The Project Gutenberg EBook of Public Speaking, by Irvah Lester Winter Copyright laws are changing all over the world. Be sure to check the copyright laws for your country before downloading or redistributing this or any other Project Gutenberg eBook. This header should be the first thing seen when viewing this Project Gutenberg file. Please do not remove it. Do not change or edit the header without written permission. Please read the "legal small print," and other information about the eBook and Project Gutenberg at the bottom of this file. Included is important information about your specific rights and restrictions in how the file may be used. You can also find out about how to make a donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved. **Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** **eBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** *****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!***** Title: Public Speaking Author: Irvah Lester Winter Release Date: August, 2004 [EBook #6333] [Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] [This file was first posted on November 27, 2002] Edition: 10 Language: English Character set encoding: ISO Latin-1 *** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, PUBLIC SPEAKING *** Anne Soulard, Charles Franks and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team. PUBLIC SPEAKING PRINCIPLES AND PRACTICE BY IRVAH LESTER WINTERIN OFFERING A BOOK TO STUDENTS OF PUBLIC SPEAKING THE AUTHOR WOULD PAY WHAT TRIBUTE IS ...
The Project Gutenberg EBook of Public Speaking, by Irvah Lester Winter
Copyright laws are changing all over the world. Be sure to check the copyright laws for your country before downloading
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**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts**
**eBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971**
*****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!*****
Title: Public Speaking
Author: Irvah Lester Winter
Release Date: August, 2004 [EBook #6333] [Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] [This file was first
posted on November 27, 2002]
Edition: 10
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO Latin-1
*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, PUBLIC SPEAKING ***
Anne Soulard, Charles Franks and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team.
PUBLIC SPEAKING PRINCIPLES AND PRACTICE
BY IRVAH LESTER WINTERIN OFFERING A BOOK TO STUDENTS OF PUBLIC SPEAKING THE
AUTHOR WOULD PAY WHAT TRIBUTE IS HERE POSSIBLE TO CHARLES
WILLIAM ELIOT WHO FOR MANY YEARS HAS TAUGHT BY EXAMPLE THE
POWER AND BEAUTY OF PERFECTED SPEECHPREFACE
This book is designed to set forth the main principles of effective platform delivery, and to provide a large body of
material for student practice. The work laid out may be used to form a separate course of study, or a course of training
running parallel with a course in debating or other original speaking. It has been prepared with a view also to that large
number who want to speak, or have to speak, but cannot have the advantage of a teacher. Much is therefore said in the
way of caution, and untechnical language is used throughout.
The discussion of principles in Part One is intended as a help towards the student's understanding of his task, and also
as a common basis of criticism in the relation between teacher and pupil. The preliminary fundamental work of Part Two,
Technical Training, deals first with the right formation of tone, the development of voice as such, the securing of a fixed
right vocal habit. Following comes the adapting of this improved voice to the varieties of use, or expressional effect,
demanded of the public speaker. After this critical detailed drill, the student is to take the platform, and apply his acquired
technique to continued discourse, receiving criticism after each entire piece of work.
The question as to what should be the plan and the content of Part Three, Platform Practice, has been determined simply
by asking what are the distinctly varied conditions under which men most frequently speak. It is regarded as profitable for
the student to practice, at least to some extent, in all the several kinds of speech here chosen. In thus cultivating
versatility, he will greatly enlarge his power of expression, and will, at length, discover wherein lies his own special
capability.
The principal aim in choosing the selections has been to have them sufficiently alive to be attractive to younger speakers,
and not so heavy as to be unsuited to their powers. Some of them have proved effective by use; many others are new. In
all cases they are of good quality.
It is hoped that the new features of the book will be found useful. One of these is a group of lighter after-dinner speeches
and anecdotes. It has been said that, in present-day speech-making, humor has supplanted former-day eloquence. It
plays anyway a considerable part in various kinds of speaking. The young speaker is generally ineffective in the
expression of pleasantry, even his own. Practice in the speaking of wholesome humor is good for cultivating quality of
voice and ease of manner, and for developing the faculty of giving humorous turn to one's own thought. It is also
entertaining to fellow students. Other new features in the book are a practice section for the kind of informal speaking
suited to the club or the classroom, and a section given to the occasional poem, the kind of poem that is associated with
speech- making.
A considerable space is given to argumentative selections because of the general interest in debating, and because a
need has been felt for something suited for special forensic practice among students of law. Some poetic selections are
introduced into Part Two in order to give attractive variety to the student's work, and to provide for the advantage of using
verse form in some of the vocal training. The few character sketches introduced may serve for cultivating facility in giving
entertaining touches to serious discourse. All the selections for platform practice are designed, as seems most fitting, to
occupy about five minutes in delivery. Original speeches, wherein the student presents his own thought, may be
intermingled with this more technical work in delivery, or may be taken up in a more special way in a subsequent course.
