and instead of flowing the arguments as they are being presented, debaters are back-flowing from flashed material that may or may not have actually made it into the speech. Some judges have resorted to reading the email chain. These are all poor debate practices. Teams are saving paper and tons of money when flying, but debates have become sloppy.

Prep Time: Your prep ends when you have finished loading the flash drive and hand it off to the opposing team. If an email chain is set up, your prep ends when you hit “send.” This means that you are standing up to speak. If you start conversing with your partner, I will continue to run prep and I will probably dock your speaks for stealing prep.

Flowing: Do it. Follow the flow, not the “flashed” cards. Do not mess up my flow!!

Label Arguments: “First off, A-uniqueness” is not a label for my flow. Label each off case – every single one of them. When you move to the case debate, be clear as to where you are and when you are moving on to another advantage, etc. This is also true for the 1A; the AC needs to be crystal clear.

Reading Cards Post Round: I rarely do so. To get me to read a card requires a specific request during your speech and an explanation as to why and what I am looking for exactly. If I am part of the email chain, this does not mean I am automatically going to read cards. If I call for a card without you requesting it or go to the email chain without direction then something was so unclear that I felt I had no choice. This presents an opportunity to intervene, which I do not like doing if I can avoid it.

Card Clipping: It’s cheating. Don’t do it. If an accusation is brought up in the round, I will take it seriously (even stop the round if necessary). If you bring it up as an accusation, you need to be darn certain you are correct. Be clear where you stop reading a card if you do not finish. "Stop card" is probably not clear enough.

As we say in New Orleans, “Be Nice or Leave”. It is fine to be competitive, but have fun. You are competitors in the round, but you should be friends outside of the round. Being a jerk in the round will not lead to friendships and it will definitely hurt your speaker points.

Woodward '17

UGA '21

Yes, I would like to be on the email chain: rishika.pandey21@gmail.com

Feel free to ask me any questions before the round or email me afterwards, I'm here to help!

When reading through these comments, just remember that they reflect my background and thoughts based on debates that I've had, watched, or judged so far - don't let them determine your neg strat or 2AR decisions. You do you. I can keep up.

General comments:

1. Be nice. There's a difference between confidence and rudeness, and I will dock speaker points if you are rude/offensive to anyone (yes, including me and your own partner) in the room at any point.

2. If I have to remind you to be clear, then you shouldn't expect above a 28. Use your words.

3. Prep-time: I'll stop the timer when you tell me the speech doc is done; however, if it takes you too long to email/flash the speech to everyone, I'll probably be suspicious and dock prep time.

4. I read evidence apposite to the nexus question of the debate.

5. Yes, absolute defense is possible.

6. Smart analytics over trash evidence.

7. Evidence - don't underhighlight, clip, or do any of that cheat-y stuff. You're not as cool or sneaky as you think you are.

Specific arguments:

T - Nuanced T debates are great. T over theory unless explained otherwise. Reasonability is fair if the neg interp is meta and non-specific to the aff. You need to explain what the topic would look like under your interp and provide clear case lists and DAs to the other team's interpretation.

DAs - GOOD aff-specific researched DAs are pretty much my favorite arguments. On the other hand, I'm fine listening to politics and other general topic DAs (although you'll have a harder time convincing me to vote for your generic budget or trade-off DA).

CPs - I get excited judging innovative CPs. Defend your CP against CP theory, especially if you think you have a great solvency advocate (though not all CPs need one). No, I won't "judge-kick" a CP for you - you need to make a decision and stick to it.

Theory - 1-2 conditional advocacies is fine; any more is probably excessive and/or abusive. Politics theory is fine as a time-skew, but I'm not likely to vote on it. Floating PIKs/PICs and process CPs are generally bad.

Ks - I'm good with most general/topic/identity/reps critiques, but not necessarily all of the high-theory Name Ks. The best Ks in front of me are contextualized to the aff (using aff evidence as links). Clear explanations and in-depth analysis will most likely help you win a K debate in front of me, not just evidence.

Affs/case - Affs should generally have a plan text/advocacy statement, but I'll listen to affs that don't. Also, case debates are AWESOME and way too undervalued - I love impact turns, alt causes, link turns, etc. Be innovative.

For extra clarity, if necessary, my debate ideology has been strongly influenced by Maggie Berthiaume - see her paradigm.

Woodward Academy - C/O 2015

University of Alabama: Birmingham - C/O 2019

Add me to the email chain: krsh1pandey@gmail.com

***I'm coming into this season with no topic knowledge whatsoever. I can keep up with general arguments and the flow of speeches just fine; however, you may find it worth your while to take time to explain more specific/niche acronyms that pop up throughout the course of the debate.

Last Updated/Written prior to: The Fall 2018 Chattahoochee Cougar Classic

Background: Debate at Woodward Academy for 3 years. Was pretty much exclusively the 2N/1A. I'm 4 years out of the activity now so I'm not very familiar with many new community norms that have developed since my time debating.

Meta/Activity Preferences:

1) Prep time: I won't take prep for emailing speech docs in Varsity unless it becomes excessive (I will inform you before I start taking prep off if I decide things are taking too long). I do take prep time in JV/Novice in order to facilitate rounds running on time.

2) Tag team C-X: Fine if it happens once (maybe twice); if it happens too much, it will reflect in your speaker points and my general view of how much I think you know your arguments.

3) Be nice and respectful to everyone in round (me, the other team, your partner).

Critical/Performance/Non-traditional/No Plan Affs - I enjoy listening to anything that you as the affirmative feel comfortable presenting. I'm highly unlikely to vote for arguments that I find morally reprehensible. But if you are reading high theory or some other very obscure affirmative, you will have a higher burden of explanation if I'm not too well versed with the literature.

Theory - Smart theory debates are fun, but bad theory debates are some of my least favorite to watch (probably second only to a round involving ethics violations or a bad T debate). I usually lean neg when it comes to conditionality.

T - If you can do it well then go for it; I do tend to lean Aff on questions of topicality.

Feel free to ask for clarification or other specific questions before round if you have them! Bear in mind, these are just general thoughts/observations that I hold going into the round; they are not set-in-stone viewpoints.

Robbie Quinn, coach at Montgomery Bell Academy, mucho judging on this topic, which is the one with ASPEC, Consult NATO, and the Death K.

I have no prejudices toward any argument type. I do have prejudices to people who don't have fun. You have to have fun. I'm a librarian, so at the very least you can have fun making fun of that.

I determine which way to evaluate any argument based on who most convinces me of the superiority of a certain way to evaluate it.

I like humor, stories, and creative uses of historical examples. Cross-ex is very important to me and I watch it closely. I think it sways my thinking on key issues. What judge won't admit to actively monitoring who seems to be winning? Cross-ex, to me, is a powerful barometer of that.

Things I've been telling debaters lately that make me feel like I am incredibly awesome but are really just things that everybody knows that I rephrased into something snappy and I'm taking credit for:

1. Don't unnecessarily cut people off in CX. The best CX questions are the ones they can't answer well even if they had all 3 minutes to speak.

2. Be a guardian of good debate. Yes, debate's a changing network of ideas and people, and winning a debate on bad arguments isn't a crime punishable by death. But I reward debaters who seek to win on good arguments. I love good debates. I don't like making "easy" decisions to vote on bad arguments, even though I often do.

3. The most sensible kritik alternatives to me are the ones that defend the idea of a critical-political resistance to the assumptions of the plan and how that idea works in real-world situations. Even if an alternative isn't as cleanly recognizable or linear as the passage and enforcement of a piece of legislation, that doesn't mean that it can't be something concrete. I watch so many bad kritik debates that are bad because both sides never give the alternative any sensible role in the debate. I will reward debaters that give up on gimmicky and irrelevant defenses and attacks of kritik alternatives.

Reasons why my judging might mimic the real world:

1. I might be consciously and unconsciously swayed against your arguments if you're a mean person. Humans are good judges of sincerity.

2. I appreciate style. Rhetorical style and the style of your presence. There's a big difference between going-through-the-motions and having presence in a debate.

3. I like endorsing and praising passionate debaters. Lots of people who articulate that "this debate and the discourse in it matter" don't really energize their discourse to make me feel that. On the other hand, lots of people who don't think that "this debate round matters" often sway my thinking because they speak with urgency. I love listening to debates. If you want to speak, I want to hear you.

Me and cards: I'm very particular about which cards I call for after the debate. If there's been evidence comparison/indicts by one side but not the other, that's usually reason for me not to ask for either side's evidence on that question since one team did not engage the evidence clash.

Advait Ramanan
Atholton ‘15
Georgia ‘19

Put me on the email chain -- advait.ramanan (at) gmail (dot) com

You do you and I'll do my best to keep up.

Please don't insert evidence. Read it in a speech or CX.

T/Framework vs. Planless Affs -- Generally lean neg. The best neg teams, in my opinion, invest in no linking the aff's offense via framing arguments (do it on the neg, read it and lose, T affs can access X lit base.)

Ks vs. Policy Affs -- The aff gets to weigh the plan, barring major technical concession. Plan good/bad is most predictable and weighing links vs. the case tends to solve the neg's O.

T vs. Plans -- All about predictability and evidence comparison. Limited topics are great, but who cares if they're arbitrary.

Theory -- Condo's generally good, but judge kick is silly. I lean aff on most other theory arguments; consult/conditions/delay are all generally not gonna fly. I'm persuaded by the argument that non-USFG actor CPs aren't opp costs to the aff. Topic CPs are great; If a 2A can predict the CP, I'm inclined to think it's legitimate. Predictability stems from the lit, not from community norms.

Northview 

2N

Read whatever you want and whatever you are best at. I won't take prep for flashing/emailing. Tech>> Truth. 

 add me to the email chain: 

I usually read policy affs or soft left affs, but Affs do not necessarily have to contain cards or an advocacy statement. Poetry, music, videos, and stories are perfectly fine, but non-rez affs are probably not good. There is always a way to engage the 1AC and to read framework at the same time. I find framework excessively persuasive against high theory affs but not necessarily against Identity Affs. But if thats your thing, go for it. I tend to default to reasonability on Topicality unless the Neg is ready to go indepth on impact analysis. Case Turns are super persuasive, and politics is fantastic. Counterplans don't necessarily have to have a solvency advocate but there's a higher threshold on solvency. Multiplank, consult, international, 50 state, and most processes are fine. I tend to allow Affs to weigh their impacts unless told differently. I'm not super well versed in high theory. I probably won't vote on Condo unless its blatantly excessive or dropped. Most other theory arguments are reasons to reject the argument. 

Rowland Hall ’15

Emory University ’19

**updated January 2019** I'm largely unfamiliar with this topic which means I need more of an explanation for terms and acronyms.

Quick version- I debated for four years in high school and I debate in college at Emory. I have a large background in different positions. In high school I was very policy, in college I have killjoy/fem rage on the neg and on the aff sometimes. I have a large background in K literature. I'll try really hard to put aside and pre-concieved notions and just judge the debate. I put T/K stuff on top since I think that's where most people go first. Also, I like clash debates and really can go either way depending on the arguments made so if you envision yourself in some of those, I'd be a good judge.

I like an aggressive debater, but don't speak over people. Don't be rude. I take issues of sexual assault, gender, and racism in debate very seriously. I am someone that you can speak to about it, in and out of round, and who will punish people in a round for making light of or perpetuating any of those things.

Framework (T usfg)- I think sometimes it's strategic, and we definitely read it against Aff's we think are particularly hard to get a link to. I actually love a good framework debate on both sides. Be techy, innovative and thoughtful. I think that fairness is an impact if properly explained, and I think limits are good and it is possible for the usfg to do good things. It will be hard to convince me that every single action the usfg takes is bad, but I am very sympathetic, especially now, to descriptions of why non traditional policy movements are better equipped than the president for making social change. I think that the arguments about why it might be unethical to defend the resolution because of Trump are compelling but should be explained thoroughly. You need to answer things like social death on the framework page to win the general premise that usfg form of debate is good, so watch out for that. The best sort of arguments for the affirmative are about why the form of debate is exclusionary, why traditional rules are exclusive to certain populations.

