I debated PF my senior year and competed at numerous local and national tournaments, and I've judged in the past. I'm only gonna vote on things that are extened through both summary and FF. Also, make sure you weigh things for me in order to make it clear why I should vote you up.

I strongly believe in narrowing the debate in the summary speeches. I really want you to determine where you are winning the debate and explain that firmly to me. In short: I want you to go for something. I really like big impacts, but its's important to me that you flush out your impacts with strong internal links. Don't just tell me A leads to C without giving me the process of how you got there. Also don't assume i know every minute detail in your case. Explain and extend and make sure that you EMPHASIZE what you really want me to hear. Slow down and be clear. Give me voters (in summary and final focus). 

Speed is fine as long as you are clear. I work very hard to flow the debate in as much detail as possible. However, if I can't understand you I can't flow you. 

I am as close to "tabula rasa" as possible... I will not interject my knowledge or opinions into the round, but that means it has to actually be stated in the round. I appreciate a line-by-line debate, but a dropped argument isn't necessarily a slam-dunk win without a compelling summary or weighing of the round. Give me voters, give me a reason to vote for you in your final speeches.

I was a policy debater 20+ years ago, and I currently coach at Warner Robins High School. In the past few years, I have judged all levels of LD and PF. I judge debate or IEs depending on our team's judging needs per tournament. I can follow speed if you are clear, and I appreciate an enunciated or emphasized tag or argument. I'm too pragmatic to enjoy philosophy - I can follow it, and I will vote on it, but you need to make sure to explain why I should vote on it.

I'll keep the official time for the round, but I love to hear competitors say they'll keep their own time.

One last thing, be nice to one another... I won't necessarily vote on your behavior or sportsmanship with your opponent, but poor attitudes and lack of respect for others can have a negative impact on your speaker points.

Good luck!

I am the Coach at Carrollton High School, Carrollton, GA. I have been coaching for a number of years. I have coached policy, LD, and PF debate.

I expect debaters to weigh arguments, if you don’t then I'm going to weigh them and you probably won't like that. I like warrants in case. If they provide a warrant and your only response is "they don't have evidence for this" but it logically makes sense, I'm likely to give them some ground on it. Tell me why your response matters and delinks their case. Speed is okay as long as you speak clearly. Arguments that you want me to vote “off of” should be extended through summary and final focus. I don't flow crossfire. If it's important, say it in a speech. I think that debate should be about integrity and truth, meaning be aware of the language you use and the validity of your evidence. There is no place in debate for misconstruing and/or using fake evidence. The flow is important for me in making a decision. If an argument is to be evaluated it should be cleanly extended through the debate. I hate voting on arguments that were not well developed. The debate should not be about blindly reading cards without understanding them. I'm unlikely to vote on theory unless there's an actual violation in the round. Contextual analysis is always good.

Background:

My background is in public forum. I competed all throughout high school on the national circuit and local circuit in Georgia. Currently, I am the President of the New Haven Urban Debate League and coach parliamentary debate at Yale.

PF Paradigm:

WEIGHING IS THE MOST IMPORTANT THING YOU WILL EVER DO IN DEBATE! IT IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN KNOWING YOUR OWN NAME!! PLS WEIGH.

If you don’t weigh, I’ll have to resort to my own weighing mechanism, which may be different every round depending on my mood. You don’t want that, so pls for the love of god, make my life and yours easier by weighing. It’s the easiest way to my ballot.

Other stuff:

-I can handle 250 words/minute. Go over, well...your arguments might not make it on my flow.

-I don't expect the first speaking team to extend defense in summary. However, you need to respond to turns. Second speaking teams need to extend defense and respond to turns.

-Second speaking team should TRY to respond to turns in rebuttal.

-Voters in final focus should be mentioned in summary.

-If your links don’t logically make sense, I’m probably not going to buy it, so warrant everything.

-I don't weigh anything in cross in terms of the ballot, so bring it up in speeches if there's something important.

