Denesha,+Brian

School: Barrington High School, IL

I'm an English, Debate, & Speech teacher at Barrington High school. I have three years experience coaching and judging Lincoln-Douglas debate. When it comes to how I approach judging a round I am a classical/traditional judge and there are 5 key things you need to keep in mind...

1. Spreading/Speeding: When it comes to speed, I am not a big fan of spreading and will clear you if I feel that you are going too fast. If I clear you twice I will stop flowing your argument. In addition to not flowing your argument, you may lose speaker points from me as well as you are not paying attention to my request for clarity. I would much rather hear a clearly presented debate that allows for your opponent to understand the information that you are presenting, instead of listening to a speech that has been created to trick your opponent into missing one point that may be hidden in paragraphs of information. That is not debate...it is merely speed reading.

2. Value/Value Criteria: There must be a clear link between your value and value criteria and you need to be able to tie your contentions back to the FW you set up at the start of your constructive speech. If the link between them is not apparent, I may side with your opponent's value and value criteria over yours. I enjoy clash between V & VC so please try to show me why your FW is better. I expect you to link each of your contentions back to your value and value criteria. If there is no value or value criteria offered by you, this may cause you to lose the round.

3. K/Theory Debate: I have no desire to hear any Ks or theory. If you enjoy debating with tricks that are from policy debate then maybe you should be debating policy. I will likely dock your speaks if you say anything about the roll of the ballot, roll of the judge, or arguments in that vein as it shows me that you are either unwilling or unable to adapt to your judge.

4. Evidence/ Voter Issues I like to see tangible evidence supporting any points offered in your contentions. If your opponent gives clear evidence and you do not, I will probably side with your opponent on that point based on the fact that there is substance offered. Please make sure to tie your evidence back to your contentions. When it comes to Voter Issues, I will listen to and consider them, but please make sure they are true voters that are clearly based in offense coming off the flow and not defensive arguments that you are trying to slip in at the end of your 2nd rebuttal.

5. Speaking/Speaker Points: When evaluating speaking/speaker points, I take into account both argumentation and delivery. I look for clear and concise reasoning and analysis, as well as smooth delivery. I expect that you will act professionally while in round. If you are disrespectful to your opponent or me in the round, I will penalize you heavily in speaking points, and I may sign the ballot right then and there without hesitation.

This is a public speaking activity. Thus, I expect you to follow basic rules concerning presentation. For starters, stand when you are speaking.

I will give oral critiques at the end of each round for the purpose of helping to improve your presentation, but not necessarily about how I made my decision. At the beginning of each round, feel free to ask me about my paradigm. If you have no questions for me, I will assume you have read my paradigm and that you are ready to debate. I will typically disclose at the end of the round, but will not spend time justifying my RFD...that will be on the ballot.

Good luck and have fun!