Extemp Estuary: The Importance of a Good Transition

“Ich Bin Ein Extemper!” This month we first explore the wide world of transitions. The following is an excerpt from the upcoming Victory Briefs Extemp Style Guide, set to be released around the time of Nationals:

And that leads me to my next important point of analysis: transitions. Stilted, formulaic, disconnected — any of these words could describe the sentence I just used to begin this chapter. Such a lead-in, however, sounds equally detached when used by an extemper in a speech. Long underrated, the transition has finally made its way into modern extemp — but mostly as another opportunity for the speaker to toss in a couple isolated jokes before moving on to something completely unrelated. In doing so, the extemper loses the chance to both solidify and unify the speech, as well as demonstrate a cohesive style that applies to this — seemingly minor — detail, this icing meant to make an already effective speech more so.

And so we begin.

The Importance of a Good Transition

The transition, whether in writing or speaking, conversation or common storytelling, is an essential part of communication. Leading the listener (or reader) from one idea to the next is a delicate balance. You do not necessarily want give everything away, yet you also want to avoid leaving the person you are trying to communicate with lost on some random island of an idea with no connection to where you’ve taken the speech next.

Most important, therefore, for a functional transition is whether or not it unifies the speech into a more cohesive whole. In other words, a transition should serve to develop the speech more precisely into what you — the speaker — want it to be. From typical to thematic, from the basic to the mini-paragraph — we will discuss all of these types of transitions and more as we seek to understand how you can elevate the quality of your speech by utilizing transitions more effectively.

Like all forensics events — and most every skilled activity in life generally — the better one gets at the game, the more the improvements come in smaller and smaller, but more finely polished doses. At some level, such as competition at any number of national extemp tournaments, the field of competitors will be roughly equal in skill level. In these cases it will only be the ability to distinguish yourself with carefully crafted, intentionally enhanced details — such as effective transitions — that will set you apart.

So where, exactly, do these transitions belong in your speech?

The answer is more or less logical: transitions need to be used at any seam in the speech. In other words, in any place where the flow of the speech breaks due to the change from, for example, point to point. This means it is appropriate to develop solid transitions between your introduction and first point, first point and second point, second point and third point and finally, between the third point and the conclusion.

Transitions, however, are not limited to these obvious instances. Though much of this chapter will focus on the places (such as previously listed) that most definitely need a transitional statement, remember that internal transitioning occurs all the time in any speech — even in the simple words you use in moving from one quote back to your analysis within say, point one. The intention here is the same: to use a few words to smear the concepts together into a unified, cohesive whole. By learning how to develop and utilize effective transitions in the larger, more glaring places where they are necessary, you will begin to internalize the principles and skills behind transitions in general. Then, carrying over the skill to these more subtle — for example inside a given point — cases will be much easier. It is important, however, to know from the outset that transitions do not just occur between points, for instance.

Before we begin, however, to look at the fundamentals of developing a good transition, let’s consider what a speech would look like either, without real transitions or with (as is all too typical) clichéd transitional statements.

In the first instance, the lack of a transition leads to a jerky, broken up speech that sounds disjointed and only a loosely related set of ideas. This is obviously not going to be very convincing, because it is inherently difficult to meet the cardinal rule of extemp — always answer the question — when your three points do not seem to link or flow together. Early in extemp, this is a typical issue for the novice to deal with. Throughout the speech, s/he will give off the vibe that s/he is, while speaking, constantly reaching out, grabbing at the ideas of his or her speech, snatching them back and trying to hold them together — and barely, if at all, succeeding. Transitions go a long way toward preventing this haphazard feel to a speech.

On the other hand, a problem for the advanced extemper is falling into the rut of using transitions flippantly — without intentionality or thought — as some sort of joke, or stylistic cliché. This is to be avoided with equal fervor. Few things consistently bother judges than the fact that, as they go from room to room, they hear the same transitions — or even the same style (for example, quotes between points) — in every other speech they judge. Not only does this irritate judges (not a good thing at all), but it does very little to set an otherwise effective extemper apart. If anything, it lumps such a speaker right into the middle of the pack along with everyone else who is speaking. Again, solid transitions go a long way toward eliminating this worn-out clichéd feeling that veteran extempers sometimes develop into a habit…

Hopefully, you’ve found this information useful. If so, look for the style-guide coming up, and send any suggestions our way, things you’d like to see or have us spend some time on. Also, I would encourage you all to work on these things and then look to the May issue for more soon. Send me any questions you have…until next month!

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After placing second at Nationals in 2000, Jesse Nathan was the 2001 National Champion.

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