here - College of Arts & Sciences - Bethel University

Roberts, Chris
Purdue University
Background of the critic:
I competed in both high school and collegiate level debate. As a college debater, I
competed on both the CEDA and NFA LD circuit.
Approach of the critic to decision-making (for example, adherence to the trichotomy,
stock-issues, policymaker, tabula rasa, etc.):
I believe there are four: policy, value, quasi-policy, fact (this was influenced by my
CEDA background). I will listen to cases run as value as opposed to policy (not every
case needs a plan). However, the Government team gets to define how the judging
criteria will be determined (but this is still debatable by the opposition).
I tend to like on case clash and traditional stock issues debate.
TOPICALITY
Yes, it is a voter. Sometimes it is a reverse voter (dependent upon abuse). In short, I
rarely vote on Topicality unless some form of unique abuse is proven in the round.
Please be sure to have clear standards and a counter-definition. I rarely vote on T in
metaphorical rounds of Parli debate. I will listen to counter-standards, so run them
Relative importance of presentation/communication skills to the critic in decision-making
:
You should know that I have quite the odd hearing problem, or hearing loss, present in
both ears. I don’t wear hearing aids because, per my ENT and Audiologist, the benefit
would be minimal and I have learned to adjust to the loss over the years. Yes, I can hear
you; yes, I can engage with you. Hearing loss is more complex than that. What it does
mean is that I have difficulty hearing certain ranges of sound—the mid/lower decibel
levels of “normal” conversation speech. The strange thing is I can hear people speaking
softly, and hear them in the higher decibel levels of “normal” conversation speech—it’s
just a particular range in the middle that I cannot hear. The hearing loss is usually
referred to as a cookie-bite loss, since the audiology chart looks like someone took a bite
out of a cookie. My cookie-bite loss becomes problematic when debaters engage in high
rates of delivery where the pitch of their voices tends to go up, and the loudness of their
delivery tends to go down. Sometimes, these debaters will weave in and out of my
hearing range. If you are speeding, you better be LOUD, and you better be CLEAR.
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