K aff’s- I think it's probably best to be "somehow" related to the topic. I think that it's easiest to win the framework debate when you explain why your non-traditional affirmative provides an important understanding of the topic that policies can't access. I have read an aff sometimes with very little relationship to the topic and understand why it's compelling and important to sometimes do. Explain to me what I am voting for, why it is important, and especially explain to me why the traditional model of debate doesn't leave space for your theory/performance. I am open to debates about the debate space in general, about problems with people and attitudes in debate, and kritiks of the mode and type of debate we do.

K’s- I like the K. Like I said above, I've done a lot of identity/performance stuff this year. That being said, that doesn't mean that I automatically vote for it. You have to contextualize the k to the aff. If you are going to read a usfg link or "link of omission" I think that it's important to show why the absence of what you are talking about in the 1AC implicates their policy. I don’t need a massive impact overview to know why imperialism is bad, most everything in your 4 min overview can be applied to the flow. Be organized. The worst part about a 1 off debate is that it is so messy and frustrating for everyone involved. If you need to split the k up in the block that's cool, just be clear about it. You need to talk about case if you want to win. For the aff, utilize your impacts. It’s going to be pretty hard to convince me that the aff can’t weigh their impacts at all, so weigh them. Extinction is still a pretty big deal to me, so the neg needs to describe why I should assign something like extinction less weight in comparison to structural violence claims. Permutations are important but explain them. When you know you are hitting a K team, tailor your 1AC to them. You aren’t going to need your heg impact. Focus on systemic ones that might solve the impacts of the k. Defend your method.

DA’s- Impact calc is obviously important. There is zero risk of a link or impact. I've done a lot of work on the politics DA in the past but I'm really not going to appreciate a Trump good DA-- please don't read that in front of me. On the aff, I’m a fan of a robust 2AC with link turns or impact turns. Think about it strategically. I will reward a well thought out politics 2ac with good speaker points.

CP’s- I think most of them are legitimate. Read what you like. As a 2a I liked reading a few add ons and a lot of theory in the 2ac.

Topicality- I'm not a great judge for topicality. I don't like arbitrarily limiting the topic. I understand that sometimes it’s what you’ve got to do. I default to reasonability usually.

Theory- it's fine. Slow down please if you want me to vote for you. condo probably good.
camila.rosa.reed-guevara@emory.edu if you have questions and please put me on the email chain.

Ricardo Saenz
Debated at Georgia Tech (Parli & Policy) for ~2 years
Debated at Alpharetta High School - 4 years

STEM background (studied Engineering in College)

Currently configure Leak Detection software for a Pipeline Company for a living.

risaenz(at)gmail

last updated 1/2/2020

TLDR: Debate what you're good at and debate well. I'll do my best to vote for the team that did the better debating.

General notes for everyone:

1. I vote for the team that did the better debating. What the "better debating" means is up to the debaters. If no one defines what it means to win the round, I usually default to weighing offense and defense. I also tend to be quick to decide rounds. It's not you... it's me!

2. Debate what you're comfortable with and debate it well. I don't really have many biases anymore and will hear you out on practically anything. There are a few arguments that will make me unhappy and affect your speaker points, but if you win the sheet of paper, you win the debate.

3. Add me to the email chain and please add your coaches, too. I will reply all with my comments and flow to the thread so y'all can have my record for redos.

4. I will try to keep with community norms in terms of speaker points. Just make sure I can understand you. You've seen me flow on the live stream so that should give you a good idea of my capabilities and limitations in that department.

4. It's very important that I can understand everything in your speech as I don't tend to read cards as much as most judges. I also try to write down key warrants on my flows and decide the round based on that.

5. I have been out of the activity for a while now and don't know much about the topic. Please keep that in mind and adjust accordingly.

6. Get the little stuff right - if it's clear that you have the paperless stuff down (no delays emailing, using flash drives etc...) you're likely to get on my good side and earn higher speaker points.

6. Let's all try to be friends here.

Argument Specific:

Performative Method - I am less persuaded by arguments that the ballot means something. That being said, I think arguments that focus on the scholarship of afro-pessimism and black feminism can be very persuasive. I am not very well read in the literature but did pick up a bunch from watching Kansas BR a bajillion times last year. Just be clear about what my role as a judge is and what the ballot means.

Kritiks - I don't really get Baudrillard but I think that's the point. If you want me to vote on one of your tricks, debate it well and impact it. Don't assume your job is done after the 1AR forgets the floating PIK. I debated many topic Ks back in the day, but make you explain stuff and... debate well...

Disads - Love DA/Case debates. This was one of my favorite strategies. Not much to say here.

Politics/Elections - sure

CPs - Make sure it competes. If it doesn't make sure you're good at theory.

Conditionality - I'm closer to 50/50 on this than most. Counterinterpetations are silly and self serving in these debates. The debate should be about conditionality being good or bad if it comes down to this.

Questions? Just ask!

Supri Sama
3rd year debater 
Chattahoochee High School

put me on the email chain: suprajasama@gmail.com


Do what works for you. Debate is ultimately a game of persuasion, stick with the style of debate that works best for you. My philosophy is just a random collection of my thoughts on debate, not hard rules that you should or must follow. I do my best to resolve the central questions of the debate using the arguments that are supplied by both teams. I try not to intervene and will stick to my flow as much as possible this way I weigh the warrants that are actually communicated in the round rather than tagline extensions.

Debating versus Evidence 
I think that it is very important for debaters to be proficient in line-by-line debating while also being able to explain and develop the warrants for their arguments. With that said, I believe that debate is also somewhat of a referendum on the quality of evidence researched and the quality of argument constructed. To me, it is important both to have a good argument and to have the ability to debate that argument well. 

It is difficult to develop a uniform standard for judging debates in which debaters do a great job on an argument that is not substantiated with great evidence. At the margins, however, my flow dictates the degree to which evidence matters. 

None of this should give you the impression that I require every argument to be supported with evidence. On the contrary, analytic arguments are extremely useful and often under-utilized in debates. 

Paperless Debate 
First -- I'm pretty lax about prep time and I don't take prep for saving and sending, this being said, if it starts to get egregiously bad, then I will intervene. 

Second -- Flowing is monumentally important in a debate round, and, if it's clear to me that you are not flowing, I will call you out for it and probably dock your speaks. 

Topicality 
It does not make much sense to me for topicality to be evaluated entirely via risk or offense/defense. If the affirmative meets a good interpretation of the topic, it is difficult to persuade me that they need to meet the best possible interpretation of the topic. Negatives can convince me otherwise by doing a good job impacting their limits / predictability / ground claims. 

CP/DA
I thoroughly enjoy a good CP/DA debate, especially when it's specific to the affirmative

A counterplan is competitive if there is a functional difference between what the counterplan mandates and what the plan mandates as determined by their texts. If a counterplan includes all of the mandates of the plan, it is not competitive. 

The following is a list of counterplans that I have come to regard as probably illegitimate: 
-Counterplans that are wholly plan inclusive 
-Counterplans that are not functionally distinct from the plan 
-Counterplans that compete off of the certainty or immediacy of the plan

Hopefully your DA has a link specific to the affirmative, the more specific and well-researched, the better.


No risk of a link is definitely a thing, however, a clearly articulated link threshold is less arbitrary and therefore more convincing to me.

Impact work is especially important when the neg is defending the status quo. Don't just tell me that your impact has a larger magnitude, tell me why that's true and why magnitude is more important that the aff's framing choice.

Kritik
Interact with the aff well or be overwhelmingly good at not interacting with the aff. 

I enjoy debates that treat the K like a CP/disad debate - the K cannot be an excuse not to be technical, nor an excuse to evade concepts like uniqueness, comparative impact calc, etc. "No value to life" is borderline-completely meaningless to me the vast majority of times it's referenced. Debate the K like a disad - impacts need a unique link to the aff, and then need to actually be impacts - "epistemology first means vote neg on presumption" is not an impact. Value to life presumptively does not outweigh extinction. 

I think if the neg can garner a significant risk of the link and that the impact to the kritik outweighs any impact the aff may have, the the alternative doesn't necessarily need to have 100% solvency (see above). This doesn't mean that you don't need an alt in the 2NR, just that if you do enough impact analysis between the aff and the K to convince me that the aff causes more harm than good, I will probably vote for you. 


Theory 
As a 2N, I firmly believe that conditionality is beneficial. However, I am not sure if this gives the negative the right to introduce arguments that directly contradict with one another and if the aff can make a cohesive argument that is well thought out and can provide me with specific examples of in-round abuse, I may be persuaded to vote aff. 

It is difficult to persuade me that theoretical objections are voting issues. It seems that there is always a more appropriate remedy. This is true even if a theory argument is dropped. For example, dropping “multiple perms are illegitimate – voting issue” in the 1AR does not mean that the negative automatically wins; these cheap shots are silly and I think it is pedagogically unsound for the debate to be decided on them. 


Performance 
The affirmative team should defend a plan that affirms the resolution. 

Warning
Don't be rude. 
Cheating is bad, don't do it.

Marist, Atlanta, GA (2015-2019, 2020-Present)
Pace Academy, Atlanta GA (2019-2020)
Stratford Academy, Macon GA (2008-2015)
Michigan State University (2004-2008)

Pronouns- She/Her

Please use email chains. Please add me- abby.schirmer@gmail.com.

Short version- You need to read and defend a plan in front of me. I value clarity (in both a strategic and vocal sense) and strategy. A good strategic aff or neg strat will always win out over something haphazardly put together. Impact your arguments, impact them against your opponents arguments (This is just as true with a critical strategy as it is with a DA, CP, Case Strategy). I like to read evidence during the debate. I usually make decisions pretty quickly. Typically I can see the nexus question of the debate clearly by the 2nr/2ar and when (if) its resolved, its resolved. Don't take it personally.

Long Version:
Case Debate- I like specific case debate. Shows you put in the hard work it takes to research and defeat the aff. I will reward hard work if there is solid Internal link debating. I think case specific disads are also pretty good if well thought out and executed. I like impact turn debates. Cleanly executed ones will usually result in a neg ballot -- messy debates, however, will not.

Disads- Defense and offense should be present, especially in a link turn/impact turn debate. You will only win an impact turn debate if you first have defense against their original disad impacts. I'm willing to vote on defense (at least assign a relatively low probability to a DA in the presence of compelling aff defense). Defense wins championships. Impact calc is important. I think this is a debate that should start early (2ac) and shouldn't end until the debate is over. I don't think the U necessarily controls the direction of the link, but can be persuaded it does if told and explained why that true.

K's- Im better for the K now than i have been in years past. That being said, Im better for security/international relations/neolib based ks than i am for race, gender, psycho, baudrillard etc . I tend to find specific Ks (ie specific to the aff's mechanism/advantages etc) the most appealing. If you're going for a K-- 1) please don't expect me to know weird or specific ultra critical jargon... b/c i probably wont. 2) Cheat- I vote on K tricks all the time (aff don't make me do this). 3) Make the link debate as specific as possible and pull examples straight from the aff's evidence and the debate in general 4) I totally geek out for well explained historical examples that prove your link/impact args. I think getting to weigh the aff is a god given right. Role of the ballot should be a question that gets debated out. What does the ballot mean with in your framework. These debates should NOT be happening in the 2NR/2AR-- they should start as early as possible. I think debates about competing methods are fine. I think floating pics are also fine (unless told otherwise). I think epistemology debates are interesting. K debates need some discussion of an impact-- i do not know what it means to say..."the ZERO POINT OF THE Holocaust." I think having an external impact is also good - turning the case alone, or making their impacts inevitable isn't enough. There also needs to be some articulation of what the alternative does... voting neg doesn't mean that your links go away. I will vote on the perm if its articulated well and if its a reason why plan plus alt would overcome any of the link questions. Link defense needs to accompany these debates.

K affs are fine- you have to have a plan. You should defend that plan. Affs who don't will prob lose to framework. A alot.... and with that we come to:

NonTraditional Teams-
If not defending a plan is your thing, I'm not your judge. I think topical plans are good. I think the aff needs to read a topical plan and defend the action of that topical plan. I don't think using the USFG is an endorsement of its racist, sexist, homophobic or ableist ways. I think affs who debate this way tend to leave zero ground for the negative to engage which defeats the entire point of the activity. I am persuaded by T/Framework in these scenarios. I also think if you've made the good faith effort to engage, then you should be rewarded. These arguments make a little more sense on the negative but I am not compelled by arguments that claim: "you didn't talk about it, so you should lose."

