DiIulio,+John

I debated LD for La Salle College High School from 2005-2008 and coached the team from 2008-2012.

Here are a few things that might be helpful. If you want to know anything else, feel free to ask me before the round:

1. I am able to follow most styles of debate/varieties of argument and I do my best to keep a fairly rigorous flow.

2. My default assumption is that the debate will focus on a value-criterion clash and impacts linking back to the value-criterion(s). This is also the style of debate that I prefer. However, I am willing to listen to any argument that gives me a reason for voting; hence, if you want to run a Kritik, theory, etc., I will hear it out. (I probably won't be ecstatic about it, but I will hear it out...)

3. On the one hand, speed doesn't bother me; my pen will follow it. On the other hand, speed almost always makes debaters far less coherent and far more prone to blippy arguments (this has particular relevance for your speaker points). Moreover, I don't think that speed has anything to do with being a good or skilled debater; hence, if your opponent is uncomfortable with speed and likes to debate at a relatively conversational pace, I am not going to penalize him/her for strategically narrowing his/her focus to the most significant points of clash in the round (i.e. you will not pick up my ballot by spreading your opponent out of the round). That being said, go fast if it suits your fancy.

4. Your arguments need to have well-developed warrants. If your warrant is blippy, introducing further unwarranted claims, etc., then you are not giving me anything that I can vote on. Remember: you are trying to argue in a matter of minutes (or seconds) what others have spent their entire careers trying to establish. If you show me that you realize this, then you will make me a very, very happy judge.

5. Extending an argument means extending the claim, warrant, and impact, and showing me how the argument functions in the round; weighing is perennially underutilized: weigh your impacts well and watch your speaker points soar; articulate the ballot for me in your last rebuttal: tell me where I am voting and why.

6. Be respectful to your opponent...really, this is supposed to be fun.

Overall, I guess that I'm partial to depth and substance over gamesmanship and gimmicks. I want to vote for the debater who spent more nights thinking about the topic.

Anything else, don't hesitate to ask. Good luck!