The Extemp Rule Change Won't Work. What Will?

“I think the community standard in extemp has unfortunately become the falsification of evidence. Have we as a community created a standard where students are dishonest?”

- Robert Shepard, 3 Diamond Coach and NSDA Hall of Fame Member

The proposed NSDA rule change has polarized the NSDA community, from coaches to judges to extempers themselves. The community is divided on every level. The effects of a mere proposal are shaking the grounds of our entire association. Competitors are debating on Discord, coaches are gossiping over the phone, and judges are just waiting to drop their jaws when a student walks in with a legal pad to an extemp round. As the board weighs a decision that would influence every tournament in the country, one group was left out of that decision. At the end of the day, the opinion that needs to be heard is the opinion of the extempers. This article exists to embolden the voices of those who weren’t present in the boardroom. 

According to current NSDA rules, competitors may use notes during the preparation phase of the event, but not while presenting their speech. On November 13th, the Competition Rules Board introduced a proposal to allow notes during extemporaneous speeches. What could this look like? Evidently, it wasn’t clear in the post, but it wouldn’t be farfetched to imagine anything from an index card to full legal pads while the competitors are speaking. Without question, if the board agrees to pass the change, the event will fundamentally change. The question has become: Would this rule change actually solve the problem at hand? 

In the semifinal round of the National Tournament, many competitors were flagged for poor sourcing, which raised the eyebrows of many judges and coaches. Since Extemp is a limited prep event, memorizing 7, 8, 9 or more sources in just 30 minutes is definitely a challenge, causing many competitors to flub their sources in round. Faking sources IS an issue, misinformation takes away from the core ideals of debate which is education. The proposed solution is to allow competitors to bring in notes to accurately disseminate the correct information. In theory, competitors could write down the names and dates of their sources, but the power of having notes is not only easily abused, but also ineffective. 

The truth is, however, notepads don’t solve the issue. Disinformation will still occur, when extempers create false information to uphold their narrative. The community has devolved to emphasize winning over integrity. Faking a source to grab a 1 in the round is a shoe-in for almost every extemper. Those who wish to cheat the system will do so. Notepads in round aren’t going to change the attitudes and routines of frivolous competitors. If we want to end the issue of cheating and source-faking, we need to get to the root of the cause. 

Furthermore, even in a perfect world where extempers don’t fake sources, the notepads will be abused. Remembering power lines, tags, and other information is the base of the event. Writing down your lines on paper ruins the fun, creative aspect, and memorization challenges the event brings. Having your 30 minutes of prep available at your fingertips removes the public speaking aspect, and it detracts from the beauty of the event. For people who don’t want the challenge of extemp, events like Congress have notepads. Extempers don’t want to water down the event they have spent decades molding an idea into a masterpiece. 

So how do we solve the root issue of cheating? In a brief conversation with Robert Shepard, coach at Plano Senior HS in Plano TX, 3 diamond coach, NSDA Hall of Fame member, and a member of that semi-finals panel that I mentioned earlier, we uncovered a couple key issues that plague the event. First, a lack of proactive source checking. I hate to call upon the lovely judges that run this event, but infrequent source checks have propagated the issue. Large tournaments may do only source check one round, leaving the majority of extemp speeches unchecked. Does this mean checking every source? No, but it means checking one or two, or at the minimum making proactive efforts to catch odd or strange sounding sources. Second, and most importantly, it’s time to take accountability as a community. No one is perfect, and slip-ups happen, but the harsh truth is that hardly a single extemper thinks about the integrity of their work before the quality (myself included). The conversation I had opened up my eyes. It's time that extempers start proactively prioritizing integrity, and making it a cornerstone of the event. The same way that we respect well-timed humor, confident speakers, and great analysis, it’s time we praise accurate sourcing. Taking a few extra minutes in prep to nail down your sources is the least we can do for our judges, it’s the least we can do for our debate space. In a world where we don’t prioritize getting the right information out to our judges, is the world where extemp begins to lose its purpose. If we as a community don’t change our attitudes and actions, that becomes our world. 

The NSDA rule change wouldn’t mean the end of the world. It would take massive upheaval for extemp to immediately start looking differently. As long as the extempers who prioritize this event leave the legal pad in draw, we’re not going to see significant changes in the look and feel of this event. At the end of day, skilled extempers can always flex their skill regardless of any rule that the NSDA enacts. However, the rule change is less about how we compete in round, but more about how we compete out of round. For too long has the NSDA and its community been inactive when it comes to faking sources. Bad prep misinforms people. Disinformation hurts people. It’s time that as a community we step up to fight poor sourcing, one extemp speech at a time.