Harr,+Kelsey

GTA - University of Northern Iowa**
 * Kelsey Harr

I am currently the director of debate at UNI. While in undergrad, I debated for UNI for four years and competed at all levels. I finished my B.A. in Sociology in 2006. I spent the following two years completing my M.A. in communication studies at UNI during which time I served as the graduate assistant coach.

I generally think that a debater’s job is to make a judge’s job easier. The following are some general ways you can do that for me.

1. Debate the way that works for you – I would rather watch you debate something that intrigues or excites you than for you to run my favorite arguments.

2. Clarity is a prerequisite to speed - if you are unclear I will let you know and you should adjust. If you fail to do so, I will stop flowing you. I cannot vote for an argument I do not flow.

3. Make your evidence work for you – tell me what your evidence gets you and why it is important. Pick and choose which pieces of evidence win you the round and explain why. I generally don’t call for a lot of evidence unless it seems particularly important to do so.

4. Specificity is always a good thing – you should make your answers specific to the argument you are answering. The you need to use the language of the kritik as well as the affirmative to make clear why does or doesn’t link and provide specific and clear link stories on disads.

5. Give me warrants – do not resort to tagline and buzzword debating. Tell me why winning one card/argument/flow means you should win the debate, why that independent voter is a reason the other team should lose, and why your claims regarding evidence are valid.

6. Watch me – you can usually tell when I am confused, enjoying myself, in pain, etc by watching my reactions. This should clue you in on how the round is going.

If you have specific questions that this doesn't answer feel free to ask.