Roberds,+Chris

** __BACKGROUND:__ ** Chris Roberds is the debate coach and judge at Marshfield High School in Marshfield, Missouri. The 2011-12 topic is his 17th year in the activity and 9th in the role of coach and/ or judge. You can reach him via email at chris.roberds@marshfieldbluejays.org

- I have judged a limited number of rounds on this topic - I coach in Missouri so we are not allowed to start attending tournaments until mid-October. With this said, I follow a lot of rounds and read a most of cases/ neg strats on the wiki every couple of weeks and I judge lots of practice debates. - I prefer lots of arguments over a few thorough arguments - I think this forces strategic decision making by the debaters. Your top speed is fine as long as it is clear AND I would suggest that you slow down on tags for theory arguments if you are planning on making something like "condo bad" your 2ar strat. - I will read evidence after almost every round. - I like politics a lot more than Ks - My perfect generic 2NR is politics and an agent CP. The best way to win a K in front of me is to argue that it turns case and makes case impossible to solve. - I don't like cheap shots - I think plan flaws are a reason to ask questions in the CX or pre-round. Make debate better. - K Framework - I prefer to do policy making. However, you need to answer the project if they run it. - Cheating CPs - I don't like backfile check type CPs (veto cheato) or "I wrote this for fun" CPs (consult Harry Potter/ Jesus). I do like topic agent CPs (like have China do the plan, have the private sector do the plan) - Link vs Uniqueness - Uniqueness determines the direction of the link - if it is not gonna pass now, there is no way the link can make it pass less. - Be Nice and FLOW!
 * __Cliff's Notes Version:__**

__** In Depth Stuff: **__

I tend to prefer policy oriented discussions over kritikal debates but I will be happy to evaluate whatever you want to run. My favorite debates come down to a clash between specific arguments on the flow of the advantages and disadvantages. On theory you should number or slow down your tags so that I get the clash. I can flow your speed if it is clear, but if you want me to get the 19 reasons why conditionality is a bad practice you should slow down to a speed I can flow the blips. That said, I tend to prefer fast debate to slow debates that ultimately don't point to the resolution of the topic. Read warrants in your evidence. Full sentences are how people speak. They have things like nouns, verbs, and prepositions. Please make sure that your evidence would make sense if you were reading it slowly. I tend to read a decent amount of evidence after the round if there is a reason to do so. If you want me to call for a specific card please remind me in the 2nr/ 2ar. Also please give reasons why your offense turns their offense besides "war causes x."
 * GENERAL- **

**SPECIFICS-** **Topicality-** I believe the affirmative should affirm the topic and the negative should negate the plan. It is fairly difficult to convince me that this is not the appropriate paradigm for the affirmative to operate under. I don't have a specific preference for competing interpretations vs abuse. If you want me to vote on Topicality the 2nr should be that. Spending less than the entire 2nr on a theoretical issue and expecting me to vote on it is absurd. It won't happen.

**Counterplans-** I love counterplans. I typically believe the negative should be able to have conditional, non-contradicting advocacies but I can be persuaded as to why this is bad. Typically this will need to be proven through some type of specific in round abuse besides time skew. I think that the permutations should be more than "perm: do both, perm: do the plan, perm: do the CP."

**Kritiks-** I am not as deep on some of this literature as you are. You should take the time in CX or a block overview to explain the story of the K. The one area where this is not true is regarding sexist/ racist language. Don't have phrases in your vocabulary like "postman", "fireman," or "congressman." This doesn't mean that I will automatically vote on anything that is contrived to be offensive though. Performance style debate is interesting to me but you will have to explain your framework from the beginning. I probably tend to be more easily swayed by the framework arguments about ground compared to exclusion. I will tend to default to preferring traditional types of debate.

**Politics-** I like good politics debates better than probably any other argument. I like interesting stories about specific senators, specific demographics for elections d/as, etc. With this being said, I would rather see a fully developed debate about the issue. I tend to evaluate this debate as a debate about uniqueness. Teams that do the work tend to get rewarded.

**My perfect debate-** Without a doubt the perfect round is a 2nr that goes for a pic (or advantage cp with case neg) and a politics d/a as a net benefit.

**Paperless and speaker point stuff-** I will give you a .5 point boost if you show me your flow at the end of the round and you have actually flowed the entire round. Your opponents do not need to flash drive you the entire speech, just the cards. You should be expected to flow the round regardless of whether they are giving you a digital copy of their speech or not. I will dock .5 speaker points if you are reading ahead in the speech that your opponent is delivering because you have a digital copy of it. One of my biggest problems with the paperless revolution is that it has caused many people to become lazy when it comes to clashing with their opponents arguments. Please do not rely on embedded clash answering all of your opponents arguments. Make the argument for me. Your prep time stops when you have your speech saved to your flash drive. If you are going to print out your opponents speech please do so while your opponent is speaking unless your printer is unbelievably loud. If it is, please wait until after they speak or take your prep time to print it. If your computer crashes and needs to reboot I will allow you to stop the timer and get another computer/ reboot ONE TIME in a round without penalty. If it does it a second time you need to get a backup plan.