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by Logan Scisco
Extempers have a variety of sources at their disposal when crafting a speech. Magazines, newspaper articles, journal articles, books, and articles from think tanks constitute most of the tools that an extempers has in their arsenal. Most extempers tend to use magazine and newspaper articles the most, with journal articles constituting the third most used source. Think tank articles would probably be one of the least used sources, but they would be on the fourth rung of most used sources and books usually constitute one of the least used sources in extemporaneous speaking. Since books take more time to read and digest, extempers are less likely to use them since they feel they can use the length of time devoted to reading a book to reading a large number of other sources. However, books can be an important source of information and can impress an audience if used during a round. Extempers who watch old NFL final rounds can attest to the power of books in extemporaneous speaking as many recent national champions and finalists have used them.
This strategy piece will discuss the usefulness of using books in extemporaneous speaking and how to cite them, as well as providing tips for what books to read, how to read more of them quickly, and how to file and reference book citations during prep.
Using Books in Extemp
One of the obvious advantages that books present to extempers is the depth of coverage that they provide on a chosen subject. Unlike magazines and newspaper articles, books are much longer and can provide valuable historical background information. They can also provide more interesting quotations or stories that could be attention getting devices (AGDs) for future speeches. Since books are written over a year or so they are all less subject to the “passions of the moment,” and are less reactive than newspaper or magazine articles and can provide more long-term projections of a situation.
Books can also be impressive when cited in a round. Judges are not used to hearing books cited in extemporaneous speaking, so their ears tend to perk up when they hear an extemper bring one up. Citing books also makes you appear more sophisticated and worldly. When you combine book citations with those of newspapers, magazines, journal articles, and think tanks it also provides excellent source diversity for your speech. Source diversity is great because it shows that you are pulling information from a variety of places that offer varied degrees of analytical depth. If you compare your sources in your speech, for example providing two different ideas from two different sources, and analyze them source diversity can help out your speech. Citing books will not automatically win you extemp rounds, but using them can make judges listen to your speech more closely and can give you an added presence.
When citing a book it is important to, at the very least, cite the author of the book and the title correctly. What I recommend is that in addition to citing the author, by their first and last name, you also cite their credentials. For example, a citation for former Secretary of State and National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger’s book Diplomacy would be “Former Secretary of State and National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger writes in his book Diplomacy that…” Judges may not always be aware of the credentials of the author and even if you a cite a book and its information they may wonder how that author is in a position of authority to reach their conclusions. By providing the author’s credentials you answer this question for judges. You should also use this strategy when you cite opinion-editorial articles and articles in policy journals like Foreign Affairs.
Determining What Books to Read & What to Read
Before talking about the books that you might want to read to further your extemp career, let me explain the books that you really do not want to read. Books that are highly partisan, which can be books by left-wing and right-wing columnists and writers, are usually ill-suited for extemp because citing them in a round will likely alienate some segments of your audience. This means no books from Russ Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Ann Coulter, Rachel Maddow, Keith Olbermann, or anything of that sort. Books from the likes of former presidential candidates Ralph Nader and Pat Buchanan walk this fine line, but can be legitimate if you keep in mind their overt political biases and agendas and you point these out in the round and recognize them in your analysis.
The best types of books to read are those that can provide an overview of domestic and international issues from those with doctoral degrees or columnists with extensive experience in an international field. Reading book reviews in The Economist or doing searches on Amazon.com and looking at the credentials of the author and feedback about the book can also give you an idea of what things you may want to read about. Keep in mind that books written by academics can be somewhat dry and detailed and they may use a vocabulary that you are not familiar with, but read the book with a dictionary and go through it. Research suggests that reading books with rich vocabulary can help improve your own vocabulary, which will translate well into future rounds, and can also improve your writing skills, which will help you outside of the forensic world. You can tell if you are reading an academic book based on the credentials of the author, but also by the use of footnotes in the book and/or an extensive list of references at the end of the work, which are the sources that the author consulted when putting their book together. These can be helpful in giving you other things to read and consult for more information after you finish the book.
A few books that I recommend that extempers read are:
Diplomacy by Henry Kissinger
This is a foreign policy bible for extempers. It is very lengthy, but an excellent and comprehensive examination of international diplomacy and will provide the reader with great historical examples of diplomatic action.
The Lexus and the Olive Tree by Thomas L. Friedman
Friedman has another work, The World is Flat, that expands on this book. It is a detailed work of globalization and how it has facilitated the rise of the individual over the nation-state. A definitive global economic book if there ever was one.
Making Globalization Work by Joseph Stiglitz
Stiglitz, a former opponent of globalization, of globalization and how it has taken root so far, with suggestions for fixing the international economic system. It has good examples and explanations of the global economic system.
