Editorial
How these pieces are made
Last updated .
Declamatio reads one speech at a time. These are the rules each reading is held to, so you can tell what the record shows from what I'm arguing.
Texts and recordings
Every quotation is checked against an authoritative text or recording, named in the piece, and the check is run by script. Where the delivered speech differs from the prepared text, the piece says which one a line comes from. If I could only find a transcript of unknown origin, I say that, and I do not quote it as the record.
Context claims
Statements about the occasion, the audience, the date and what came after are sourced to named documents or histories, and they are checked the same way as any other factual claim. A piece separates what happened from what historians have argued about it.
My reading versus the record
A sentence that says what a speaker did with a word or a structure is an interpretation, and the piece labels it as one. It shows the lines it rests on, so you can disagree with the reading using the same text. I do not claim to know what the speaker intended unless the speaker or a witness said so.
Copyright
Many well-known speeches are still under copyright. Where that applies, a reading uses short quotations for criticism and education and links to the full text. I check the status of each text before I write and note it in the piece. This is my reading of the rules and not legal advice.
How I search
Each piece includes a short method note: where I looked for the text, the recording and the scholarship, with which terms, on what date, and what I left out and why. If a source that matters was missed, that is a correction.
Citation checks
Before a piece publishes, a script opens every linked source and checks that it loads. It resolves every DOI on Crossref and compares the title and year with what I cited. It checks each paper's retraction status on OpenAlex. It also searches the source text for every passage I quote, word for word. The results are printed at the foot of the piece with the date. These checks show that a source exists and says what is quoted. They do not show the source is right.
Claims, ledger and independent check
Each factual sentence is tied to a passage in a source the script opened, and a model that did not write the draft checks every claim against its passage alone. AI reviewers with different briefs then read the draft. A piece that fails any check does not publish; its date moves. These are model judgements, and a pass is not proof. A sample of published pieces is audited afterward.
Corrections
If something is wrong, write to [email protected]. A correction goes at the foot of the piece with its date and what changed, and is logged on the corrections page. I don't edit a mistake out quietly. Nothing has needed a correction so far.
Independence and disclosure
Declamatio is my own project. Nothing on it is sponsored, and it is not client work. I build websites and web strategy for a living at thisismyurl.com. Where a piece touches something I have built, sold, used or been paid by, the byline note says so.