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by Logan Scisco
Extemporaneous speaking is a seven minute event and although many proficient extempers wish it could be longer, the time limit is not going to change anytime soon. When extempers begin their careers they find the seven minute time limit daunting, but as they learn more information and learn about the structure of the event, they quickly find that there is not enough time to get everything they want into the speech. During their second and third seasons, extempers traditionally struggle to balance time in their speeches, usually losing time in the introduction or spending too much time on their first point, which tends to limit their analysis near the end of the their speech and/or forces them to abruptly conclude. This week’s strategy piece will discuss the importance of time allocation and tips for extempers who are struggling to properly allocate time in their speeches.
The Importance of Time Allocation
The primary reason that time allocation is an important element in the extemporaneous speech is that you want your analysis to be balanced between each of your three points. Remember that each of your points is supposed to be an independent reason for why your answer to the question is true. As I judge, I should be able to see any point that you argue in isolation and feel that you have sufficiently answered the question. This is also why you need to make sure that your point tags are phrased like arguments. If you have a first point that is two and a half minutes in length, you are sure to cover a lot of the nuances of the argument that you are making. However, if that two and a half minute first point causes you to have a third point that is only thirty seconds in length, then you can see why this is going to create problems. There is no way that you can make an effective argument in less thirty seconds and your audience is going to know that you did not prove your argument.
Time allocation also makes the speech easy to listen to and follow. Experienced judges may listen more closely to argumentation and facts, but novice judges can easily pick up when your time allocation goes haywire in the speech. If you spend too little time on your third point because you spent too much time on your first point, they are quickly going to realize that something is amiss. I have seen competitors give third points that are less than thirty seconds long and they never come off well. As a competitor, you can to provide as few reasons as possible for a judge to drop you in rank in a round (I call this giving the judges ammunition but you can choose a less violent alternative if you prefer). Having good time allocation is a way to prevent judges from dropping you.
The Biggest Time Allocation Mistake
There is really no reason for you to ever have time allocation problems. Why? Because in extemp, unlike Original Oratory or the interpretation events, you get time signals! Granted, your judge may mess up your time signals, but if you receive the bulk of the appropriate time signals during your speech you have no excuse to have poor time allocation. You also have no excuse to ever go over the time limit either. I am an opponent of the idea of having a grace period in extemporaneous speaking for this reason, since I think that it extends the time limit from 7:00 to 7:30. Still, CFL Grand Nationals and NFL Nationals allow for a grace period, so be aware of that. Extempers that violate the established time limit, whether it be 7:00 or 7:30 given the tournament’s procedures and rules, receive significant penalties from me and other judges. In fact, I usually drop competitors to last place that go over the time limit if I have given them the necessary time signals because it is not as if they were unaware of where they stood during their speech. In the next section I will provide a valuable tip for how you can use time signals to your advantage and pace yourself throughout a speech so that this does not happen to you!
The biggest mistake that competitors make when it comes to time allocation is that they spend too much time on their introduction and first point. We call this being “top heavy.” What happens in this scenario is that an extemper spends nearly four minutes, or more in some cases, on these first two parts of the speech. This leaves only three minutes to cover two additional points and a conclusion! When I see this unfold in rounds I know things are not going to end well and it is like seeing a demolition derby unfold in slow motion. When extempers do this they tend to panic and start rushing, which produces stumbles or incoherent analysis, and the result is a very poor speech. Ideally, your introduction and first point should only take up 3:15 or so of the speech, which leaves 3:45 for your remaining two points and conclusion.
Being “top heavy” usually happens when an extemper delivers a very long attention getting device (AGD), usually a story or joke (which is why long AGD devices like this rarely make for good AGDs). This causes their intro to run nearly two minutes in length, which is far too long. Then they get into their first point, which should be the most important point of your speech, and do not compensate for having a very long AGD. The extemper feels that they have to throw all of the facts they know about that point into the speech and before they know it, the three minute remaining signal goes up, and they have ruined their time allocation in the round. To avoid these problems you need to avoid long AGDs and realize that if you end up going long in a section of your speech that you need to compensate on the fly and chop some of your analysis to “rebalance” the speech. This is learned skill, but a valuable one when you had to adapt to round conditions.
