Extemporaneous speaking

According to Pausanias (6.18.6), Anaximenes was "the first who practised the art of speaking extemporaneously." Extemporaneous Speaking was designed as an event to not be a memorized, rehearsed speech, but rather, a short, analytical speech spoken off the cuff, emphasizing critical thinking in addition to performance.

An extemporaneous speech is a speech that is either persuasive or informative in nature, usually modeled on a five-paragraph essay. At top levels, extemporaneous speaking is a smooth, dynamic performance that incorporates research, background knowledge, and opinion. A successful extemporaneous speech has an introduction that catches the listener's attention, introduces the theme of the speech, and answers the question through three, or sometimes two, areas of analysis. These areas of analysis are followed by a conclusion, which summarizes the speech and may leave the audience with something to think about. Extemporaneous speaking sometimes allows for the use of index cards, but many extemporaneous competitors forgo their usage, and many forensic leagues do not allow their usage. Although once not allowed during preparation, the use of the Internet is now a common norm at tournaments.

Debate and public speaking (collectively called "forensics") are generally stratified into novice and varsity levels. A varsity level extemporaneous speech typically contains anywhere from 6 to 10 sources, to provide a basis of fact for analyzing the question. References are often referred to as a "cite" or "citation." Quality sources include newspapers like The New York Times and Christian Science Monitor, magazines like the Economist and Foreign Policy and journals like The Fletcher Forum of World Affairs and Foreign Affairs. For a speech dealing with a certain region's issues, such as Africa or the Middle East, it is encouraged to include regional sources as well, like All Africa and Al Jazeera.

The introduction is usually structured as a 1-minute, 30-second section, with an attention-getter to grab the attention of the audience, background information, which often includes a source to build credibility, and a statement of significance, which tells the audience why the topic is important. After that, the extemp concludes their introduction by going into a basic overview of the structure of the speech, including the question, an umbrella answer (sometimes called a thesis), and a preview of the three areas of analysis.

An individual point in extemporaneous speaking is typically structured like a basic paragraph, with a claim, warrant, and impact that collectively take up 1 minute and 30 seconds to 1 minute and 40 seconds of a speech. Each point usually incorporates two to four sources to build credibility and provide information for analysis, and a mix of both broad argumentation and specific examples. Finally, the end of a point usually links back to the speaker's answer to the question, which functions as an impact. Some schools of thought argue that the impact of a point should link to a scenario outside of the scope of the question,[1] but most competitive circuits in high school and collegiate competition value a link back to the answer to the question instead.

The conclusion, which lasts for between 30 seconds and 1 minute, in extemporaneous speaking follows the basic format of the introduction, but backwards, starting with the speaker restating the question, answer, and review of the three points. Finally, the speech finishes with a "clincher"—a rhetorical tool that leaves an audience with something to think about.

For a better understanding of the structure of extemporaneous speaking, the educational resource, the Extemper's Bible, published a comprehensive guide to extemp speaking on their website.[2]

During the speech, competitors are evaluated by way of comparison to the other speakers in a "round" of competition. Generally, there are five to seven competitors in a given round. Judges give speakers time signals to help them pace their presentations, usually starting from five minutes remaining. Judges rank all students in a room in order, with the first rank being the best and the worst speaker ranked last (sixth, for example in a round of six competitors).

In High School competition, the National Speech and Debate Association (NSDA), Stoa USA, the National Christian Forensics and Communication Association (NCFCA) and the National Catholic Forensic League (CFL) host most of the. Extemp tournaments in High School. Both leagues have a national tournament at the end of every year, with the NSDA tournament drawing a larger number of thousands of competitors. There is also the Extemporaneous Speaking Tournament of Champions, held each May at Northwestern University, along with the Tournament of Champions at the University of Kentucky. In addition, there are highly prestigious national "circuit" tournaments. These include the Glenbrooks Tournament in Chicago, the Yale Invitational at Yale University, the Patriot Games at George Mason University, the Barkley Forum at Emory University, the Berkeley Tournament in University of California, Berkeley, and the Harvard Invitational at Harvard University. There are also two major round-robins, held at George Mason University and at Montgomery Bell Academy (MBA).

In collegiate competition, a myriad of organizations provide national competition in Extemporaneous Speaking. The American Forensic Association (AFA) and the National Forensic Association (NFA) are organizations responsible for Extemporaneous speaking at the four year level, with Phi Ro Pi[3] serving the two year, community college level. Other organizations that offer Extemporaneous Speaking competition include Pi Kappa Delta, Delta Sigma Rho-Tau Kappa Alpha, and the International Forensic Association. Collegiate competition is almost identical to High School competition, with most tournaments hosted by universities. The AFA hosts a National Individual Events Tournament (NIET), usually in April. The NFA hosts a separate tournament with easier qualification requirements known as NFA Nationals. Additionally, collegiate competition consists of dozens of tournaments across the country, like the Norton Invitational, hosted by Bradley University, and the Hell Froze Over swing tournament.[4][5]

Rankings for High School Extemporaneous Speaking are maintained by multiple organizations, the two main ones being The Extemper's Bible[6] and SpeechRanks.com.[7] Both use a points system, which assigns points to tournaments on the national circuit based on the size of each tournament's field, and its prestige.