Tag: Extemp Central site news

Hello readers,

Everyone is aware that for much of the 2012-2013 season I stepped away from Extemp Central as work responsibilities and burn out took their toll. However, I am returning to the site and will be regularly updating content from here until NFL Nationals. I will also be resuming duties for the 2013-2014 season. So check back regularly for questions and other content.  A content schedule will be released later in the week, but tomorrow (Monday) I will post U.S. Extemp and International Extemp questions, which match the topic areas released by the NCFL extemp topic committee.

If you have results from Harvard, the California Invitational, NIETOC, and state tournaments from the last two seasons, feel free to send them to me at [email protected] so that I can update our champions page.

-Logan Scisco

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Hello, friends. As you know, Logan Scisco has chosen to retire from Extemp Central, and we are all sad to see him go. However, we definitely don’t want to see this site, and the resources it provides for extempers, disappear. So we’re pleased to announce that Extemp Central will continue to operate under new management: Seth Peckham and Todd Rainey.

As the 2012-2013 season kicks off, we’ll be getting underway next week with many of the resources you know and love, and we’ll also be rolling out some new features this year. What can you expect from the new Extemp Central? Here’s what we’re working on now:

Questions lists – We’ve both been huge fans of the question lists put out by Logan Sisco, and will be continuing the tradition of offering question lists as a handy practice resource. We will ensure a wide variety of topic areas, question approaches, and difficulty levels so that all competitors and coaches are able to make the most out of Extemp Central.

Focus articles – Knowledge of world affairs is an indispensable tool for tournament success. Being aware of the goings-on in our world makes source use during prep more efficient, reserving more time for argument formation, organization, and practice time – all culminating in an improved rank. We hope to bring you focus articles with links to relevant news sources so that both new and veteran competitors can add to their wealth of knowledge. Don’t forget to file the news articles if you don’t already have them!

News Quizzes – We’re going to offer news quizzes, though in a slightly different way from the past. Under the old format, news quizzes were focused on the particulars of data – naming world leaders, estimating unemployment, and the like. The news quizzes from this point on will shift focus toward questions that test your level of awareness on central issues.

Linkfests – Whether news articles, blogs, or longer research pieces, the linkfests will be broad compilations of useful internet resources worthy of your time. While not all links will be usable in-round as a resource, all will have a viewpoint and analysis of current events which can enrich your perspective on a wide array of topics.

Point-Counterpoint – Extemp is about answering the question, but for every question, there are many possible answers. We’ll be posting regular point-counterpoint articles on current events throughout the year, to offer sources and perspectives that examine multiple sides of a question.

We’ll be rolling out additional changes in the coming weeks as we make this transition. We hope you like the new Extemp Central, and be sure to follow us on Twitter and Like us on Facebook for the latest updates from the site!

Extemp Central began in August 2006 as a project to assist high school extempers across the country by providing free, quality questions for students to use in practices.  Over the years, the site expanded to include topic briefs, news quizzes, strategy columns, a National Points Race, and a magazine and expanded its reach to hundreds of high school students and coaches across the country.

Due to work responsibilities and other academic pursuits, I have decided to end my participation in Extemp Central.  It has been rewarding to help and interact with students and coaches across the country through this forum for the last six years.  Extemp Central will come under new management within the next several weeks, as SpeechGeek is arranging for others to take over the website and continue Extemp Central’s mission to provide quality materials for extempers across the country.  Extempers should continue to check back for these future updates.

I will still be available for random inquiries by e-mail at [email protected], but more in-depth updates on the website will no longer be done by me.  Again, I appreciate the support given by loyal readers to this website for over the years and I wish all of you the best in your future endeavors.

-Logan Scisco

As Extemp Central eases into the 2011-2012 season, here is how content will be rolled out on the site for the first several weeks.  After two weeks, R&D’s will make a daily appearance and we will begin unveiling some features pieces like the pre-season top ten, some interviews with last year’s national champions, and the unveiling of this year’s National Points Race structure.  We hope to also post the tournament calendar for the Extemp TOC when it becomes available.

Here is the schedule of content for the next two weeks:

Monday: News quizzes
Tuesday: International or US Extemp Questions
Wednesday: Quiz answers, International or US Extemp Questions
Thursday: R&D
Friday: R&D

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We hope that you enjoyed the 2010-2011 extemporaneous speaking season and we here at Extemp Central were glad to bring it to you.  This year we saw an extemper with the double crown for the third time, a record breaking National Points Race and National Team Points Race winner, an extemp national title return to Florida, and underclassmen perform well at some of the nation’s biggest tournaments.

