While being able to recite material from memory is quite useful, people often have enough advance warning about their presentations that they are able to prepare whole texts--or to have those texts prepared for them. This is the case with academic conference presentations and political speeches, as well as more generally-accessed content as pastoral sermons and training presentations.
Because students will, without doubt, encounter manuscript speaking in their lives outside the classroom, I find it advantageous to have them practice it inside the classroom. To that end, the following assignment:
Students will compile a speech of approximately seven minutes on a topic decided in consultation with the instructor. The speech will be expository in nature, attempting to relate some fundamental truth about a topic to the non-specialist audience. The text of the speech will be read aloud to the class as a whole, and the class will evaluate the manner of delivery. A typed copy of the text, properly formatted (guidelines appear in PDF form here) will be submitted to the instructor for review in addition to the instructor's evaluation of the content and delivery of the speech. If attendance allows, there will be a question-and-answer period following student presentations.
Students are advised to be working on their manuscripts early and often. They are also advised that their speeches must be more than mere collections of data; there must be some central thesis (something like "This is the way it is," "This is how we do it," or "This is why it is the way it is") that informs the discussion.
Any and all information deriving from outside sources must be acccounted for appropriately. Acceptable standards for doing so appear on the Purdue University Online Writing Lab for more information regarding those standards, here; be sure to follow MLA rules. FAILURE TO ACCOUNT FOR SOURCES IS PLAGIARISM AND WILL BE DEALT WITH HARSHLY.
A sample of a manuscript speech, albeit one of greater length than that the class requires, is attached below as "No Advice sans Knowledge." It appears as per student request.
Also below in PDF format is a copy of the rubric by which the students will be evaluated by the instructor.