CPs- Defending the SQ is a bold strat. Multiple conditional (or dispo/uncondish) CPs are also fine. Condo is probably good, but i can be persuaded otherwise. Consult away- its arbitrary to hate them in light of the fact that everything else is fine. I lean neg on CP theory. Aff's make sure you perm the CP (and all its planks). Im willing to judge kick the CP for you. If i determine that the CP is not competitive, or that its a worse option - the CP will go away and you'll be left with whatever is left (NBs or Solvency turns etc). This is only true if the AFF says nothing to the contrary. (ie. The aff has to tell me NOT to kick the CP - and win that issue in the debate). I WILL NOT VOTE ON NO NEG FIAT. That argument makes me mad. Of course the neg gets fiat. Don't be absurd.

T- I default to offense/defense type framework, but can be persuaded otherwise. Impact your reasons why I should vote neg. You need to have unique offense on T. K's of T are stupid. I think the aff has to run a topical aff, and K-ing that logic is ridiculous. T isn't racist. RVIs are never ever compelling.... ever.

Theory- I tend to lean neg on theory. Condo- Good. More than two then the aff might have a case to make as to why its bad - i've voted aff on Condo, I've voted neg on condo. Its a debate to be had. Any other theory argument I think is categorically a reason to reject the argument and not the team. I can't figure out a reason why if the aff wins international fiat is bad that means the neg loses - i just think that means the CP goes away.

Remember!!! All of this is just a guide for how you chose your args in round. I will vote on most args if they are argued well and have some sort of an impact. Evidence comparison is also good in my book-- its not done enough and i think its one of the most valuable ways to create an ethos of control with in the debate. Perception is everything, especially if you control the spin of the debate. I will read evidence if i need to-- don't volunteer it and don't give me more than i ask for. I love fun debates, i like people who are nice, i like people who are funny... i will reward you with good points if you are both. Be nice to your partner and your opponents. No need to be a jerk for no reason

Debated 4 years Marquette University HS (2001-2004)

Assistant Coach – Marquette University HS (2005-2010)

Head Coach – Marquette University HS (2011-2012)

Assistant Coach – Johns Creek HS (2012-2014)

Head Coach – Johns Creek HS (2014-Current)

Yes, put me on the chain: bencharlesschultz@gmail.com

No, I don’t want a card doc.

Its been a long time since I updated this – this weekend I was talking to a friend of mine and he mentioned that I have "made it clear I wasn’t interested in voting for the K”. Since I actually love voting for the K, I figured that I had been doing a pretty bad job of getting my truth out there. I’m not sure anyone reads these religiously, or that any paradigm could ever combat word of mouth (good or bad), but when I read through what I had it was clear I needed an update (more so than for the criticism misconception than for the fact that my old paradigm said I thought conditionality was bad – yeesh, not sure what I was thinking when I wrote THAT….)

Four top top shelf things that can effect the entire debate for you, with the most important at the top:

11) Before I’m a debate judge, I’m a teacher and a mandatory reporter. I say this because for years I’ve been more preferred as a critical judge, and I’ve gotten a lot of clash rounds, many of which include personal narratives, some of which contain personal narratives of abuse. If such a narrative is read, I’ll stop the round and bring in the tournament director and they will figure out the way forward.

22) I won’t decide the debate on anything that has happened outside of the round, no matter the quality of evidence entered into the debate space about those events. The round starts when the 1AC begins.

33) If you are going to the bathroom before your speech in the earlier speeches (constructives through 1nr, generally) just make sure the doc is sent before you go. Later speeches where there's no doc if you have prep time I can run that, or I'll take off .4 speaks and allow you to go (probably a weird thing, I know, but I just think its stealing prep even though you don't get to take flows or anything, just that ability to settle yourself and think on the positions is huge)

44) No you definitely cannot use extra cross-ex time as prep, that’s not a thing.

5

55) Finally, some fun. I’m a firm believer in flowing and I don’t see enough people doing it. Since I do think it makes you a better debater, I want to incentivize it. So if you do flow the round, feel free to show me your flows at the end of the debate, and I’ll award up to an extra .3 points for good flows. I reserve the right not to give any points (and if I get shown too many garbage flows maybe I’ll start taking away points for bad ones just so people don’t show me horrible flows, though I’m assuming that won’t happen much), but if you’ve got the round flowed and want to earn extra points, please do! By the way you can’t just show one good flow on, lets say, the argument you were going to take in the 2nc/2nr – I need to see the round mostly taken down to give extra points

Top Shelf:

This is stuff that I think you probably want to know if you’re seeing me in the back

· I am liable probably more than most judges to yell “clear” during speeches – I won’t do it SUPER early in speeches because I think it takes a little while for debaters to settle into their natural speed, and a lot of times I think adrenaline makes people try and go faster and be a little less clear at the start of their speeches than they are later. So I wait a bit, but I will yell it. If it doesn’t get better I’ll yell one more time, then whatever happens is on you in terms of arguments I don’t get and speaker points you don’t get. I’m not going to stop flowing (or at least, I never have before), but I also am not yelling clear frivolously – if I can’t understand you I can’t flow you.

· I don’t flow with the doc open. Generally, I don’t open the doc until later in the round – 2nc prep is pretty generally when I start reading, and I try to only read cards that either are already at the center of the debate, or cards that I can tell based on what happens through the 2ac and the block will become the choke points of the round. The truth of the debate for me is on the flow, and what is said by the debaters, not what is said in their evidence and then not emphasized in the speeches, and I don’t want to let one team reading significantly better evidence than the other on questions that don’t arise in the debate influence the way I see the round in any way, and opening the doc open is more likely than not to predispose me towards one team than another, in addition to, if I’m reading as you go, I’m less likely to dock you points for being comically unclear than if the only way I can get down what I get down is to hear you say it.

Argumentative Stuff

Listen at the end of the day, I will vote for anything. But these are arguments that I have a built in preference against. Please do not change up your entire strategy for me. But if the crux of your strategy is either of these things know that 1 – I probably shouldn’t be at the top of your pref card, and 2 – you can absolutely win, but a tie is more likely to go to the other side. I try and keep an open mind as much as possible (heck I’ve voted for death good multiple times! Though that is an arg that may have more relevance as you approach 15 full years as a public school DoD….) but these args don’t do it for me. I’ll try and give a short explanation of why.

1. I’m not a good judge for theory, most specifically cheap shots, but also stuff seen as more “serious” like conditionality. Its been a long long time since anyone has gone for theory in front of me – the nature of the rounds that I get means there’s not usually a ton of negative positions – which is good because I’m not very sympathetic to it. I generally think that the negative offense, both from the standpoint of fairness and education, is pretty weak in all but the most egregious rounds when it comes to basic stuff like conditionality. Other counterplan theory like no solvency advocate, no international fiat, etc I’m pretty sympathetic to reject the argument not the team. In general, if you’re looking at something like conditionality where the link is linear and each instance increases the possibility of fairness/education impacts, for me you’ve got to be probably very near to, or even within, double digits for me to think the possible harm is insurmountable in round. This has come up before so I want to be really clear here – if its dropped, GO FOR IT, whether alone or (preferably) as an extension in a final rebuttal followed by substance. I for sure will vote for it in a varsity round (in novice rounds, depending on the rest of the round, I may or may not vote on it). Again – this is a bias against an argument that will probably effect the decision in very close rounds.

2. Psychoanalysis based critical literature – I like the criticism, as I mentioned above, just because I think the cards are more fun to read and more likely to make me think about things in a new way than a piece of counterplan solvency or a politics internal link card or whatever. But I have an aversion to psychoanalysis based stuff. The tech vs truth paragraph sums up my feelings on arguments that seem really stupid. Generally when I see critical literature I think there’s at least some truth to it, especially link evidence. But

3. Cheap Shots – same as above – just in general not true, and at variance with what its fun to see in a debate round. There’s nothing better than good smart back and forth with good evidence on both sides. Cheap shots (I’m thinking of truly random stuff like Ontology Spec, Timecube – stuff like that) obviously are none of those things.

4. Finally this one isn’t a hard and fast thing I’m necessarily bad for, but something I’ve noticed over the years that I think teams should know that will effect their argumentative choices in round – I tend to find I’m less good than a lot of judges for fairness as a standalone impact to T-USFG. I feel like even though its never changed that critical teams will contend that they impact turn fairness, or will at least discuss why the specific type of education they provide (or their critique of the type of education debate in the past has provided), it has become more in vogue for judges to kind of set aside that and put sort of a silo around the fairness impact of the topicality debate and look at that in a vacuum. I’ve just never been good at doing that, or understanding why that happens – I’m a pretty good judge still for framework, I think, but youre less likely to win if you go for a fairness impact only on topicality and expect that to carry the day

Specific Round Types:

K Affs vs Framework

Clash rounds are the rounds I’ve gotten by far the most in the last 5-8 years or so, and generally I like them a lot and they consistently keep me interested. For a long time during the first generation of critical affirmatives that critique debate/the resolution I was a pretty reliable vote for the affirmative. Since the negative side of the no plan debate has caught up, I’ve been much more evenly split, and in general I like hearing a good framework press on a critical aff and adjudicating those rounds. I think I like clash rounds because they have what I would consider the perfect balance between amount of evidence (and specificity of evidence) and amount of analysis of said evidence. I think a good clash round is preferable than almost any round because there’s usually good clash on the evidentiary issues and there’s still a decent amount of ev read, but from the block on its usually pure debate with minimal card dumpage. Aside from the preference discussed above for topicality based framework presses to engage the fairness claims of the affirmative more, I do think that I’m more apt than others to vote negative on presumption, or barring that, to conclude that the affirmative just gets no risk of its advantages (shoutout Juliette Salah!). One other warning for affirmatives – one of the advantages that the K affords is that the evidence is usually sufficiently general that cards which are explained one way (or meant to be used one way) earlier in the round can become exactly what the negative doesn’t need/cant have them be in the 2ar. I think in general judges, especially younger judges, are a little biased against holding the line against arguments that are clearly new or cards that are explained in a clearly different way than they were originally explained. Now that I’m old, I have no such hang ups, and so more than a lot of other judges I’ve seen I’m willing to say “this argument that is in the 2ar attached to (X) evidence is not what was in the 1ar, and so it is disallowed”. (As an aside, I think the WORST thing that has happened to, and can happen to, no plan teams is an overreliance on 1ar blocks. I would encourage any teams that have long 1ar blocks to toss them in the trash – if you need to keep some explanations of card warrants close, please do, but ditch the prewritten blocks, commit yourself to the flow, and listen to the flow of the round, and the actual words of the block. The teams that have the most issue with shifting argumentation between the 1ar and the 2ar are the teams that are so obsessed with winning the prep time battle in the final 2 rebuttals that they become over dependent on blocks and aren’t remotely responsive to the nuance of a 13 minute block that is these days more and more frequently 13 minutes of framework in some way shape or form)

K vs K

Seems like its more likely these days to see clash rounds for me, and next up would be policy rounds. I’d actually like to see more K v K rounds (though considering that every K team needs to face framework enough that they know exactly how to debate it, and its probably more likely/easier to win a clash round than a K v K round on the negative, it may be more strategic to just go for framework on the neg if you don’t defend the USFG on the aff), and I’d especially love to see more well-argued race v high theory rounds. Obviously contextualization of very general evidence that likely isn’t going to be totally on point is the name of the game in these rounds, as well as starting storytelling early for both sides – I’d venture to say the team that can start telling the simple, coherent story (using evidence that can generally be a tad prolix so the degree of difficulty for this is high) early will be the team that generally will get the ballot. The same advice about heavy block use, especially being blocked out into the 1ar, given above counts here as well.

