Zhang,+Charles

I'm currently a junior at Millburn High School, so this will be for the novices and JVers. :)

Speed: I doubt I'll ever hear a freshman spreading, but I can flow speed. Like anyone else though, please be clear. I'll drop speaks after the second time I have to say "clear."

Etiquette: a. there's a difference between being perceptually dominant and being snobby. b. with that said, I do like funny debaters and reward them with higher speaks. c. please don't pace around. d. please don't pace toward me and peek at what I've written on my ballot. e. I'm fine with both sitting and standing.

Other Pieces of Advise (I write these through seeing what I've in rounds): a. don't ask too many clarification questions. Cross-ex is (can) usually (be) the best part of watching rounds for me. b. when making extensions, don't just say, "s/he didn't address the Stern evidence. Extend it. This is going to be important because it means rehabilitation actually decreases recidivism rates more than retributive policies do." Okay, maybe you extend the impact, but also extend warrant. Tell me again why that argument is true. c. remember the standard! I judge rounds and see debaters get stuck in the contention level clash and forget to talk about the framework. If you're talking about why your advocacy better achieves, say, reducing recidivism rates, that doesn't link to anywhere unless you extend the value criterion. d. about the value premise: unless your opponent's value premise is "life" or something silly like that, don't bother with it. I assume it's going to be either justice, morality, or governmental legitimacy, and there really isn't a difference. Spend your fifteen seconds of your speech elsewhere. e. signpost plzzz. Number your responses. Plzzz. The other day, somebody made the same arguments over and over again in the 1A. By the third time he made the same response, I lost where he was on the flow. Say "off his response to Stern. I have three responses." Say "now go to the AC." Make cross-applications if you have to.

Other Things 2: These aren't pet peeves of mine per se, but they some of these might bother me a little. Also, I think they'd be good to keep in mind in front of more traditional or more lay judges.

a. don't talk down to your opponent. By this I mean "do you need to borrow a timer?" right as your opponent sits down before the round begins and "will you be taking prep?" right after CX. b. know how to pronounce words. Read your cases over. i.e- recividism -> recidivism c. Know the speech times. 6-3-7-4-6-3. Four minutes of prep each. 5 for circuits. d. when you're done with prep, I expect you to have gotten all your blocks, your off cases, etc. out in front of you. e. I give 30s if you didn't stutter, you were funny, you weren't pretentious, you signposted, you gave me a roadmap, you didn't use flex-prep, you didn't spread. and

If you have any questions, feel free to send me an email. charles.zhang071@gmail.com. I'll write it on the ballot too, just in case.