Teaching speech without manuscripts: a didactical approach

Throughout the history of rhetoric, the manuscript has played a significant role in preparing speeches. The scripted approach to speeches is also dominating today, in both speech education, in rhetorical university programs and in the textbooks. Yet, another way of preparing speeches lies latent in the rhetorical tradition, most
profoundly articulated in the sophist Alcidamas’ famous paper “On those who write written speeches”. In this paper he argues that the scripted approach to speeches is more harmful than helpful. Alcidamas is, however, more critical than constructive. In this paper, I continue where Alcidamas broke off by unfolding a modern technique for teaching extemporaneous speech. The main claim is here, that preparing an
extemporaneous speech involves four different preparation levels. The
technique is an offspring of my own teaching practice, and I illuminate the various levels with examples from students’ speeches as well as with a thorough example from a layer going to courts, whom I have taught in the
discipline. I continually invite rhetorical concepts into my
text, discussing the extent to which the approaches I put forward can find support in the rhetorical canon.