Dunay,+Matt

I debated for four years at the Bronx High School of from ‘05-’09, and I now work there as Director of Lincoln-Douglas Debate. I debated on the national circuit and competed at the TOC during my junior and senior years and cleared during the latter.

High school debate is a forum for high school debaters -- it is not for coaches or judges. Therefore I will set no rules for what you can and can't do in front of me in a debate round [Note this does not mean that the tournament cannot put rules on you. As a judge, I am an agent of a tournament, and I am bound to abide by its rules. So, if you fail to disclose or stand during speeches, and it is a tournament rule to do so, I have no problem dropping you if your opponent makes an argument I should]. I am wedded to no particular style and hold no dogmatic view on what debate should or should not be. You can literally argue whatever you want in round (I really don't care anymore) as long as it is constructed well and genuinely persuasive. This doesn't mean you have to speak slowly or eloquently but it does mean you have to make logically coherent and smart arguments. Absent specific tournament rules for speaker points, my range will be 25-30 with the average being 27.5 (Fantasy debate says it is now at 27.97, but I think it has fallen). Strategy, technical proficiency, and speaking skills go into this calculation. However, if the tournament does outline guidelines for speaker points I will automatically default to that.

Five notes. First, speed is not an issue, but clarity can be. If I have no idea what your saying it will be obvious as I will stop flowing. I will not yell clear because that is a form of intervention in my mind (and as I hope it is obvious, I hate intervening and go out of my way not to). Second, I apparently am a stickler for substantive argument comparison and weighing. If your opponent does this and you don't (or neither of you do) you probably will not like the decision. Third, extensions need to be warranted thoroughly. Fourth, pretend I am an idiot when you make complicated arguments and go out of your way to explain them. Debaters tend to think they are a lot clearer than they actually are, and I can only vote for what I understand. Fifth, I will only call evidence after the round if there is an in round dispute over the words or meaning of the card. Otherwise, I feel as though this is intervention.

Here is an ongoing list of things I personally like and dislike. Don't worry, if you don't do something I like or do do something I dislike it doesn't mean I will drop you. Things on the likes list are debate practices I want to see replicated. So if you do them well I will probably try a little harder to justify my ballot for you; or I will give you higher speaks. The converse is true for the dislikes column – the things there serve only to annoy me. The dirty little secret of judging is that at the end of many close rounds a judge can reasonably justify a ballot either way. With that little tidbit, I leave you with this:

Likes

1. Slow and effective negative spreads 2. Slow 1ARs which are able to cover fast 1NC's 3. Topical applications of (critical) philosophy 4. Evidence comparison 5. Substantive and meta-weighing 6. Being funny and interesting in CX 7. Humility 8. Making smart analytic responses to absurd evidence 9. Questioning author credentials 10. Making arguments which say you prefer evidence to analytics or vice versa 11. T-debates <span style="color: black; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 14.25pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">12. Making smart, logical arguments <span style="color: black; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 14.25pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">13. Giving a weather-map at the start of //every// 2NR <span style="color: black; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 14.25pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">14. Being able to do 13 in the 2AR <span style="color: black; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 14.25pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">15. Remember voting issues? <span style="color: black; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 14.25pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">16. Clearly layering the debate <span style="color: black; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 14.25pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">17. Disclosing <span style="color: black; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 14.25pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">18. Going out of your way to make the round clearer <span style="color: black; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 14.25pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">19. Long walks on the beach 20. Actually making turns, and not just labeling random arguments as such 21. Talking in the Plinkett voice.

<span style="color: black; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 14.25pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">Dislikes

<span style="color: black; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 14.25pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">1. Spreads comprised entirely of blippy unwarranted arguments <span style="color: black; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 14.25pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">2. Frivolous or unnecessary theory <span style="color: black; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 14.25pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">3. Non-topical applications of (critical) philosophy <span style="color: black; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 14.25pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">4. Reading evidence in response to evidence without providing any evidence comparison <span style="color: black; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 14.25pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">5. Substance-less weighing (i.e. I outweigh on magnitude, because more people die) <span style="color: black; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 14.25pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">6. Speed for the sake of speed <span style="color: black; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 14.25pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">7. Being rude or condescending to an opponent who you are clearly beating <span style="color: black; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 14.25pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">8. Flex Prep <span style="color: black; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 14.25pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">9. Purposeful attempts to obfuscate the round to confuse your opponent <span style="color: black; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 14.25pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">10. Sitting during speeches (unless there is a legitimate medical issue) <span style="color: black; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 14.25pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">11. Using CX solely for clarification <span style="color: black; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 14.25pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">12. Saying “my meta-ethical standard is practical reason” and then failing to explain that at all <span style="color: black; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 14.25pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">13. Link-less K’s <span style="color: black; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 14.25pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">14. Extending evidence through analytic responses, and expecting me to ignore those analytics <span style="color: black; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 14.25pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">15. Arguing with me post round <span style="color: black; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 14.25pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">16. Policy cases (card, tag, card, tag ad infinitum) <span style="color: black; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 14.25pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">17. Negatives running counterplans when the affirmative doesn’t run a plan <span style="color: black; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 14.25pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">18. Inability to make simple, smart logical arguments <span style="color: black; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 14.25pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">19. Failure to disclose on the grounds that “big schools will prep you out more” <span style="color: black; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 14.25pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">20. Power-tagging/exaggerated impacts (juveniles will not cause nuclear war) <span style="color: black; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 14.25pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">21. Inability to make fun of/point out examples of 20 <span style="color: black; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 14.25pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">22. Spending 2 minutes after the AC or NC OR after prep getting all your paper together <span style="color: black; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 14.25pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">23. Failure to crystalize <span style="color: black; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 14.25pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">24. Failure to look up and notice when I am not flowing (because you’re unclear), then getting mad at me for not voting for you on that argument. 25. Labeling random arguments as turns 26. Being evasive or unclear in CX 27. Reading a narrative in the first speech, then kicking it in the next and going for turns 28. Theory which says you can be non-topical as long as that non-topical impact is "really really big" 29. Hopelessly generic, nuance-less standards such as "net-benefits" or "minimizing suffering" (If you plan on doing this, you might as well just not read the standard). 30. Asking me as your judge: "Are you fine with speed?" or "Speed?" or any iteration thereof 31. Don't ask me questions about what arguments I like and dislike during the round (I //will// ignore and you and //will// get angry) 32. AFC -- don't even bother 33. Acting like my friend to garner my sympathy and consequently my ballot. It's very transparent 34. Krossguard -- I can't deal with this anymore, everyone runs it and barely anyone understands it.

<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; line-height: 14.25pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">Anything else you can think of, I am ambivalent towards. If you happen to be one of those debaters who does almost everything on the dislikes list, and are nervous about debating in front of me, all I can say is that that is good. If you are nervous that means you care and are more likely to adapt which can only be good for you.