Duong,+Benjamin

St. John's '09

I have been debated for the past 4 years at St. John's, and have judged for the past 3. I find myself pretty okay with anything as along as people aren't jerks to one another. I do value clarity over speed and although it is not mandatory, I like it when people say next inbetween cards; it just helps me follow your arguments.

Disads- Perfectly fine in my opinion especially if it is a good Disad that is prepared well. I look at disads as traditional neg strat. Bad disads don't look good, but I'll listen to them and evaluate them if needed. I also know that politics will be big this year and thus I am more open minded about them being run than the last couple of years, but am still not overly enthusiastic about them.

CP's- LOVE THEM. Mostly all I ran for my first two years was the Consult NATO CP. CP theory is amazing in my opinion and PICs are fine by me. Most of the NBs included with the CP should be able to stand alone as DAs if needed.

The "K"- I must say that I lean more to the policy side than the critical side of debate. That does not mean that I won't listen or evaluate the K, but it just means that the Neg has to overwhelm the Aff and explain their K well enough that it takes out the Aff case. Analysis on the K should be concise and sound. Oh yeah, they should make sense too; I am not a fan of things like the Speed K.

T - I will say upfront that I do not like to vote on T. Especially in the middle to late part of the year, I would rather decide the round on something substantial. However, I will drop a team on T if they either do not answer, don't say it is/isn't a voter and the other team harps on it for the entire round, or if the case is blatantly untopical and the neg argues such. I do believe that it is the Neg's burden to prove that the aff case is overwhelmingly untopical for me to vote solely on T.

Theory- I love to hear theory debates. They must be a bit cleaner than just DA/CP debates, but I have no problem deciding a round solely on theory provided that it is well argued.

As a sidenote, PLEASE signpost or at least attempt to.