I debated PF in high school and currently debate and coach parliamentary debate with the Speech and Debate Team at the University of Illinois.

General Notes

I am a flow judge who appreciates clash. I am definitely tech over truth and will evaluate any argument so long as it's fully flushed out and warranted (although truth is nice to have on your side). Please make sure to weigh and compare impacts within the debate so you don’t force me to intervene.

I’m fine with speed. I will shout “clear” if I’m not keeping up.

Anything you expect me to vote on needs to get extended through to the end of the debate.

I’m fine with roadmaps being off-time and would like them to be detailed.

I tend to like…

· Contentions that have clearly articulated link stories and impacts

· Impact calculus

· Systemic/environmental impacts

· Proven abuse on T

· Final focuses that explain “Why we win if we win what we win,” not just a list of voters that don’t necessarily interact with the big picture of the debate

I don’t like…

· Card calling - Be smart about it. Most of the time it doesn't matter and just slows down the debate. Arguing your cards are better because they’re X amount of time more recent is usually not helpful either. I will evaluate your argument, but I prefer debaters to engage on substance.

· Fiating extra-topical planks/contention

You will lose if…

· Any intentional “isms”, or accidental ones not corrected by apologizing

· Not accommodating me or your opponents we say “slow” or “clear”

Speaker Points

30: You’re the best speaker I expect to see at the tournament

28.5 to 29.5: I expect you to break at this tournament

27 to 28: Somewhat unclear, minor mistakes

26-26.5: Very unclear, major mistakes

Below 26: Lots of major mistakes or you did/said something offensive

I will drop your speaker points if you are rude to your opponent or hog crossfire without giving your opponent a chance to ask a question.

I have been competing in/coaching different formats of debate for the last six years.

IF YOU ARE A JERK, I WON'T AUTOMATICALLY DROP YOU, BUT I WILL SIGNIFICANTLY DROP YOUR SPEAKER POINTS.

When it comes to Public Forum, simply because of the way it is set up, I find that teams often fail to weigh and frame the round. Because these things are not clearly built into Public Forum the way they are in other formats, there are many rounds I feel I need to intervene in and make decisions about which arguments are most important in the round. So the best way to win my ballot is to tell me WHY your arguments should be more highly valued in the round. If it's because your framework should lead me to believe that, why should I prefer your framework? If it's because the impacts are immediate, why should I prefer short term impacts? etc.

If you're already at a point where you do that consistently, the things I prefer and look for in a round are: sincere respect for all people in the room, strength of argumentation, and creative arguments. In my mind, it is unfortunate that PF has excluded Ks, Ts, and Counter-plans as forms of argumentation acceptable within the format. I love hearing wacky arguments. If you have an argument that is way out of left field, that is super far left or dangerously far right hidden in your arsenal, please run it in front of me.

Of course, getting to the point of needing to weigh the value of different impacts, or playing into my preference of being entertained by creative argumentation, first requires that both teams successfully presented and defended a case clearly and still have substantial impacts standing at the end of the round. If you are not at a point where your argumentation/refutation skills consistently bring you to the end of a debate with your impacts still standing, here is what you should focus on in front of me:

I am a firm believer that debate is about growth and learning. You will not lose points in front of me for taking a break to think in the middle of your speech. You will lose points for not using all of your time. If you have completed everything you plan to say, never concede the remainder of your time. Stand up there and think. Is there anything else you can say that would help you and your partner win the round? If you run out your time still thinking, that's fine. High school debate is a time to stretch yourself - always try to make more arguments.

It also seems to me that the biggest thing most inexperienced teams need to learn is how to explain how their argumentation or refutation effects the round as a whole. Don't just make an argument and pretend like it exists in a vacuum. Tell me how your refutation ultimately changes the world that your opponents presented to me. What effect does your refutation have on the impacts that your opponents claim?

I competed at the University of Illinois for four years in NPDA and NFA-LD. Tl;dr I try to be as flow as possible. If you tell me the sky is green, I’ll take that as true. Assume I’m not familiar with what’s being run on the resolution so if there’s any jargon or specific knowledge just make sure you explain it well. Above all debate’s supposed to be fun, so try to have fun with it, if you go for a crazy strategy I’ll probably enjoy it too. Don’t be unnecessarily combative. Extend your arguments all the way through, clash with your opponents, just give me clear reasoning why I should vote for you over your opponent and we should have a good round. Now into specifics.

Stock issues:

I’ve always been a fan of clean case+DA debate. And theoretically if case does not adhere to stock issues that is a reason for me not to vote for the affirmative. Please do impact calc, don’t just leave me as the judge to vote on which impact I think is more important at the end of the round.

