Hello! Glad to be your judge for the Round! I consider myself to be a pretty laid-back judge, and I enjoy seeing everyone have fun and doing their best. I did Forensics in high school and judge in speech. I qualified to the state tournament twice and qualified for the CFL National tournament, so I might know a thing or two when it comes to how to perform your very best and bringing out the maximum potential in your piece. There are a few factors I judge by: how well did you live up to your piece, were you clear and concise, and could I feel your piece? That last one is pretty tricky, but don't worry, all you have to do is portray emotions and build connections with your audience. I also try to get feedback in ASAP and am a firm believer in the concept of giving clear and constructive feedback. I also have different criteria for each category, which goes as follows:

Dec.: If you're giving me a famous speech or some sort of TedTalk, I want you to whisk me away to where and when it happened. Remember to maintain a certain level of professionalism but also a bit of you in there as well. If, for example, you were to deliver Patton's speech, I want to feel like I'm there listening to Patton giving the speech while at the same time I don't want you to go overboard and try to follow everything along perfectly down to the voice.

DI: With DI, the main thing I look for is where the drama matches the piece. If you have a piece on a hit and run accident, I don't want your level of drama to be as if you were suffering from cancer. Also, if you're going to have a trigger warning, make sure that the trigger warning actually implies a heavy piece. Don't say to me: "I would like to issue a trigger warning before I begin. This piece tackles heavy topics and involves swearing." Unless the piece explicitly talks about a heavy topic (suicide, abuse, murder, or anything particularly gory), I don't see a need for one.

Duo: The main thing I look for when judging Duo is how well in sync you and your partner are with each other. Is there any dead space between lines that shouldn't be there? I also check for interactions as well, as admittingly, you can't look at your partner the last time I checked (2021-2022 season). This means, don't give your partner a high-five during the piece, shake their hand, anything that would be two-people. In these cases, you just want to turn the other direction and do the gestures instead.

DP: Obviously, it's impossible to properly judge DI and HI in the same room. One group is on the verge of making me cry with tears of sadness and the other on the verge of making me cry with tears of laughter. Instead of judging by "Did I like your drama and did I like your comedy?" I judge by "How well did you measure up to the first letter?" D or H. I also judge by looking at what's happening in the piece. Is it the same thing over and over, or is everything changing and something is happening?

Extemp: When it comes to Extemp, I look for a lot of things. I'm one of those judges who enjoys hearing a connection you make between an event and something personal to you. That said, if you tell me one week: "In my favorite episode of..." and then the next week you say the same thing, but they're different episodes, it will take something away from your argument. It also gets a little tiring of hearing about SpongeBob episodes, so also make sure to shake things up too. Another thing I look at are sources. Who did you use as a source? I'm a big believer in using neutral sources, and while I get it that sources such as FoxNews, CNN, The Wall Street Journal, and The New York Times are convenient and established, I will factor that into my judging. I also REALLY enjoy hearing the opposing point of view to your argument, so if you have time to put one in there, I advise you to go for it!

HI: In HI, there's only one thing you need to do: Make me laugh! I understand that humor is subjective, so make sure to also develop the scene, your characters, voices, and pops as well if you're afraid a joke may go over my head.

OO: Original Oratory is whatever you want to make it. I've heard all different kinds of pieces and always look forward to what's next. The main things I look out for are pronunciation and connection, but I do keep an eye out for emotion and a story. The big thing is to make sure you do have a connection to what you've written and not just "Oh, well, this is something I thought might be fun to talk about." The deeper your connection with your piece, the clearer it shows and the better it becomes.

Poetry: It can be a little tricky sometimes to judge Poetry, but the main thing I try to look out for is how the pieces flow together. It's also important to make sure that there's a clear transition between poems. I highly advise you to not use the same voice/tone for every piece, or it will get confusing as to which poem is which.

My preferences for LD:

1. I don't mind a fast speaker but do not spread. Please respect your time limits. While I will officially monitor time, I'd rather be focusing on what you're saying than watching the clock.

2. It is always good to have stats and examples for your contentions. Repeating the same points during different arguments (unless relevant in a new way) will not make them more effective.

3. If you do not clearly refute one of your opponent's contentions, I will usually give them the win regardless of how good your contentions were.

4. Speak confidently and respectfully, and in an orderly manner. Maintaining a coherent flow is always very helpful for me.