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As another fun exercise, Extemp Central totaled all of the sources used in the International and United States Extemp final rounds to see which sources were most commonly used in each competition.
Of all publications, The Washington Post was cited the most, with the publication being cited nine times in the International Extemp final and seven times in the United States Extemp final. One wonders whether this is due to the quality of The Washington Post‘s journalism or if it is due to the fact that it is one of the few big national sources that extempers can cut for free. The New York Times was in the top three of both extemp categories as well, being the second-most cited publication in the International Extemp final and the third-most cited publication in the United States Extemp final.
A major difference between the two finals is that the International Extemp final saw a greater use of think tanks and scholarly journals. For example, extempers in that round cited Foreign Policy in Focus, the Center for Strategic and International Studies, the Council on Foreign Relations, and the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. United States extempers did make use of some non-newspaper and magazine sources such as the Kaiser Family Foundation, the Brookings Institution, and the Center for American Progress, but these were not cited as often as the other final round.
For those squads looking to diversify their files for next season, these lists may help you determine what you should consider including in your files.