Parli Paradigm:

I'm familiar with East Coast parli. I don't do well with theory, so I might not understand it. You can try it, but you still must interact with your opponents' arguments. The way to my ballot is by weighing. You don't need to go for everything at the end of the debate, but you should still respond to opponents' arguments and not extend through ink! Break the last speech into voters and weigh!

Other points (very similar to my paradigm for PF, so take that for what you will):

-Because you're not using evidence, please maintain a 200 word/minute maximum.

-Rebuttals should not be in the final speech. I believe that your rebuttals, at the very minimum, should begin in the member speeches. This allows for final interactions in the final speech between the two sides, and this avoids the idea of "no new arguments in the last speech."

-No tag teaming.

-If your links don’t logically make sense, I’m probably not going to buy it, so warrant everything. If I don't buy it, I will most likely not vote for it...

-Do not extend through ink! Conceded arguments are arguments that were poorly responded to or not at all; to which, you can extend, but if your opponents provide multiple warrants/responses to the argument, you must also respond to the rebuttals.

If you have any questions, please ask in rounds or after by emailing me at mary.chen@yale.edu

I have 4 years of experience in pf, ld, impromptu, hi, duo, and oo. I debated in college for Mercer and did parli and policy. If you have any questions about college debate, I am always happy to answer them.

For PF cross ex: I do not flow cross ex, but I do listen. If something important comes up in cross and you want me to weigh it, bring it up in a speech. If someone asks you a question regarding evidence you read in round, DO NOT and I repeat, DO NOT just re-read the card with zero context. If you cannot explain the argument to a five year old, you don't need to be making it.

Tech: Framework is very important to me and you need to explain how you're winning the framework in order to win the round. Generating clear clash is also important, and in the unlikely event that you cannot generate clash, you should clearly explain why you outweigh in terms of impacts. I love clearly articulated links and it makes my job very easy when you give me a weighing mechanism.

Truth: I've seen some k debate happen in ld recently (super interesting, and tbh I'm into it), and should you choose to run one, I'm definitely going to need you to respond to the tech as well as you can. I am totally fine with a k aff. As long as you can be somewhat remotely topical, I will not vote on T. I will often give some credence to truth over tech arguments, but you can't just say it. You have to explain to me why your k outweighs everything else in the round (and I'm a human, so who's to say a little ethos won't be effective?).

Speed is fine, but if you're trying to spread and I cannot understand you, I will say "clear" one time, and if I still can't understand you, I'll just put my pen down until I can.

I love debate and I want you to love debate too. So, do what you do, do it well, and have fun!

Hey, my name is Sam! I debated on the GA circuit for 3 years and nationally for 2 (2014-2017), breaking even my senior year at ToC and Nationals. Since then, I have judged and coached for several programs. Weigh your arguments and their terminal impacts against your opponent's arguments and impacts in summary/final focus. Second-half cohesion is important, make sure the summary and final focus work well together. I will not vote off of anything that fails to be extended from speech-to-speech. I can follow most speeds you're used to, but please do your best to speak clearly. Be polite to each other and enjoy the learning experience: D.B.A.A!

History: I did PF debate during highschool, debated in the GA circuit and went to many National Circuit tournaments. I have been judging PF for a while now. I have been off the circuit for a little while though, and may not be knowledgeable about recent developments within the last year in regards to PF.

How I evaluate the round: I expect you to extend your arguments throughout the whole round. This means offense from the rebuttal needs to be extended through the Summary and Final Focus for it to be weighed in the round. I also do not like it when teams bring up something from rebuttal in the final focus without extending it through summary (called extending through ink), doing this will likely result in the argument being dropped off my flow.

Argumentation: I expect all arguments to be properly warranted and impacted with supportive evidence to go with it. However, don't just speak off cards.

If you want the argument to be important, then make sure I know that it is important.

About Myself

I'm currently Co-Captain of Starr's Mill's Public Forum Team

I'm a 3rd Year Debater

I compete on the local Georgia circuit but primarily on the national circuit. 

How to get my Ballot: 

The focus of your round should always be to educate your audience. That being said, I look for polite, kind rounds in which the competitors are at least civil. Please don't have a screaming match and call it a debate. I'm pretty open to all arguments unless they are overtly offensive. If you run a squirrely contention, I might judge you for it (pun intended), but I won't vote you down for it. Puns are always appreciated!

