Wolf,+Andrew

Wooster High School BACKGROUND: I debated for four years at Wooster High School and four years at Case Western Reserve University. I attended William & Mary Law School and am now a Labor and Employment Attorney. I coach for Wooster High School, regularly judge tournaments in Ohio, and occasionally judge on the national circuit. GENERAL PHILOSOPHY: 1. I would much rather judge a debate in which you debate the arguments that are your strengths than a debate in which you argue what you think I might like. 2. I try to rely exclusively on my flow in deciding rounds, as I think that is the best way to prevent judge intervention. 3. I will not call for cards unless there is a dispute about the meaning of a card, or I am unable to resolve the debate in any other way. 4. Teams who display a mastery of their evidence by explaining how it supports their argument are likely to be further ahead than teams who merely cite cards without explanation. 5. While “offense” arguments are frequently more strategic, a good “defense” argument can take out any risk of the other team’s offense. 6. I will stop your prep time once you have saved your speech to a USB drive and removed the USB drive from your computer. I do this because it is the only way I can prevent teams from stealing prep time while purporting to “jump their speech.”  7. You should not assume that I have read anything by your authors. In my case, that is a bad assumption, and it usually results in teams developing their arguments poorly. Instead, you should explain your arguments as if I have never encountered your authors, cases, kritiks, etc. POLICY VS. KRITIK: I prefer smart, strategic arguments. Sometimes those arguments are “policy” arguments, sometimes those arguments are “kritiks,” and sometimes strategic debates take on alternative forms. I really do not have a preference on this question, so you should debate what you know and what is strategic in the round you are debating. I think that framework is a question of which interpretation is better for debate. It would be difficult to convince me that kritiks should be banned altogether. DISADVANTAGES: I prefer specific to generic. I am not a big fan of politics disadvantages because so many of them contain implausible link stories, and debaters generally assume that two-word tags are all of the analysis that is necessary to win the flow. That’s not to say that I won’t vote for politics, but you do have to work to develop the links. COUNTERPLANS: Specific solvency advocates make all counterplans better. I’m not a big fan of consult counterplans and tend to vote disproportionately aff on a perm. I also dislike conditions counterplans because I think that they are rarely predictable and cripple the aff’s ability to generate offense. KRITIKS: I will repeat: you should not assume that I have read anything by your authors. I enjoy kritik debates; I do not enjoy reading books by authors commonly cited in kritik debates. Please be specific when extending cards in the last rebuttals. If the block reads 9 Dillon cards, extending “the Dillon 99” evidence tells me almost nothing. TOPICALITY: I enjoy T debates. Unless reasonability is conceded and well-developed, I am likely to decide a topicality debate by determining which interpretation is best for debate. “No in-round abuse” is generally a losing argument with me. THEORY: All theory should be context-specific. That means that while I might not find PICS bad persuasive in general, I am much more likely to find theory regarding why the neg’s specific PIC is bad persuasive. I tend to find the following theory arguments unpersuasive unless argued within the context of the round: conditionality bad, PICs bad, vagueness, and specification arguments. I generally evaluate theory within a framework of competing interpretations. Again, “no in-round abuse” is generally a losing argument with me. ALTERNATIVE FORMS OF DEBATE: I do not have a blanket objection to alternative forms of debate, although I have some biases in those debates. 1. Clash is important, so arguments that I perceive to be “dropped” will factor into my decision regardless of critiques of traditional flowing. 2. I am VERY easily persuaded that the 1AC must contain a plan text or some form of advocacy statement other than “the whole 1AC.” That said, whether the advocacy statement must include federal government action is very much up for debate. 3. I am also willing to vote on “personal attacks bad” theory if such attacks are made and the other team makes the theory argument. FLOWING: I try to flow tags, warrants, and cites, with the emphasis on tags and warrants. I will not set any records for the fastest flow, but this is unlikely be a problem so long as you are not reading incomprehensively or speeding through one-line “arguments.” I enjoy humor in debate rounds and will likely reward entertaining debaters with higher speaker points. If you are not funny and try, that could be worse than not trying. If you have questions, please ask.