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: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PUBLIC SPEAKING ***

Produced by Kevin Handy, John Hagerson, Sankar Viswanathan,
and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at
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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 republ