Reference no: EM133373372

From a technical perspective, a manuscript speech is a speech completely written out word-for-word and the speaker either memorizes it verbatim or reads directly from it.  On paper, it looks like a personal essay with natural paragraph breaks as you'd see in an essay or even in a personal letter written to someone.

The pros: 1) You can write exactly what you want to say. 

The cons: 1) Some people struggle to separate technical writing from speech writing which needs to be conversational in tone. The speech  may sound flat. 2) If the speaker aims for memorization, they have to a) control fluster if they make a mistake and b) still sound natural and not robotic. 3) If the speaker chooses to read the speech word-for-word they have not given a speech. They have read an essay out loud and it wasn't a pleasant experience for anyone.

So...how do you develop a manuscript speech and still give an extemporaneous style presentation?

1. Write it from the heart. It will automatically sound more natural.
2. Get your head out of research paper mode - let the pauses (commas), etc. come naturally, not technically.
3. Rehearse, in small chunks as you develop it up to the completed piece, 5-7 times. The more you rehearse the more naturally you simply know the content of your speech.
4. Be okay with not having your speech be verbatim. While you obviously want to hit all the elements you need (or is required) for your speech, you want to focus on the essence of the message. Turns out, this last bit is true of all speeches regardless of developmental style or purpose.