An overview in policy debate is part of a speech which is flagged as not responding to the line-by-line arguments on the flow. An overview may be "global" if presented at the beginning of a speech or "local" if presented at the beginning of a position.

Debaters will usually inform the judge where they will be giving an overview before they start a speech because it can make it harder to flow the speech. A small minority of judges dislike this practice and will start speech time when a debater starts giving this order.

Many judges dislike overviews because, since many are scripted before the round begins, they tend to be non-responsive or repetitive and are often long. However, most judges and coaches support the practice for arguments which cannot be placed anywhere on the line-by-line or that need to be flagged for their importance.

Policy debate