Soper,+Andrew

Debate Experience: High School Policy Debate: 3 years at Bingham High School.

Arguments: T- In high school most of the time Topicality debates were a time skew for me, but that doesn't mean I won't evaluate them. I tend to evaluate T debates more on competing interpretations. I don't view potential abuse as a voter unless you explain why it is in the context of the aff.

Theory- Theory debates are fine with me, but there needs to be good explanation of the abuse scenario. I have a very high threshold for conditionality if the neg team reads 1 or 2 conditional advocacies, but if there's more the threshold gets a lot lower. I'll tend to view theory arguments more as reasons to reject the argument, but it all depends on how its explained.

Counterplans- I read a lot of these in high school so for the most part go for it. The more specific your counterplan is to the aff the better it will be. In order for me to vote on a counterplan there needs to be a net benefit clearly identified. I'm not a big fan of process counterplans, you can still read them but my threshold on theory for these arguments is pretty low.

Disadvantages- Again, the more specific the disadvantage is to the aff, the better the argument will be. Read your disads with counterplans or case turns/defense or the aff will probably outweigh.

K's- I have no problem with kritiks but more often than not people don't explain them well. Put in the time to explain the argument to me. If you are going for an alt there needs to be a lot of explanation of what it is and what it does. I default to just weighing impacts of the k vs the aff but if you give reasons why the k is a prior question then I'll evaluate it that way.

Case- I enjoy case debates since they tend to be the most specific. At the very least you should be reading impact defense. Try not to read multiple cards on case that make the exact same argument.

K affs- I read a k aff towards the end of my high school debate career, so I don't have a problem with them. I think the key to having a good k aff is it being as related to the topic as possible. I find k affs that reject the resolution to not be as persuasive as ones that talk about it, but maybe they don't defend government action.

Delivery: Clarity>speed. Don't be rude to your partner or your opponents. Don't prep steal. Try to have fun.

If you have any questions feel free to ask me.