The Four Methods of Speech Delivery

One of the ways to ensure that you engage your audience effectively is by carefully considering how best to deliver your
speech. Each of you has sat in a class, presentation, or meeting where you didn’t feel interested in the information the
presenter was sharing. Part of the reason for your disengagement likely originated in the presenter’s method of speech
delivery.

For our purposes, there are four different methods—or types—of speech delivery used in technical communication:

 Impromptu

 Manuscript

 Memorized

 Extemporaneous

The public speaking section of this course will require you to deliver a speech using an extemporaneous style, but let’s
take a look at how all four differ in approach:

Impromptu Speeches

Impromptu speaking is the presentation of a short message without advanced preparation. You have probably
done impromptu speaking many times in informal, conversational settings. Self-introductions in group settings are
examples of impromptu speaking: “Hi, my name is Shawnda, and I’m a student at the University of Saskatchewan.”

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 pre-planned, and you are constructing your arguments and points as you speak.
Even worse, you might find yourself going into a meeting when your boss announces to you, “I want you to talk about
the last stage of the project” with no warning.

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 their 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 that you want to make (like a mini thesis
statement).

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. In other words, try to avoid being self-deprecating!

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. If you can use a structure, use numbers if possible: “Two main reasons. . .” or “Three parts of our plan. . .” or
“Two side effects of this drug. . .” Past, present, and future or East Coast, Midwest, and West Coast are pre-fab
structures.

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.

We recommend practicing your impromptu speaking regular

Manuscript Speeches

Manuscript speaking is the word-for-word iteration of a written message. In a manuscript speech, the speaker maintains
their attention on the printed page except when using presentation aids.

The advantage to reading from a manuscript is the exact repetition of original words. This can be extremely important in
some circumstances. 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 the
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 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. Finally, because the full notes are required, speakers often require a
lectern to place their notes, restricting movement and the ability to engage with the audience. Without something to
place the notes on, speakers have to manage full-page speaking notes, and that can be distracting.

It is worth noting that professional speakers, actors, news reporters, and politicians often read from an autocue device
such as a teleprompter. This device is especially common when these people appear 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.

Memorized Speeches

Memorized speaking is reciting a written message that the speaker has committed to memory. Actors, of course,
recite from memory whenever they perform from a script in a stage play, television program, or movie. 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 presentation aids, this freedom is even more of an advantage.

Memorization, however, can be tricky. First, 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.

Extemporaneous Speeches

Extemporaneous speaking is the presentation of a carefully planned and rehearsed speech, spoken in a
conversational manner using brief notes.

Speaking extemporaneously has some advantages. 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.
In addition, your audience is likely to pay better attention to the message because it is engaging both verbally
and nonverbally.

By using notes rather than a full manuscript (or everything that you’re going to say),
the extemporaneous speaker can establish and maintain eye contact with the audience and assess how well
they are understanding the speech as it progresses. 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.
SPEECH PRODUCTION FORMULATION

 LEVELT’S MODEL (1989) How to observe formulation process?

Step 1. How slips of the tongue (or the computer

keyboard) provide vivid insights into our understanding of
how speech is formulated.

Step 2. The power of printing in guiding the direction of

speech production.

What does speech errors tells us?

 Speech errors reveal possible process of speech

formulation from thoughts of language.

 Speech is psychologically real.

ARTICULATION

How is speech initially conceptualized? PROCESS:

1. Three system of muscles

2. Motor control speech

3. Planning and production cycles

THREE SYSTEM OF MUSCLES

-The chest, the throat and the mouth simply designed for
biological functions.

What are those functions:

To eat food, to breath air, to articulate speech

1. The respiratory
2. The Laryngeal
McNeil offers some plausible evidence by saying that 3. The supralaryngeal or Vocal tract
syntactic thought may be generated by beginning with
something demonstrative while imagistic thought might ANATOMY OF LARYNX: SPEECH PRODUCTION
be of to some pointing towards an object.

PROBLEMS

 PROCESS-the process of how imagistic and syntactic

thoughts are initially conventionalized are unclear.

 VISUALIZATION-For another, the illustrations he uses

to describe how gestures synchronize with important
syntactic breaks in spoken language are difficult to
follow.

