Public Speaking

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Public Speaking

The Project Gutenberg EBook of Public Speaking, by Clarence Stratton
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Title: Public Speaking
Author: Clarence Stratton
Release Date: December 16, 2005 [EBook #17318]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PUBLIC
SPEAKING ***

Produced by Kevin Handy, John Hagerson, Sankar Viswanathan, and
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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