Practicing your speech

August 6, 5:37 PMLA Presentation and Communications Skills ExaminerFrank Adamo

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Practice, but don't memorize your speech

I read two articles this past week in which the writers indicated that we need to keep practicing until we have perfected our speeches.  I disagree.  First, we can never achieve perfection.  Even the most professional speakers are rarely, if ever, perfect.  On the other hand, we can always strive for excellence.

Related to perfecting our speeches, the two writers suggested that we should memorize our speeches, and this is the case if we practice until we have perfected our speeches, i.e. we have memorized our speeches.

I know that many speech instructors and some speakers say that we should memorize our speeches; however, if we memorize our speeches, aren't we performing?  Actors memorize their scripts, but acting is not speaking.  When you act, you may excite the audience but you rarely engage the audience.  When speaking, you want to engage the audience.

We certainly should write out our speeches and practice from the written script, but not to memorize the speech. We want to refine it, modify it, and to assure that the message is consistent, concise and to the point. Therefore, instead of practicing until we perfect the speech, we should write the speech, practice the speech, rewrite the speech, practice some more until the message is clear, concise and straight forward.  Once the speech is "perfectly written."  then we practice some more, not to memorize it, but to know it.  "Well, isn't that the same thing," you may ask.  Absolutely not.  A memorized speech comes from the head.  A speech you know comes from the heart.  

If you memorize a speech and you are distracted, you may lose your place and your thoughts.  Instead, when you know your speech well enough that it comes from within you, you may be distracted, but you can continue on much easier because it's coming from the heart.