When you watch a movie or a television show, do you ever stop to think just how much the actors have to memorize? These days, actors may wear tiny in-ear speakers that allow someone off-camera to prompt them when they forget a line. However, it’s not the normal way that actors remember what to say. Instead, they memorize their lines based on a script.

While you don’t need to memorize every word of your speech, the exercise of writing out a script can actually help you remember its more important points. It can also help you imagine and remember how you will say some of the information. In fact, the more times you write or say the important parts of your presentation, the more likely you are to remember “your lines.”

Activity

Using the outline you created earlier in this lesson, write out exactly what you would say when presenting your research to a group of classmates. If you summarized your sources, you can copy information directly from them. However, if your summaries mostly include direct quotes from your sources, you will need to rewrite the majority of those in your own words now. Be sure to credit any thoughts or ideas that aren’t yours to the correct source--especially if you include a direct quote. (In a speech, as in a written report, presenting someone’s thoughts, words, or ideas as your own is called plagiarism and will earn you a failing grade.)

Write your script before continuing with this lesson.