Ideal Time Allocation
So, what is the ideal time allocation that you should have in an extemporaneous speech? I have given this much thought and revision over the years, but this is the structure that I generally teach students that I work with:
Introduction: 1:40 or less
1st Point: 1:30-1:45
2nd Point: 1:15-1:20
3rd Point: 1:30-1:40
Conclusion: 30-40 seconds
Now, you might look at that and say, “Wait a second, not all of the points are balanced,” and I would say “Yes, you are correct.” When setting up your points, I am a big believer in making your first point your strongest point. If you look up 2006 NFL United States Extemp National Champion Colin West’s strategy article on Extemp Central that discusses judging, he points out that judges rarely pay attention to all seven minutes of your speech. However, they will pay more attention to the beginning of your speech than the end. Communication research has demonstrated that audiences will form a first impression of you within the first 10-15 seconds of hearing you speak and they generally remember what you tell them at the beginning and at the end. When you set up your points, you want to make your strongest point first, since the audience is likely to focus more on this point than the others. You also want to start your analysis with a strong point. Since this is supposed to be a strong point then the first point gets more time than other parts of the speech, with 1:30-1:45 devoted to it. The third point should be your second strongest point and it also receives nearly equal time with the first point. Since the audience knows your third point is your “go home” point, they are more likely to pay attention than the second point and if you put your weakest point here, which is what some extempers do, then you are going to wrap up on a very weak note. You should place your weakest point second because audiences are less inclined to remember the second point and you can sandwich it between two strong points to still come out looking good. As a result, your second point receives less time than the other two points.
It is imperative that you never have an extemporaneous speaking introduction that lasts more than two minutes. There are times when you might go over the 1:40 mark if you have a lot of background information about a hard international topic, but this is why my past strategy articles have emphasized word economy, which means that you say the same amount of information in fewer words. It took me a long time to learn this, but extemporaneous speaking is about using the best information you have to make an argument, not using the most information. Extemp is not where you throw everything you know about Afghanistan into a seven minute speech. It is using select pieces of information you know about Afghanistan to craft an effective argument that answers the question in a clear, analytical, and impressive way. Make sure your intros are short, sweet, and to the point while encompassing your AGD, link to the topic, background information, significance statement, and statement of question, answer, and signposting.
Tips for Improving Time Allocation
First, you should make it common procedure when you enter an extemp round to ask the judge how they will do time signals. I have coached a few students that did not do this and one had their career ended at the NFL National Tournament this senior year when they could have made a run deeper in the tournament because they failed to ask how time signals were given and were thrown by the judge’s decision to do different signals than what they were accustomed to. Do not let this happen to you because there is no excuse for it! Some judges, especially on the national level, come from different circuits where time signals are done differently. Some prefer to do “five down” (last five minutes), others prefer to do less. I once had a judge at the 2003 NFL National Tournament that opted to only do “two down.” Do not feel that you are angering the judge by asking this question. In fact, I like when extempers ask me how I am doing time signals because it shows me that they care. However, I would urge you to just roll with whatever the judge likes to do, whether it is five down or some other method. I actually refuse to modify how I do time signals in rounds (I do the “five down, thirty second, five second” method) because I like there to be a uniform standard for all speakers in a round.
Once you have an idea of how time signals will be given you can actually pace the speech based on the signals. However, you should also work over time to develop a solid “internal clock” so that you can figure out how much time you have in a speech. For the judge that gave me two down signals at the 2003 NFL Nationals this skill was very, very useful because I had to pace the first five minutes of the speech on my own. It may not hurt to give a few speeches in practice without any time signals and see how long you go, trying to reach the 6:50-7:00 mark. Judges are humans and they miss time signals. Even I forgot to give time signals to a speaker at the MBA Round Robin a few years ago, although that speaker adjusted for my stupidity and still ended their speech at 6:59. If a judge never gives you signals and they have promised to do so, talk to your coach after the round and they can file a grievance. If they miss a signal or two, though, you should still be able to adjust.
