Tag: oration

Public speaking, also called oratory, is the act or skill of delivering speeches on a subject before a live audience.

Public speaking has played an important cultural role in human history. Confucius, an ancient Chinese philosopher and prominent public-speaking scholar, believed that a good speech should impact individual lives, regardless of whether they were in the audience. He believed that someone in power could influence the world through words and actions.

Public speaking was also studied in Ancient Greece and Rome, where it was analyzed by prominent thinkers as a central part of rhetoric.

The Ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle indicated 3 speech purposes: deliberative (political speech), forensic (courtroom speech), and epideictic (speech of praise or blame). Similarly, the Roman statesman and philosopher Cicero defined three purposes for public speaking: judicial (courtroom speech), deliberative (political speech), and demonstrative (a ceremonial form of speech, similar to Aristotle's epideictic).

Today, public speaking has been transformed by digital technologies, such as video conferencing, multimedia presentations, and other non-traditional forms of presentation.

A Speakers' Corner is an area where free speech open-air public speaking, debate, and discussion are allowed. The original and best known is in the northeast corner of Hyde Park in London, England.