Weighing:

This is one of the most important parts of the debate. I cannot and most likely will not vote for you if you do not tell me how to weigh your arguments. Warrant your weighing analysis.

Speed:

I'm fine with all types of speed, I'd prefer you not to spread so fast your opponents cannot understand you however. I like a debate with clash. 

Evidence

From my experience debaters misrepresent evidence a lot. If you tell me to look at your opponent's evidence because you believe it is misrepresented- I will. Be cautious however if their evidence is what they say it is, it will look bad for you and good for them. Indicting evidence is cool, but it needs to be well warranted. I will give you one minute to produce the card when your opponents ask for it. I'll start prep when it is in their hands. If you lie or misrepresent your evidence I will not hesitate to drop you. Cheating ruins the spirit and educational value of debate.

Collapsing

If it isn't in the summary and it's in the FF I won't vote on it. That being said, as a first speaker, I'm fine with you dropping terminal defense until FF, but turns and any offense you want me to vote off of need to be in the summary. 

Signposting 

This is crucial. If you don't tell me where to flow it then I'll be lost. You are guiding me through the debate so please signpost clearly and often. Overviews are relatively new to PF, but I like them. Tell me where to flow before your speeches in the latter half of the round. Off-time road maps are good.  

Speaker Points

I WILL GIVE 30 SPEAKER POINTS FOR COFFEE AND OR PUNS 

Though debate is a serious activity I think some people lose perspective on it and don't have fun. You are electing to do this every weekend so I like to see good educational debates with clash. Making puns and being witty while having a good debate will make you look good and have high speaks. Be clear, speak up, look at me, and speak well and you will have high speaks. You will have very low speaks if you are offensive, rude, and generally not conducive to a good debate.

Feel free to ask me about anything before/after round. I will disclose if the tournament allows me to. If not, find me after the round and I'll give you feedback

Name: Kerry Jones, Director of IT Service Continuity Management, Georgia Technology Authority

Affifiation: Parent/Sequoyah High School

Judging History:  Witnessed at least 20 Varsity and Novist PF Debates in 2015 prior to being trained to judge in the Harvard Tournament in 2016.  Judged several debates during 2016

Preferences in order of importance:

1. Develop a solid and clear framework
2. Provide logical and well explained contentions
3. Communicate in a clear and confident volume and tone
4. Provide reasonable, varifiable facts to support contentions
5. Know the material well enough to defend case during xfire rounds. 

Jeffrey Miller

Current Coach -- Marist School (2011-present)
Lab Leader -- National Debate Forum (2015-present), Emory University (2016), Dartmouth College (2014-2015), University of Georgia (2012-2015)
Former Coach -- Fayette County (2006-2011), Wheeler (2008-2009)
Former Debater -- Fayette County (2002-2006)

jmill126@gmail.com and maristpublicforum@gmail.com for email chains, please (no google doc sharing and no locked google docs)

Last Updated -- 2/12/2012 for the 2022 Postseason (no major updates, just being more specific on items)

I am a high school teacher who believes in the power that speech and debate provides students. There is not another activity that provides the benefits that this activity does. I am involved in topic wording with the NSDA and argument development and strategy discussion with Marist, so you can expect I am coming into the room as an informed participant about the topic. As your judge, it is my job to give you the best experience possible in that round. I will work as hard in giving you that experience as I expect you are working to win the debate. I think online debate is amazing and would not be bothered if we never returned to in-person competitions again. For online debate to work, everyone should have their cameras on and be cordial with other understanding that there can be technical issues in a round.

What does a good debate look like?

In my opinion, a good debate features two well-researched teams who clash around a central thesis of the topic. Teams can demonstrate this through a variety of ways in a debate such as the use of evidence, smart questioning in cross examination and strategical thinking through the use of casing and rebuttals. In good debates, each speech answers the one that precedes it (with the second constructive being the exception in public forum). Good debates are fun for all those involved including the judge(s).