Assuming that you get a “five down” judge, here is how you can pace your progress through a speech based on the time signals that you are receiving. This is based on a seven minute time limit without a grace period, but can be modified accordingly:
5 Minutes Remaining Signal: You should be seeing this as you are in the first 1-2 sentences of your first point. If this signal goes up while you still in your introduction, which should never happen, then you need to get out of there as quickly as possible and cut parts of your first point.
4 Minutes Remaining Signal: This indicates that you have about 15-20 seconds left in your first point. When you see this signal then you should move to wrap up your first point. This is not the time to keep speaking and adding new information! I get somewhat frustrated with speakers that I have coached in the past that ignore this signal and end up “top heavy” as a result.
3 Minutes Remaining Signal: By the time this signal goes up you should be in the middle of your second point. If you are just starting your second point then you have problems and are already “top heavy.” When you see this signal you should know that you have about 30-40 seconds remaining in your second point, which is enough time for a few more sentences of analysis and then time to wrap up. You need to clear the second point by your next time signal.
2 Minutes Remaining Signal: This signal should come up as you are starting your third point. Hopefully you are in the second or third sentence or so of analysis and have gotten through your transition and first sentence of analysis.
1 Minute Remaining Signal: This signal shows you that you have only sixty seconds left in the speech. It shows that you need to start wrapping up your last point, of which you have about 15 seconds to do so. By the time the thirty seconds signal is up then you need to be out of your third point or you run the risk of going over the time limit!
30 Second Signal: If you get this while you are in your third point you are really in bad shape. Hopefully when you see this you have already begun your conclusion. The rest of the signals from this point, which should be 5-10 seconds remaining will guide you to the finish line. I never recommend trying to hit at exactly 7:00 in your speech because some judges delay when they stop their timers and may clock you at 7:01 or more. I highly recommend ending the speech at 6:57 or so to prevent this from happening.
Another way to work on your time allocation is to do speeches in practice without time signals. This can help you if you get a dumb judge like myself that forgets to do time signals if they are having a bad day and can be a nice confidence booster. Lots of students that freak out about time signals have never had to deal with errant signals in practice so mix it up! I am a big proponent of trying to simulate tournament conditions as much as possible in practice, so have your coach intentionally forget to give you time signals from time to time or not give them at all. The trick with this method is for your coach to not tell you when this is going to happen so that you learn to adjust on the fly. If you screw up your first few times and go like 7:30 or so, it’s not a big deal because, as Allen Iverson once said, “We’re talking about practice!”
You can also have your coach monitor your time progress throughout the speech by marking on their “flow” of your speech when you ended them. For example, they may mark that you went 1:50 in the intro, ended your first point at 3:45, ended your second at 5:10, etc. This can let you see where you are losing time and what you need to cut. Having good time balance is something you learn to do over time and for some speakers it comes quicker than others. However, everyone can learn to do it with enough practice and routine. If you realize that your introductions keep going too long then you can start cutting a sentence or two of background or you can try to aim for shorter AGDs, which should only take 15-20 seconds at the most.
Finally, if you are having difficulty with keeping your introductions or points short, take the outlines of speeches you have given, stand or sit down with a stopwatch, and give the point out loud as you would in a regular round. Once you finish, check how much time you spent on the introduction or point. This will help you practice word economy and realize why you keep going over time on elements of your speech. It also helps to keep in mind, as I described earlier in this piece, that you do not need to deliver the most information to win an extemp round. Instead, you need to selectively choose the best facts to deliver in your speech and communicate them to the audience to make your point. This can reduce your tendency to talk too long in certain places and cram too much information into your speech.
By implementing these tips you can overcome some of your difficulties with time allocation, craft extemporaneous speeches that are intellectual, intriguing, and insightful, and deliver speeches that provide proper balance to each of your three areas of analysis. You can also use these tips to overcome some speed problems, since extempers usually speed up when their time allocation falls apart. Time allocation is a skill that all great extempers have mastered and although it takes time to learn it can make the difference between winning and losing.