Honor Hoffmann has been around speech and debate a long time! I remember her as an eager 12 year old. She had a zest and a zeal for learning, which has not stopped even after she graduated. Now she continues to give back, and has become quite the coach and expert! Her experience, as well as her gifts for teaching blesses our Lasting Impact! community. She wrote our Limited Prep Guide, and is also teaching a Limited Prep Club second semester (sign up NOW). If you want to grow as a competitor or learn more as a parent or coach… sign up for her Club, schedule a coaching call with her, read her book, or read the article below…
My first year of speech and debate, I mainly picked extemp because it was limited prep, and I wanted to put as little time into speech as possible. I was confident that my natural speaking skills would carry the day, regardless of my level of preparation.
At my first tournament, I got a cold splash of reality. Nearly all the extempers in the prep room were seniors, they were the excessively analytical types that wore bow ties and actually understood economic theories, and a large percentage were tall and imposing guys. Needless to say, I got slaughtered on every ballot that year.
Yet despite the reputation Extemp has received as a category for older students who are into research, I’m convinced that every speech and debater would benefit from trying extemp. Why? Here are three big reasons:
1. It teaches you to educate, not just persuade.
In extemp, you’re rarely given topics that ask your personal political opinion (you’re far more likely to see “will Joe Biden get the 2024 Democratic nomination” than “do you think Joe Biden should run in 2024”). You’ll also frequently get topics on obscure government struggles in faraway countries, or complex oil agreements that aren’t discussed in the everyday news cycle. While this can be daunting at first, it’s a great way to train yourself to inform. Instead of jumping to give a hot take, most extemp topics demand that you help your judges understand the issues at hand. That’s why you have seven minutes to focus on giving your listeners a thorough summary of the issues at hand, the background challenges, and any other relevant information.
How does this skill help you? Regardless of whether you’re into platform speaking, LD, TP, interps, or something else, it’s easy to see judges as the arbiters of an argument. You’re making that spicy contention in a Persuasive speech, or destroying your LD opponent with facts and logic, or just trying to wring a tear out of a single judge with your open. Extemp is a good reality check, reminding you that judges don’t want to be thrown in the middle of a contentious issue without grounding. They want you to lead them along, to learn with them.
2. It teaches you to synthesize information.
It’s inevitable. At some point in your Extemp career, you’ll get a topic that you know nothing about. Now you have 20 minutes to skim 15 articles on the topic that you’ve (hopefully) pre-downloaded, learn the topic from the ground up, and come up with a coherent stance. Oh, and then you have to educate three judges about said topic, convincing them of that stance. Intimidating? Maybe a little. But once you can do this successfully (and you’ll find it happens faster than you’d think!) you’ve unlocked a skill that will follow you through your speech and debate career, college, and life beyond.
Being able to skim and synthesize information is invaluable for debaters. It will come in handy in college when you’re assigned vast quantities of reading. It will even help you in your career. In my work as a copywriter, I use the research and information synthesis skills I learned in Extemp almost every day.
3. It helps you analyze, not just consume.
In our culture today, it’s easier than ever to be a passive consumer of news and information. From Google News to social media feeds, it’s easy to scroll, read, and forget. Extemp helps you learn to intentionally filter what you read, analyze it, and seek to understand how an isolated event impacts the broader world. It’s something we need a lot more of in the modern world.
You don’t have to become obsessed with Extemp. You might feel like it’s not your thing. That’s okay. But next tournament, I challenge you to dip your toes in the waters of Extemp. Whatever your preferences in competition, I’m convinced that competing in this speech category will help you in your other categories and your personal development. Give it a try.
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