Duek,+Tyler

I've done primarily Public Forum Debate for the 4 years I was in Speech and Debate, so please try to adapt to that the best you can. I know I am judging LD this weekend so I took a crash course on it to try to learn it as best as I could.

Couple of tips for you:

-I am generous with speaker points. I won't give you below a 27 unless you said something/did something that was terrible in round, like personally attacking your opponent. Ad hominem fallacies are some of the worst to commit in debate and I won't take it lightly. Otherwise, for the 99% of you who won't do anything wrong in round, just know that if I give a 30, you're perfect and if you quit debate before you graduate I will find you. If you're like me and don't speak so pretty, feel free to crack jokes in round. It won't persuade me but it will increase your speaker points. I have a broad sense of humor so don't worry about offending me.

-I am alright with speed. If you spread like Busta Rhymes I can't flow that, so you'll be put at a enormous disadvantage if your opponent doesn't spread and you did.

-If you win the framework that doesn't mean you win the debate. Let's say you value morality, right? You persuade me that morality is the most important thing in the round, so I buy it and you win that aspect of the debate. However, you fail to clearly link into it, and your opponent's arguments are linking into it better, then I will give the win to your opponent. Don't just tell me why your value is better, also tell me why you're uniquely tied to that value, and why it should be weighed most heavily in the round.

-I'm an open book when it comes to my decision. I will typically have a decision on the round as soon as the debate is over. I do disclose, unless the tournament says I am not allowed to. I will also give a RFD(reason for decision), so it won't be like "I voted pro, get good con". As soon as I am doing doing my RFD, I'll ask if you have any questions. Please feel free to ask me anything, I won't get offended. I won't change my decision on the round, but I want to be as clear as possible in my decision so that you won't go off to the cafeteria table with your friends and tell them how crap of a judge I am.

Again, if you have any other questions, please feel free to ask me.