Topic Areas?

[Guest]

Logan do you have any idea (or speculation as to) what the "America" or "The World" topic areas at NFLs would contain? Maybe International Orgs/ treaties for "the world"? Why would the NFL have such uncharacteristically vague topic areas?

[Logan Scisco]

Good question. To be honest, when I was talking with the extempers I coach the other day they mentioned the same concern that you have. I hate topic areas of this sort because it is impossible to prepare for them but to be fair to the NFL topic writing committee, it is never easy writing 13 rounds of questions with 13 different topic areas (moreso for US Extemp because there is only so much about the U.S. you can write about...this is one of the reasons I've always felt US Extemp is harder than International Extemp even though over the past several years the better competitors at nationals have done IX instead of USX, although the field is leveling and this year I think the balance of power is shifting from IX to USX).

Anyway, my best guess for "The World" or "America" is that the questions will cover issues that are not going to be contained in the other 12 topic areas. I see "The World" as a global issues-type round that will center on things that are effecting global stability/relations or issues affecting global bodies such as NATO, the UN, etc. I see "America" in much of the same light, with a strong emphasis on social issues. One thing you should not have to worry about with "America" is that pop culture is not going to be a topic area and there should be no pop culture questions since the NFL extemp committee released their findings on that last year. These are just my guesses for what "The World"/"America" mean and they could be completely off. The questions you'll likely get will be from the specific to such general questions as "What is the international community?" (Lisa Mueller's final round question in the 2003 IX National Final) or "What is an American?"