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Can You Speak Unprompted?

On the way to all the changes in the 2024 presidential campaign, there’s been a ton of talk about how the candidates speak, and especially about how they stick to a script—or sometimes don’t. Those assessments have a nugget or two to offer us.

On the last night of the Republican National Convention, former president Trump had a written acceptance speech loaded into the teleprompter. And he read it to us for a while. He also drifted from it. For a long while.

Trump’s was the longest acceptance speech in party history and much of it was the stream-of-consciousness insults, stories, and grievances we hear at his rallies. All those newspeople should have known better than to write their “unity” stories based on the advance copies they got. It wasn’t the first time Trump ignored what his speechwriters put in front of him.

Whether his departure from the script worked for him or not pretty well depends on how you felt about him before the speech.

The former president’s many fans ate it up with a spoon. Critics pointed to exaggerations, outright falsehoods, and a tone that disappointed those who were expecting something more unifying.

And there was a lot of attention on teleprompter-Trump vs. the former president who, as one New York Times columnist put it, “just takes us all off the teleprompter again.”

He’s not alone, of course.

In all the punditry over Joe Biden, his age, and his communication challenges, we heard it over and over again.

“Biden can’t articulate his own positions without reading them from a teleprompter.”

“These short, scripted speeches won’t erase what we saw in his debate with Donald Trump. Biden needs to get out there and do interviews, off the ‘prompter.”

“He’s relying way too much on the ‘prompter even for short talks with supporters.”

Of course, when the president did go out there and do interviews, “off the ‘prompter,” it didn’t work out too well for him. So much for advice from columnists and cable hosts. Yes, a president should be able to talk to us directly, without reading a script. This president just couldn’t quite do it.

Can you?

Most of us aren’t using a teleprompter, of course.

But what about the “Notes” section in a PowerPoint presentation? Or you see some speakers read from the slides themselves, as if we can’t quite absorb those bullet points on our own. And once in a while, a speaker still resorts to a written script on actual, old-fashioned paper.

All this talk about rambling presidential candidates on the ‘prompter and off the ‘prompter – what does that suggest for speakers like us?

My clients will tell you I discourage script-reading whether they’re in the room with an audience or in a virtual meeting. Some people are gifted at reading a script while looking and sounding natural and conversational. Those people are high-paid television performers.

The rest of us are likely to miss the mark when we read a script verbatim. We come off sounding stiff and lifeless, or resort to a rhythmic, sing-song delivery that sounds nothing like a real human being talking to other human beings.

Yes, there are times when the exact words matter. We’re quoting somebody else, maybe, discussing crucial financial data, or citing a sacred text. Or our speech will be preserved for posterity, and someone needs a real record of what we said.

In general, though, most of us are better speakers when we’re untethered from prewritten material, using our notes as notes, and not something to be read verbatim.

On the ‘prompter or off the ‘prompter?

I say speakers are more natural, more engaging, and more successful in connecting with their listeners when they’re un-prompted. For most of us, that means preparing for a talk, practicing our delivery, and then relaxing so we can really be with our audience.

There is one thing to keep in mind though.

Timing still matters. A lot.

Speakers in any setting need to stay on track, say what we came to say, and stop talking before the audience stops listening.

No matter who we are, or who we’re speaking to, it’s always crucial to end. Promptly.