Hello all! The summer is upon us and that means it's time for another UTNIF. With that, of course, comes another fun UTNIF Extemp Lab! I wanted to take a moment to prepare you for what a day in the life of UTNIF Extemp looks like for those of you brave enough to join us :)
Mornings include topic discussions and research time. Our faculty will cover current events across the board throughout the course of the institute: Azerbaijan to Zimbabwe, the economy to social issues, our presidential election and elections across the globe. Alongside the lecture series, we scour the university library- one of the largest in the country- for top-of-the-line research that extempers can use throughout the year. You name the journal, we got it. Book chapters suit your fancy? Done. We hope every extemper will leave with an amazing set of lecture notes and a great research packet to start the year!
In the afternoon, our focus shifts to the mechanics and practice of extemp. Students will be divided into labs to get more one-on-one time with faculty members working on extemp drills specifically tailored to meet their individual needs. Whether its building confidence and fluidity, developing your conversational speaking skills, going deeper with argumentation, or incorporating humor, we've got the lab work to push you to take extemp to the next level. Additionally, each speaker will get two practice speeches per afternoon, plus work sessions with our instructors. We hope you love extemp as much as we do, because you'll be doing a lot of it.
Students majoring in Congress will be taken all the way through legislative debate preparation. We will cover writing and drafting legislation, argumentation strategies, organization and delivery, parliamentary procedure, how to effectively serve as a presiding officer, and much much more.
In addition, students will sit in on daily topic and theory lectures devoted to issues in which all successful Congressional Debaters should be well versed. In the afternoon, the information conveyed in these lectures will be employed during numerous practice sessions and individually tailored instruction to meet the unique needs of all of the students, novice and varsity alike.
The evenings are devoted to minor time, and we offer a variety of opportunities for those seeking to go above and beyond the call of normal forensic duty:
Impromptu- most take this event less seriously than they should, but our extemp faculty have a combined grand total of over 15 national final rounds in the event and 5 championships. Impromptu is a great supplement to those who feel like taking the event seriously and serving as model impromptu speakers. We cover a variety of impromptu formats and styles and can work with any regional preferences.
Extemp- back again this year is our double extemp program for those who major and minor in extemp. This minor offers deeper, seminar-based discussion of current events issues and more individualized instruction. For those who minor in extemp who major elsewhere, we offer a baseline training in extemp theory, a topic lecture, and a practice round a day.
If I were an Extemp Major, I might ask someone, "Why should I also be an Extemp Minor?"Well, kids, that one's easy: Extemp Double Majors get more attention, more information, more instruction. In other words, Double Majors in Extemp are hard core extempers. You're like Extemp Assassins. Extemp Ninjas.
If I were an Oratory or Interp Major, I might ask someone, "why should I sign up for an Extemp Minor?" Well, first, Extemp Minors leave UTNIF ready to compete at their first tournament - you will attend structure lectures, content lectures and practice rounds. Plus, extemp skills translate pretty easily into your other events and into your classes.
On behalf of the extemp & congress staff, we look forward to meeting you this summer. Please let us know if you have any questions!
All the best,
Jason Warren
UTNIF Extemp Co-Director
Assistant Director of Forensics: George Mason University
M.A., University of Texas Class of 2006
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