Glenbrooks Round Comments Posted

Here they are.  As always, take whatever's useful to you and ignore the rest.  

Congrats to everyone.

NSDA Presentation: Congress Up-Close

In lieu of a projector and screen, the please follow along on the prezi below.

https://prezi.com/-kunit5mmh_r/edit/#1

And here are the handouts, including the "raw" script (with find-and-replace codes instead of names).

What is Congressional Debate?

Choosing a Bill Topic

The Script (link updated)

Policy Analysis Chart

In-round Wi-Fi? Worth a Try-Fi

My reading of this year's big TOC innovation:  It's a tool you are supposed to use to detect and destroy BS in the round.

No other explanation for the rule change makes any sense.

Now will anyone use it?



Themed rounds are also an interesting wrinkle.  That really hurts the docket mafia.

Not sad to see the PO-as-separate-event go away.

Harvard 15 Prelims Chamber S

No Danby or Goldstein in finals?  I'm surprised.  Top two to finals is probably the most brutal break in recent Congress history.

Here they are.  My usual disclaimers apply.  I try to give you the kind of feedback I'd give my own debaters.  It's not constructive unless it's critical.

I also tend to get frownier and more restless as the day goes on, but I've had people look through to make sure I haven't said anything plainly mean.

And if we disagree about something, you're probably right.  I'm outnumbered and my attention is badly divided.  Still, I hope these comments will be helpful to you all.

Just generally, you have nothing to lose by citing each piece of evidence fully and quoting it cleanly rather than mangling a paraphrase.  Evidence isn't a condiment--it's the bones of what you're offering.

And flawless delivery in Congress now seems to be necessary but insufficient for success, even for debate-focused judges like myself.

My notes.

Balasquide was kind enough to point out that I hadn't shared these properly.  My bad.  Fixed.

Sunvitational RR Notes

Are here.  Congrats to all.

https://docs.google.com/a/lhprep.org/document/d/1h9i27hbb6kwsMMyg_E6hzGC1haE1X4o0EVfmhOgtDMU/edit

Minneapple 2014 Chamber A Flows and Ballots

Here they are.

Thanks for your good work.  As always, the quality of my comments varies from speech to speech.  (You'll see they trail off toward the end of most debates unless I'm getting cranky.)

If I say that I couldn't find a source, that doesn't mean I know for a fact that it was manufactured.  Things move too fast for me to authoritatively source-check.  I just wish I were allowed to ask.  (Or that you guys chose to.)

I mostly focus on changes you should make rather than on strengths you have.  If I'm not complaining about it, assume that you're doing it well.

The speech scores by your name in the column are purely decorative.  The only ballot I'm given is my single parli ballot.

The thing about my eccentric evidence preferences (name-qualifications-publication-date) is that it actually helps you, too, because it sounds impressive and it gives the judges time to ready themselves really to hear the quotation.  The small-room debate events (PF, LD, TD) are moving to ban paraphrases, and that evolution can't come to Congress too quickly.

ISIS
Climate Change
Incumbency
Common Core
E-Cigarettes
Kurdistan
USA FREEDOM 

Finally, my sole consolation for my team not making finals this year is that I can praise the tournament without that being mistaken as mere happiness at the results.

Minneapple is the way Congress should be run everywhere at every level.  It's a showcase for the effective organization of a tournament designed to emphasize the educational value of the activity.  We are all lucky to have it.

So hats off to Mr. Jacobi and his staff.  If I had a hat.  I wish I had a hat because it's very cold up here.  But even if I did have one, I'd still take it off in salute.

One Judge's Pref: Truly Random

I'll post the Minnie ballots when the rest of the ballots are distributed after awards.  The following has nothing to do with Minnie.



I understand that several POs are now using a randomizer app to set precedence.

Well done.

A full-on PO app with built-in randomizer, speech and question tracker, etc., is long overdue.

Anyway, if you PO in front of me while using this technique, I will smile upon you.

If you don't, I won't frown more highly than usual.  I usually rank POs after all of the excellent speakers unless there are serious errors, and that seems to be about right.  POs are important, but it's not an exceptionally demanding job, and too often it's a get-out-of-research free card.

(You get more credit for being the sole, reluctant PO than POing after winning a multi-candidate contest.)

I can imagine a PO using a transparent randomizer for setting precedence might vault ahead of even excellent speakers.