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by Logan Scisco
A large majority of extempers compete as part of a team. They allocate cutting assignments for everyone on the squad, may critique each other’s speeches in practice, and provide moral support for each other tournaments. However, there is another type of extemper: the so-called “lone wolf.” “Lone wolf” extempers compete on their own, not having a larger team to rely upon. “Lone wolf” extempers are becoming increasingly common as more homeschool students have begun participating in extemporaneous speaking across the country. This strategy piece will provide some tips on how “lone wolf” extempers can prosper.
Get Ready to Work
If you are a “lone wolf” extemper, you have to know that you have a lot of work in front of you. You are going to be the only person you can rely upon to do source cutting, so if you do not do it then it just is not going to get done and you will be woefully underprepared for tournaments. If you have a coach, some of this can be remedied, as your coach might cut some sources, but if you are not part of an organized team, you are going to have to find creative ways to cut sources for your files and get adequate coaching advice. The good news is that the advent of the Internet reduces some of the disadvantages that “lone wolf” extempers used to face. Skype can help with coaching sessions and tons of global sources are now available online (largely for free).
Nevertheless, if you are a “lone wolf,” you must be prepared to invest more time and energy into this event than your fellow competitors. This is a good piece of advice for extempers generally, but “lone wolf” extempers have to work extra hard because they will not get much help in acquiring information and their access to good coaching may be limited.
Tip #1: Create a Source Cutting Calendar
As a “lone wolf” extemper, your top priority should be organizing your files. There are a lot of ways to do this, and with many state leagues and both national organizations allowing electronic files, you do not have to spend any money getting access to a copier, file boxes, or manila folders. I am a personal fan of organizing files alphabetically, running your files all the way from “Abortion to Zimbabwe,” but other teams opt to organize their files by region. For example, they will have a file about Africa and within that are sub-folders about specific African countries and issues.
Whichever organization you choose, the most important task facing you is acquiring information. Left alone, it is not enough to cut a handful of sources. What you should aim to do is do extemp cutting at least six days a week. Establish a schedule for yourself about which source(s) you will cut on a certain day and stick to it. This is a sample cutting calendar for a lone extemper:
Monday: BBC; Carnegie Endowment of International Peace
Tuesday: The Economist; Council on Foreign Relations
Wednesday: The Christian Science Monitor; International Crisis Group
Thursday: The Wall Street Journal; The Brookings Institution
Friday: AllAfrica; Washington Institute for Near East Policy
Saturday: Filing (Tournament Week Do This on Friday)
Sunday: The New York Times; Project Syndicate
You will notice that for each day I have balanced “regular” news sources that extempers often cut with think tanks or policy institutes. The second type of source is often neglected by extempers, but you will notice that the better competitors utilize these sources often. As a lone wolf extemper, you have to cut a lot of sources, but your focus should be on quality over quantity. Having articles that are very strong on analysis rather than simply narrating events that took place the day before – which daily papers have a tendency to do – will be of great use to you in a round.
If you really want to be ambitious, you could have a bi-weekly schedule for cutting, where you switch sources out every other week. So for example, instead of cutting the BBC every Monday, you might cut the BBC on Monday the first and third week of every month and cut another source such as the German magazine Der Spiegel on the second and fourth week of every month.
By no means is the above schedule somehow definitive on the sources you should cut. However, they include most of the sources that I deem to be of great importance and significance. Most of them are free, but lone wolf extempers will have to incur some cost for their sources. The Economist, The New York Times, and The Wall Street Journal all require a paid subscription, but they are worth their weight in gold in the extemp world. The Economist gives a fantastic study of international issues, while The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal offer left-wing and right-wing commentary on the news of the day. I would also highly suggest that extempers purchase Foreign Affairs, a bi-monthly journal from the Council on Foreign Relations. It is a top-tier journal and its analysis can be a lifesaver. If it had not been for a Foreign Affairs study on American immigration policy in January 2003, I probably would not have won the NSDA U.S. Extemp final round in 2003! To reduce cost, you may want to buy The Economist first because after you purchase a subscription you will begin receiving mailings with discount offers to The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and Foreign Affairs. This can help you save money if you are on a tight budget.
