Caruso,+Tom

I debated for four years for Lakeville North High School in Lakeville, MN, on both the local and national levels. I'm currently a sophomore at Columbia.

General:
 * I don't really care what types of arguments you run, etc., as long as they are warranted and impacted. I'm fine with theory, critical positions, and the like.
 * With theory, I prefer to hear it when there's a legitimate abuse story, but I'll still vote on it otherwise, though I may do so begrudgingly, and you probably won't get good speaks if you run it poorly, unnecessarily, or, worse yet, both.
 * I've never been able to flow policy rounds well, and there haven't been really any LD rounds that I have ever witnessed that I was unable to flow. In other words, speed probably won't be an issue, but know that my flow will be less detailed if you read extremely quickly. Slow down for authors. As every judge says, just be clear. I will yell "clear" once or twice if I can't understand you. If I'm judging you (especially in earlier rounds), take this with a grain of salt, as it will probably have been a long time since I last judged.
 * Be extremely explicit. Tell me what arguments I'm voting on and why. Give me a clear decision calculus. **Tell me exactly what to do.**
 * Weigh arguments. I like when debaters weigh arguments in the NC/1AR and then extend weighing analysis.
 * Absent offense, I'll presume neg unless there's a reason given in round as to why I shouldn't.
 * I'm pretty generous with speaker points. To me, speaker points are more about the quality of argumentation than actual speaking ability.

Specific:
 * Feel free to ask me any questions before the round.