Speak from Memory

Uses of Memorized Delivery

Good orators of the past were expected to deliver their speeches from memory without notes or other aids. Today, you may find it to your advantage to memorize your speech or presentation.

Today, memorization takes two basic forms:

• The total speech or manuscript is committed to memory.
• Standard parts of a message are memorized and woven into each speech.

Advantages

If you memorize your speech you are more likely to perform better than the speaker reading from a manuscript, since you can stay in touch with your audience. When speaking from memory, you do not need to think about what is coming next or how to express an idea as you would in extemporaneous speaking; therefore, you can give more attention to the audience. Today, we generally admire and stress extemporaneous speaking in our society, but many of the great speeches in history were delivered all or partially from memory.

Disadvantages

One of the main problems of delivering a speech from memory is sounding rehearsed, or like you are reading. It is possible to memorize and deliver a speech with variety and emphasis.

Tips for the Speaker

You may use various approaches to memorize and rehearse your speech. Below are some guidelines to follow when delivering a memorized speech:

• When writing the speech, write as if you were speaking naturally, directly to an audience.
• Develop an outline of the main points and then memorize the outline.
• If delivering the same speech to different audiences over time, memorize the individual sections and then weave them together for each occasion.
• If you forget a word or two or a small section, just continue speaking.

Overall, if you have the attitude that you are communicating with an audience rather than reciting words, you are likely to succeed.