For extra sources, I would highly recommend using the R&Ds we post on Extemp Central as well. The topic specific R&Ds posted on Wednesday and Thursday can help you strengthen a file in your box, while the roundup R&Ds on Friday can give you quick access to an array of sources you may not regularly clip.
And of course, I would try to devote an hour each day to reading what you are cutting. You are never going to be able to read everything that you place into your files, but you do want to read articles about subjects that you are unfamiliar with. It is easy to fall into the trap of reading what you are interested in, but if you never read anything about India because it “bores you,” you might find it hard to handle extemp rounds on South Asia at some point in your career.
Tip #2: Consider Hiring a Skype Coach
This is a piece of advice for those extempers who lack an extemp coach. There is a growing industry of coaches that are willing to give their time to coach extempers on Skype for a negotiable fee. Unfortunately, the absence of a forum community for forensics in recent years makes this somewhat complicated to arrange. It used to be that you could go somewhere such as forensicsonline.net, get in touch with a recent or nationally talented extemper, and try to solicit some advice. Still, Facebook can be a great tool for tracking people down. If there is an extemper on the circuit, either locally or nationally, that you respect, reach out and ask if they would be willing to work with you. College students always need money, so they might be your best bets here.
Keep in mind that Skype has its problems, though. Your coach may find it difficult to teach adequate delivery by not being able to share a room with you and lags in the connection can complicate sessions. Nevertheless, if you have the resources, try to reach out to someone and inquire about their willingness to coach you. It can help to get regular feedback on your speeches and growth versus only getting feedback from competitions.
Tip #3: If You Cannot Hire a Coach, Study Film!
One of the best things that the National Speech and Debate Association has ever done is to post its archive of past extemporaneous speaking national final rounds, including a few final rounds from the Barkley Forum and Montgomery Bell Extemp Round Robin on its website. After you have created an NSDA account, click on speech resources and then “Public Speaking (IX OO USX)” from the sub-menu. If you scroll down, you will see lots of national final round videos available for streaming. At this point, you should be able to play the videos. I am not familiar with how many extempers take advantage of this resource, but I would bet very few do. This is mind boggling to me because purchasing just one of these rounds used to cost $79.99 ten years ago.
It is best to select the more recent final rounds to view, as extemporaneous speaking has changed a great deal since the 1980s. This is not to say that you should not check out those rounds either, but keep in mind that people in those speeches will cite sources that are two to three years old, they may only have two points (or in some cases more), and may display other “weird” behaviors that would not work with judges today. One of the better final rounds in recent years was the 2013 International Extemp final, but some good classic rounds to watch include the 2000 International Extemp final, 2003 International Extemp final, and 2007 United States Extemp final.
When watching, you want to look at the structure of the speeches and the delivery used by the speakers. Compare the speakers to your own delivery style and speech structure. What are they doing that you are not? Remember, these people are all distinguished speakers because they placed in the top six in the nation, so they must be doing something that appeals to a wide number of judges. So what you want to do is think of ways that you can incorporate elements of their style into your own. Every speaker’s style is different, so do not try to be a carbon copy of someone else. Instead, think of how a certain speaker(s) abilities can help you refine your own skill set.
I would highly recommend watching a round several times. When I competed, my team only had a copy of the 2000 International Extemp final and I watched it more than ten times. These were not mindless viewings, though. I “flowed” the structure of each speech the first few times and then in subsequent viewings I listened to delivery and watched for the “big moments.” Think about what speakers made an impression on you and why. It is very likely that the speakers who did so fared relatively well in the round.
