Anne Soulard, Charles Franks and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team.
This book is designed to set forth the main principles of effectiveplatform delivery, and to provide a large body of material for studentpractice. The work laid out may be used to form a separate course ofstudy, or a course of training running parallel with a course indebating or other original speaking. It has been prepared with a viewalso to that large number who want to speak, or have to speak, butcannot have the advantage of a teacher. Much is therefore said in theway of caution, and untechnical language is used throughout.
The discussion of principles in Part One is intended as a help towardsthe student's understanding of his task, and also as a common basis ofcriticism in the relation between teacher and pupil. The preliminaryfundamental work of Part Two, Technical Training, deals first with theright formation of tone, the development of voice as such, the securingof a fixed right vocal habit. Following comes the adapting of thisimproved voice to the varieties of use, or expressional effect,demanded of the public speaker. After this critical detailed drill, thestudent is to take the platform, and apply his acquired technique tocontinued discourse, receiving criticism after each entire piece ofwork.
The question as to what should be the plan and the content of PartThree, Platform Practice, has been determined simply by asking what arethe distinctly varied conditions under which men most frequently speak.It is regarded as profitable for the student to practice, at least tosome extent, in all the several kinds of speech here chosen. In thuscultivating versatility, he will greatly enlarge his power ofexpression, and will, at length, discover wherein lies his own specialcapability.
The principal aim in choosing the selections has been to have themsufficiently alive to be attractive to younger speakers, and not soheavy as to be unsuited to their powers. Some of them have provedeffective by use; many others are new. In all cases they are of goodquality.
It is hoped that the new features of the book will be found useful. Oneof these is a group of lighter after-dinner speeches and anecdotes. Ithas been said that, in present-day speech-making, humor has supplantedformer-day eloquence. It plays anyway a considerable part in variouskinds of speaking. The young speaker is generally ineffective in theexpression of pleasantry, even his own. Practice in the speaking ofwholesome humor is good for cultivating quality of voice and ease ofmanner, and for developing the faculty of giving humorous turn to one'sown thought. It is also entertaining to fellow students. Other newfeatures in the book are a practice section for the kind of informalspeaking suited to the club or the classroom, and a section given tothe occasional poem, the kind of poem that is associated with speech-making.
A considerable space is given to argumentative selections because ofthe general interest in debating, and because a need has been felt forsomething suited for special forensic practice among students of law.Some poetic selections are introduced into Part Two in order to giveattractive variety to the student's work, and to provide for theadvantage of using verse form in some of t