Policy v policy Rounds

I love them. A good specific policy round is a thing of beauty. Even a non-specific counterplan/DA round with a good strong block is always great. As the season goes on its comparatively less likely, just based on the rounds I usually get, that I’ll know about specific terminology, especially deeply nuanced counterplan terminology. I honestly believe good debaters, no matter their argumentative preference or what side of the (mostly spurious) right/left divide in debate you’re on, are good CASE debaters. If you are negative and you really want to back up the speaker point Brinks truck, a 5+ minute case press is probably the easiest way to make that happen.

Individual argument preferences

I’ll give two numbers here – THE LEFT ONE about how good I think I am for an argument based on how often I actually have to adjudicate it, and THE RIGHT ONE will be how much I personally enjoy an argument. Again – I’ll vote for anything you say. But more information about a judge is good, and you may as well know exactly what I enjoy hearing before you decide where to rank me. 1 being the highest, 10 being the lowest.

T (classic) --------------------------------------- 5/4

T (USFG/Framework) ------------------------ 1/1

DA ------------------------------------------------ 3/2

CP ------------------------------------------------- 4/2

Criticism ----------------------------------------- 1/2

Policy Aff --------------------------------------- 2/2

K Aff ---------------------------------------------- 1/3

Theory ------------------------------------------- 8/9

Cheap Shots ------------------------------------ 10/10

Post Round:

I feel like I’ve gotten more requests lately to listen to redos people send me. I’m happy to do that and give commentary if folks want – considering I saw the original speech and know the context behind it, it only makes sense that I would know best whether the redo fixes the deficiencies of the original. Shoot me an email and I’m happy to help out!

Any other questions – just ask!

Current affiliation: director at Purdue & assistant at Head Royce.

Did you know Purdue is a public University with over 40,000 undergraduate students? Despite our excellent reputation for our engineering and computer science programs, as well as our success in the NCAA basketball tournament, we are in fact a public land-grant university in West Lafayette, IN. Tuition is less at Purdue than it is at Indiana University.

Past affiliations: Weber State, Wake Forest, Loyola Marymount, Idaho State, West Georgia, as well as College Prep, Georgetown Day, Bishop Guertin, Chattahoochee, and many other high school programs.

I love debate. I chose to return to debate after spending a few years working at a consulting firm. I make less money now, but enjoy the work much more. I appreciate your participation in the activity and will do my best to determine a winner, as well as help you improve in the time I spend judging your round.

I will default to flowing on paper. I appreciate efforts to be organized and go line-by-line; I will reward speakers that make flowing easier.

I will not read along with the speech doc. I believe debate should be a persuasive activity. I think following along with the speech doc is a poor practice, and I feel some type of way about it. I would like to be on the doc chain; everybodylovesjim@gmail.com& hrsdebatedocs@gmail.com

If the round has started and there is no timer going, please don’t prep. I’ll kindly ask you to stop prepping if I notice you prepping while no timer is running. I think remote debate may have contributed to lax prep time standards, and I feel some type of way about it.

I’m a fan of multiple flavors of debate. I’m somewhat of a dinosaur at this point, but I still appreciate attempts at innovation. I’ve voted for and against all sorts of arguments. I’ve coached teams on various flavors of arguments. I’m generally agnostic. My best piece of advice for debating in front of me, or any other judge; debate powerfully, make the judge adapt to you.

I love cross ex! It’s generally my favorite part of the round. I usually flow it. I always pay attention to it. If you make gains in cross ex, please leverage those gains in your speeches. I will reward speakers for a well executed cross ex. I prefer you don’t treat prep time as cross ex time, I frequently leave the room during prep time and appreciate these opportunities.

I will reward speakers that focus on clarity over speed. If I ask you to be clear, please make an effort to adjust.

I start the process of deciding who won by establishing the most important issue(s) in the debate and determining who won the core controversies. I ask myself who won the round if both teams win their package of arguments. I frequently write a rough draft of a ballot and then try to argue against that decision to check against overlooking something. I try to edit my many thoughts to keep things more brief in delivering my RFD, particularly when on a panel. Sometimes when I sit I ask to give my RFD last - sometimes this is so I can get a sense of where the other judges are at, sometimes it’s to circumvent judges from editing their decisions when I’m confident in my RFD.

8 years of CX experience. Debated for 4 years at Chandler High School and previously coached for them (Chandler CS) and Milton High School (Milton HH & Milton FM). I used to be a 2N but I have experience being a 2A as well. Grilled cheese enthusiast.

Last Updated: Westminster 2017

General Notes

• Anything that's argued and debated well goes
• Don't try to talk faster than you're thinking - clarity is key if you're speaking fast
• Clearly outline why you win the ballot in the 2NR/2AR. Judge intervention isn't fun/cool
• Actual warrant extensions > quick blips
• Tech > Truth
• Comfortable with non-traditional/performance stuff as long as it's within the bounds of sanity (whatever that means)
• Flashing isn't prep; don't steal prep

Speaker Points

These vary from round to round because of subjectivity but I'm relatively lenient compared to most judges. 30.0 is rare (only once).
28.2 - 28.6 = Average
28.7 - 29.1 = Above average/good speaker
29.2 - 29.5 = Good enough for elims
29.6 - 29.9 = Late elims

Rather than taking away points for poor debating, I much more often reward them for nifty tricks/good strategy. That being said:

• Aggressiveness =/= rudeness. Make a point but be respectful in the process. We're all part of the same community.
• I'll pay attention to CX and strategic ones will be awarded.
• Numbering arguments (starting from the 2AC) will be rewarded with an extra 0.2 points. It will help you organize your flows and naturally increase the clarity/organization of your speeches.
• Clash is crucial for high speaks and wins.
• Jokes/humor in speeches are encouraged but please don't spend your entire speech making puns. On that note, jokes about the Seattle Seahawks = +0.1. Also, jokes about Chandler High or Milton High debate squads = +0.2.

Specifics

Case --- I highly value research and think well made case negs are the most damaging. Make sure case arguments are frictional with your off case impacts or CP solvency. No, neg flex, while tolerable, is not the only or best answer to contradictions across flows. Compared to most judges, I am more willing to vote on just case if it's well debated and there's some solid offense.

Counterplans --- I think case-specific PICs are strategic. I'm not a big fan of consult CPs (or anything with an artificial net benefit) or CPs that compete solely on a solvency differential. It's not that they're bad, but really, they're bad. 2NR needs to have good solvency mechanism articulation and comparative analysis between the CP/aff.

Disads --- The more specific, the better. Disads are wonderful if they're specific. I very much enjoy and hope to hear good link articulation in context of the aff. I think disad-specific case arguments are incredibly beneficial at framing and winning a debate. I've warmed up to the politics disad quite a bit recently. I'm somewhat skeptical of the link debate on politics, but that's likely a side effect of not seeing it done well recently. My preference on politics links are also a personal belief that doesn't have a bearing on my decision - if you think you can do a good/winning job with it, roll with it.

Kritiks/Non-Traditional Affs --- Hype. I'm fairly well-versed with critical literature and read a decent amount while I debated. Throughout my career, I leaned left three out of four years reading soft left and hi-theory affs. I think there is a lot of strategic and educational value to reading these arguments and they can have tremendous impact both in debate and in larger communities if executed correctly. I think a bigger and bigger problem with kritiks is that they're being read more often but not explained with the level of detail they ought to be. Many rounds tend to have close to no explanation of what a post-alternative/post-affirmative world looks like or what the alternative/aff actually does, which puts me in a pickle (I like pickles too) in terms of understanding what I am voting for. I frame Ks through the framework debate but the aff should be able to weigh their justifications - I won't kick the alt for you and I really hope there's an explanation of how the alt resolves the impacts to the K. Dropping swanky/famous last names =/= giving an explanation of ideology/methodology. Please don't just read overviews or pre-written arguments for the full speech, be creative and clash in the context of the debate. While my voting record historically leans left, I have a relatively high threshold for solvency explanations and round-specific articulation.

T/FW --- Sure! I'll evaluate it just as fairly as I would any other argument. I think these debates can be very educationally and strategically valuable but have to be executed correctly (which rarely happens). The biggest problem with teams reading T/Framework is that it isn't impacted well in the context of the aff and I end up being confused as to why I should vote for the argument/why one model of debate is better/whether education or fairness comes first/what education matters/what abuse has taken place (e.g. "we lose links to the spending DA" isn't a substantial enough reason to vote neg). Historically, my voting record is not in favor of FW but that doesn't mean you won't pick up my ballot if you read it.

Theory --- It's aight. In addition to utilizing it as a voting issue, I like teams that couple their theory with other arguments to justify/extrapolate key arguments to give them the edge on contested issues. I have a high threshold on using theory as a reason to vote aff/neg; give me a compelling reason (more than just a blip) why I should reject the team. In most cases, it's just a reason to reject an argument or not a team but if you do enough work on it, you most definitely may be able to convince me otherwise. Please please please make sure you give some example of abuse, i.e. specific models of debate/in-round, or have solid proof for your violation and have a logical impact in conjunction with that.


If you can't find the answer to something here, default to Adam Symond's wiki. He was one of the best lab leaders I had and my philosophy aligns with his for the most part.

If you have any questions before/after the round and still don't know the answer, shoot me an email: mnvsevak97@gmail.com.

Updated 1/16/18

Affiliation:

Chattahoochee High School '15

Kennesaw State University '19

Some background:

I debated four years at Chattahoochee. I was a 2N my enitre career so I tend to lean negative on most theory questions and toward the Aff on late breaking debates because of the 1AR.

Debate:

I haven't done any judging on this topic so make sure to be informative, clear and understandable. IF you use jargon I don't know, don't expect me to google it for you. It is really quite simple; if you do the better debating you will win my ballot. I am a very technical debater so dropped arguments unless absurd are almost always treated as the truth. In front of me, try to advocate something if anything. At least make it clear what you believe I am and should vote on. I'm very laid back in round and really anything goes as long as you aren't rude or mean. Most importantly have fun. IF its apparent that you are enjoying yourself throughout the round, it will help your speaks and my willingness to give you my ballot.

Coach at Alpharetta High School 2006-Present
Coach at Chattahoochee High School 1999-2005
Did not debate in High School or College.

E-mail: asmiley27@gmail.com

General thoughts- I expect debaters to recognize debate as a civil, enjoyable, and educational activity. Anything that debaters do to take away from this in the round could be penalized with lower speaker points. I tend to prefer debates that more accurately take into account the types of considerations that would play into real policymakers' decision making. On all arguments, I prefer more specifics and less generics in terms of argument choice and link arguments.

The resolution has an educational purpose. I prefer debates that take this into account and find ways to interact with the topic in a reasonable way. Everything in this philosophy represents my observations and preferences, but I can be convinced otherwise in the round and will judge the arguments made in the round. I will vote on most arguments, but I am going to be very unlikely to vote on arguments that I consider morally repugnant (spark, wipeout, malthus, cancer good, etc). You should avoid these arguments in front of me.

Identity arguments- I do not generally judge these rounds and was traditionally less open to them. However, the methods and messages of these rounds can provide important skills for questioning norms in society and helping all of us improve in how we interact with society and promote justice. For that reason, I am going to work hard to be far more open to these arguments and their educational benefits. There are two caveats to this that I want you to be aware of. First, I am not prima facie rejecting framework arguments. I will still be willing to vote on framework if I think the other side is winning that their model of debate is overall better. Second, I have not read the amount of literature on this topic that most of you have and I have not traditionally judged these rounds. This means that you should not assume that I know all of the terms of art used in this literature or the acronyms. Please understand that you will need to assist in my in-round education.

K- I have not traditionally been a big fan of kritiks. This does not mean that I will not vote for kritiks, and I have become much more receptive to them over the years. However, this does mean a couple of things for the debaters. First, I do not judge as many critical rounds as other judges. This means that I am less likely to be familiar with the literature, and the debaters need to do a little more work explaining the argument. Second, I may have a little higher threshold on certain arguments. I tend to think that teams do not do a good enough job of explaining how their alternatives solve their kritiks or answering the perms. Generally, I leave too many rounds feeling like neither team had a real discussion or understanding of how the alternative functions in the round or in the real world. I also tend towards a policy framework and allowing the aff to weigh their advantages against the K. However, I will look to the flow to determine these questions. Finally, I do feel that my post-round advice is less useful and educational in K rounds in comparison to other rounds.