Counterplans:

Make sure you can articulate well why your CP is competitive. If your perm severs or is intrinsic I probably won’t vote on it. I’m generally not a huge fan of delay CPs and PICs but you need to prove the in round abuse to me in the theory argument. At the end of the day just give me a world by world analysis and demonstrate the net benefit to me.

Theory/T Debates:

I really like theory debates, but you need to link it in round and show proven abuse otherwise I’ll probably grant some leeway if you tell me to extend reasonability. By this I mean I’m not a fan of super frivolous shells like disclosure theory or aspec. Basically if you just run the same generic shell without demonstrating proven or strong potential in round abuse, it’s probably won’t meet my threshold to vote on it unless it’s like clean dropped. I also generally won’t vote on RVIs. The negative shouldn’t be able to lose for making the claim that the affirmative’s definition is unfair.

Kritiks:

K’s really aren’t my favorite. I’ve run them, I’ve answered them, generally my problem is that high level philosophy can be very difficult to understand. If you’re going to run it, make sure you can explain it as if you were talking to an average person on the street.

Value Criterion:

Collegiate LD is much more policy based than value criterion. Just make sure I can have it cleanly on my flow what the role of the ballot should be, if it’s vote for the team that best upholds this value or prefer our value criterion over their value criterion. Essentially just give me something to weigh and reasons to prefer and I should be able to follow along.

NPDA:

This is going to apply to some circuit norms more than others but NPDA Rule 4b states "Debaters may refer to anything that is within the realm of knowledge of liberally educated and informed citizens," and 4a states "No prepared arguments ... may be brought into the debating chamber." If your argument sounds like it could not possibly have been prepared within prep time, (I understand the subjectivity of this but you know it when you see it after 4 years of debating/coaching) I will be heavily enforcing this. Expect me to be very open to hearing a theory shell on why pre-prepared arguments are bad or if both teams do it expect bad speaker points. The purpose of parliamentary debate is that it's supposed to be limited preparation, and some of these clearly pre-written args are bad for parli specifically. Be sure to give me clear topic specific links, (if it's that the USFG is an actor, that's not enough).

PF:

I will defend new arguments in summary, but new evidence/analytics like weighing are obviously allowed. When in doubt, it's probably safe to just point out new arguments, but I will protect what I have. Also not a huge fan of talking over each other in cross or aggressive tone. Like debate's just supposed to be fun, so chill out a bit

Last pet peeve that goes to all formats but I think I've seen the worst in PF, which is being hyperbolic. Don't use jargon to tell me you have things you don't have. For example don't be like I have 5 turns and then when I go look a bunch of them are just solvency defense. Or that they dropped everything when I clearly have answers on the flow. Like it just works out poorly on the flow at the end of the day, but is also just annoying to have to be like oh did I miss something on my flow, nope.

Speaker Points:

I generally work off this scale. But if you’re rude to your opponents or trying to spread them out of round

30: You’re the best speaker I expect to see at the tournament

28.5 to 29.5: I expect you to break at this tournament

27 to 28: Somewhat unclear, minor mistakes

26-26.5: Very unclear, major mistakes

Below 26: Lots of major mistakes or you did/said something offensive

Otherwise, just be funny, be cool, and have a good time. I’ll give oral RFD’s as well but email me with any questions at jfc2@illinois.edu.

I did PF.

Don't read off-time roadmaps. Odds are, you won't follow them anyway. Just tell me where you're starting and signpost.

I will always evaluate the framework first and then look towards who best provides offense under the framework.

PLEASE COLLAPSE.

I will likely only vote on an argument if it’s present in both summary and final focus. That means extending BOTH the warrant and the impacts of the argument. “Extend the Smith evidence” by itself with no analysis as to what the evidence is actually about isn’t an extension. And saying "we save X amount of people" without the warranting as to how/why isn't extending an argument either. I won’t vote on blippy extensions.

Please do not spread, at all ever, especially not in the morning and if you do, bring me coffee and maybe by summary I will understand what you are saying.

Second rebuttal has to frontline.

Weigh. If neither of the teams weigh, I’ll be forced to intervene and determine what I think is more important which you might not necessarily agree with in the end.

I will vote on theory or Ks if they are thoroughly explained and warranted. However, I believe that both of these should be used as a check back on either an egregious abuse instance in the round or within the resolution itself. Senseless use of theory or a K just to waste time or to limit your opponent's ability to debate will result in less speaker points and depending on how I see it in the round might even cost you the win. I won't buy disclosure theory or paraphrasing theory or any other foolish new theory.

If someone calls for a piece of evidence, please give it to them quickly.

