Patel,+Harin

02/15/11

Edgemont High School, 2004 University of Michigan, 2007
 * Harin Patel**

I debated in high school but essentially haven't thought about debate since 2004, except perhaps my freshman year of college when I *may* have judged a few rounds at the HS tournament at U-M. It was a long time ago and I don't really recall. In a lot of ways, that makes writing this pretty simple.

The most important thing for me is that you break arguments down and that you be as clear and as specific as possible. Even if I wanted to (and I don't), I wouldn't be able to connect the dots / fill in the blanks for you. I don't know the topic at all (as in: literally just had to Google the resolution) and quite frankly I expect you understand to your arguments well enough to explain them to me. If you're not speaking clearly I'll let you know, but annunciating properly from the start will go a long way towards making it easier for me to get what you're trying to tell me - and thus will make me happier with you.

I'm good with kritiks, politics, topicality, counterplans, theory, and whatever else you'd like to throw at me. Please just make sure you bottom line things for me: tell me how your arguments are relevant and why I should care.

Warrants are good! Having sweet taglines alone won't get you anywhere in life and that's how it'll be when the honorable judge Harin is in town. I'm sitting as a juror for a trial right now and it's pretty crazy/awesome how the stuff our coaches drill into our heads as debaters is actually important in real-life courtrooms. I'm really open to believing anything you tell me, AS LONG AS you do a good job of convincing me! Also, because I've been so far removed from the debate community, make sure you do a good job of defining words or phrases. A lot may have changed since I was in your shoes, so throwing around a bunch of buzzwords may be meaningless to me (or I might think you're talking about something that you're not).

Be nice to each other and have fun.