Sheats,+Eileen

Federal Way High School ‘13

I debated for 4 years in high school, 2 years on the national circuit. I attended NSD for 2 summers.

SPEAKING I’m fairly good with speed, however keep in mind that since I’m no longer debating I haven’t been doing flowing drills, etc. I will say “clear” or “slower” as needed and I won’t dock your speaks as long as you listen. Make sure to slow down for tags/author names. You should also indicate somehow where cards or arguments end and the next begin.

THEORY I’m fine with most theory arguments as long as they’re not ridiculous things like “the aff must read the resolution prior to starting their AC”. I default to competing interpretations because assuming that the abuse story is reasonable, you should be able to recognize that your arguments could be construed as abusive and the burden is on you to have the counterinterp prepared. Your opponent reserves the right to ask you to write down the entire interpretation before they start timed CX or prep. I tend to be sympathetic to RVIs, especially for the aff. Please don’t run meta-theory, that is infinitely regressive and I won’t flow it. If their theory argument is stupid, point out why it is stupid instead of introducing more stupid theory. CX CX is definitely binding, however I don’t flow CX, and I won’t bind you to something that I’m not confident I heard you say. I will dock speaks for being intentionally elusive in CX. Flexprep is okay.

FRAMEWORK If your frameworks essentially say the same thing, please do your best to recognize that earlier on in the debate rather than later and work on the contention level. I hate seeing debates between people who have essentially the same framework where the bulk of the debate is on the framework level. Try and compare the two frameworks instead of treating them as two isolated layers of the debate. The same thing goes for definitions - don't waste time reading definitions that say the exact same thing as your opponent's. If there is a framework in the round, I will //not//evaluate arguments that don’t explicitly link back into the framework unless you give me a valid reason as to why those arguments don’t need frameworks. If you choose to not run a framework, that is fine, but if your opponent has a framework I will probably evaluate the round under their framework unless you really compel me to believe I should do otherwise.

SPIKES I don’t like to, but I will vote off spikes, however if there is an easier way to vote on a different level of the debate I will do so. For neg debaters, please don’t read spikes at the top of the NC if they’re completely irrelevant to the affirmative case. I.E., if your opponent is running deont, please don’t read your 10 util spikes. That’s just wasting everybody’s time. MICROPOLITICAL POSITIONS Debate is fictional discourse—i.e. I do not believe that a debater is defending his real, actual beliefs. If a debater uses offensive discourse, a loss is neither appropriate nor sufficient as punishment. That debater's administration should be notified and punitive actions should be taken, but not by the judge—the role of the judge is to determine the truth or falsity of the resolution, within theoretical parameters. However, this does not include post-fiat K's, etc. PRESUMPTION  If the debate becomes irresolvable and there are no presumption arguments, I will either vote against the debater who made the debate irresolvable, or I will flip a coin if both debaters are equally at fault. If a presumption argument is made in any speech and goes uncontested, I will vote on it even if it goes unextended. <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: arial,sans-serif;">COURTESY <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: arial,sans-serif;">If your opponent asks for your case or other things you’ve read, you reserve the right to not show them. However, I would consider this to be discourteous and your speaks will probably suffer. Also, I won’t vote someone down just because their internet is turned on in the round, however things like having a Google search page open are things that warrant the loss of a ballot.

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #1a1a1a; font-family: arial,sans-serif;">PS. I love skip triggers