Without teammates and speeches to watch, film can be your best ally. You can also have a parent videotape your speech and then you can critique it in comparison with the NSDA finals you have watched. No one likes watching themselves speak on tape (at least no one that I have ever encountered), but it can be a very useful tool in seeing what delivery quirks you have that need to be smoothed out and where you are struggling. You can also compare a taped performance of your own speech with comments that you have received from judges throughout the season, allowing you to see things from their perspective. If you can learn to think like a judge, you can enhance your awareness of what steps you must take to improve.
Tip #4: Make the Most of Your Tournament Experiences
Since you might be the only extemper on your team or the lone person doing any competition for your school, you must make the most of your tournaments. It would be great if every round featured excellent judges who gave tons of feedback. However, that is often not the case, especially at the local level where more “lay judges” are used. Still, you want to make sure that you carefully analyze your ballots after a tournament to see what got you high marks and what got you low marks. Do not get a big head when reading the good comments, but also create a strategy for improving what caused you to get docked. This sounds like generic advice, but there are lots of extempers who disregard judge’s comments as irrelevant or “stupid.” That is the wrong strategy. Even if your judge is not proficient with content, if they spot a quirk in your delivery that is annoying or detracts from your message, you probably want to fix it because delivery is one of the primary paradigms that judges use locally and nationally.
Another common mistake extempers make is that they never stay to watch their rounds. They prefer to give a speech and leave. If you are double entered at a tournament, you may be forced to do this, but if you are not doubling or if you single final in extemp, stay and watch the round. Yes, if you watch a prelim you are probably going to see some bad speeches from novices, but I am a firm believer that you can learn just as much from bad speakers as good ones. Is there something really annoying that a novice extemper is doing? Then make note of that and make sure not to do it. By watching rounds, especially those you are in, you can better assess why judges ranked you a certain way. Extempers often complain about ranks that they earned, but if you do not watch the entire round how can you be critical of a judge’s decision? You need to see what you are up against, so watching rounds is important.
Similarly, if you miss making the final round, then go watch the final round (again so long as you are not in the finals of another event). The finalists all did something that got them there, so you need to go figure out what they are doing and what you are not doing. Again, this is a process of education. National final rounds are great teaching tools, as indicated previously in this piece, but local rounds can be just as instructive. If there is one regret that I have from my career, it is that I did not watch enough rounds in my first few years of doing the event. If I had, I think I could have fixed some of my delivery and analytical problems fairly early. Also, if you are someone who gets really stressed out about rounds, watching your competitors can also quell some nerves because you have an excellent picture of who you are facing. An added benefit is that judges take notice of those who come to watch finals. It shows that you care. That may earn you some goodwill that could help you out later.
Finally, if you are extemping by yourself and have some control over your travel schedule, try to attend a variety of tournaments. Attend tournaments in different parts of your state, not just one section. Similarly, try to see if you can attend a tournament in another state. Lots of colleges host tournaments as fundraisers for their programs, so look into attending those. Look at the Extemp TOC calendar and see if there are any tournaments that you could attend, as these tend to feature some of the better competitors on the circuit. If you are feeling ambitious, also look into going to a national circuit tournament of some sort. In the South, Wake Forest and Emory tend to attract good competitors, while West Coast extempers should gravitate to the California Invitational and Stanford. Again, this depends on the resources you have available, but try to give speeches in different settings, in front of different judges, and compete against different people. The more perspectives that you can get on your performance and the more extempers you can watch will greatly accelerate your development as a speaker.
Conclusion
Doing extemp as a “lone wolf” can be a very difficult task. Extemporaneous speaking is already more of a job than an event, since you have to do a lot of grunt work that is unlike any other event in forensics. As you gather resources, watch film, and compete, make sure to also allow yourself some time away from the event. It is easy to burn out if you are doing all of the work, so it is okay to take a break for a few days (and even for a couple of months during the summer) if the sight of files, newspaper articles, and magazines makes you sick to your stomach. Extemp is unique in that you get out of the event what you put into it. As a lone wolf, you must invest more time than other competitors, but if you are willing to bear that cost you can achieve very tangible rewards by the end of your career.