It should, perhaps, be suggested that the plan of procedure here prescribed can be modified to suit the individual teacher
or student. The method of advance explained in the Discussion of Principles is believed to be the best, but some who
use the book may prefer, for example, to begin with the second group of selections, the familiar, colloquial passages,
and proceed from these to those more elevated and sustained. This or any other variation from the plan here proposed
can, of course, be adopted. For any plan the variety of material is deemed sufficient, and the method of grouping will be
found convenient and practical.
The making of this kind of book would not be possible except for the generous privileges granted by many authors and
many publishers of copyrighted works. For the special courtesies of all whose writings have a place here the editor would
make the fullest acknowledgment of indebtedness. The books from which extracts are taken have been mentioned, in
every case, in a prominent place with the title of the selection, in order that so far as possible students may be led
carefully to read the entire original, and become fully imbued with its meaning and spirit, before undertaking the vocal
work on the selected portion. For the purpose of such reading, it would be well to have these books collected on a
section of shelves in school libraries for easy and ready reference.
The publishers from whose books selections have been most liberally drawn are, Messrs. Houghton Mifflin Company,
Messrs. Lothrop, Lee and Shepard, Messrs. Little, Brown, and Company, of Boston, and Messrs. Harper and Brothers,
Messrs. Charles Scribner's Sons, Messrs. G. P. Putnam's Sons, Messrs. G. W. Dillingham Company, Messrs.
Doubleday, Page and Company, and Mr. C. P. Farrell, New York. Several of the after-dinner speeches are taken from
the excellent fifteen volume collection, "Modern Eloquence," by an arrangement with Geo. L. Shuman and Company,
Chicago, publishers. In the first three volumes of this collection will be found many other attractive after-dinner speeches.
I. L. W. CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS.CONTENTS
PREFACE INTRODUCTION
PART ONE
A DISCUSSION OF PRINCIPLES
TECHNICAL TRAINING
Establishing the Tone
Vocal Flexibility
The Formation of Words
Making the Point
Indicating Values and Relations
Expressing the Feeling
Showing the Picture
Expression by Action
PLATFORM PRACTICE
The Formal Address
The Public Lecture
The Informal Discussion
Argumentative Speech
The After-Dinner Speech
The Occasional Poem
The Making of the Speech
PART TWO
TECHNICAL TRAINING
ESTABLISHING THE TONE
O Scotia!…………………….. Robert Burns
O Rome! My Country!……………. Lord Byron
Ring Out, Wild Bells!………….. Alfred Lord Tennyson
Roll On, Thou Deep!……………. Lord Byron
Thou Too, Sail On!…………….. Henry W. Longfellow
O Tiber, Father Tiber!…………. Lord Macaulay
Marullus to the Roman Citizens….. William Shakespeare
The Recessional……………….. Rudyard Kipling
The Cradle of Liberty………….. Daniel Webster
The Impeachment of Warren Hastings. Edmund Burke
Bunker Hill…………………… Daniel Webster
The Gettysburg Address…………. Abraham Lincoln
VOCAL FLEXIBILITY
Cæsar, the Fighter…………….. Henry W. Longfellow
Official Duty…………………. Theodore Roosevelt
Look Well to your Speech……….. George Herbert Palmer
Hamlet to the Players………….. William Shakespeare
Bellario's Letter……………… William Shakespeare
Casca, Speaking of Cæsar……….. William Shakespeare
Squandering of the Voice……….. Henry Ward Beecher
The Training of the Gentleman…… William J. Tucker
MAKING THE POINT
Brutus to the Roman Citizens……. William Shakespeare
The Precepts of Polonius……….. William Shakespeare
The High Standard……………… Lord Rosebery
On Taxing the Colonies…………. Edmund Burke
Justifying the President……….. John C. Spooner
Britain and America……………. John BrightVALUES AND TRANSITIONS
King Robert of Sicily………….. Henry W. Longfellow
Laying the Atlantic Cable………. James T. Fields
O'Connell, the Orator………….. Wendell Phillips
Justification for Impeachment…… Edmund Burke
Wendell Phillips, the Orator……. George William Curtis
On the Disposal of Public Lands…. Robert Y. Hayne
The Declaration of Independence…. Abraham Lincoln
EXPRESSING THE FEELING
Northern Greeting to Southern Veterans.
…………………………….. Henry Cabot Lodge
Matches and Overmatches………… Daniel Webster
The Coalition…………………. Daniel Webster
In His Own Defense…………….. Robert Emmet
On Resistance to Great Britain….. Patrick Henry
Invective against Louis Bonaparte.. Victor Hugo
SHOWING THE PICTURE
Mount, the Doge of Venice!……… Mary Russell Mitford
The Revenge…………………… Alf