Racist, xenophobic, sexist, classist, homophobic, and other oppressive discourses or examples have no place in debate. 20 L.

If you have any questions, ask before the round.

Hi! My name is Marybeth and I debated in high school and coached/independently drilled with some students in college!

Contact info: mehlbec@emory.edu

Read this, if anything:

Please just have as comfortable of a round as you want, let's all treat each other with respect, empathy, and camaraderie.

Stolen from Malcolm Davis's paradigm: As I get old and grumpy, I am increasingly frustrated with PF's bells and whistles. We are all regular people. You don't need to 'strongly urge an affirmation' or proudly declare what the 'thesis of your case' is or anything, you just need to debate the round and explain what's going on clearly. There needn't be pomp and circumstance in a room where we're talking about ideas for fun on the weekend.

Main Preferences

1. I will vote for an argument (hopefully under a framework [one that is warranted and fairly won] ) if it is warranted, impacted, and weighed against the other args in the around under a default of comparative worlds unless instructed otherwise. Blippy and unwarranted offense will likely produce an audible sigh from me. Exceptions to this rule: the arg is offensive/exclusionary, not in both summary/FF, card is misconstrued/grossly paraphrased.

2. MY HEARING IS NOT THE BEST. please be VERY CLEAR with signposting, extending author names etc.

3. Weighing has to be explicitly comparative and contextualized to your opponent's offense.

4. No off time roadmaps unless you are reading an off.

5. The extension of defense into first summary is not required. It is required if the defense has been frontlined.

Random things due to the cultural decline of public forum:

1. read cards in front of me please, I don't care to hear paraphrased evidence but I will evaluate it when push comes to shove

2.i think disclosure theory in PF is pretty unconvincing/bad strat, although it is a good norm.

3. i would much rather you read theory in paragraph form rather than shell if that's what you're comfortable with and wont look down upon such when I'm evaluating it.

Good luck and have fun!

I am a parent...basically a lay judge. However, I will flow everything in the round and try to make a decision based on the flow. If you're going too fast I can't/won't flow your arguments. Clarity is very important to me. Clearly state your claims, warrants(proof) and impacts(the "so what").

Stay respectful and don't yell over each other in cross. Evidence is really important to me. No blind assertions and hypotheses please. I prefer you read dates and full sources for everything (no weird acronyms that I won't understand). Keep the round as clear and simple as you can - Highlight key issues, make persuasive arguments, provide specific justifications for your claims and rebut your challenges. Your speakers points are based of confidence, composure, delivery, and style. I may call for cards at the end of the round. I won't disclose.

I am a "mommy" judge with prior judging experience only at a handful of local tournaments. However, I will vote for the team that explains their arguments and responds to arguments more effectively. I am not very good with speed so please make your arguments clear and well to follow. If you fail to do this, the round becomes a lot more difficult for me to evaluate and you might not be happy with the results. Best of luck to all teams!

I am a lay judge and have been judging speech and debate for about 6 years. I believe that debate should include a clear presentation of your arguments and evidence. I also believe your speeches should be well organized. In the end, I will value argument over style, but the way you present your arguments is important to my understanding of those arguments. If you call for evidence, please have a legitimate reason for it. I don't like spending a lot of prep time on it. I expect you to time yourselves, but I will be timing too. I like clear, organized flows with clear voters at the end. I weigh heavily on impacts so compare your impacts and convince me that yours are stronger. Please be civil and respectful to your partner and competitors.

My background is in theatre and speech. I love judging speech events and will typically vote for the presenter who has the strongest emotional connection to their piece and the audience. There must be an effective balance of design, style, and presentation. The pieces that showcase who you are as a performer as well as communicating something new and fresh are welcome.

General debate things to know:

This is my first year judging LD debate. I competed in policy debate for about three years, and Student Congress for one. I find that being fluid with arguments that connect is most important. In LD debate is discourage speaking fast, it is more important to get your argument across with quality. I will judge mostly on clarity of your arguments and how they go against the opponent. Not only is the quality of the debate based on your arguments, but on your speaking skills as well. Proper eye contact and and being engaged rather than looking at your laptop is important. Entertaining debates that are done well are always better, keep a strong framework. Be able to explain yourself well. Do not go over your time, not a fan.

Things to know about me:

-Pronouns are she/her/hers

-I enjoy arguments in regards to philosophy or ethics

-Let me know about anything preferences or accomplishments prior to, I am very friendly

-I enjoy a good ole time, so lets keep it fun and interesting

I competed in PF for four years for Theodore Roosevelt High School in Des Moines, Iowa, both on the national and local circuits. I coached at NDF in 2018, 2019, and 2020, and for the 2020-21 season I'm an Assistant PF Coach at Eagan High School. I'm now a junior at the University of Notre Dame studying political science.

