I'm a former academic debater who competed at a national level for a bit. Here to judge some debates and do a few myself, mostly out of nostalgia for my early days doing written debate. If you want to debate something, message me, I'll usually be up for an interesting topic.
I don't have much else to say about myself, so I'll talk about my views of debate, as well as how I judge.
- A good debater writes the judge's ballot for them. Be clear in why you've won. The more resistance you create to a justifiable ballot for your side, the more likely it is that the judge votes the other way.
- Thus, frame the round in terms of what truly matters. At the end of the day, line-by-line issues rarely flip the outcome. Key issues decide the debate - focus your time on winning those.
- Your opponent is given as much time to argue as you are. Engaging with your opponent's arguments is what demonstrates advocacy for your side, and by extension, dropped arguments are conceded.
- Fairness (e.g. properly representing evidence, following the rules of the debate) is a voting issue. Fairness is a prerequisite to evaluating the round itself.
- Debate is fundamentally about being convincing. A good argument should be warranted, understandable, and relevant.
- Being organized is an underrated skill. So is being concise.