It can be adequately illustrated by a videotape and not by

drawing.
Motor Control Speech-when idea is conceptualized
and linguistically formulated, the brain commands
CREATIVE SPEECH PRODUCTION
the system responsible for speech production.
METHODS OF SPEECH DELIVERY
Different speech organs work together to produce
Lily Walters said, “The success of your presentation will
sounds.
be judged bot by the knowledge you send but by what
the listener receives.” Thus, an effective speaker and an
 Anticipatory co-articulation (boo [bu], bark
efficient speech delivery is necessary to let the audience
[ba-])
be receive of the right message.
 Preservatory co-articulation (its [its]) (Dogs [z],
cats [s]) 4 TYPES/METHODS OF CREATIVE SPEECH DELIVERY IN
SPEECH
PLANNING AND PRODUCTION CYCLES
1. READING A MANUSCRIPT-is delivering speech from a
text written word-for-word. This is a good method
especially for speakers who want to practice in advance
the delivery of their speech, consequently, ensuring that
they will not loose words.

GUIDELINES:

 Don’t rush.

 Memorize the first and last line.

 Look at the audience at the end of a sentence or at

the beginning a new one.

 Know when to pause.

FUNCTIONS OF MONITORING:
 Practice several times.
1. Use of pauses
2. MEMORIZED SPEECH-is delivering a speech that is
2. Use of gestures recalled verbatim from a text, it is done by preparing
written speech and then, memorized it word to word.
3. Use of variables as morphological
 Speakers deliver their speeches from memory for
4. Complexity, lexical, ambiguity, age of acquisition, and them to figure out their exact wording ahead of time.
recency of usage.
GUIDELINES:
Self Monitoring-within the process of printing
 Maintain the 140 word per minute speech rate.
How do we know we self monitor?
 Use hand gestures and movement.
 We correct our speech errors/mistakes immediately.
 Include expression in your voice.
 Hesitation
 Memorize not just the speech but also the outline
What do we monitor? of the speech.
 Errors and mistakes. 3. IMPROMPTU SPEECH-it is a speaking method with little
FACTS: Native speaker’s do not make “errors”. The make or even without advanced preparation. It is done if a
“mistakes”. person is asked to speak “off the cuff.” or at the “sour of
the moment.”
Non-native speaks makes “errors”.
 It is done in ad lib, impromptu speakers are inclined
to be more conversational to their audience. They
tend to speak more directly and more convincingly to
their audience. Accordingly, a more “genuine” FUNCTIONS OF DRAMA
speech is produced.
• Drama is said to have originated from rituals.
GUIDELINES:
• It presents a story realistically through the actors to the
 Relax. audience.
 Don’t be in a hurry. Drama is therefore used to:
 Deliver the speech using a template. • Entertain
A) T.A.S.S. (Thesis, Argument, Support, and Summary.) • Inform
B) 5 W’s (Who, What, When, Where, Why) •Educate
 Review when there is nothing to say. For instance, most campaigns against AIDS, DRUG ABUSE,
CHILD ABUSE and so on, are presented in form of drama
4. EXTEMPORANEOUS-is the most popular style of
to educate
speaking. This is done by speaking from notes.
Nonetheless, the speech is not entirely written on the ORIGIN OF DRAMA-It is commonly believed that the art
notes. of drama is western form of literature and it has been
originated from the Greeks. But in reality it is totally
GUIDELINES:
opposite to it as the Encyclopedia Americana has
 Widen the vocabulary. rejected this theory. It traces its origin in Egypt as far back
as 3200 B.C.
 Be prepared with proper notes.
Some modem researches indicated that some knowledge
A. Index Card Color.
of the drama may have come from Egypt where it is
B. Pen. known of Egyptian drama was the famous Abydos or
Osiris passion play. Osiris being the name of the god
 Speak with a framework. whose history is celebrated.
A. Outline. The pyramid texts of which at least 55 exists the
B. Concept Map. coronation festival plays, several of which survive in some
forms; Hebseds(Coronation Jubilees), physical evidences
HISTORY OF DRAMA of which still exist in great number Passion plays, at least
DRAMA-the word “drama” is derived from the Greek three; and at least one medicinal play recognized by
word “dran” means to do, to perform; a kin Greek Egyptology (Freedly & Reeve)
‘’drainein” means to be ready, to do and technically it • Scholars are divided on the origin of drama Some trace
means deed, action on the stage. the origin to Greece but others insist that drama in its
DRAMA-is an imitation of life in which dialogues and definitive form or pattern evolved from Egypt
acting are in full consonance with real life where acting • However, the account of tracing the origin of drama to
and performance occupy the first place and dance and Greece is more plausible. The evolution is clearer and
dialogues occupy the second place. well-documented.
-is a branch of fine arts. According to some scholars the ORIGIN OF DRAMA (Western Theatre)
drama is a literary miracle which is written for the stage;
dialogues and speeches are in the form of poem; The origins of Western drama can be traced to the
sentiments and feelings are expressed by body and celebratory music of 6th-century BC Attica, the Greek
tongue. region centered on Athens. Although accounts of this
period are inadequate, it appears that the poet Thespis AUTHORS OF GREEK DRAMA
developed a new musical form in which he impersonated
Aeschylus
a single character and engaged a chorus of singer dancers
in dialogue. As the first composer and soloist in this new -Expanded number of actors, reduced the
form, which came to be known as tragedy, Thespis can be
considered both the first dramatist and the first actor. -size of the chorus