T- I generally enjoy good T debates. Be sure to really impact your standards on the T debate. Also, do not confuse most limiting with fair limits. Finally, be sure to explain which standards you think I as the judge should default to and impact your standards.

Theory-I am willing to pull the trigger on theory arguments as a reason to reject the argument. However, outside of conditionality, I rarely vote on theory as a reason to reject the team. If you are going for a theory arg as a reason to reject the team, make sure that you are impacting the argument with reasons that I should reject the team. Too many debaters argue to reject the team without any impact beyond the argument being unfair. Instead, you need to win that it either changed the round in an unacceptable way or allowing it changes all future rounds/research in some unacceptable way. I will also tend to look at theory as a question of competing interpretations. I feel that too many teams only argue why their interpretation is good and fail to argue why the other team’s interpretation is bad. Also, be sure to impact your arguments. I tend towards thinking that topic specific education is often the most important impact in a theory debate. I am unlikely to do that work for you. Given my preference for topic specific education, I do have some bias against generic counterplans such as states and international actor counterplans that I do not think would be considered as options by real policymakers. Finally, I do think that the use of multiple, contradictory neg advocacies has gotten out of hand in a way that makes the round less educational. I generally believe that the neg should be able to run 1 conditional CP and 1 conditional K. I will also treat the CP and the K as operating on different levels in terms of competition. Beyond that, I think that extra conditional and contradictory advocacies put too much of a burden on the aff and limit a more educational discussion on the merits of the arguments.

Disads- I generally tend towards evaluating uniqueness as the most important part of the disad debate. If there are a number of links and link turns read on a disad debate, I will generally default towards the team that is controlling uniqueness unless instructed by the debaters why I should look to the link level first. I also tend towards an offense defense paradigm when considering disads as net benefits to counterplans. I think that the politics disad is a very educational part of debate that has traditionally been my favorite argument to both coach and judge. I will have a very high threshold for voting on politics theory. Finally, teams should make sure that they give impact analysis that accounts for the strong possibility that the risk of the disad has been mitigated and tells me how to evaluate that mitigation in the context of the impacts in round.

Counterplans-I enjoy a good counterplan debate. However, I tend to give the aff a little more leeway against artificially competitive counterplans, such as consult counterplans. I also feel that a number of aff teams need to do more work on impacting their solvency deficits against counterplans. While I think that many popular counterplans (especially states) are uniquely bad for debate, I have not seen teams willing to invest the time into theory to help defeat these counterplans.

Reading cards after the round- I prefer to read as few cards post round as possible. I think that it is up to the debaters to give clear analysis of why to prefer one card over another and to bring up the key warrants in their speeches.

I am a former policy debater at both the college and high school levels. I debated for Army from 2016-2020 and for Chattahoochee High School in Georgia from 2012-2016. While debating in college, I debated at both the NDT and CEDA as well as a variety of other national tournaments.

I believe in good argumentation but delivery and in-round behavior have an impact on the quality of the argument you deliver.

I do not need to be included on email chains.

Please time your own prep. Please be nice in general and everyone will have a positive, educational experience in the round.

Please do not be disrespectful to your partner or your opponents during the round.

Key things to do are:

1) Speak clearly. Focus on clarity over speed.

2) Have coherent arguments. Every argument should explain exactly how you win the debate.

3) Have fun. If you aren't enjoying yourself, you won't argue well. Be willing to take risks and be confident.

PRONOUNS: they/them/theirs

mstekl@stanford.edu -- please put me on the email chain

PhD student @ Stanford, in Modern Thought and Literature

Emory '19 (did not debate; judged on the GA circuit for 4 years)

Bishop Guertin '15 (debated on the national circuit, went to the TOC, etc. etc.)

***UPDATE for Berkeley 2020: This will be my first tournament on the topic. Please do not assume any familiarity with the topic or especially with any topic-specific acronyms. You can spread, but clarity is paramount as always — clarity over speed any day, but today more than ever!***

My favorite judges in high school were jon sharp, Calum Matheson, and Jarrod Atchinson.

In general, you should not change what you do because you have me in the back of the room. As a debater, I tended to be pretty flexible, alternating frequently between "critical" and "policy" positions. This is your space to argue, not mine, so I will vote for the arguments on the flow that yield the path of least intervention. Pure objectivity being impossible, I nonetheless do my best to keep my subjective argumentative preferences out of the picture. That said, I'm not quite a blank slate; for instance, I won't be persuaded by racism/sexism/etc. good, or by any unapologetically discriminatory positions or practices.

I’m pretty well versed in K lit – I study theory at a graduate level, so I should have some degree of familiarity with whatever you choose to read. I'm an especially good judge for any brand of poststructuralism, including those concerned with questions of identity. Obviously, this doesn't mean that you can rely on buzzwords to get out of explaining your argument; it does mean, too, that I'll know if you have no idea what you're talking about. You should have at least a working knowledge of the position you are asking me to vote for, which requires you to do at least some cursory background reading and thinking. Then, bring your knowledge of critical theory to bear on the particulars of the aff, balancing overarching framing questions with specific link and impact analysis.

I'm not convinced that the aff must defend governmental action. Which is only to say that I will not enter the room with any dogmatic biases against plan-less affirmatives. That said, I probably enjoy a good framework debate more than most, and find myself voting for framework as often as I vote against it. Still, I don't think it should be your only strategy against all K affs; I will be more persuaded if you at least make an effort to substantively engage the aff. Of course, particularly obscure affs or those lacking a consistent advocacy will tend to be harder to defend against framework than core, topic-specific K affs.

***UPDATE September 2018: As I've judged more debates, I've become increasingly wary of framework as a default negative strategy against K affs. In my experience, framework very often becomes a lazy cop-out, even an excuse to avoid debating the substance of the aff. I can still be convinced that this is not always the case, and I will continue to evaluate framework debates technically, but it is on framework debaters to prove the value of their strategy.***

I think I tend to prioritize evidence quality less than most judges. Not that good cards aren't important – they're the pillars of your argument – but they can't replace good analysis. Depending on your argumentative genre of choice, it may be better to establish your position through evidence-reading or through your own explanation in the constructives; but in most cases, I'd rather you invest more time in nuanced and specific applications of your argument than read another card. In the final rebuttals, you absolutely shouldn't rely on your cards to do the work for you – extensions should be much more substantive than simple author name-drops. If you can't explain your author's argument, as well as its implications for the debate, I won't explain it for you.

Clear! I'll take clarity over speed any day. You should be comprehensible enough that I can understand the text of your cards. I will not call for cards after the debate if I was unable to understand them when you read them; I only read evidence for the sake of refreshing my memory.

Chill out. While antagonism is inevitable in this competitive forum and may even enhance debates in limited doses, I maintain that debaters too often take aggression to unhealthy extremes. Outside of a small number of "critical" strategies that benefit performatively from hostility, there is no reason to deliberately be an asshole to the other team, or – especially – to your partner (!!seriously!! if I can hear you yelling at your partner during prep time, you're doing something wrong). Jokes can also help ease the tension.

Speaks – Points vary by tournament (i.e. I'll give higher points at Samford than at the NDCA). Generally speaking, I'm a bit of a point fairy. Methods for improving your speaks include innovative, specific strategies and clear logical organization. Humor is the icing on the cake.

30 – Among the best speakers I’ve ever heard: you should be top speaker and win the tournament. A+
29.5-29.9 – Outstanding: expect to be one of the top 5 speakers – you should be able to make it to late elims. A
29-29.4 – Very impressive: a noteworthy performance with quite little room for improvement; you deserve to be among the top 20 speakers. A-
28.6-28.9 – High average: you are in or near the top of your division; with any luck – and, more surely, with just a little more practice – you should be able to break. B/B+
28-28.5 – Average: you're doing well, but still need to iron out some remaining issues with your clarity of speech or of argument. B-
27.5-27.9 – Low average: you have potential, but displayed: a) notable problems with both speaking and argument development, or b) more serious problems in one of the two areas. C/C+
27-27.4 – Below average: your performance was passable, but suffered from critical issues of both style and content. C-
26.5-26.9 – Needs improvement: you spoke poorly, made major strategic mistakes, and likely dropped some important arguments. D
26-26.4 – Needs major improvement: you failed to answer a majority of your opponent’s arguments and made some manner of unforgivable mistake. D-
0-25 – You did something offensive. F

Clipping will result in an immediate loss and the lowest speaks allowed by the tournament. I will follow along with the speech doc and record the debate; if I catch you clipping, I will stop the round you even if your opponent doesn’t call you on it.

This is not, in fact, your CX.

*** Update March 2019: YES TKO PLEASE TKO! Far too many debates drag on painfully long after they (should) have technically ended. For this reason, I am following B. Manuel's paradigm and urging you to invoke "total knock-out" mode if the other team makes an utterly irredeemable mistake – e.g., double turn, dropped T or a K, etc. Of course, you must stake the round on this; if you can pull it off (i.e., if you can satisfactorily extend the dropped/devastating argument while covering all your bases, e.g., answering condo if going for a dropped K...), then you will win the round after your speech and receive 30s. If you are unsuccessful, you lose and get a hard cap of 27.5. ***

E-Mail: cstewart[at]gallowayschool[dot]org

Disclaimer #1:I am a mandatory reporter under Georgia law. If you disclose a real-world risk to your safety, or if I believe there is an imminent threat to your well-being, I will stop the debate and contact the Tabroom. Arguments that talk generally about how to engage systems of power in the debate space are more than okay and do not violate this.

Disclaimer #2: I am partially deaf in my left ear. While this has zero impact on my ability to flow in 99.9% of debates, exceptionally bad acoustics may force me to be closer than usual during speeches.

Speaker Points Update (November 2023):Moving forward, I will be following Regnier's speaker points distribution (see below). This should align my points with national trends and ensure I am not unfairly penalizing (or rewarding) debaters I am judging.

--- Fabulous (29.7 - 29.9) / Excellent (29.4-29.6)

--- Good (29.1 - 29.3) / Average (28.7 - 29)

--- Below Average (28.4 - 28.6) / Poor (28 - 28.3) / Very Poor (27.6 - 27.9)

Experience

Debate Experience

--- Lincoln-Douglas: 3 Years (Local / National Circuit)

--- Policy Debate: 4 Years of College Policy Debate (Georgia State University)

-- 2015 NDT Qualifier

-- Coached By: Joe Bellon, Nick Sciullo, Erik Mathis

-- Argument Style: Kritik (Freshman / Sophomore Year) & Policy (Junior / Senior Year)

-- Caselist Link (I Was A 2N My Senior Year): https://opencaselist.com/ndtceda14/GeorgiaState/StNa/Neg

Coaching Experience

--- Lincoln-Douglas: 4 Years (Local / National Circuit)

--- Policy Debate

-- University of Georgia - Graduate Assistant (3 Years)

-- Atlanta Urban Debate League (3 Years)

-- The Galloway School - Head Coach (3 Years)

Preferences - General

Overview:

Debate is a game; my strongest belief is that debaters should be able to play the game however they want to play it. I remain committed to Tabula Rasa judging, and have yet to see an argument (claim/ warrant) I would not pull the trigger on. The only exception to this is if I could not coherently explain to the other team the warrant for the argument I'm voting on. Unless told otherwise, I will flow the debate, and vote, based on the line-by-line, for whomever I thought won the debate.

What follows are my general thoughts about arguments, because for some reason that's what counts as a "judging paradigm" these days. Everything that follows WILL be overridden by arguments made in the debate.

Evidence:

Evidence is important, but not more than the in-round debating. Substantial deference will be given to in-debate spin. Bad evidence with spin will generally be given more weight than good evidence without.

Theory:

No strong predispositions. Run theory if that's your thing, there's actual abuse, or it's the most strategic way out of the round. I have no default conception of how theory functions; it could be an issue of competing interpretations, an issue of reasonability, an RVI, or a tool of the patriarchy. Given my LD background, I likely have a much lower threshold for pulling the trigger than other judges. Defaults such as X is never a reason to reject the team, RVIs bad, and a general disregard of Spec arguments aren't hardwired into me like the majority of the judging pool.