The best debates are typically smaller in nature as they can resolve key parts of the debate. The proliferation of large constructives have hindered many second halves as they decrease the amount of time students can interact with specific parts of arguments and even worse leaving judges to sort things out themselves and increasing intervention.

What role does theory play in good debates?

I've always said I prefer substance over theory. That being said, I do know theory has its place in debate rounds and I do have strong opinions on many violations. I will do my best to evaluate theory as pragmatically as possible by weighing the offense under each interpretation. For a crash course in my beliefs of theory - disclosure is good, open source is an unnecessary standard for high school public forum teams until a minimum standard of disclosure is established, paraphrasing is bad, round reports is frivolous, content warnings for graphic representations is required, content warnings over non-graphic representations is debatable.

All of this being said, I don't view myself as an autostrike for teams that don't disclose or paraphrase. However, I've judged enough this year to tell you if you are one of those teams and happen to debate someone with thoughts similar to mine, you should be prepared with answers.

How do "progressive" arguments work in good debates?

Like I said above, arguments work best when they are in the context of the critical thesis of the topic. Thus, if you are reading the same cards in your framing contention from the Septober topic that have zero connections to the current topic, I think you are starting a up-hill battle for yourselves. I have not been entirely persuaded with the "pre-fiat" implications I have seen this year - if those pre-fiat implications were contextualized with topic literature, that would be different.

My major gripe with progressive debates this year has been a lack of clash. Saying "structural violence comes first" doesn't automatically mean it does or that you win. These are debatable arguments, please debate them. I am also finding that sometimes the lack of clash isn't a problem of unprepared debaters, but rather there isn't enough time to resolve major issues in the literature. At a minimum, your evidence that is making progressive type claims in the debate should never be paraphrased and should be well warranted. I have found myself struggling to flow framing contentions that include four completely different arguments that should take 1.5 minutes to read that PF debaters are reading in 20-30 seconds (Read: your crisis politics cards should be more than one line).

How should evidence exchange work?

Evidence exchange in public forum is broken. At the beginning of COVID, I found myself thinking cases sent after the speech in order to protect flowing. However, my view on this has shifted. A lot of debates I found myself judging last season had evidence delays after case. At this point, constructives should be sent immediately prior to speeches. (If you paraphrase, you should send your narrative version with the cut cards in order). At this stage in the game, I don't think rebuttal evidence should be emailed before but I imagine that view will shift with time as well. When you send evidence to the email chain, I prefer a cut card with a proper citation and highlighting to indicate what was read. Cards with no formatting or just links are as a good as analytics.

For what its worth, whenever I return to in-person tournaments, I do expect email chains to continue.

What effects speaker points?

I am trying to increase my baseline for points as I've found I'm typically below average. Instead of starting at a 28, I will try to start at a 28.5 for debaters and move accordingly. Argument selection, strategy choices and smart crossfires are the best way to earn more points with me. You're probably not going to get a 30 but have a good debate with smart strategy choices, and you should get a 29+.

This only applies to tournaments that use a 0.1 metric -- tournaments that are using half points are bad.

I did PF for three years at Columbus High School and am now a junior at Emory University. Im probably not very different than any standard flow judge. For specifics:

1. I try to vote on whatever offense is cleanest in the round, whether it be dropped turns or something from case. This basically just means that the easiest way to get my ballot is collapsing and weighing as early as possible.

2. I like consistency between summary and final focus, so if you plan on going heavily for something in ff, structure the summary accordingly. I'm not against 1st speaking teams extending defense from rebuttal to final assuming that it's explained well in rebuttal, but I still prefer to hear it in summary.

3. I'm not receptive to long offensive overviews in rebuttal that are basically new contentions and am very unlikely to vote on them. Second rebuttal should also address offense from 1st rebuttal - defense can be responded to in summary, but like responding earlier is still probably better

4. I don't care about speed, go as fast as you want as long as you're clear. I don't flow author names typically, so please don't extend just names.

5. for speaks: big fan of being funny and signposting. dont steal prep.

6. preflow before round!!!

I debated at Columbus High (GA) and competed on the PF national circuit for two-ish years with some success.