Don't be afraid to ask me questions about anything on here - I love answering them, and it shows me that you're making a serious effort to adapt to me, which I appreciate!

Add me to the email chain - ellie.konfrst@gmail.com.

How to win my ballot:

Find the cleanest piece of offense on the flow and weigh that. This is probably the most important thing in my paradigm. I want to avoid intervention as much as I possibly can, but if arguments get muddy and don't get sorted out, that's hard for me to do. I would far prefer to vote off a conceded, well-implicated turn than a case arg riddled with ink and conflicting warranting.

You need to collapse in the second half of the round, it's a huge strategic mistake not to do that.

Use the persuasive nature of PF to your advantage. I evaluate the round off the flow, but that doesn't mean I'm not a human and can't be persuaded. Ultimately, your job is to convince me you're right. In close rounds, sometimes that's less logical and more emotional.

In the spirit of persuasion, you should be collapsing on a clear narrative in the second half of the round.

You have to weigh. If you don't weigh for me I'm forced to literally just pick things I think are more important, which means you lose control of the round, and I'm forced to interfere. Weighing should be clear in summary and final focus, and it might even be helpful to start weighing in rebuttal. (NOTE: In order to weigh your argument, you also have to win the argument. I've seen way too many teams weigh arguments that they lose, and that leaves me forced to intervene just as much as if you don't weigh. Remember, you need to extend warrants and impacts).

Extensions:

If you want it on the ballot, it needs to be in summary AND final focus.

Extend warrants and impacts. Make a point to especially extend impacts - I have literally no reason to vote for your argument if there's no impact, and failing to extend impacts in final focus can be fatal.

Defense you need to win needs to be extended in first summary. Especially with 3 minutes for summary, y'all - if you expect defense to be sticky from rebuttal to final focus you are not debating well.

You need to respond to your opponent's rebuttal if you're speaking 2nd. I prefer defense and offense, but I'm significantly more forgiving with dropped defense than dropped offense. If you speak second and you drop a turn read in first rebuttal, I consider it dropped for the round. With that said, please do not "extend" your case in 1st rebuttal, I will probably just stop listening.

Extend card names along with what the card says.

Conduct:

I know debate rounds can get heated, but I think it's important to respect your opponents. If you're unnecessarily aggressive, patronizing, or rude, I'll definitely dock your speaks. I'm not telling you to not be assertive or loud, but I can tell the difference between someone who believes their opponents are wrong and someone who believes their opponents are not even worth their time.

If you are sexist, racist, homophobic, ableist, transphobic, etc. I'll drop you and tank your speaks.

This is a small thing, but I really dislike when teams call out strategic errors made by the other time in cross, i.e. "didn't you drop this in summary?" It's a waste of cross-ex time and it feels rude to me - tell me in a speech, don't turn it into a cross question.

Arguments:

I like interesting arguments a lot! Obviously squirrely/unwarranted args probably won't win you my ballot, but judging 6 double-flighted debate rounds in a row can get super monotonous, and I'll probably reward you if you at least make the round more interesting.

I'm open to any type of impacts, as long as you weigh them.

However, I have 0 background in policy or LD, so if you want to run theory/Ks/pre-fiat arguments you're gonna need to explain them to me in the simplest possible terms. To be clear, I have rarely encountered any kind of shell when debating or judging, and only rarely encountered ROB args as a debater. I am pretty uncomfortable evaluating these arguments and while I'll evaluate them as best I can, you run them at your own risk.

Framework:

I will evaluate under whatever framework is presented to me in the round.

That means, if you drop your opponent's framework, I will weigh the round based on that.

I'm super hesitant to use framework brought up in 2nd rebuttal, especially if it fundamentally alters the way I need to evaluate the debate. If your framework is something very different from a CBA (e.g. deontology) it needs to be in constructive.

I love weighing overviews and will 100% evaluate them as long as they're brought up by rebuttals.

Evidence:

If you tell me to call for a card OR seeing a card is necessary in order for me to make my decision, I'll call for it.

When sharing evidence with either me or your opponents, the evidence should be in cut card form or a highlighted PDF. Sending just a link is unfair to your opponents and annoying to me!

Don't paraphrase, however I tend to be pretty lenient on evidence ethics. If evidence is bad, I basically just evaluate the round as if the evidence didn't exist. I'm not opposed to dropping teams solely on terrible evidence ethics, but you'd probably have to act pretty awfully in order for me to do so.

