Ryan,+Caitlin

East Grand Rapids, Michigan State
I’m a 4th year debater Michigan State. In High school I debated at East Grand Rapids HS. This is kind of long, so bear with me – I tried to think of how I feel about all arguments – this is the way that I like to debate, so I think it will give you insight on how I evaluate rounds. I’m fine with open cross ex/ tag teaming and prompting, but not to the point that it’s excessive. If you’re overly mean or rude to either the other team or your partner I will dock your points without vocally warning – but if I have an “angry” _expression on, you may want to cool it. Speed and all args are fine, just don’t try to go faster than you can physically (don’t do the high-pitched unclear thing.) I LOVE LINE BY LINE AND IMPACT ANALYSIS – these are things that are rare on the novice level but make rounds sooo much easier to decide. I like well argued and intelligent arguments, and if I have to read cards to determine the winner, it will hurt everyone.

Specifically – TOPICALITY: I believe that you must have both offense and defense on topicality – I guess I have a slightly higher burden for the aff – but **unless you CLEARLY meet**, YOU CANNOT WIN TOPICALITY ON ONLY A WE MEET. You need a counter interpretation and offense to the negative interpretation. KRITIKS: Don’t run something with the sole intent of confusing the other team – it will confuse you as well and NOT impress me. I am more familiar with these arguments than you (40 rounds this year,) so I am fine with all the buzz words etc that go with critical arguments. DISADS: I love a good disad. The best disads are CASE SPECIFIC or at least have specific links. That being said, I love politics disads and intelligent argumentation of links etc. COUNTERPLANS: A counterplan with a net benefit is the bread and butter of being negative. I believe a small solvency deficit can be outweighed by a large risk of a large net benefit, so affs – win that your case impacts outweigh their disads! Dirty word PICs (PICing out of a word in the plan) are interesting, and I’d love to hear them argued well. Generic counterplans can rock too! THEORY AND CHEAPSHOTS: All must be explained – claim, warrant, impact. Big theory debates must include clash, and offense and defense. Dropped arguments are true to me generally, but it is up to you to impact those arguments and explain why it matters if they are dropped.

Closing words – sexist, racist, heterosexist, or other “ist” comments won’t be tolerated. If you are offensive enough, I will intervene to the extreme. If you are using gendered language I will comment once. If you don’t stop, you will lose points.