If you're going for theory, easiest thing you can do to win my ballot is to slow down and give an overview that sets up a clear way for me to evaluate the line-by-line.

Counterplans:

Read 'em. While I'm personally a big fan of process CPs/ PICs, I generally default to letting the literature determine CP competition/ legitimacy. If you have a kickass solvency advocate, then I will probably lean your way on most theoretical issues. On the other hand, as a former 2A, I sympathize with 2AC theory against CPs against which it is almost impossible to generate solvency deficits. 2ACs should not be afraid to bow up on CP theory in the 1AR.

DAs:

Specific DAs/ links trump generic DAs/ links absent substantial Negative spin. Love DAs with odd impact scenarios/ nuanced link stories.

Politics:

I functionally never read this as a debater, but my time coaching at UGA has brought me up to speed. Slow down/ clearly flag key points/ evidence distinctions in the 2NR/ 2AR.

Topicality:

Read it. Strategic tool that most 2Ns underutilize. Rarely hear a nuanced argument for reasonability; the T violation seems to prove the 1AC is unreasonable...

Kritiks:

I do not personally agree with the majority of Kritiks. However, after years of graduate school and debate, I've read large amount of Kritikal literature, and, if you run the K well, I'm a good judge for you. Increasingly irritated with 2ACs that fail to engage the nuance of the K they're answering (Cede the Political/ Perm: Double-Bind isn't enough to get you through a competently extended K debate). Similarly irritated with 2NCs that debate the K like a politics DA. Finally, 2ACs are too afraid to bow up on the K, especially with Impact Turns. I often end up voting Negative on the Kritik because the 2AC got sucked down the rabbit hole and didn't remind there was real-world outside of the philosophical interpretation offered by the K.

Framework (2AC):

I am generally unpersuaded by theoretical offense in a Policy AFF v. Kritik debate. You're better off reading this as policymaking good/ pragmatism offense to defend the method of the AFF versus the alternative. Generally skeptical of 2ACs that claim the K isn't within my jurisdiction/ is super unfair.

Framework (2NC):

Often end up voting Negative because the Affirmative strategically mishandles the FW of the K. Generally skeptical of K FW's that make the plan/ the real-world disappear entirely.

Preferences - "Clash" Debates

Clash of Civilization Debates:

Enjoy these debates; I judge alot of them. The worst thing you can do is overadapt. DEBATE HOWEVER YOU WANT TO DEBATE. My favorite debate that I ever watched was UMW versus Oklahoma, where UMW read a giant Hegemony advantage versus Oklahoma's 1-off Wilderson. I've been on both sides of the clash debate, and I respect both sides. I will just as easily vote on Framework as use my ballot to resist anti-blackness in debate.

Traditional ("Policy" Teams):

DO YOU. Traditional teams should not be afraid to double-down against K 1ACs,/ Big K 1NCs either via Framework or Impact Turns.

Framework (As "T"):

Never read this as a debater, but I've become more sympathetic to arguments about how the the resolution as a starting point is an important procedural constraint that can capture some of the pedagogical value of a Kritikal discussion. As a former 2N, I am sympathetic to limits arguments given the seemingly endless proliferation of K 1ACs with a dubious relationship to the topic. Explain how your interpretation is an opportunity cost of the 1ACs approach, and how you solve the 2ACs substantive offense (i.e. critical pedagogy/ our performance is important, etc.).

Non-Traditional ("Performance"/ "K" Teams):

As someone who spent a semester reading a narrative project about welcoming veterans into debate, I'm familiar with the way these arguments function, and I feel that they're an integral part of the game we call debate. However, that does not mean I will vote for you because you critiqued X-ism; what is your method, and how does it resolve the harms you have isolated? I am greatly frustrated by Kritik Teams that rely on obfuscation as a strategic tool---- even the Situationist International cared deeply about the political implications of their project.

AT: Framework

The closer you are to the topic/ the clearer your Affirmative is in what it defends, the more I'm down with the Affirmative. While I generally think that alternative approaches to debate are important discussions to be had, if I can listen to the 1AC and have no idea what the Affirmative does, what it defends, or why it's a response to the Topic beyond nebulous claims of resisting X-ism, then you're in a bad spot. Explain how your Counter-Interp solves their theoretical offense, or why your permutation doesn't link to their limits/ ground standards.

Fairness/ Education:

Are important. I am generally confused by teams that claim to impact turn fairness/ education. Your arguments are better articulated as INL-turns (i.e. X-ism/ debate practice is structurally unfair). Debate at some level is a game, and you should explain how your version of the game allows for good discussion/ an equal playing field for all.

Misc. - Ethics Violations

Ethics Violations:

After being forced to decide an elimination debate on a card-clipping accusation during the 2015 Barkley Forum (Emory), I felt it necessary to establish clarity/ forewarning for how I will proceed if this unfortunate circumstance happens again. While I would obviously prefer to decide the debate on actual substantive questions, this is the one issue where I will intervene. In the event of an ethics accusation, I will do the following:

1) Stop the debate. I will give the accusing team a chance to withdraw the accusation or proceed. If the accusation stands, I will decide the debate on the validity of the accusation.

2) Consult the Tabroom to determine any specific tournament policies/ procedures that apply to the situation and need to be followed.

3) Review available evidence to decide whether or not an ethics violation has taken place. In the event of a clipping accusation, a recording or video of the debate would be exceptionally helpful. I am a personal believer in a person being innocent until proven guilty. Unless there's definitive evidence proving otherwise, I will presume in favor of the accused debater.

4) Drop the Debater. If an ethics violation has taken place, I will drop the offending team, and award zero speaker points. If an ethics violation has not occurred, I will drop the team that originally made the accusation. The purpose of this is to prevent frivolous/ strategic accusations, given the very real-world, long-lasting impact such an accusation has on the team being accused.

5) Ethics Violations (Update): Credible, actual threats of violence against the actual people in the actual debate are unacceptable, as are acts of violence against others. I will drop you with zero speaker points if either of those occur. Litmus Test: There's a difference between wipeout/ global suicide alternatives (i.e. post-fiat arguments) and actually punching a debater in the face (i.e. real-world violence).

I am pretty much "tabula rasa" and will listen to any types of arguments and frameworks as long as they are impacted and the standards/benefits are explained and defended in the round. However I do value clarity in speaking and will dock speaker points heavily for teams or debaters that attempt to "spread" by slurring/mumbling through important parts of their speeches. I also sometimes dock speaker points for rudeness during cross examination, though not without a warning.

I tell both teams this at the beginning of every round and always emphasize the importance of "sign-posting", i.e. making it clear when a new argument or a different flow is being introduced, and I definitely emphasize that debaters should make it clear when they are reading a tag and citation for an argument or piece of evidence so I know how to organize my flow. My only personal bias is that I value the accessibility and openess of the debate activity to all types of students.

I tend to not count "flashing" time as prep but if it starts to cause ridiculous delays (more than a minute or so between "ending prep" and beginning the next speech) I will sometimes have to put my foot down.

Head Debate Coach - University of Georgia

jstupek8@gmail.com

Top Level

- Clarity and flowability are the strongest qualities that drive my speaker points. I encourage debaters to adopt speaking practices that enhance their flowability such as: structured line-by-line, slowing down when communicating plan or counterplan texts, emphasizing particularly important lines in the body of evidence, and descriptively labeling off-case positions in the 1NC.

- Arguments do not always need cards to be impactful. I care about logical analytic arguments, particularly those that are set up well in cross-examination.

- Plan and counterplan text vagueness is an under-exploited issue. As such, I'm likely more amenable to specification arguments than your average judge.

- While no judge is a true blank slate, I have and am willing to vote on basically anything.

Disads

- I begin resolving these debates by comparing the relative risk of the internal link chains of the disadvantage and the advantage(s) the 2AR went for. All things being equal, I frequently resolve these debates without turning to questions of impact comparison or impact interaction. The advice I often find myself giving after debates is that second rebuttalists should spend less time on traditional impact calculus or turns case arguments and more time making sure you win your advantage or disadvantage. Of course, all things are not always equal and second rebuttalists should point out when there's a tangible timeframe or magnitude distinction between impacts.

- Brink + link uniqueness is not an adequate substitute for traditional uniqueness and link claims.

- Always been a fan of agenda politics, probably always will be.

- For affirmatives reading framing arguments, your time is almost always better spent making substantive answers to the disadvantage rather than meta arguments about the complex nature of disadvantages.

Counterplans

- Please stop starting your counterplan 2ACs with consecutive permutation arguments delivered at top speed. This is the single most difficult thing to flow properly in my experience. The easiest fix here is to read cards in between each different permutation and slowing down when communicating perm texts.

- I have no inherent aversion to process counterplans. I think that at times these debates can be really interesting, especially when contextualized to the topic.

- I still believe in an abstract academic sense, that the benefits of conditionality outweigh its costs. This issue, however, is so rarely evenly debated that more affirmative teams should consider going for conditionality bad.

- My default view is that counterplan theory arguments that are not conditionality bad are reasons to reject the argument rather than reasons to reject the team. This presumption can be overcome, but the bar is high.

- My default view is that I will judge kick the counterplan and compare the aff vs. the status quo. I can and have been persuaded not to do so when the affirmative team advances that argument.

Topicality vs. Policy Affirmatives

- Including resolutional language in your plan text does not in and of itself persuade me the aff is topical.

- Caselists are incredibly useful for articulating just how under or over limiting a particular interpretation is.

- For affirmative teams, I would rather hear impacts about the benefits of a broader topic for affirmative innovation and flexibility than appeals to education about the affirmative's content. I am unlikely to be persuaded that I should reject a negative topicality interpretation because the affirmative would have a difficult time constructing solvency deficits to a particular counterplan under said interpretation. That argument seems to be a theoretical objection the counterplan rather than a topicality standard.

- Teams articulating a "precision" standard should take care to clearly explain what their threshold for a "precise" interpretation is, why their interpretation meets that threshold, and why the opposing team's interpretation does not.

Kritiks On The Neg

- I care about the alt quite a bit. Teams that have persuaded me to vote for kritiks have often done so on the basis of strong alt debating.

- The way "framework" arguments are currently deployed is somewhat puzzling to me. Most aff/neg framework standards seem to get more at the question of "how much" weight I should give to a particular impact than to whether I should consider a particular impact in the first place. I've never been persuaded that framework means I don't consider the merits of the 1AC. I've equally never been persuaded that framework means the alt has to be policy.

- Kritiks that derive their offense from the affirmative not doing enough or being too incremental are vulnerable to permutations.

- Alt causes are not link arguments. Link arguments are not "disads."

Planless Affirmatives

- I have been persuaded that the aff doesn't have to read a plan or say USFG should, but I have not encountered a situation where I have been persuaded that the aff doesn't have to be topical. Having some sort of counter-interpretation, even if it's just "resolved means to analyze," is important for how I ground and resolve aff arguments about the neg's interpretation. I want to hear in detail about what the affirmative's model of debate might look like. I would rather hear one or two conceptual impact turns to the negative's model, than eight different "DA's" that are difficult to distinguish between.

- For the negative, I would rather hear arguments about the value of procedural fairness than than some of the more "substantive" framework arguments.

- The vocabulary of "internal link" and "impact" is not particularly useful in a debate about theory. Certainly the negative needs to explain why fairness is a valuable concept, but that explanation does not have to involve the same kind of cause and effect logic chain we encounter in advantages or disadvantages. The "just an internal link" pejorative often applies just as well to arguments forwarded by the affirmative. As a whole, these debates would be so much better if no one used the words "impact," "internal link," or "disad."

Speaker Points

- I hesitate to offer some sort of static scale for speaks because I think that speaker points are relative and I am constantly reflecting on whether my speaker point distribution is in line with the rest of the judging community.

- Debaters who debate technically and make good strategic decisions will receive good points.

- Debaters who debate with style (humor, passionate rebuttals, exceptional clarity) will receive good points.

Closing Thoughts

If you've made it this far, I want to take a moment to express my sincere gratitude for the work you do as debaters and coaches. I know how hard everyone works to prepare for debates and I strive to provide judging and feedback that lives up to that standard.

