Sherif,+Gillian

School: Bay Area Urban Debate League

My name is Gillian Sherif. I debated for four years in high school at La Costa Canyon in San Diego, CA. I debated circuit only my last year of high school. After graduating and taking three years away from the debate community I went to Cal and started coaching with the Bay Area Urban Debate League. I’ve been with them for about 2 years now.

I’m very flow oriented and hate intervening, so be clear with sign posting. Going line by line in the same order as previous speeches is a huge plus with me. If you want to deviate from previous orders be extremely clear about where you’re at. I’m fine with speed but please slow down a bit/ get louder with tags.

Cards – All cards must be extended with warrants. Just the tag or the author isn’t going to cut it. Extend your argument not your card. I normally only look at cards at the end of the round if there’s a dispute about what it says.

Topicality/ Theory/ Framework- this is normally where I start my decision. If you’re running something kritical make sure you invest some time on framework. If you’re running something extreme like “debate bad” “spreading bad” you’re really going to need to win framework.

Even though I preferred kritical arguments as a debater I don’t really lean either way as a judge. If you’re going to run kritical stuff it’s really important to win your framework plus your fundamental argument. So, I may be biased in that I expect a little more work on the K side. For both K and straight up teams – I’m not super familiar with all the arguments with this topic. Assume I haven’t heard your specific scenario before. Be clear about internal links.

Winning the round – Make my life easy. Tell me what the most important issues are in the round. Please give me multiple scenarios in which you win. Do impact calc.