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Originally, the practice of giving speeches was known as rhetoric (also called oratory). Rhetoric flourished in the Greek city-state of Athens in the fifth century B.C.E. and referred to making effective speeches, particularly those of a persuasive nature.

Athens was the site of the world’s first direct democracy, and its citizens used their considerable skill in public speaking to enact it. Meeting in a public square called the agora, the Athenians routinely spoke with great skill on the issues of public policy, and to this day their belief that citizenship demands active participation in public affairs endures. As Greece fell and Rome rose (ca. 200 B.C.E.), citizens in the Roman republic (the Western world's first known representative democracy) plied their public speaking skills in a public spaced called the forum.

From the beginning, public speakers, notably the great classical rhetorician Aristotle (384–322 B.C.E.), and later, the Roman statesman and orator Cicero (106–43 B.C.E.), divided the process of preparing a speech into five parts—invention, arrangement, style, memory, and delivery—called the canons of rhetoric. Invention refers to adapting speech information to the audience in order to make your case. Arrangement is organizing the speech in ways best suited to the topic and audience. Style is the way the speaker uses language to express the speech ideas. Memory is the practice of the speech until it can be artfully delivered, and delivery is the vocal and nonverbal behavior you use when speaking.

Although the founding scholars surely didn’t anticipate the omnipresent PowerPoint slide show that accompanies contemporary speeches, the speechmaking structure they bequeathed to us as the canons of rhetoric remains remarkably intact. Often identified by terms other than the original, these canons nonetheless continue to be taught in current books on public speaking, including this pocket guide.