Universidade de Washington

Speaking to Inspire: Ceremonial and Motivational Speeches

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Curso 4 de 4 em Specialization Dynamic Public Speaking

The most memorable speeches inspire, entertain, and praise. By blending stories and eloquence, great speeches highlight the core values motivating an audience. You might need to do this in a keynote address, a eulogy, or simply a business meeting. Inspiring audiences is a common, but difficult writing challenge. You want a speech that elevates the topic and the audience. This course gives you a method for preparing and delivering speeches that inspire and entertain. By the end of this course, you should be able to compose and deliver moving speeches that praise core audience values through evidence, storytelling, and humor. You should be able to write eloquent passages in tones appropriate to the audience and occasion and speak fluidly from either a well-prepared manuscript or from memory. Learners will record speeches, providing and receiving peer feedback.

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Week 4. Remembering and delivering a great speech.

You have your manuscript, now let’s perform it. Memory and delivery are clearly linked. We need to decide whether we’ll extemporize the speech, work from a manuscript, or memorize the whole thing. No one approach is inherently better, but should be a good response to the rhetorical situation. We’ll talk about making this decision. We’ll talk about how to format and read from a manuscript. We’ll talk about how to memorize speeches. Now we can finally get into some humor work. Some of this is certainly invention, but a lot of it is delivery. We’ll think about where and how to insert some humor into our speeches. And just as important, what to do when a joke falls flat. We’ll wrap up with some general delivery and performance issues. The honors assignment this week is a speech analysis. You’ll watch a speech, write up some feedback, and read how others analyzed the speech.

Should I read my manuscript or memorize it?5:03

Formatting a manuscript for speech delivery4:46

Speaking from a manuscript2:36

Overview of memorization5:33

Memory techniques4:39

Memorization process4:59

Conheça os instrutores

Dr. Matt McGarrity
Principal Lecturer
UW Department of Communication

Good notes should help you speak smoothly, but the less the audience notices them,

the better.

So what are some things to be doing here?

Well, I would say first, practice with your manuscript.

You're not going to know what you need to revise about your notes if you don't

practice with them.

It's a prop, and you need to do multiple run-throughs with that prop to know how

it's going to help you out.

Second, don't let your script get in the way.

So your manuscript is there to support you, but not to replace you.

As a speaker,

one of your primary tasks is to communicate with that existing audience.

The speech is for them in that moment, and so you need to make eye contact,

you need to speak to them.

So don't simply look down and read your notes to us.

I consider that high treason in the state of speech.

We've all suffered through that speaker who simply read

an essay to the audience, right?

You need to be able to move off script and engage the audience.

At a basic level, that means you should be able to make eye contact with at least

some members of the audience.

In the same way, don't hide behind your notes, right?

I mean, don't hold them up there in front of your face, right?

This isn't what a speech is.

We don't need to see the backs of your pieces of paper.

And I know, for many nervous speakers, it feels easier to look at a sheet of

paper than it does to look at the audience.

But we need to see you, and you need to see us.

Now, on the other side of the coin, use your script, okay?

Use your script when you need to, that's what it's there for.

It's not a sin to reference notes.

In many speaking situations,

it's perfectly acceptable to take a look at your notes.

But what you don't want to have happen is to forget part of the speech and

try to keep going on as if nothing has gone wrong.

Take a moment, find your place, and then move on.

Now, if you've practiced a speech, you might feel like you don't need notes.

That's fine, but keep them handy, right?

Have them on a podium or a nearby table, otherwise,

you can put them in a coat pocket, or in your back pocket if you've got note cards.

What else?

Be kind to your script, right?

I see this most in non-podium speakers, so they've gotta hold on to their script.

They're so

nervous about their speech that they don't know what to do with their hands.

So they end up sort of mangling their script, right?

The whole time they're talking, they're like this.

Man, your notes are your friend, don't be too rough on them.

Think of your manuscript as a helpful friend.

They're there to support you as you engage in an act of communication

with the audience.

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