General: I was a very technical debater for public forum and believe that when done well, technical debates are the most interesting to watch/judge. While I appreciate good line by line debating, I understand that not all schools have the resources to teach line by line debating so please do not force yourself to be technical or “flow” because I am judging. A good voter based summary/final focus can be just as effective as line by line if you’re clear and make smart analysis.

Speed: I was on the faster end of national circuit debate, but it has been a while since I have actually debated. If you're comfortable going fast, do it but do not sacrifice clarity. Don't spread either, but I can understand relatively quick speeds. Speed is in no way a requirement. In general, the faster you speak, the less I will be able to flow. However, I do consider myself to have a pretty good speed threshold. If you want to know how fast I can handle, you can request in round that I say “clear” if you begin going to fast for me. Also, I will say “clear” if I cannot understand you twice, the third time I will just stop flowing. *If you are going fast to a point where flowing becomes difficult your opponent reserves full rights to ask for a speech doc to prevent them from missing arguments*

Rebuttal: I don’t need frontlining in either rebuttal but it could be strategic - I leave that decision to you. I want to see case cross applications, at least some generated offense, and terminalized defense. Overviews are not required but can be useful - be strategic here. I will listen to extended disads in rebuttal, but the threshold for responding to these goes down (especially if you read one as the second speaking team). Also, evidence comparison goes a long way here. Reasons to prefer evidence will make my job and yours a lot easier.

Summary: You don’t have to weigh for me here, but doing so will really help for multiple reasons (i.e. making sure I know weighing is occurring, better speaker points, etc.). Extensions need warrants, and all offense is required to be in summary. I believe in sticky defense for first summary. Being a first speaker, my biggest pet peeve is extending through ink — you need to frontline any offense you go for or I defer to their defense and don't evaluate the offense (turns become defense if not extended as offense and weighed and frontlined). If both teams extend through ink, my decision will be less standardized and you don’t want that. Second speaking teams need to extend defense in second summary for me to evaluate it better in final focus. I try to number responses if rebuttals are clear - if that makes front lining easier, feel free to use the number of the responses. I need an impact extension at the very least for me to consider it in final focus.

Final Focus: You MUST weigh here for me to vote for you. If neither team weighs, I again defer to a less standardized decision process that you want to avoid. If one team gives bad weighing, I prefer that over no weighing. The better your analysis, the more likely I am to vote for you. However, weighing an impact without a link doesn’t work for me - you need to win the link to the impact to weigh it. I need extensions in summary; I think final focuses are summaries with less front lining and more weighing.

Theory: I think most theory arguments are just reasons to drop the argument, not the debater so unless you give reasons to drop the debater, I won’t. I am also not well acquainted with most theory arguments, but I understand the general mechanisms and know at least basic jargon. Make sure I can understand the argument if you want me to vote for it. That said, I am not in any way biased against theory if run well and understandably.

Topicality: This is very important to me. I don’t want to vote for not topical arguments. That said, saying an argument is not topical is not enough - give me reasons why.

K: I am not super good at Ks in the traditional policy and LD sense. If your argument is understandable and well-defended, I have no problem voting for them. Just make them have impacts and good strategies.

Arguments: I am a fan of unique/fun arguments and love to see them. Have a good time in your debates, I'll listen to any argument that is not offensive (i.e. racist, homophobic, or sexist). So if you decide to say cannibalism will prevent human extinction, I will listen.

Evidence: I do not want to be an interventionist judge. That means I will not call for evidence and use it to make a decision, unless a team tells me to. If there is general disagreement on evidence, but I am not told explicitly to read it, I will either defer it to the team that better defends their interp of the evidence or not evaluate it (if neither team defends their interp well). I might ask to see it after making a decision just to give both teams a better understanding of how one judge perceives the evidence, and I might call evidence after making a decision that I don’t believe is true. BUT, if no one calls out a team on evidence, I will not drop the other team for it. If a team calls out another for blatantly lying or misrepresenting evidence (i.e. not reading a “not” in an important line), I will look at the evidence after round. The team that is wrong about the evidence (accusers or defendants) will immediately be dropped and given 25s for speaker points.

