Bernard,Ashley

Years of Debating: 4 (High School) Affiliated School: The Beacon School

Topicality: I love it, only when done properly. I get that it can be used as a time skew, but please don’t run something completely irrelevant that you really have no chances of going for, it’ll aggravate me just because I think it is a pretty slept on strategy to winning the round. That being said, if you do want to go for it, don’t just extend the voters by the tag line. Explain them to me. Why should I care? What about education? Why does it matter? How does holding the affirmative accountable for their untopical case improve the debate as a learning activity? Those sort of things. Make it interesting. Metaphorical impact scenarios are very entertaining in this field. Ha ha!

CPs: Please be competitive. That’s all I ask for.

Kritiks: LOVE THEM!!! Again, only if done right. There’s a story within each K, so give me that story in plain laymen terms. If you can’t do that, I will assume that you have a serious disconnect with normal people and that is problematic. Sort of like when you are writing a complex academic essay, you have to explain all that is intricate in a simple manner…do that here! Give me the implications. The more specific the link, the better! Explain your alternative, including what it does, how it solves back for your K, and how it solves for the aff. If it doesn’t solve back for the aff (if that’s the route your going), then you better give me the impact analysis of a life time and prove to me that the aff’s case is like a church in the wild (Jay-Z reference, Watch The Throne, just in case I lost you). That being said, if you do not do these things, please understand, that I will NOT vote for you on this argument. Another important note, please don’t debate K’s if you don’t bring up framework. What’s the point? This especially applies to critical affs. If you don’t tell me what the framework of the round is, then I will vote however I am feeling at the moment, and we all know, we don’t want the judge to do that.

DA’s: All good by me! I really like DA’s that have specific links though. It always makes the case stronger. If you want to go for it, again, impact analysis. Throw some turns in there if you can and really force them into a bind. Note: I hate politics DA’s. That is all I have to say. Note: I like critiques against ptx da’s. Just saying.

Performance: At this point of the year, your performance should be memorized, passionate, and purposeful. If I feel otherwise, than you’re going to have a not so beautiful struggle. I enjoy them. But I’m also a spoken word poet, so please, let the performance speak to me on some level. FW is also a must on this one.

Overall, I want you to have fun. Do it with class, and do it properly. If you just remember what you are supposed to do (explain, analyze, impact, and EXTEND), then the vote will be more likely in your favor.

By the way, I don’t do ignorance. If your answer to “Heidegger was a Nazi” (even though i think that argument is blah) is Nazis good, I’ll probably walk out of the room.

I LOVE hip hop references! Actually, I just love music references as a whole, I listen to a lot =)