GREEK DRAMA -Only surviving trilogy - the Oresteia

6th century BCE - was worship of the Greek god Dionysus. •Sophocles

 Dionysus-god of wine (pleasure god) -Ranked with Shakespeare as one of the best playwrights
of all time.
Had two sides to him good and bad (comedy and
tragedy) -Refined plot structure to create unified works

 Chorus - group of chanters - danced around an altar -Author of Oedipus and Antigone
to commemorate his death •Euripides
 Song they sang was called the goat-song or tragos - Emphasized human relationships
(the Greek word for tragedy)
-Master of pathos - human sorrow and compassion
*Thalia + Melpomene Masks*
-Author of The Trojan Women and Medea
These performances evolved into dramatic contests
• Aristophanes
 Lasted 5-6 days.
-Author of Greek comedy
 Last three days four plays were performed
-Considered nothing sacred
-3 tragedies (trilogy) and a comedy (satyr)
-Skilled satirist and observer of humanity
 Thespis (the first actor) won the first competition by
stepping out from the chorus and engaging in Author of The Frogs, The Clouds, and Lysistrata
dialogue. Menander-was a Greek dramatist and the best-known
 Thespian - the name given to actors ever since. representative of Athenian New Comedy. He wrote 108
comedies and took the prize at the Lenaia festival eight
GREEK THEATRE times.
-Held in the open on hillsides surrounding a circular area ROMAN DRAMA
called the orchestra
Most were just copies of Greek Drama
-Wooden seats were added, then stone
Andronicus - first "Roman" playwright, an author from a
-Some theaters seated more than 17,000 people!! Greek colony
THE ROLE CHORUS •First Roman tragedy was a translation from a Greek play
 Explain the situation. Roman Theater

 Bring the audience up-to-date. •Amphitheaters - large circular arenas surrounded by

tiers of seats.
 Make a commentary on the action.
ROMAN DRAMATIST
 Engage in dialogue with the actors.
Where the Greek dramatists were writing for festival
★Eventually role diminished as actors' roles expanded. presentation and the kudos that would ensue, the Roman
The chorus is still used to increase realism of scenes and theatre was commercial and the dramatists wrote for
to engage in scenes with the main characters.
money or patronage. Plautus and Terence adapted Greek • Professional improvised comedy.
originals.
• Plot outlines posted before performance.
It is known that they used the plays of Menander
• No scripts.
*AMPHITHEATRE*
•Stock characters which represented two classes.
MEDIEVAL DRAMA
•Harlequin (Arlecchino in Italian) is the most popular of
Battle between Christian religions (Catholicism mostly) the zanni or comic servant characters from the Italian
and Pagan religions. Trying to "reform" the world. Any Commedia dell'Arte,
play that was not approved by the church was considered
THE RENAISSANCE ENGLAND
blasphemous.
Climax came during the Elizabethan Age
Liturgical drama - question-answer song performed by
monks on Easter. • Queen Elizabeth supported the arts more than any
other ruler of the time.
Saint plays - based on legends of saints.
• Threats of closing the theatre due to the plague were
Mystery plays - based on biblical history.
often stopped because of her
Passion plays - address the last week of Christ's life.
• Financially assisted some troupes and theaters
Morality plays - taught the difference between right and
THE RENAISSANCE DRAMATIST
wrong.
CHRISTOPHER MARLOWE
(context of devil and God battling for souls).
• Introduced important use of blank verse
Medieval Drama-Performed on platforms called
mansions. •Three mansions represented Heaven, Hell •Shakespeare's main competition
and the Sea of Galilee.
• Author of Doctor Faustus (story of a man who sells his
Medieval craft guilds took over the presentation of soul)
drama.
BEN JOHNSON
•Pageant wagons - stages on wheels.
• Master of English comedy
•Divided into two levels (upper = stage, lower = dressing
area.) • Author of Volpone, The Alchemist and Every Man in His
Humour.
Folk Drama - secular drama (non-religious).
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
•Discouraged by the church.
• The greatest dramatist of all time!!
•Took place around planting and harvest time and
presented outdoors. •The characters form the center of interest in
Shakespeare's plays
-Most pagan religions gave thanks to an earth goddess,
hence celebration around planting and harvest. •lambic pentameter/blank verse

