Public speaking, principles and practice

Front matter

CORNELL

UNIVERSITY

LIBRARY

Preface

Much that might have been kept for the Preface, and thereby safely hidden from students, has been set down in the Introduction and in other parts of this book. There remains only what I wish to say to my own tribe, — the teachers of public speaking.

This volume is an outgrowth of a booklet published in 1911, entitled Notes on Public Speaking. My purposes in publishing that hasty and incomplete work were two: to try out the material on my own classes, and to draw opinions from other teachers. I have been more successful in regard to the first purpose than in regard to the second; yet the responses from teachers to whom I sent the Notes were of a character to aid me materially in preparing this more ambitious work, and in gaining courage to believe the necessary effort worth while.

The scope of the book is indicated by its title; or would be were it not for the fact that the term public speaking is now being stretched to cover all oral expression. At any rate, I treat here of practical public speaking, and consider within the scope of this book whatever pertains to preparing and delivering one's own speech. Whatever in this te.xt pertains to interpretation is introduced chiefly for its bearing upon the training of practical public speakers; and I have taken a broad view of what does bear upon such training.

The field is too large for complete treatment in one volume of convenient size. My endeavor has been to make a book which should form the foundation for practically all the work in this field; but with it should be used a book on argumentation, one or more books of speeches, and also, for the sake of gaining various points of view.

vi PUBLIC SPEAKING

other texts of the same general scope as this. The main work of the student of public speaking, of course, should be speech-making; and a great deal of his instruction must be received as individual criticism.

Some teachers may be interested in a somewhat more definite statement of my method of procedure. While the book has been written in the order which, after much experimentation, seemed best, especially with regard to economy of space, I do not follow its order strictly in teaching. I ask my class to read the Introduction and study with care Chapter I, for discussion on the third day. I assign a topic of general interest for a discussion at the second meeting, and arrange for more carefully prepared speeches to begin on the fourth day. Por these, outlines based upon the simple form in Chapter XVI are required. After these speeches Chapter II is studied and discussed. After another roimd of speeches we take up Chapters III, IV and V. After a third round of speeches, we consider Chapter IX, and study and deliver the selection. Who is to Blame? The first stage of gesture training is brought in about tliis time, but the speakers are urged to gesture freely, regardless of form, from the start. After another round of original speeches, we study together another selection, perhaps A Liberal Education. This keeps us busy till the Holidays, in a three-hour course. After New Year's we have study of gesture somewhat more advanced, and end the half-year with either original speeches or selections individually prepared. Besides the speeches and selections mentioned, each student has part in discussions of principles, in impromptu speeches, and has trials of speeches before instructors and in small groups. Much the greater part of his time is put upon practice Work, but we. have one preliminary examination and a fiiial examination.

PREFACE vii

The mind of the student is constantly directed to the necessity of interesting his audience, of being clear and convincing; but we reserve for the second term systematic study of the problems of interest and persuasion. We put most of our time again upon practice work, making speeches of many kinds and by many methods, and including some selections. In a second year of work for upperclassmen we attempt a thoroughgoing study of principles. Masterpieces are read, and illustrative matter is drawn, also, from current affairs, politics, reforms, from advertisements and from whatever can be made to serve. Speeches are made impromptu and extempore, and each student is required to select a major topic on which he writes several speeches, which are revised with care. Debate in the narrower sense is at present studied in a separate course; but I am not sure that this is a wise policy. In the advanced work one feature is the giving of lectures by students, usually based upon a textbook. I anticipate having papers and lectures upon some of the problems not fully developed in this text; for example, upon the restraint of radical action, attacking authorities, and the relation of novelty to persuasion.

One might take up the matter in this book in quite another order; for example, one might begin with chapters III and IV, and then proceed at once to Chapter X. A good argument might be made for so doing.

I have not thought it best to fill up the book with long extracts from speeches; especially as we have now many books of extracts and complete speeches to draw from. I have preferred to illustrate with briefly stated problems, drawn from matters well within the understanding of intelligent people; thereby not only saving space, but also applying the principle of "reference to experience." Such extracts as are given will be found useful for illustrating more principles than those which they directly support.

viii PUBLIC SPEAKING

Not many exercises are given in this book, for I believe one teacher is rarely able to use to good advantage another's exercises. To get the other teacher's ideas and suggestions is stimulating; but set exercises, such as can be set down in books, are rarely helpful. Here and there in this book suggestions are given, and in Chapter XIV are a good many suggested programs. In general, I have tried not to embarrass the teacher in the exercise of his discretion in adapting the book to his own situation. When I have spoken somewhat positively in regard to methods, it has been with reluctance, and from a belief that the ways insisted upon were too important to pass over, and that it would be cowardly to refuse to express my belief.

One lives and one learns. I believe that it makes a great deal of difference how public speaking is taught; but I do not suffer from the delusion that there is but one way to do things well. I have taken a great deal of pains to get acquainted with other teachers and learn of their ways; and I know that you who are reading this may be using methods that seem to me quite wrong, and yet getting good results. I have tried to produce for your consideration, therefore, a book of principles which should be adaptable to the work of any one who agrees with me in fundamentals.

