Extemporaneous speaking, also known as "extemp," is an event in which students speak persuasively about current events. A speaker is given his question a half hour before speaking, and he prepares a presentation with an optimum length of seven minutes, using articles from magazines, journals, and newspapers filed by the speaker and by his teammates, and then delivers the speech without notes.

An extemp speech has an introduction that catches the listener's attention, introduces the theme of the speech, and answers the question, three, or sometimes two, areas of analysis developing the speaker's answer to the question, and a conclusion that summarizes the speech and ties it all together.

A varsity extemper should cite seven to ten articles within his speech and must explain where he gets his information from. This explanation is called "sources," "cites," or "citations."

Judges give speakers signals to help them time their presentations, and most judges will allow a 30-second grace period; the normal maximum time for a speech is therefore seven and a half minutes. Judges rank all students in a room in order, with one being the best For example, if there are seven people in the round, seven would be the lowest score.

The National Forensics League and the National Catholic Forensics League host most extemp tournaments. Both these leagues have a national tournament at the end of each year. Other good extemp tournaments include Harvard University, Emory, Princeton University, and MBA.

External Links

• www.extempprep.org