The Art of Public Speaking | Page 9

must have either

truth or entertainment for them. If he wearies their attention with trifles
they will have neither vivacity nor desire left when he reaches words of
Wall-Street and skyscraper importance. You do not dwell on these
small words in your everyday conversation, because you are not a
conversational bore. Apply the correct method of everyday speech to
the platform. As we have noted elsewhere, public speaking is very
much like conversation enlarged.
Sometimes, for big emphasis, it is advisable to lay stress on every
single syllable in a word, as absolutely in the following sentence:
I ab-so-lute-ly refuse to grant your demand.
Now and then this principle should be applied to an emphatic sentence
by stressing each word. It is a good device for exciting special attention,
and it furnishes a pleasing variety. Patrick Henry's notable climax could
be delivered in that manner very effectively:
"Give--me--liberty--or--give--me--death." The italicized part of the
following might also be delivered with this every-word emphasis. Of
course, there are many ways of delivering it; this is only one of several
good interpretations that might be chosen.
Knowing the price we must pay, the sacrifice we must make, the
burdens we must carry, the assaults we must endure--knowing full well
the cost--yet we enlist, and we enlist for the war. For we know the
justice of our cause, and we know, too, its certain triumph.
--From "Pass Prosperity Around," by ALBERT J. BEVERIDGE,
before the Chicago National Convention of the Progressive Party.
Strongly emphasizing a single word has a tendency to suggest its
antithesis. Notice how the meaning changes by merely putting the
emphasis on different words in the following sentence. The
parenthetical expressions would really not be needed to supplement the
emphatic words.
I intended to buy a house this Spring (even if you did not).

I INTENDED to buy a house this Spring (but something prevented).
I intended to BUY a house this Spring (instead of renting as heretofore).
I intended to buy a HOUSE this Spring (and not an automobile).
I intended to buy a house THIS Spring (instead of next Spring).
I intended to buy a house this SPRING (instead of in the Autumn).
When a great battle is reported in the papers, they do not keep
emphasizing the same facts over and over again. They try to get new
information, or a "new slant." The news that takes an important place in
the morning edition will be relegated to a small space in the late
afternoon edition. We are interested in new ideas and new facts. This
principle has a very important bearing in determining your emphasis.
Do not emphasize the same idea over and over again unless you desire
to lay extra stress on it; Senator Thurston desired to put the maximum
amount of emphasis on "force" in his speech on page 50. Note how
force is emphasized repeatedly. As a general rule, however, the new
idea, the "new slant," whether in a newspaper report of a battle or a
speaker's enunciation of his ideas, is emphatic.
In the following selection, "larger" is emphatic, for it is the new idea.
All men have eyes, but this man asks for a LARGER eye.
This man with the larger eye says he will discover, not rivers or safety
appliances for aeroplanes, but NEW STARS and SUNS. "New stars and
suns" are hardly as emphatic as the word "larger." Why? Because we
expect an astronomer to discover heavenly bodies rather than cooking
recipes. The words, "Republic needs" in the next sentence, are
emphatic; they introduce a new and important idea. Republics have
always needed men, but the author says they need NEW men. "New" is
emphatic because it introduces a new idea. In like manner, "soil,"
"grain," "tools," are also emphatic.
The most emphatic words are italicized in this selection. Are there any
others you would emphasize? Why?

The old astronomer said, "Give me a larger eye, and I will discover
new stars and suns." That is what the republic needs today--new
men--men who are wise toward the soil, toward the grains, toward the
tools. If God would only raise up for the people two or three men like
Watt, Fulton and McCormick, they would be worth more to the State
than that treasure box named California or Mexico. And the real
supremacy of man is based upon his capacity for education. Man is
unique in the length of his childhood, which means the period of
plasticity and education. The childhood of a moth, the distance that
stands between the hatching of the robin and its maturity, represent a
few hours or a few weeks, but twenty years for growth stands between
man's cradle and his citizenship. This protracted childhood makes it
possible to hand over to the boy all the accumulated stores achieved