Extemp Central looks forward to providing you with coverage of the 2011-2012 season.  The site will not have any updates during the offseason, but we will launch content for the new season starting on August 1st.  Check back then for new news quizzes, questions, R&D sections, and strategy pieces.  CFL and NFL IX winner Dylan Slinger and NFL USX winner Jared Odessky have agreed to do interviews with Extemp Central and we look forward to bringing those to you in August.  Also, Extemp Central will unveil changes being made to the National Points Race, as three new tournaments will be introduced and we will reshuffle the tiers.  We will also release our “underclassmen top ten” pre-season piece.

Thank you to everyone who sent in qualifiers, results, and other information during the year.  Also, thank you to the talented former extempers, Jacob Baker, Tyler Fabbri, Rohan Bhargava, Aaron Lutkowitz, Shahid Ahmed, Steven Elliot, Oscar Wang, James Mohan, Michael Barton, and Mirza Germovic, who volunteered to write previews for the big national circuit tournaments that took place this year.  Without community support, this website would not be as good as it is and we hope that you will join us for another great season next year.

-Logan Scisco

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Due to an obligation to judge for Western Kentucky University at the National Forensic Association Collegiate National Tournament this weekend, site content will not be updated until next Wednesday.  Like the last disruption this means that the news quiz and new IX/USX questions will be posted on Wednesday morning and a large R&D will also be posted that afternoon.  This should be the last delay in site content for the rest of the season.

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Due to an obligation to judge for Western Kentucky University at the American Forensic Association National Individual Events Tournament (AFA-NIET) this weekend, site content will not be updated until next Wednesday.  Next Wednesday morning, April 6th, the news quiz and new IX/USX questions will be posted.  A large 20 article R&D will also be posted that afternoon to make up for the days that are missed.  I apologize for any inconvenience that this may cause.

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With the end of NFL Nationals, the brief offseason has arrived for extempers across the nation.  As per usual, Extemp Central will not regularly update content during this period.  Over the next month, Extemp Central will piece together a roll call of state champions and put together a “year in review” piece for the site.

Check back on Monday, August 2nd for the start of the 2010-2011 season at Extemp Central with new R&D columns, new quizzes, new questions, and other resources.  A Wake Forest edition of the Ex Files will also be released at the end of August and will have interviews with Jacob Baker (2009-2010 National Points Race champion and NFL IX national champion) and Tyler Fabbri (NFL USX national champion).

Are there any features that you would like to see on Extemp Central?  If so, e-mail your suggestions to [email protected].  Have a good offseason!

What a great week at Extemp Central!  This past week marked the roll out of several new features for the website and the expansion of some of your favorites!

We premiered our weekly sets of 10 International and United States practice questions.  Other services charge you for these resources.  We’d rather you have them for free.

Corey chatted about  charismatic lizards bent on global domination, Sesame Street’s 40th birthday and the HBO-bama documentary in our ever-growing AGD series.

Did our political insider guess Tuesday’s election results correctly?

We unveiled the daily Research & Development series. R&D provides readers with five must read articles each weekday from a variety of sources.  If you didn’t add these to your files before leaving for the tournament, then you’re missing out.

While Twitter expanded its new Lists features,  Extemp Central showed you how to better follow policy journals, politics, think tanks, a slew of media outlets domestic and abroad and more using the feature.

As always, we shared two news quizzes to test your knowledge of current affairs.  We even checked your answers.

Best of all, we’re not going anywhere!  Check back with us on Monday as we start with a brand new week of these features and more.  Also, be on the lookout for the next edition of The EX Files as the season continues.

We’d love to hear your thoughts and suggestions about how we can make Extemp Central better.  Don’t hesitate to email us, comment on Facebook, or chirp at us on Twitter.

Starting next month, on November 2nd, there will be some changes appearing on Extemp Central.  We plan to debut a better rollout of content on a weekly basis to best assist the extemp community.  We are also open to additional suggestions you might have on how to make the website more user friendly or provide you with better resources.

The changes that will be implemented are:

1) Each day, Extemp Central will post links to five major news articles that you will want to read about global events.  These articles can come from newspaper sources, think tanks, policy journals, etc.  All of these are meant to diversify the readings extempers do and provide them with additional material if they are not cutting it for their files.

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Do you have a list of national qualifiers for your NFL District? If so, comment below so that Extemp Central can recognize these individuals or send the names of the qualifiers (with school name if possible) to [email protected].

Also, to follow up on a previous post, the new edition of the Ex Files will be released by April 1st, and that is not a joke!

Finally, questions that were used at the Kentucky CFL District tournament, the Kentucky KESDA tournament, and the Kentucky High School Speech League (KHSSL) state tournament will be posted to the site by late Saturday for extempers looking for lots of questions to prepare for upcoming tournaments.