ABSTRACT
This chapter will outline the basics of the canons of delivery and memory in order to provide the foundations of public speaking as a performative act. The canon of memory outlines strategies of how to remember and recall one’s speech without having recourse to notes or manuscripts. The canon of delivery will identify the basic components that go into a public speech. Delivery does not attend to what is said so much as the way it is spoken and performed. This includes not only the four ways of delivering a public speech, including from memory, extemporaneous notes, a manuscript, or impromptu, but also more specific aspects of verbal and physical performance including rate, pauses, volume, pitch, dialect, pronunciation, articulation, eye contact, position, gesture, and appearance. This chapter will also emphasize that despite not being considered “content,” the way in which we deliver a speech actually conveys a great deal of information to an audience and can greatly affect how they interpret the words that we say.