"As I look back at the contours of my own life, many things about it I would change if I could. But not this. The long hours, the demanding schedules, all that goes into effective debating and effective coaching, the lost weekends. I would do it all again. I would do it all again not for any particular tournament or trophy, not for the specifics of any topic, not even for the intellectual benefits debate bestows upon its participants, critical thinking and the like. I would do it all again for the chance to work with hard-working, dedicated, and committed students like those assembled in this room." - Scott Deatherage

I have been involved with policy debate for 10 years and debated at the college level. I have heard and seen it all. 

I want the debaters to understand that I participate as a volunteer because I enjoy the activity. As such, I want the debaters to make their best and favorite arguments. Let's have a good time and learn something together. 

Please be aware that I am not intimately familiar with the topic this year. 

I am a Senior Highschool debater at Chattahoochee High School and this is my 4th year debating. 

K affs: I believe that aff's should probably have a plan or at least be somewhat relevant to the resolution. My biggest problem with K aff's is how they claim to solves their impacts so if running a K aff, make sure you have a very clear line of reasoning. Not the most knowledgable on high theory so if you are running high theory K affs be sure to explain the thesis of your aff very clearly.

Disads: Fine with disads! I enjoy impact comparison

Counterplans: Also fine with counterplans!

Kritiks: not the best person to read high theory kritiks in front of. I find middle of the road frameworks most persuasive. I will vote on K's but make sure that a link makes sense and is very clearly explained and why the alternative actually solves (and obviously extend your impact as well). I'm fine with generic K's like seceurity, neolib, cap, agamben, pan, etc

Topicality: I like topicality debates. If you are going for topicality debate it like a DA and make sure you have an impact (like education/fairness/etc) and explain why that impact matters, not just your internal links (standards) like limits and ground. If the aff has a pretty decent reason why they meet your interpretation, I will find that very persuasive.

Theory: I'm fine with theory. If you go for theory make sure its something with somewhat credibility (like conditionality, PICs bad, condition CPs bad, etc) instead of something with minimal credibility (Like no neg fiat).

James Thomas (updated 9/14/14)

TL;DR? Scan down and look at the bold parts.

Who I am

I debated for Pace in HS, graduated 2001. I debated for West GA in college, graduated 2005. I then coached for UWG, Cornell, and Kansas State. I am now a criminal-defense lawyer in Atlanta. I have not really been actively involved in debate in several years, aside from judging the occasional tournament here and there.

How I judge

I don’t read evidence or any debater work-product after the round, ever, for any reason. I try to make my decision fairly quickly, without having to do much work for the debaters. I consider how each 2nd rebuttalist framed the debate, determine what questions I’m supposed to answer with the ballot, and go from there. 

I flow on paper. My handwriting is terrible, so I don’t do a great job of it. For how I judge, I don't think it matters too much anyway -- I'm much more big picture than little detail oriented.

As to procedural arguments / theory “voting issues” / whatever, I feel like my threshold is a little higher than most. It’s not insurmountable--I just need to know why what the other team did makes the playing field so unlevel that you can’t fairly have a chance to win the debate otherwise. (At least, I don't think that's insurmountable. Countless teams I've voted against on stuff like this may disagree.) “Conditionality makes it harder for us to keep track of how many arguments there are, thus: voting issue” or “if this aff wasn’t topical, then the topic would look like X, which would mean we’d have more debates about Y, which would be neat, so vote neg” = not persuasive. (If you want to lower the stakes, and say your theory argument doesn’t mean the other team should lose, but that it justifies reciprocal transgressions on your part, that may work.)

"Wait, how do you punish teams for clipping cards if you won't read evidence after the round?"

*Think about it. I don't call for cards. I judge the debate based on what I hear. Only what I hear. That's it. If the other team is clipping cards, they have bigger problems to deal with than accusations of cheating. If the negative block is 15 minutes of blurred speech, with the occasional tag-line that is audible, and if I don't know the warrants behind the arguments are at the end of it, they might as well have not given a speech at all. You are in much better shape than you think.*

"But they're going to extend all this evidence in the 2NR that they didn't really read . . . "

No they won't. They'll be making new arguments, because I couldn't hear what they were saying the first time. You are in much better shape than you think.

"What should we run in front of you? Didn't you used to be weird? Are you still weird?"

If my reputation as to what I used to do when I debated precedes me, don’t let it overdetermine your argument choices. I don’t pick sides in the battle of civilizations, if that's even what the kids are calling it these days. I think debate is for the debaters and you should do what you want to do, and as it turns out, I used to be a pretty normal debater before things got weird.

That being said, if your bread and butter is a big-stick hegemony or economy debate (for example) and your options are limited otherwise, I’m not going to blame you for looking elsewhere on your strike sheet. That sort of thing isn’t a research interest of mine now and it wasn’t then, so there are more brainwashed qualified judges in the pool, I’m certain. I don't read high theory for fun either -- I used to be more of a "kritiky" debater, I suppose, but I'm not going to know what's hip on that front either, but I'm certainly open to hearing it if you're open to breaking it down for me.

Just please don’t think you have to debate like I did. “ . . . Hov did that / so hopefully you wouldn’t have to go through with that . . .” (Jay-Z, 2001)

THAT BEING SAID . . . I've heard through the grapevine that the rift between  different styles of debate has recently grown deeper and much more vacuous than I could have ever imagined. I am not on Facebook, but I've heard that stupid things have happened there on this issue. Just one more reason I'm glad I'm not on Facebook. Anyway. I hear it's bad. Look, the point of the WGLF -- even if it went over everyone's heads -- was that there's a pox on all y'alls houses. Before the weird folks can figure out how to make debate transgressive, and before the squares can figure out how to make debate predictable and fair, all y'all need to figure out how to make debate worth a damn and resemble a communicative activity that is worthwhile. It sounds like everyone is still working on that.

"Oh God. What have we gotten into. You're judging us. What should we do?"

There needs to be a chunk of time at the beginning of the 2NR and 2AR that gives an overview. An overview is not a list of arguments that are in the debate. An overview is where you reveal what the puzzle looks like once the pieces fit together. An overview is where you do some macro-level work as to why the debate should be framed one way instead of another, why some things should be valued more than others. An overview is where you step in my shoes for a minute (or 25 seconds, or 45 seconds, whatever works) and pretend like you’re explaining to the other team why they have lost in a way that would satisfy even them. An overview is where you write my ballot for me. (Do people ever write ballots anymore? Or do you just tweet who you voted for and put #block30s if their politics align with yours? Plz let me know.)

That last paragraph is the most important thing on here if you're trying to figure out how to win my ballot. If you take away nothing else, take away this: if one team gives an overview at the top of the 2NR/2AR that does something like this, and the other team doesn’t, the overview team will probably win, even if their evidence is worse, even if their arguments are worse, even if how they perform on the line-by-line is worse, even if they are flat-out worse. Framing is of utmost importance. Give me a frame.

Not only do I stubbornly insist on not reading evidence, but I’m not an active coach or judge, so my ears aren’t as attuned to the "hum" of debate as it used to be.

Clarity, enunciation, fluctuating your voice to reflect your passionate investment in particular arguments, etc. -- all this is very important and will be rewarded.

Sounding like a buzzsaw for the duration of your speech -- not good. Not good for so many reasons! Given that I don’t read evidence afterwards, reading a dump of more and more evidence is rarely a wise choice. Look me in the eye and talk to me about what’s going on and why I should care! Make an argument!

This doesn’t mean you need to talk at a conversational pace. Go ahead and talk briskly (unless you’d prefer not to, which is fine too). Just know that I understand the debate round to be an exercise in communication, not an exercise in stacking up research side-by-side and picking the better collection of evidence. I’m a trial lawyer--style and considering the needs of your audience are important to me.

And if nothing else, please, please, please don’t let your laptop block your face while you speak. You know how everyone has that one thing that you just shut down and get all judgy if you see someone wearing it or doing it? This is that thing for me. If you are about to give a speech and your laptop is blocking your face from my view, I'm going to assume that you didn't read this, and I'm going to assume a lot of other things about you that you do not want me to assume about you.

Oh, prep time: I'm not going to keep track of it. Y'all do that. When I was your age, we always kept meticulous track of both team's remaining prep time, because that affected our strategy. If the opponent only had 30 seconds left to prep their 2NR, that affected whether we'd give a stand-up 1AR, etc. If the other team was stealing prep, we'd shame them out loud before the judge had a chance to. You have so many bells and whistles these days that I'm shocked when people aren't keeping track of everyone's prep and what they're doing. You need to! I'm not going to impose rules for how transferring files affects prep time. Control your domain. 

Specific follow-up questions to this before the round are always fine. "Do you have any preferences?" is always not fine.

But above all, have fun!

add me to the email chain: whit211@gmail.com

Do not utter the phrase "plan text in a vacuum" or any other clever euphemism for it. It's not an argument, I won't vote on it, and you'll lose speaker points for advancing it. You should defend your plan, and I should be able to tell what the plan does by reading it.

Inserting things into the debate isn't a thing. If you want me to evaluate evidence, you should read it in the debate.

Cross-ex time is cross-ex time, not prep time. Ask questions or use your prep time, unless the tournament has an official "alt use" time rule.

You should debate line by line. That means case arguments should be responded to in the 1NC order and off case arguments should be responded to in the 2AC order. I continue to grow frustrated with teams that do not flow. If I suspect you are not flowing (I visibly see you not doing it; you answer arguments that were not made in the previous speech but were in the speech doc; you answer arguments in speech doc order instead of speech order), you will receive no higher than a 28. This includes teams that like to "group" the 2ac into sections and just read blocks in the 2NC/1NR. Also, read cards. I don't want to hear a block with no cards. This is a research activity.

Debate the round in a manner that you would like and defend it. I consistently vote for arguments that I don’t agree with and positions that I don’t necessarily think are good for debate. I have some pretty deeply held beliefs about debate, but I’m not so conceited that I think I have it all figured out. I still try to be as objective as possible in deciding rounds. All that being said, the following can be used to determine what I will most likely be persuaded by in close calls:

If I had my druthers, every 2nr would be a counterplan/disad or disad/case.

In the battle between truth and tech, I think I fall slightly on side of truth. That doesn’t mean that you can go around dropping arguments and then point out some fatal flaw in their logic in the 2AR. It does mean that some arguments are so poor as to necessitate only one response, and, as long as we are on the same page about what that argument is, it is ok if the explanation of that argument is shallow for most of the debate. True arguments aren’t always supported by evidence, but it certainly helps.

I think research is the most important aspect of debate. I make an effort to reward teams that work hard and do quality research on the topic, and arguments about preserving and improving topic specific education carry a lot of weight with me. However, it is not enough to read a wreck of good cards and tell me to read them. Teams that have actually worked hard tend to not only read quality evidence, but also execute and explain the arguments in the evidence well. I think there is an under-highlighting epidemic in debates, but I am willing to give debaters who know their evidence well enough to reference unhighlighted portions in the debate some leeway when comparing evidence after the round.

I think the affirmative should have a plan. I think the plan should be topical. I think topicality is a voting issue. I think teams that make a choice to not be topical are actively attempting to exclude the negative team from the debate (not the other way around). If you are not going to read a plan or be topical, you are more likely to persuade me that what you are doing is ‘ok’ if you at least attempt to relate to or talk about the topic. Being a close parallel (advocating something that would result in something similar to the resolution) is much better than being tangentially related or directly opposed to the resolution. I don’t think negative teams go for framework enough. Fairness is an impact, not a internal link. Procedural fairness is a thing and the only real impact to framework. If you go for "policy debate is key to skills and education," you are likely to lose. Winning that procedural fairness outweighs is not a given. You still need to defend against the other team's skills, education and exclusion arguments.

I don’t think making a permutation is ever a reason to reject the affirmative. I don’t believe the affirmative should be allowed to sever any part of the plan, but I believe the affirmative is only responsible for the mandates of the plan. Other extraneous questions, like immediacy and certainty, can be assumed only in the absence of a counterplan that manipulates the answers to those questions. I think there are limited instances when intrinsicness perms can be justified. This usually happens when the perm is technically intrinsic, but is in the same spirit as an action the CP takes This obviously has implications for whether or not I feel some counterplans are ultimately competitive.