•Example: Robin Hood. • Author of Romeo and Juliet, A Midsummer Night's

Dream and 35 others!
THE RENAISSANCE ITALY
• Also wrote 154 sonnets!!
Weak imitations of classical plays
THE ELIZABETHAN PLAYHOUSE
Opera - an attempt to revive Greek Drama
The Globe and The Rose two most famous
Commedia Dell'arte - "comedy of the profession"
Platform (thrust) stage with courtyard around on three • "Father of Realism"
sides
•Revolutionary themes
Three tiers of seating - the higher the tier the more
-Ghosts
expensive the seat (opposite of today's theatre) Open air -
if it rained, the groundlings got wet. • A Doll's House

-Realistically showed the day’s problems

*GLOBE (INSIDE VIEW*) England's George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950)
RESTORATION DRAMA *Pygmalion*
English Royal Patent of 1662 - women appeared as • Wanted to reform the world through his work
players for the first time.
• Ranked with Shakespeare
Raked stages - sloped upward so audience could see the
performance. Oscar Wilde (1856-1900)

RESTORATION DRAMA AUTHORS •The Importance of Being Earnest (Comedy of Manners)

John Dryden (1631-1700) 20TH CENTURY PLAYWRIGHTS

- The conquest of Granada •Arthur Miller (The Crucible and Death of a Salesman)
•Eugene O'Neill
- All for love
➤ Issues range from interpersonal relationships to faith
William Congreve (1670- 1729) ➤Long Day's Journey into Night
- The Way of the World Tennessee Williams (The Glass Menagerie)
- Love for Love Lillian Hellman - most influential female playwright
18TH CENTURY ENGLISH DRAMA OTHER DRAMA/ARTIST
•Oliver Goldsmith (1728-1774)-considered best comedy •Goethe - Germany in 1770s to early 1800s - Faust
writer since Shakespeare.
•Edmond Rostand - France - Cyrano de Bergerac
ROMANTICISM DRAMA-Relied on emotions and feelings
•Samuel Becket - France - Waiting for Godot
Melodrama- most popular type of Romanticism where
the hero always succeeded • Chekov - Russia - greatest Russian Dramatist

Playwrights made clear distinctions between good and THEATRE OF THE ABSURD
evil A reaction to the disappearance of the religious
Forces of good always won dimension form contemporary life.

REALISTIC DRAMA (1820-1920) •Authors felt that life is meaningless; there is no hope of
salvation - thus their plays reflected these ideas.
Began as reaction against Romanticism
An attempt to restore the importance of myth and ritual
Mid century dramatic style = Realism to our age, by making man aware of the ultimate realities
of his condition
•Seeks the truth/ depicts a selected view
•Not everything is scientific and can be figured out - so
Presented things as in real life (often dealt with social
plays showed illogic of life.
problems)
Shows that language is unreliable
Major author: Henrik Ibsen (1828-1906)
•There are so many clichés in language that it doesn't
convey real human thought

•Language in plays can be purposefully confusing. As in

Hamlet, language means something and sometimes
nothing

Its almost impossible to cover each and every writer as

well as theatre in one lecture.