Merrill,+Jeff

Judge Philosophy – Jeff Merrill. I debated for four years at Mountain View High School, graduating in 2009. My senior year, I won the Lexington Invitational and went to the TOC. I am conflicted from Mountain View High School, Los Altos High School, James Logan High School, The Nueva School, and De La Salle High School

Here's what's important:

PROPER CITATIONS: Please, please, PLEASE include full MLA/APA style citations for all of your evidence. I will call for cases at the end of rounds and will not vote on any extended cards without citations.

SPEED: A certain degree of speed is fine, but you should keep in mind that you are not an auctioneer: don’t talk like one. You can talk quickly as long as you enunciate clearly and are still expressive, but there is a point at which I simply cannot keep up with or understand what is being said. I’ll yell “clear” once; after that you’re on your own. I’m a firm believer in quality of responses over quantity, as well, which is to say that I’d prefer to see you make one good response to every point on the case than three mediocre responses to each. The best debaters don’t necessarily have to go fast to destroy someone in-round.

THEORY/TOPICALITY: I love topicality arguments and interpretations debate, but I do not believe that fairness is a voting issue, nor do I think that predictability or research burdens are reasons to prefer. Please do not run fairness theory in front of me. I'll drop ya.

"CRITICAL STUFF": I am absolutely open to (and would even prefer to see) Ks, irony, performances, narratives, audio-visual presentations, interpretive dances, and any other unconventional form of argumentation in rounds, as long as said arguments are correct interpretations of their source material, prove the resolution true or false, and are well-explained-- If you want to settle your round with a rap battle, give me a good reason to vote on it and go right ahead.

In short: Talk clearly; don't run fairness theory, but don't be afraid to run something weird; express yourself, explain your arguments, and most importantly, bring your A-game.

If you have any additional questions, please feel free to ask them before the round.