Lee,+Stephen

Hey debaters, my name is Caitlin Lee and I'm going to break down Stephen Lee (my dad's) paradigm for y'all.

TL;DR: Do whatever you want (spread at your own peril) but make everything clear as possible. On the spectrum of judges (1 being someone with no experience or interest in debate at all and 10 being a former TOC winner), my dad ranks about a solid 5. He'll understand things that are logical but if you start throwing in debate jargon every other sentence, he'll start tuning out and thinking about more important matters than a seemingly nonsensical debater.

Here's a deeper breakdown on specific types of arguments:

Theory: My dad will understand theory but make sure you really REALLY clearly state the interp, standards, and voters (slow down!). Unless you seriously persuade him otherwise, he defaults to competing interps, no RVIs, and evaluates theory according to reasonability. HE WILL NOT, I REPEAT WILL NOT, VOTE ON FRIVOLOUS THEORY. Your opponent better be ACTUALLY abusive for my dad to think about it - if you like frivolous theory, don't pref my dad because he seriously will vote on reasonability more than any other voter.

Framework debate: Probably the easiest way to win my dad's ballot. He is super smart and nerdy and therefore decently well read in philosophy, so he'll appreciate nuanced use of normative ethics. That being said, that does not mean he will understand dense philosophical cases or 8 refutations to even something like util unless you are showing him step by step what your argument is. Be explicit and make links clear. My dad pretty much wants a value and value criterion; if you are a K debater or like running more ROB type frameworks, don't pref my dad. Basically, make sure you clearly link back your contentions to your standard and justify your standard logically. Don't assume that he just "knows" what you are talking about; explain it clearly to him. WEIGH AND IMPACT ARGUMENTS UNDER THE FRAMEWORK!

Policy style arguments (i.e. plans, CPs, DAs): Don't try. If you really want to, don't call it a plan, or CP or DA or whatever: just run it as a contention. For any OCSL/CHSSA tournaments, my dad will default to CHSSA rules, so he'll probably disregard plans/CPs (he'll vote off of other offense you might have, but it'll be an uphill battle). He's open to topicality and WILL vote on T if it becomes a make-it-or-break-it issue, but, like theory, don't run it frivolously.

Don't run kritiks, performance positions, etc. Basically, don't run anything that veers off the course of a normal debate case with a value and a value criterion (or standard) and a couple contentions unless you are willing to really CLEARLY explain every single part.

Style: He won't vote solely off of it, but he, like all other rational human beings, is affected by perceptual dominance and it'll probably somewhat influence his decision or at least his feelings about the round. Being assertive and even a tad aggressive during CX? Cool. Being rude and/or insulting your opponent in any form? Not cool, especially for your chance at fighting for the ballot. My dad is also more conservative leaning on the political spectrum. He'll vote for just about anything clearly weighed and impacted, but, once again, he is more on the lay side, and making a bunch of arguments that don't necessarily agree with him might make your fight for the ballot difficult. But most importantly... Don't you dare spread. He's relatively lay. He'll yell clear and slow until he feels you are ignoring him or you just keep slowing down and speeding up again and he feels like his efforts are futile. All you policy debaters who want to get in their 489302489 contentions, please just don't pref my dad, don't spread, or just calmly accept the ballot with your opponent's name circled instead of yours.

Miscellaneous: I'm not my dad. Go figures. So PLEASE ask him for clarification about anything I wrote in the paradigm. If you are unsure about what I wrote and/or you want to make sure that x argument is okay with him, ASK HIM. I promise you he is way nicer than he looks. Have fun!