Because I think topic literature should drive debates (see above), I feel that both plans and counterplans should have solvency advocates. There is some gray area about what constitutes a solvency advocate, but I don’t think it is an arbitrary issue. Two cards about some obscure aspect of the plan that might not be the most desirable does not a pic make. Also, it doesn’t sit well with me when negative teams manipulate the unlimited power of negative fiat to get around literature based arguments against their counterplan (i.e. – there is a healthy debate about federal uniformity vs state innovation that you should engage if you are reading the states cp). Because I see this action as comparable to an affirmative intrinsicness answer, I am more likely to give the affirmative leeway on those arguments if the negative has a counterplan that fiats out of the best responses.

My personal belief is probably slightly affirmative on many theory questions, but I don’t think I have voted affirmative on a (non-dropped) theory argument in years. Most affirmatives are awful at debating theory. Conditionality is conditionality is conditionality. If you have won that conditionality is good, there is no need make some arbitrary interpretation that what you did in the 1NC is the upper limit of what should be allowed. On a related note, I think affirmatives that make interpretations like ‘one conditional cp is ok’ have not staked out a very strategic position in the debate and have instead ceded their best offense. Appeals to reciprocity make a lot sense to me. ‘Argument, not team’ makes sense for most theory arguments that are unrelated to the disposition of a counterplan or kritik, but I can be persuaded that time investment required for an affirmative team to win theory necessitates that it be a voting issue.

Critical teams that make arguments that are grounded in and specific to the topic are more successful in front of me than those that do not. It is even better if your arguments are highly specific to the affirmative in question. I enjoy it when you paint a picture for me with stories about why the plans harms wouldn’t actually happen or why the plan wouldn’t solve. I like to see critical teams make link arguments based on claims or evidence read by the affirmative. These link arguments don’t always have to be made with evidence, but it is beneficial if you can tie the specific analytical link to an evidence based claim. I think alternative solvency is usually the weakest aspect of the kritik. Affirmatives would be well served to spend cross-x and speech time addressing this issue. ‘Our authors have degrees/work at a think tank’ is not a response to an epistemological indict of your affirmative. Intelligent, well-articulated analytic arguments are often the most persuasive answers to a kritik. 'Fiat' isn't a link. If your only links are 'you read a plan' or 'you use the state,' or if your block consistently has zero cards (or so few that find yourself regularly sending out the 2nc in the body rather than speech doc) then you shouldn't be preffing me.

LD Specific Business:

I am primarily a policy coach with very little LD experience. Have a little patience with me when it comes to LD specific jargon or arguments. It would behoove you to do a little more explanation than you would give to a seasoned adjudicator in the back of the room. I will most likely judge LD rounds in the same way I judge policy rounds. Hopefully my policy philosophy below will give you some insight into how I view debate. I have little tolerance and a high threshold for voting on unwarranted theory arguments. I'm not likely to care that they dropped your 'g' subpoint, if it wasn't very good. RVI's aren't a thing, and I won't vote on them.

Background:

USN head coach 2012-present

MBA assistant coach 2000-2002

The stuff you are looking for:

email chain: bwilson at usn.org

K Aff: Defend a hypothetical project that goes beyond the 1AC.

Framework: My general assumption is that predictable limits lead to higher quality debates. Aff, how does your method/performance center on the resolutional question in a way that adds value to this year's topic education? Why does the value of your discussion/method outweigh the benefits of a predictable, topic-focused debate?

Topicality: I am agnostic when it comes to the source of your definitions. Just tell me why they are preferable for this debate. Aff reasonability defense must be coupled with an interpretation, and RTP that interpretation. I will be honest, when it's a T round against an aff that was cut at workshop and has been run all year, I have a gut-check lean to reasonability. Competing interps becomes more compelling when there is significant offense for the interpretation.

Theory: Other than condo, a theory win means I reject the argument unless you do work explaining otherwise. For condo debates, please have a clear interpretation and reasons to reject. I am more open to theory when it is about something particular to the round and is not read from pre-written blocks.

CP's: I prefer CP's that have a solvency advocate. I think a well articulated/warranted perm can beat most plan plus, process CP's.

Politics: I like it better on topics without other viable DAs, but I am fine for these debates.

DAs: I find "turns the case" analysis more compelling at the internal link level.

Cheating: If you are not reading every word you are claiming through underlining or highlighting, that is clipping. If it seems like a one time miscue I will yell something, and unless corrected, I'll disregard the evidence. If it is egregious/persistent, I will be forced to intervene with an L.

If the other team raises a dispute. I will do my best to adjudicate the claim and follow the above reasoning to render a penalty either to dismiss the evidence in question or reject the team. I think I have a fairly high threshold for rendering a decision on an ethics challenge.

RIP wiki paradigms, or how my paradigm started for years but is now showing its age:

I like it when debaters think about the probability of their scenarios and compare and connect the different scenarios in the round. If it is a policy v critical debate, the framing is important, but not in a prior question, ROB, or "only competing policy options" sense. The better team uses their arguments to access or outweigh the other side. I think there is always a means to weigh 1AC advantages against the k, to defend 1AC epistemology as a means to making those advantages more probable and specific. On the flip side, a thorough indictment of 1AC authors and assumptions will make it easier to weigh your alternative, ethics, case turn, etc. Explain the thesis of your k and tell me why it it is a reason to reject the affirmative.

jan_wimmer@yahoo.com

I did policy for 4 years in high school at Loyola. I've judged bid rounds and final rounds in policy and LD. I did parli at Tulane and was an assistant coach at Isidore Newman in New Orleans for a couple of years. I judged a lot between 2011-2015, both in the Louisiana area and at a good few national tournaments.

Tell me how to vote; paint me a picture in your last rebuttal and it will make me very happy. I like being told where and how to vote.

I was a fairly well rounded debater in high school, so I probably have familiarity with most arguments you're reading. My senior year, we went for States CP+Politics most rounds, would read the Cap K almost every round on the neg, and went for conditionality bad about once a tournament on Aff. I also read a Deleuze and Guattari aff before. However, if you're reading a weird K like Badiou that nobody reads, I'm probably not going to know it intuitively. That said, feel free to go for these arguments! I just won't know the lit for more obscure Ks.

If I don't get world of alt or a clear try or die/turns case on the K I'm probably not going to vote for it. Tell me how and where to evaluate pre-fiat impacts and how they interact with the role of the ballot if relevant.

I love good T debates. I love good theory debates. I will not just vote on theory or T just because it is dropped. Impact it like any other argument. I have a lower threshold than most for rejecting arguments due to theory than most. Either in-round abuse or why potential abuse in this specific instance, if you want me to reject team is almost always going to be needed.

Slow down on T and Theory. I hate if I can't flow it.

I think RVIs on theory are generally dumb but will vote on them if impacted well; I think RVIs on T are probably never true but I've voted on them in the past. I have a very low threshold for answering most RVIs.

Don't be that team that spends 6 minutes on case reading defense. Please read offense or some framework-esque reasons why defense should be enough to win. Disads probably shouldn't get 100% risk of link just on the nature of them being dropped, but if you're not calling them out on it, it's way easier for me as a judge to give them more leeway than I perhaps should.

I'm going to be able to understand spreading at any speed, but if your opponent can't understand spreading, slow down so that there's actually a debate so they can actually understand what's going on. Nobody is impressed that you can outspread a novice from a lay circuit; just win on the flow if you're better than them. If you're stupidly fast and it's an online tournament though, slow down, particularly if it's analytics/not in a doc you're sending.

I won't vote on arguments based on out of round stuff besides disclosure theory. I will likely look to drop you if you make any out of round-related arguments besides disclosure theory, which I won't drop anyone for but I'll hate judging it.

I'm fine with tag team and flex prep if both teams are.

Sending ev is off time. Don't prep during sending ev or I will either dock speaks or take off prep time, depending on circumstances. Include me in any email chains

I default to:

Competing Interpretations
Policymaking
Util
T before Theory before K

It is very easy to convince me to vote under some other paradigm though. If you win that I should be a stock issues judge, then I'll be your stock issues judge.

I dislike (but may still vote for):

Really Generic Politics DAs (I love intrinsic perms on politics because I dislike this argument)
Disclosure Theory
Speed Theory debates unless there's a clear need for it
Consult CPs
Tons of AC spikes
Shitty K debates where no one knows what's going on
Severance Perms (I probably won't reject team off of one, though)
People changing their alts or advocacies mid debate without a really good reason (ex: a team dropped reciprocity of conditionality means the aff can read a new plan at any point)
People saying that the opponent dropped an argument when they didn't (I will give you a look and it will affect speaks)
People reading Ks on case and not telling me they're reading a K on case in their overview

Email: sarah.wingo@gmail.com Please include me on the email chain.

TL;DR: Choose your battles for the second rebuttals, don't just tell that you're winning everything. Tell me why the impacts that you're winning are more important than the impacts that they're winning. If going for theory args, you should spend at least 4 minutes on it. I flow by ear, not by speech doc so it behooves you to be clear.

General: I expect every debater to flow and to be nice to both opponents and partner. Cross-examinations should be civil and at a conversational volume.

I value clarity over speed and have a tendency not to evaluate arguments that are not sign posted. The clearest speaker will receive the highest speaker points, and I will let you know if you’re not being clear. If I can’t understand you, I can’t flow your arguments, and they probably won’t factor highly in my decision. I don’t care if you sent me the whole speech doc and said it word for word. Debate is a competition of communication and reasoning, you need to be clear. That is usually at the expense of speed, which means you also need to manage your speech time effectively.

I will be more impressed by students that demonstrate topic knowledge, line-by-line organization skills (supported by careful flowing), and intelligent cross-examinations than by those that rely on superfast speaking, obfuscation, jargon, backfile recycling, and/or tricks. This means that instead of reading yet another card, you should take the time to explain why the context of the evidence means that your position is better than that of the other team. This is particularly true in close uniqueness and case debates.

Time and CX: You should keep track of your own prep, speech, and CX times, as well as your opponents', if you deem it necessary. CX is not a shouting match. It’s not a game of interruption

a. Conduct your own CX as much as possible. CX is an important time for judge impression formation, and if one partner does all asking and answering for the team, it is very difficult to evaluate both debaters. Certainly the partner not involved in CX can get involved in an emergency, but that should be brief and rare if both debaters want high speaker points.

b. Aim to ask the question that the debater couldn't answer if that person had the whole 3 minutes.

c. I absolutely loathe when questions are basically “you said this but what about our card that says the opposite?” That’s setting up the debater to then spend 3 minutes telling me why I should prefer their evidence.

d. As the questioner, do NOT let them run away with your time. Ideally they won't because you're not asking questions like the one above. The way to shut them up is saying, “ok that’s fine. Moving on, [separate question]?”

DA/CP: No preferences/opinions

K Aff: I think affirmative teams should have a plan text. On the aff you must win a reason why FW is violent/bad and a reason why this round in particular is key. The reason why either side tends to lose is because they don't interact with the other sides' arguments: that means that k teams should adapt their blocks to answer the specific way the neg team is going for framework and neg teams should engage with the substance of the aff.

Ks on the Neg: Links should be specific to the aff. Even if your evidence is generic, good analysis and spin can still win you the round. If your links are just state bad or based on fiat, I will probably vote aff. SLOW DOWN ON THE K. Assume your judge hasn’t ever heard the K before and is trying to understand the reasoning that it indicts. I am especially inclined to vote for an identified and impacted performative contradiction.

Topicality: I don’t particularly enjoy T debates, but I will vote on them. I generally think that if the neg has specific blocks to answer the case, it’s probably topical. I’d prefer a debate on limits and grounds rather than “abuse” and “fairness.” I’d like to hear a debate on the literature and competing interpretations.

Other Theory (condo, alt vagueness, etc.): I generally dislike theory arguments. Either go for them (whole 2NR/2AR) or just don’t read them. That being said, I will hear them and vote them up if explained and impacted. If you can explain why something such an issue, I will vote on it. However, I am more likely to reject the argument not the team. You must tell me how I should evaluate the debate, meaning in which order I should evaluate theory and policy. I am not inclined to judge kick an argument unless the 2R tells me to (and poor answers).

******Updated 11/14/2020