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by Logan Scisco
The first ninety seconds of an extemporaneous speech are very important because it introduces the audience to the topic that you have selected to speak on. Not only do you need an affective attention getting device (AGD), which has been written about extensively on this website and others like it on the Internet, but you also need to provide sufficient background on your question. A mistake that inexperienced competitors make is that they jump directly from their AGD to the question, completely ignoring the fact that they need to give the audience some background information on their topic. This week’s strategy piece will explain how you can provide sufficient background information on your topic and avoid this problem.
The Role and Placement of Background Information
When crafting an introduction, which should average between 1:30-1:40 in terms of time, you want to begin with your AGD, link that AGD to the topic you are speaking about, provide a few sentences of background information on your topic, provide a significance statement, and then provide the audience with your question, answer, and signposting of your two or three reasons that your answer is correct. The biggest mistake that extempers make in their introductions is that they spend way too much time on their AGD. This happens when extempers opt to tell long stories or a long anecdote or joke that takes more than twenty seconds. The result is that they feel pressured to immediately get into their question because they have taken too much time telling their AGD, so they completely pass the steps needed to link their AGD to the question, provide background, or do a significance statement. To get an idea of effective AGDs, I recommend watching recent NFL finals and timing the introductions. The more proficient speakers find ways to minimize the time taken for their AGDs so that they have enough time to give the audience sufficient background on the question.
Keep in mind that you do not have enough time in the background to talk about every issue that comes up in your speech. You have to be selective and as a result, you need to be aware of the most important issues about your topic. This will become easier for you as you read more information on a regular basis. For example, if you have read a large amount of information about the Iranian nuclear program, you know that the dispute about Iran’s nuclear capabilities has existed since 2002, that Saudi Arabia and Israel see the program as a threat to their existence, and that Iran sees the program as an expression of its sovereignty and power. Depending on your question, providing this information would be sufficient to frame a question about the Iranian nuclear program because you would tell the audience when it was starting, why it is an international concern, and why Iran thinks that a nuclear program is important. If you receive a question in the future about Iran’s recent nuclear agreement with the P5+1 you would probably want to explain when the agreement was signed and summarize what it does in a sentence (which admittedly is no easy task).
So, when you are crafting background information you want to keep it at 2-3 sentences. You may also find, especially on economic topics or topics that call for statistical information, that you need to use a source. Do not be afraid to use a source in the introduction and there is nothing wrong with that. However, make sure that the source is meaningful. You do not need a source to tell me that Barack Obama is the President of the United States, but having a source that tells me that unemployment is still over 7% would be wise.
Knowing What Information You Need to Present as Background Information
When you are in the prep room, it is important that you make quick decisions about what facts need to be incorporated into your speech for background information. An easy way to identify this information is to look at the big terms in the question. What people, concepts, or terms need to be clarified for the audience to understand your speech? When you are thinking about this, you want to tell yourself that the audience knows nothing about your topic. This is not as crazy as it sounds because many judges hardly follow the news and if they do they probably know a lot more about domestic topics than international ones. Even if you are speaking in front of an audience that knows a lot about a topic, your ability to break down the question will show that you have a good command of the subject matter and that will help your ranks. When you are facing a multi-judge panel, though, it is always a good idea to assume that at least one of your judges is a parent, a community judge, or someone who wishes they were judging interp.
Let’s look at some sample questions that have been posted on Extemp Central to illustrate this technique of breaking down questions to know what you should clarify for your audience.
Sample Question #1: Will the use of the “nuclear option” for executive branch nominations and judicial appointments improve the performance of the U.S. Senate?
For this question, what do you think are the major terms that need to be clarified in your background information? Think about that before reading the answer in the next paragraph.
For this question, it is important that you define what is meant by the “nuclear option.” A judge that does not follow current events might assume this has something to do with nuclear weapons, so it is important that you tell them that is not what your speech is going to talk about. For this question, you also want to quickly summarize why this option impacts executive branch nominations and judicial appointments. Finally, you should clarify why the performance of the U.S. Senate has been criticized. If you address all of these elements in a succinct manner, which is why “word economy” is important, then you have adequately set up your question for the audience.
Sample Question #2: How can the international community weaken Joseph Kony’s Lord’s Resistance Army?
Do the same thing for this question that you did for the last one. Think of what major terms should be clarified and think about that before reading the next paragraph.
First, what country does this concern? The answer is Uganda, where a lot of the Lord’s Resistance Army’s (LRA) activities have been located. That is the first thing you should mention in your background. You should also identify who Joseph Kony and the LRA are and how long they have been operating, as well as their mission. Finally, you should argue why the international community is concerned with Joseph Kony and why it is that people are calling for international action to weaken Kony’s operations and activities.
International topics will usually require you to define more elements than domestic topics because more issues are usually at play and your audience will be less familiar with the subject matter.
Sample Question #3: Is immigration reform dead until after the 2014 elections?
What information should you convey to the audience based on the question above?
For this question, you should clarify what constitutes “immigration reform.” What elections happen in 2014? Then, you need to look at the assumption behind the question, which often come up in “is” questions. For this question, why are people saying that immigration reform is dead until after the 2014 elections? Therefore, think about why you are being asked this question if the question assumes that a certain outcome is going to happen.
The Difficulty of Framing
Framing questions quickly is a difficult task. You have to cover your background information in 20-30 seconds so that you have enough time to cover your significance statement, which is why this issue is important in the world or for the United States, and then address your question, answer, and signposting. This is where you need good word economy to make relaying background information easier. The goal is for you to say the same information with fewer words. For example, when addressing what immigration reform is, you can probably boil that down to “securing America’s borders and legalizing the estimated 7 million illegal immigrants in the United States.” This might seem overly simplistic, but you can expand on this in the body of the speech. You do not have to go into every fact about what an immigration reform package would have, you just have to communicate the main point.
A way that you can practice framing questions is to take questions from Extemp Central or those on your local circuit and identifying what 2-3 concepts you need to define in your background. You can then try to time yourself in delivering this information and seeing how close you get to the 20-30 second threshold. The other way to practice is to incorporate the technique into your practice speeches. It will be difficult and awkward at first, but stick with it and you will find that framing questions becomes easier over time. The trick is to train your mind to look at questions and immediately break them down. Within a month or so, the task will become second nature and you will find that you are setting up your questions with sufficient information.
Overall, framing questions is an important and often overlooked skill in extemporaneous speaking. By looking closely at the language of the questions you draw and the assumptions that these questions make, you can figure out what information you need to include for background in your speech and can help lay audiences feel informed and follow the analysis that you will present in the body of your speech.