This post is about a part that once held a great influence, but that has diminished into almost obliviation in later years. The fourth part, or “canon” of the basic elements in public speaking, is called Memoria and its roman name tells us rather adequately what it is about. Memorizing the speech. Is it valid today to address this part at all? We have notes-functions in our powerpoint presentations, we have live-feed of subtitle-text strips in digital and live streams, we have all sorts of notes and bullet point-tools in our pockets through our phones.
Hard to imagine that sort of reality for the ancient wise people of Rome and Greece, I suppose.
And yet.
And yet, I DO think it valid to address this part. By memorizing your speech, you take it into your heart and know where you are going from one part to the next. It allows you to be in the flow together with your audience instead of in the process of reading out loud to them. It enables eye contact, reading of the room and the transferring of your own emotions around the topic. And, not to forget – should the tech fail, you still have your brain.
There are a variety of tools for memory practice, and many of these actually have lineage all the way back to ancient Rome and Greece. Such as “loci”, a visualization technique of Greek origin, where you use a familiar location in your mind and place different parts of what you need to remember in different rooms or spots of this location. You then visit them in order, and “pick up” the parts you have placed there in order.
For me, the “Memoria” part is a central part in my preparations for a speech. I read my speech through a couple of times. After that, I stand in front of a mirror and read from the script, with as much looking away from the script as possible. Last, I give the speech by heart, but I keep the written script nearby, allowing myself to cheat if I have to. This procedure also allows me to discover gaps in my reasoning, haltering language or unclear metaphors (as you may imagine became all the more important to me after the classic blunder I described in my post about Elocutio, the third rethoric canon). They don’t always show until I say them out loud.
If you have a good method of memorizing, please share in the comment field!
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