Ellsworth,Ted

Some background: Competed in both LD and Policy debate in High School. Qualified nationally all three years, clearing in both 2010 and 2011. (4th Place, LD 2010). Since high school I have been actively involved as a private coach and have judged frequently. How I will evaluate the round:

I will evaluate the topic as you tell me to. I want to be objective, please help me do so by providing clear context for each of your arguments. Value-Criterion pairs are not necessary. Whatever framework you deploy: link your offense back through the framework, weigh your arguments, and be strategic. This is your activity.

This means that I have no preference for the ‘form’ of your argument. K’s, DA’s, CP’s, etc. are all wonderful. Performance based arguments are also fine, however, I don’t have a great deal of experience judging them. Don’t let this deter you from running your arguments, just give me a clear framework to work with. I will do my best to keep a rigorous flow, please slow down when reading the authors name. That being said, I have a fairly high threshold for speed. I will drop you immediately for arguments which create a hostile environment for me, your opponent, or the community at large. This means that arguments which explicitly condone things such as genocide, sexism, racism, etc. will result in a loss.

A Special note on topicality, since this is (generally) the source of my ire towards debaters. - -Debater’s may define the topic in either a general sense or they may choose to set parameters through plan text. However, these plans should still encompass the general truth claim of the resolution.

-Lazy theory will hurt you. I will dramatically lower your speaks if you’re running something similar to; speed theory, K’s are bad, must read plan, can’t read plan, disclosure. -I have a low threshold for RVI's. I generally think that theory is overused and oversimplified. If you need to run theory fine, if you could have clearly won the round without it I will take away speaker points.

If you have any questions you can e-mail me at tsellsworth@gmail.com.