Public Speaking

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Public Speaking

The Project Gutenberg EBook of Public Speaking, by Clarence Stratton This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net
Title: Public Speaking
Author: Clarence Stratton
Release Date: December 16, 2005 [EBook #17318]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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PUBLIC SPEAKING
BY CLARENCE STRATTON; PH.D.
DIRECTOR OF ENGLISH IN HIGH SCHOOL
CLEVELAND

NEW YORK HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY

COPYRIGHT, 1920 BY HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY _January, 1924_

CONTENTS
CHAPTER I.
SPEECH II. THE VOICE III. WORDS AND SENTENCES IV. BEGINNING THE SPEECH V. CONCLUDING THE SPEECH VI. GETTING MATERIAL VII. PLANNING THE SPEECH VIII. MAKING THE OUTLINE OR BRIEF IX. EXPLAINING X. PROVING AND PERSUADING XI. REFUTING XII. DEBATING XIII. SPEAKING UPON SPECIAL OCCASIONS XIV. DRAMATICS APPENDIX A APPENDIX B INDEX

To C.C.S.

PUBLIC SPEAKING
CHAPTER I
SPEECH
Importance of Speech. There never has been in the history of the world a time when the spoken word has been equaled in value and importance by any other means of communication. If one traces the development of mankind from what he considers its earliest stage he will find that the wandering family of savages depended entirely upon what its members said to one another. A little later when a group of families made a clan or tribe the individuals still heard the commands of the leader, or in tribal council voiced their own opinions. The beginnings of poetry show us the bard who recited to his audiences. Drama, in all primitive societies a valuable spreader of knowledge, entertainment, and religion, is entirely oral. In so late and well-organized communities as the city republics of Greece all matters were discussed in open assemblies of the rather small populations.
Every great epoch of the world's progress shows the supreme importance of speech upon human action--individual and collective. In the Roman Forum were made speeches that affected the entire ancient world. Renaissance Italy, imperial Spain, unwieldy Russia, freedom-loving England, revolutionary France, all experienced periods when the power of certain men to speak stirred other men into tempestuous action.
The history of the United States might almost be written as the continuous record of the influence of great speakers upon others. The colonists were led to concerted action by persuasive speeches. The Colonial Congresses and Constitutional Convention were dominated by powerful orators. The history of the slavery problem is mainly the story of famous speeches and debates. Most of the active representative Americans have been leaders because of their ability to impress their fellows by their power of expressing sentiments and enthusiasms which all would voice if they could. Presidents have been nominated and candidates elected because of this equipment.
During the Great War the millions of the world were as much concerned with what some of their leaders were saying as with what their other leaders were doing.[1]
Speech in Modern Life. There is no aspect of modern life in which the spoken work is not supreme in importance. Representatives of the nations of the world deciding upon a peace treaty and deliberating upon a League of Nations sway and are swayed by speech. National assemblies--from the strangely named new ones of infant nations to the century-old organizations--speak, and listen to speeches. In state legislatures, municipal councils, law courts, religious organizations, theaters, lodges, societies, boards of directors, stockholders' meetings, business discussions, classrooms, dinner parties, social functions, friendly calls--in every human relationship where two people meet there is communication by means of speech.
[Footnote 1: See Great American Speeches, edited by Clarence Stratton, Lippincott and Company.]
Scientific invention keeps moving as rapidly as it can to take advantage of this supreme importance. Great as was the advance marked by the telegraph, it was soon overtaken and passed by the convenience of the telephone. The first conveys messages at great distance, but it fails to give the answer at once. It fails to provide for the rapid interchange of ideas which the second affords. Wireless telegraphy has already been followed by wireless telephony. The rapid intelligent disposal of the complicated affairs of our modern world requires more than mere writing--it demands immediate interchange of ideas by means of speech.
Many people who in their habitual occupations are popularly said to write a great deal do nothing of the sort. The millions of typists in the world do no writing at all in the real sense of that word; they merely reproduce what some one else has actually composed and dictated. This latter person also does no actual writing. He speaks what he wants to have put into writing. Dictating is not an easily acquired accomplishment in