Judging
Qualified Judging in a World of Specialization
There’s been a lot of discussion about the nature of judging vis-à-vis Michael Miller’s previous post, found here. I’m not going to talk about speed, at least not in-depth; my feelings on this were made pretty clear in my comments within the aforementioned post. But I’d like to use the discussion as a jumping off [...]
Interesting comment
From the Sunset Cliffs post an anonymous person writes: all the preparation is wasted. opp strategy is always Topicality, procedurals, and counterplans. the debate doesn’t start until the 2nd speech. at least thats what it seems like. If true, I think this is a very damaging to both the future adoption of the event by [...]
Looking for Hired Judges? Want to be a hired judge?
I’m happy to announce my next project is ready to roll out as a beta site for the Spring 2010 semester – JudgeHarmony.com JudgeHarmony solves the #1 problem tournament directors and coaches face – finding enough judges for upcoming tournaments. The site is available for middle school, high school and college tournaments. We also solve [...]
Judge Training Feature
One of the reasons I’m really liking this topic is the opportunity we have this year to really branch out with our judging pools. I’d be remiss to not mention the fact that I’m shamelessly stealing this idea from Dr. Kasle at Riverside who was able to arrange for an excellent presentation from the Federal [...]
Debate is a game
Some great comments on recent posts hashing out why we do debate (here as well). One of those comments, which as been agreed upon, is the statement that “debate is a game.” I hear this often and it is spoken as if it’s carved in stone. I, for one, disagree. NFA-LD Debate for me is [...]
Some Clarity on Funding Theory
I would like offer some of my thoughts on why and to what extent an affirmative must discuss funding. These are my current thoughts, but I’m really interested in some discussion to help me reach some clarity. This seemed to come up a lot this weekend. 1) An affirmative must provide something under the plan [...]
Showing Weakness While Judging Debate
While judging one of the out rounds of NFA L/D this last weekend, the other two judges and I had the opportunity to answer a few questions about our debate paradigms, a fairly normal practice these days. The question was, “How do you feel about the rules of NFA L/D concerning conversation rate and speed?” [...]
Fiat – the magic wand of debate
Fiat is a term that is often used in debates and I wanted to go over some basics. Fiat is a term which means “let it be.” In debate, its come to represent the idea that debates should revolve around the “should” question instead of the “could” question. So rather than asking, could the US [...]
Full Citation or Last name & Year?
Again, a round of thank yous to Dr. Kasle for organizing the RCC debate camp last month. It was a terrific experience for me the day I was there and helpful to a lot of students and coaches from around the country. We had a great discussion at the camp regarding the rule regarding evidence [...]
States Counterplan problem?
SAFETEA-LU enacted in 2005 (Public Law 109-59, 109th Congress) discusses how transportation infrastructure projects are incredibly complex and require coordination between multiple levels of government. A states counterplan could run into substantial solvency deficit if the “states go it alone” as many states counterplan specify… SAFETEA-LU Law, Public law 109-59, 2005 (http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/getdoc.cgi?dbname=109_cong_public_laws&docid=f:publ059.109, accessed August 6, [...]
2009 NFA-LD Debate Cooperative Tournament Final Round
The final round from the 2009 NFA-LD Debate Cooperative Tournament is online. Thanks to Nick Garcia of The Ohio State University for recording and uploading this video. I expect more lectures to get posted in the coming weeks. Subscribing to Nick’s youtube feed should provide you with e-mail alerts when new camp videos are posted. [...]
New Feature on the Site
With the success of the definition database I thought I would start adding a few other features to the site that I have been kicking around for awhile – up next is a NFA-LD timer! This new tool is designed to allow you to easily time a standard NFA-LD round and keep track of prep [...]
