Memorized speaking takes manuscript speaking to a new level. It involves memorizing a manuscript. Unless you are a skilled actor, this style of delivery is also not recommended. The amount of time necessary to memorize a speech coupled with the likelihood of forgetting your lines makes this mode of delivery also particularly problematic.

Free speech is one of the most cherished of American values. The First Amendment to the Constitution was written to address this value and since then few rights have been more hotly defended than the right to express one's view without interference from the government.

Unfortunately government agents and others often abuse their power and seek to restrict free speech.

Here is a case study:

Andrew Wimmer was handcuffed and taken to jail on January 22, 2003 because he refused to protest in a “designated protest zone” that was out of sight of the President as well as local and national TV news cameras.

About 150 protesters, Andrew Wimmer being one of them, tried to express their opposition to a war with Iraq during President Bush’s Jan. 22, 2003 visit to St. Louis, Missouri. However, they did not see the President, nor did the President see them. Before the president arrived the local police, instructed by the President’s Secret Service, forced them to move to a “designated protest zone” that was three blocks away and down an embankment.

Wimmer and other protesters believed that being pushed into a park several blocks away was no different than being moved to the north of the city or 100 miles away. In either case the effect of burying the demonstrators' message was the same. They refused to be silenced and pushed aside. Wimmer was arrested for refusing to move to the protest zone.

............. Denise Lieberman, legal director at the ACLU of Eastern Missouri said, "We're litigating the whole concept of 'designated protest zones.' This has become a widespread practice and an abuse all over the nation, not just in St. Louis. This practice is occurring with the presidential travel and that of other members of the Bush administration. It's a practice that clearly violates the First Amendment. To be put in jail for showing up peacefully to display a sign and express an opinion is contrary to what free speech is all about."
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Adapted from ACLU, "Freedom Under Fire: Dissent Forced to be Out of Sight and Out of Mind," 6/19/2003
http://aclu.org/safefree/ general/16881res20030619.html
Memorize the passage on the left to get a feel for memorized style delivery.

How many tries did it take before you were able to restate the memorization perfectly? How "natural" did it sound?

What is the biggest fear with a memorized speech? Which is more important: eye contact or getting the words perfect?