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Methods of Delivery

The document discusses three types of public speaking styles: impromptu speaking, which involves presenting without preparation; extemporaneous speaking, which involves carefully planning and rehearsing a speech using brief notes; and manuscript speaking, which involves reading a speech word-for-word. Extemporaneous speaking allows for flexibility and establishes eye contact while avoiding the dullness of manuscript speaking and risk of losing one's place like memorized speaking. It involves thorough preparation and rehearsal.

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Kemberly Semaña Penton
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303 views3 pages

Methods of Delivery

The document discusses three types of public speaking styles: impromptu speaking, which involves presenting without preparation; extemporaneous speaking, which involves carefully planning and rehearsing a speech using brief notes; and manuscript speaking, which involves reading a speech word-for-word. Extemporaneous speaking allows for flexibility and establishes eye contact while avoiding the dullness of manuscript speaking and risk of losing one's place like memorized speaking. It involves thorough preparation and rehearsal.

Uploaded by

Kemberly Semaña Penton
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Impromptu Speaking

Impromptu speaking is the presentation of a short message without advance preparation.


You have probably done impromptu speaking many times in informal, conversational settings.
Self-introductions in group settings are examples of impromptu speaking. Another example of
impromptu speaking occurs when you answer a question such as, “What did you think of the
movie?” Your response has not been preplanned, and you are constructing your arguments and
points as you speak.

The advantage of this kind of speaking is that it’s spontaneous and responsive in an animated
group context. The disadvantage is that the speaker is given little or no time to contemplate the
central theme of his or her message. As a result, the message may be disorganized and difficult
for listeners to follow.

Here is a step-by-step guide that may be useful if you are called upon to give an impromptu
speech in public:

1. Take a moment to collect your thoughts and plan the main point or points you want to
make.
2. Thank the person for inviting you to speak. Do not make comments about being
unprepared, called upon at the last moment, on the spot, or uneasy. No one wants to
hear that and it will embarrass others and yourself.
3. Deliver your message, making your main point as briefly as you can while still covering it
adequately and at a pace your listeners can follow.
4. Stay on track. Answer the question or prompt as given; resist the temptation to go
elsewhere.
5. Thank the person again for the opportunity to speak.
6. Stop talking (it is easy to “ramble on” when you don’t have something prepared). If in
front of an audience, don’t keep talking as you move back to your seat.

Impromptu speeches are generally most successful when they are brief and focus on a single
point.

Extemporaneous Speaking
Extemporaneous speaking is the presentation of a carefully planned and rehearsed speech,
spoken in a conversational manner using brief notes. By using notes rather than a full
manuscript, the extemporaneous speaker can establish and maintain eye contact with the
audience and assess how well they are understanding the speech as it progresses. And since
you will be graded (to some degree) on establishing and maintaining eye contact with your
audience, extemporaneous speaking can be extremely beneficial in that regard. Without all the
words on the page to read, you have little choice but to look up and make eye contact with
your audience.

Speaking extemporaneously has some advantages.


1. It promotes the likelihood that you, the speaker, will be perceived as knowledgeable and
credible since you know the speech well enough that you don’t need to read it.

2. In addition, your audience is likely to pay better attention to the message because it is
engaging both verbally and nonverbally. It also allows flexibility; you are working from the
strong foundation of an outline, but if you need to delete, add, or rephrase something at the
last minute or to adapt to your audience, you can do so. The outline also helps you be aware of
main ideas vs. subordinate ones.

The disadvantage of extemporaneous speaking is that it in some cases it does not allow for the
verbal and the nonverbal preparation that are almost always required for a good speech.
Adequate preparation cannot be achieved the day before you’re scheduled to speak, so be
aware that if you want to present a credibly delivered speech, you will need to practice many
times.

Manuscript Speaking
Manuscript speaking is the word-for-word iteration of a written message. In a manuscript
speech, the speaker maintains his or her attention on the printed page except when using
visual aids.

The advantage to reading from a manuscript is the exact repetition of original words. In some
circumstances this can be extremely important. For example, reading a statement about your
organization’s legal responsibilities to customers may require that the original words be exact.
In reading one word at a time, in order, the only errors would typically be mispronunciation of a
word or stumbling over complex sentence structure. A manuscript speech may also be
appropriate at a more formal affair (like a funeral), when your speech must be said exactly as
written in order to convey the proper emotion or decorum the situation deserves.

However, there are costs involved in manuscript speaking. First, it’s typically an uninteresting
way to present. Unless the speaker has rehearsed the reading as a complete performance
animated with vocal expression and gestures (well-known authors often do this for book
readings), the presentation tends to be dull. Keeping one’s eyes glued to the script prevents
eye contact with the audience. For this kind of “straight” manuscript speech to hold audience
attention, the audience must be already interested in the message and speaker before the
delivery begins.

It is worth noting that professional speakers, actors, news reporters, and politicians often read
from an autocue device, such as a TelePrompTer, especially when appearing on television,
where eye contact with the camera is crucial. With practice, a speaker can achieve a
conversational tone and give the impression of speaking extemporaneously and maintaining eye
contact while using an autocue device. However, success in this medium depends on two
factors: (1) the speaker is already an accomplished public speaker who has learned to use a
conversational tone while delivering a prepared script, and (2) the speech is written in a style
that sounds conversational and in spoken rather than written, edited English, for example, with
shorter sentences and clearer transitions.

Memorized Speaking
Memorized speaking is the rote recitation of a written message that the speaker has
committed to memory. Actors, of course, recite from memory whenever they perform from a
script. When it comes to speeches, memorization can be useful when the message needs to be
exact and the speaker doesn’t want to be confined by notes.

The advantage to memorization is that it enables the speaker to maintain eye contact with the
audience throughout the speech. Being free of notes means that you can move freely around
the stage and use your hands to make gestures. If your speech uses visual aids, this freedom is
even more of an advantage.

However, there are some real and potential costs. First, unless you also plan and memorize
every vocal cue (the subtle but meaningful variations in speech delivery, which can include the
use of pitch, tone, volume, and pace), gesture, and facial expression, your presentation will be
flat and uninteresting, and even the most fascinating topic will suffer. You might end up
speaking in a monotone or a sing-song repetitive delivery pattern. You might also present your
speech in a rapid “machine-gun” style that fails to emphasize the most important points.

Second, if you lose your place and start trying to ad lib, the contrast in your style of delivery will
alert your audience that something is wrong. If you go completely blank during the
presentation, it will be extremely difficult to find your place and keep going. Obviously,
memorizing a typical seven-minute classroom speech takes a great deal of time and effort, and
if you aren’t used to memorizing, it is very difficult to pull off. Realistically, you probably will not
have the time necessary to give a completely memorized speech. However, if you practice
adequately, you will approach the feeling of memorized while still being extemporaneous.

As we said earlier, for the purposes of this class you will use extemporaneous speaking. Many
professional speakers who are paid to make speeches use this approach because, while they
may largely know what they want to say, they usually make changes and adjustments based on
the audience or event. This approach also incorporates most of the benefits of memorized
speaking (knowing what you want to say; being very thoroughly rehearsed) and manuscript
speaking (having some words in front of you to refer to) without the inherent pitfalls those
approaches bring with them.

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