Gerard,+Bonnie

I coach at Casady School in Oklahoma City. I debated at Allen High School in Texas. I have a Ph.D. in Nineteenth Century British Literature from the University of North Texas. I teach sophomore, junior and senior English courses in British lit, American lit, postcolonial lit, modernism, poetic metaphor theory, Romantic and Victorian poets, and other subjects from time to time. This is my sixth year to coach debate.

I like evaluating both policy-based and critical debates. I appreciate critical affs whether or not they defend plan implementation. I need to be convinced to vote under your framework, in any case.

Your debate in front of me should be courteous, technically proficient, clear, and organized. I appreciate when teams will flash their speech docs to me.

It is important for me to feel involved and engaged in the debate, so make it clear what your arguments are and how you want me to evaluate them. I am open to a lot of different debate styles -- just tell me how you want me to evaluate the debate.

I like to see the aff tested in multiple ways, and the aff should not whine about having to defend against multiple frameworks.

Note on T: I generally default to reasonability, cross-ex checks, etc. if I think the neg is running T as a time skew; but both sides should have specific reasons why their interpretation is better for debate. Put impacts on your T arguments. I need to be persuaded that T is good; I don't necessarily think that it always is.

Note on CX for younger teams: please look at the judge not at each other. Open CX is fine, but the one being cross-ex'ed should try to answer first. Your speaker points will be rewarded for a great CX lowered for a bad one. I do pay attention to CX, but I will not evaluate the arguments made in CX unless they are applied in the speeches themselves.

Note on disclosure: I prefer both teams to disclose before the round, as disclosure makes for a substantively better round. Aff should disclose plan text and advantages; neg should disclose what the have gone for against that aff previously, if they have debated against it before. If not, they should disclose strats they tend to go for. Affs should also be on the wiki. If your coach says don't disclose, then do what your coach says.

Speaker Point Scale: Some speed is fine, and clarity is important. If you are too fast, I will ask you to slow down a little; if you are not clear I will yell out “Clear.” Average debate starts at 27.5, Good is 27.5-28.5 (most good rounds end up in this range), Excellent 29-29.5. I do not like inappropriate language, unless in forms of art, and expect all debaters to be rational and civil in how they treat each other. I appreciate passion in persuasive argumentation, but please do not yell at me or tell me how I have to vote (rather than how I should vote).

I do not count flashing files against your prep time unless it becomes abusive. Please don't steal prep.

Most of all, do what you do best!