Speaker Points:

30- You were perfect

29.5+- Great strategy, fantastic strategic decisions, great weighing

29+- Good Strategy, probably made some good responses, solid weighing

28.5+- Decent Strategy, making good arguments, okay weighing

28.0- Some strategy, arguments were made, no weighing

27.0- Lack of Strategy, conceded some parts of case, no weighing

26.0- no strategic decisions, conceded major parts of case, no weighing

Under 25 is reserved for doing something offensive, being mean, unethical evidence, or not using full speech times.

I am a first year out from Columbus High School, currently at Agnes Scott College. I debated four years on the local and national circuit.

Speed

• Speed is good with me, as long as it is still clear. If I can't understand it, it only hurts you.
• If something is very important you should slow down and emphasize it just to make sure I get it on my flow. I get a lot but I can't guarantee everything.

My Ballot

• I do not flow crossfire. That means if something happened in crossfire that you think is important to this round then bring it up in a speech.
• If your opponent responds to your arguments, you have to respond to that in order for me to consider it in the round. You can't just keep reiterating your arguments, saying it multiple times doesn't mean I'll ignore their responses.
• No offensive overviews with new material in second rebuttal (basically don't try to put a new contention in second rebuttal).
• Everything important in final focus should also be in summary.
• I will vote off of what is properly extended into final focus.
• Weighing is crucial. If you don't want me to decide what arguments are more important then you need to tell me. Don't get mad at me if you don't weigh and then I decide what arguments are more important.

Framework

• Honestly, most of the time I think framework in PF is dumb. However, if you want to run it, I won’t hold it against you.

Speaker Points (a general guide)

• 25: You were either completely incoherent, extremely offensive, or both.
• 26: Your speeches were disorganized, pretty under time, and/or quite unclear.
• 27: Average.
• 28: Generally organized, clear, use up all time.
• 29: Well organized, spoke well, use up all time.
• 30: Amazing organzation, very clear and coherent speaking, use up all time, overall spectacular performance.
• Disclaimer: this is a very rough guide, the reasons the points I give will definitely vary throughout rounds and if I have specific reasons I will try to include in either written or oral critiques.

Evidence

• I expect all evidence to be properly represented. If you believe your opponents are misrepresenting a piece of evidence, tell me to call it and I will at the end of the round.

Demeanor

• I am fine with aggression just don't be a terrible person.
• If you make any racist, sexist, or otherwise derogatory or disrespectful comments, I will give you extremely low speaks and notify your coach.

I debated PF all through high school, coached all through college, and am now coaching at Walt Whitman High School in Maryland. My role in the round is to interpret the world you aim to create, and to that end you should tell me explicitly what it is you are trying to do. I stick to the flow as well as I can.

common question answers:

1. Anything that needs to be on the ballot, needs to be in Final Focus, and anything in final needs to be in summary.

2. The first speaking team should be predicting the offense in first summary that needs to be responded to, and putting defense on it then. This ALSO means that the second speaking team has to frontline in the rebuttal. Any arguments/defense that are not in the First Summary are dropped, and any arguments that are not frontlined in the second rebuttal are dropped.

3. Summary to Final Focus consistency is key, especially in terms of the relevance of arguments, if something is going to be a huge deal, it should be so in both speeches. You're better off using your new 3 minute summary to make your link and impact extensions cleaner than you are packing it full of args.

4. I will call for cards that I think are important, and I will throw them out if they are bad or misrepresented, regardless of if they are challenged in the round. sometimes when two arguments are clashing with little to no analysis, this is the only way to settle it.

As a note, I am pretty hard on evidence, especially as sharing docs is becoming more popular. If you are making an argument, and the evidence is explicitly making a different argument, I won't be able to flow your arg.

Speed is fine, but spreading isn't. I'll evaluate critical arguments if they have a solid link, but they have to link to the topic y'all, so they basically have to be a critical disad.

I evaluate theory if it's needed, but I'm really skeptical of how often that is.

Feel free to ask for anything else you need to know.

You should pre-flow before the start time of the round, that will help your speaks!