Other stuff:

I talk really fast in real life, and I talked really fast in debate, so I can handle max PF speeds. Spreading is harder online and early in the morning - I'll do my best, but remember that if I don't get stuff on my flow because you were talking too fast that's your fault. With that said, if you are clearly speaking too fast for your opponents, I'll probably dock your speaks - I think that's rude and exclusionary for an event that's supposed to be open for anyone.

Please time yourselves and your opponents! I am not timing and will let you keep talking if no one else stops you, which just makes the round last longer and is unfair to everyone else.

This is an unpopular opinion, but I LOVE roadmaps. They should be brief, and I can tell when teams use it to steal prep, but if you do it well I will love you. I don't think it ever hurts to make sure you and your judge are on the same page.

This is also why it's crucial for you to signpost. There's nothing worse than you giving killer responses, but me missing them because you lost me in your speech.

You should be using voters in summary/final focus! It's not a dealbreaker for me but it will make me like you more and I'll probably boost your speaks. It also just makes for better debates, so do it!

If you have any questions I'd love to answer them, just ask me before the round!

Please ask specific questions should you have them. Prefer substantive debates. And, fully support teams who take the initiative to stop rounds when concerned re: evidence ethics (the instructions are fully detailed in the NSDA High School Event Manual, pp. 30-33). On Theory and other such arguments in Public Forum Debate:

https://www.vbriefly.com/2021/04/15/equity-in-public-forum-debate-a-critique-of-theory/

Truth > tech.

I like stock cases argued and explained well. Cross ex totally matters, in fact I have voted on convincing, strategic CX performances in many a bid round. Summaries should weigh. Call it "old tymey" PF.

If you are constantly thinking throughout the round (not just blindly reading cards) I will probably vote for you. Strike me if you have a super long link chain, do not address the topic, or talk super fast. Humor is great.

_

Voting

I vote on extensions between summary and final focus. I like to see voting issues in both Summary and Final Focus but if you really want to do a line by line in Summary, that's fine too. Just make sure you sign post for me.

Please refrain from extending through ink or making arguments that jump from rebuttal to final focus.

It's easiest to win my ballot if you have a strong narrative/advocacy throughout your case and speeches. I like framework, observations, and overviews because they're really good for streamlining the debate.

I like if an argument collapses well, so in the later speeches like summary and final focus, I would like to see more than just impacts extended.

Speeches:

If you're the second speaking team, I like it if you go back to your case during rebuttal, but it's not a huge deal if you don't.

Argumentation

I'll listen to whatever arguments you want me to, but mostly I'll listen to how you weigh it.

Cross X:

I generally listen and don't flow, so if an important concession comes up, make sure to mention it in a speech.

Evidence Ethics

Sometimes at the end of a round I may need to call for cards. This might be because a team asks me to do it or because it seems like the actual wording of the card might not align with how it was explained. If I notice a degree of exaggeration that significantly influences the quality of the card, I'll probably just drop the card from the round. If I read the card and evidence has clearly been falsified or significantly misconstrued, I will either drop the team that used the objectionable evidence, file a report with tab, or both. Overall, just be honest and we'll be a-okay.

Timothy E. Sheaff - Dowling Catholic

I have been coaching various events both speech and debate for 30 years.

I am very good at getting students started and then passing them on to experts in the specific events. I am a generalist.

I entered this activity because I am pretty dyslexic and so I am a slow reader and terrible writer, this activity allowed me to SPEAK...I like SPEAKING.

ALL EVENTS

I have a fairly policy mindset. I like that kind of pretend.

Per above I am a BAD FLOW for fast....I am not opposed to fast..we try to be fast...but I can not make my hand write what I am hearing if I am also thinking...just a struggle...maybe that means something to you...I am trying to let you know here in advance, I will try, I will not be mad at you...but I may not get it all down.

LD

Old school, not MILITANTLY so, its just what I actually know and understand.

I feel I can evaluate best when the debate is about the resolution being a truth claim.

POLICY

I LOVE POLICY...If a genie came and gave me 3 wishes I would use one to perpetually understand the arguments better than I do (esp if I could trick the genie into letting me also add "flowing perfectly" on to that wish and still counting it as 1)

Policy maker

I just do not comprehend why we can't do the plan and work on the valid issues in the K as well..if you can explain why really that can not happen, I suppose you could get my ballot with it...otherwise I am probably not your guy

PF

I feel it is a short policy round with less time to develop arguments. Again I am probably better suited for a round about the merits of the truth statement than a contest over who has read who's meta study in more detail)

OVERALL

I have been around a long time in a lot of venues, be kind, use the activity to grow in a way that means you will actually make a difference in the world going forward.

TLDR- This guy is stupid and does not get the K and he can't even flow