Ahya,+Parth

30 speaks for good satire

Hello. I debated LD for Cooper City High School, which had the sickest two person LD squad in the country (me and Karina Blodnieks). I'm currently on a gap year, during which time I am working on a debate-based nonprofit called the Public Debate Initiative, and will be attending Oxford next year, where I'll be studying Philosophy and Theology. Don't get it twisted though, my interests span beyond the humanities and I will be thrilled if you're able to incorporate science or math into your arguments.

- I am cool with any framework you'd like to run

- I cannot flow spreading well and would appreciate your flashing me your case. If not, at the least, slow down on tag lines

- I don't have any positional predispositions (E.G. disclosure is good or something), however, I am pretty gung-ho about not giving credit to unwarranted arguments and I am also pretty gung-ho about the (true) idea that appeals to authority are not fucking warrants

- I think speaker points are stupid, but I try my best to assign them objectively through these measures: 1) the quality of your arguments 2) the skill with which your answered your opponents arguments 3) the extent to which you utilize cross-examination as an opportunity, both, to clarify the debate and pin your opponent 4) the extent to which you push the debate in an intellectually constructive direction, meaning less credit will be given to debaters who win through cheap tricks which don't push any conversation forward. Included in my definition of 'cheap tricks' is exploiting information gaps in novices about things like ROTB and theory to win the debate.

I will give a score for each of these measures and the average will be your speaker points for the round.

- If you have any questions about my judging preferences, taking a gap year, or for that matter any interesting topic, you can email me at parth.ahya@publicdebateinitiative.org