Detroit: An American Autopsy by Charlie LeDuff
This work breaks down the problems in Detroit, whose bankruptcy filing was the largest one done by a municipality in American history. Detroit’s bankruptcy was the first topic brief that we did for the 2013-2014 season and since you may get more questions about Detroit in the future this might be an interesting book to look at to grasp Detroit’s fiscal problems and what they mean for America.
Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed by Jared Diamond
This is a book that chronicles how environmental damage, political problems, and demographics can cause civilizations to rise or fall. It is part-history and part-contemporary, but can help extempers evaluate the ways that nations confront these problems.
The History of Terrorism: From Antiquity to al Qaeda by Gerard Chailand, Arnaud Blin, Edward Schneider, and Kathryn Pulver
This is a comprehensive and historical examination of terrorism, which can provide extempers with great insights and examples for speeches on the topic. Understanding the motivations and objectives of terrorist groups can also help frame speeches that have a national security dimension.
The End of the Euro: The Uneasy Future of the European Union by Johan Van Overtveldt
Provides an examination of the origins of the euro, rivalries within the euro zone, and how the euro complicates European economic affairs. Although the worst elements of the euro crisis seem to be over, financial problems still bedevil the European Union and since EU policy can create a headache for even the best of extempers, this book provides a way to sort some of it out, even if you find yourself disagreeing with the author’s conclusions.
To get a more comprehensive list of books, I urge extempers to check out the book reviews done at the end of The Economist and near the end of Foreign Affairs. I also urge them to go on Amazon.com or other booksellers and type in a subject and look through the list of books offered. You do not have to be rich to purchase many of these books, as you can get them used for a minimal fee. If you live near a Half Price Books retailer that is a good place to shop as well, since you may come across these titles or other interesting titles for $3 or less.
Reading Lots of Books at Once
The best time for extempers to read books is during the off-season between June and August. Aside from quarterly or bimonthly journal articles that are released at this time, sources published between these months will rarely help you for the next season. If your season ends prior to nationals, then you have a longer window to read for the following year, which will hopefully prevent that from happening the following season!
However, there is a way for you to cite books in rounds without reading all of them. One way is to look at the book reviews in Foreign Affairs and similar journals. Foreign Affairs typically places its book reviews at the very end of its publication and The Economist does something similar. These reviews will typically tell you the credentials of the author, any of their prior publications, provide a summary of the book, and then assess its conclusions relative to other works in the field. You can clip these reviews and place them in your files and then cite the book as if you have read it in the round. This is not cheating because you have read a shortened version of the book’s conclusions. This should not be used as a substitute for never reading the actual book, but this is a way that you can incorporate books into your speeches without having to read thousands of pages of material during the season.
Also, if you have lots of books to read that you have not been able to get to, but you have them in your possession you can read the introduction and conclusion of the book. Like an extemp speech, authors of scholarly books will typically use the introduction to signpost where the book is going with each chapter and will discuss the argument that they are attempting to make with the book. The conclusion will recap the findings of the book. This can give you a pretty good idea of the author’s conclusions and attitude toward the subject matter and you can cite these in a round, which again makes it seem as if you read the book. Doing this has the drawback of not getting the details of the book that are found in the chapters that follow the introduction, but if you read those later then you will get that information.
Referencing Books in Prep
There are a couple of options that you have for filing books and consulting them during prep. If your team does not have electronic files you can take the books with you by placing them in your file box. However, this becomes a problem when your files grow and you have less room to tote them around. They also make your files heavier. What you can do is photocopy select pages of the book that have more information than others and create a special file for it, or staple all of the pages together and write the title of the book and author on the top of the first page and place it in a file that says “book reviews” or something like that. You could also file the book excerpts in the subject file that they deal with. For example, a book on the euro zone crisis may go in your “Euro zone crisis” folder. Keep in mind that you cannot make notations near the writing of your sources according to NFL rules, but highlighting is allowed.
If you have electronic files you can either tote the books around with you to a tournament separately, which would be an inconvenience. You can also photocopy or scan parts of the book and make them as .pdf files and then insert those into the electronic file of its choosing. Make sure that you do not distribute these to others in the community, though, because that is a violation of copyright. Using them for your team, though, for an educational purpose could be classified as “fair use” under copyright law.
Some extempers prefer to just keep the books they have read in their memory and cite them in rounds, not bringing them to tournaments. However, I advise against this because it is a risky strategy. On many state circuits judges have the right to ask an extempers for any material that they have cited in a speech. While many judges never take advantage of this provision, there are some that may ask for proof if they doubt what you have cited. In six and half years of doing extemp I had this happen to me once and I had the book to provide proof for the judge. If I had not had this on hand, I would have faced disqualification since I had no proof to back up my citation.