Word Economy and Rhetoric
Cut filler, keep warrants, and land your impacts in the time you have.
A four-minute constructive is roughly 500–600 words, and a two-minute final focus is 250–300. Every filler phrase ("um," "like," "so basically," "what we are saying is") uses up space an argument could have had. Word economy is the habit of making each word earn its place.
The redo method
Deliver a speech, transcribe it, highlight every word that doesn’t advance an argument, and redeliver it without them. Most debaters cut 20–30% on the first redo without losing any content. The only things that go are filler and repetition.
Rhetoric without fluff
Good PF rhetoric is concrete. "500,000 jobs" beats "many jobs," "by 2030" beats "soon," and "CBO estimates" beats "experts say." Specifics and confidence persuade judges; adjectives don’t.
Same argument, half the words
- As delivered
So basically what we are saying here is that this policy is going to be really, really expensive for the government.
After the redoCBO scores it at $400 billion.
- As delivered
Our opponents said something about jobs, and we think that they are wrong about that for a couple of different reasons.
After the redoTwo responses on their jobs argument.
- As delivered
This is going to help a lot of people in a lot of different ways over time, which is why it really matters.
After the redoIt reaches 40 million riders a year by 2035.
- As delivered
Experts have said that this kind of thing tends to happen fairly often in situations like this one.
After the redoGAO found overruns on 9 of 11 comparable projects.