What is a Summary Speech?

The Summary may be the most difficult PF speech. Condensing twenty-two or twenty four minutes of debate into two minutes is difficult in any context. The main narrowing and focusing occurs in Summary. Final Focus relies on the work of Summary. My philosophies of Summary are:
– Give the judge a guided overview.
– Set up the Final Focus and voting issues.

Give the judge a guided overview.

I use the term “guided overview” because the Summary should highlight the important matters of the debate as well as explain their importance in regards to the resolution. DO NOT DO LINE-BY-LINE ANALYSIS! You will never cover what you should be covering and you will not be providing the judge a guided overview of the round. As Les Phillips writes, “If you try to go line by line, you will be without sufficient warrants, reference to evidence, or explanations; you will risk saying more than your judge can digest; and you will drop arguments anyway” (Phillips). You should give the abridged version without a “how to” view the round and cast your ballot, which is what you should be doing. Please refer back to the Second Half chapter for overall advice on content.

Too many Summaries get bogged down as Secondary rebuttals. Always keep in mind you are giving an overview that should point in the direction of a ballot for your team.

Set up the Final Focus and voting issues.

The Summary directly affects the possible content for the Final Focus. A decision about Summary is inevitably a decision about Final Focus. If you want something to be a voting issue, you must mention it in Summary. Whether you are first speaker or second speaker or switch off roles, whoever gives the Summary should ALWAYS confer with his or her partner. This most likely will require prep time. Decide what arguments will be discussed, highlighted, or dropped. These decisions must be joint decisions for your partnership to have a cohesive Second Half and a happy working relationship.

Building a successful Summary requires persuasive language, internal structure, and sound argumentation.