Championship Extemping

About the Book

Championship Extemping shares with aspiring extemp champions and their coaches the substance, style, and strategies the author used as he twice became a National Forensics League National Finals speaker in international extemp. This comprehensive guide to the NFL event of extemp speaking is structured like an extemp speech. • The introduction presents the author’s extemp philosophy and thesis. • The first main chapter concerns the substance of extemp, including analysis, thesis formation, and speech organization. It describes the types of knowledge requisite for championship extemping and presents best extemp practices as to research, sourcing, and filing. • In the second main chapter, the author addresses extemp stylistics, both presentation skills and artistic elements. This chapter includes a comprehensive discussion of speech “canning.” It also includes the author’s successful strategy for placing as a Nationals finalist. • The third chapter presents strategies for all three levels of speech competition: local, national circuit, and championship; this section and the appendices are crammed with specific, practical advice for speakers and coaches, including detailed indexes for extemp filing and the addresses to numerous relevant Websites. •The conclusion makes sweeping suggestions for possible reforms of the event as currently practiced in the NFL.

About the Author

Mark Russell Royce, currently a student at Vanderbilt University, was the runner-up in international extemp at the 2002 NFL Nationals and placed third the previous year. In 2002, he was the Wake Forest National Early Bird foreign extemporaneous champion. He is a two-time South Carolina state champion in extemp. He also serves as a student extemp coach at Montgomery Bell Academy in Nashville, Tennessee.