I accept as inevitable the fact that some will disagree fundamentally with my teachings. I only ask from them the indulgence of a fair reading. Our subject is yet in an unsettled state, and wide differences of opinion are unavoidable, perhaps desirable. I hope that in the future we shall have more established truth as a result of the scholarly efforts of the young men now entering our field. As for myself, I shall be happy if after my fellow-laborers have reported upon this work, I can beUeve I have contributed a little to the better day.

PREFACE is

And here an invocation to my critics! I hope they will prove wrong my statement in the Introduction that honest criticism is hard to get. If you have any pleasant things to say, please say them; and if you have unpleasant things to say, please say them — to me. I do not profess, hypocritically, that I like adverse criticism; but I promise to receive it with the meekness of Moses (see Exodus, 2:12), and to give it as fair consideration as a poor human is capable of. I trust it is not too sensational to say that I do not believe this the best possible book on this subject. I believe that good books on public speaking have been written in the past. I hope that better ones will yet be written, and I hope to write one of them myself. Therefore, your criticisms, I pray! This does not mean that I send this book out with excessive modesty, either real or assumed. If I did not believe that out of years of experience and study I have produced something worthy of your attention, I should not publish it.

This gives me opportunity to say a word about the manner of its publication. Some of my friends say that they get a bad first impression of a book that does not come from one of the great publishing houses. In the long run, any book must stand upon its own merits, even though it be an abomination such as the great houses sometimes publish. But for the sake of first impressions, let me say that I have in my desk two copies of a contract for this book, nicely signed by the president of one of the best publishing houses in the country. Among the chief motives for publishing the book through a local concern, is that I am thus able to keep the way open for a revision as early and as complete as seems desirable.

Of the matter contained in Chapters III and IV, read as' a paper at a conference, one teacher said, "That's all right; but, of course, it is not practical." I am prepared to say that if that teaching is not practical, then no

X PUBLIC SPEAKING

teaching is practical. There may easily be "too much theory" in a course; but sound theory is practical. Some may have courses so brief that there is time only for a little speaking; but we find it profitable at Cornell to introduce a considerable part of the matter in this book into a course for engineers which meets but twice a week for a half-year. After all, one is always proceeding on some theory, and one's students have some amazing theories. We want much practice; but we should foimd practice upon soimd principles. Practice which is not based upon sound principles is not practical. I believe in valid scientific theory, nailed down with the "brass tacks" of practical suggestions and work. Hence I offer you, Public Speaking: Principles and Practice.

I know well some will not approve of this book because it is not Written in what they consider a proper textbook style. I have not hidden behind the third person, or the ponderous "editorial we"; but have spoken as teacher to student. Again, I have not put a large number of labels on all sorts of things. Labels are very tempting, and sometimes handy; and also at times very troublesome. I have sought the happy mean. And I have not sought new labels when I thought the old serviceable. But back of the lack of labels is the lack of dogmatic rules. A teacher who was a student in our summer school argued that some college teacher should furnish a syllabus for public speaking and should set down things just exactly as they are, without any discussion or any leeway for the student. One is not surprised to learn that this gentleman is a teacher of mechanics. Of course, the thing has been attempted often enough, and will be again. It is much easier, when one wants quick and showy results, to be dogmatic. The method produces contented and docile students, for the most part; only, the students best worth while may revolt, and all may be

PREFACE xi

disappointed later when they find that the dogmatic teachings are not readily adaptable to many practical situations. I have insisted, throughout this book, on taking the student into my confidence, and on trying to stimulate him to think for himself. This I do in my own classes; and although my students are not particularly docile, or impressed with the belief that my ideas are always right, I am satisfied with the result. I like to see them grow. I have particularly endeavored to lead students of this book to view speaking as a real and practical matter, having to do with actual human concerns. And I have not hesitated to discuss anything which might lead them to observe human nature as it is.

I have wished students using this book to become intelligent on the subject, not merely to learn rules. I have therefore explained much. But I have not stopped with explanation. I not only wish them to understand but to believe that what is urged is wise, or to form an intelligent behef to the contrary. And I have not only wished them to believe, but also to do. I have particularly wished them to have the right attitude toward public speaking. Many passages have been written as the immediate result of class-room struggles. I find in many students, for example, prejudice against emotion and imagination. This I have labored to overcome. If any one says that, after all, the chief thought in Chapters III and IV is that a speaker should master his subject, I shall admit the chjirge. I have devoted space to what may seem to us a truism, because I wish to impress the truism, and show how it can be put into practice. However, I believe much more than the truism develops in the process,— principles we need throughout our work.

While I have not attempted to reduce all the topics of the subject to a simple system, which seems to me impossible without artificiality, still I believe the work xii PUBLIC SPEAKING

has unity. The key word is Attention. I have not insisted upon this idea everywhere, but everywhere atten-

j^on is the underlying thought. It may be that some other thought would serve as the center of thinking on this subject; but more and more my ideas group themselves about this center, and it seems to me that no other can be equally good for the student of public speaking. As regards sources, I have tried with scrupulous care

J^o give credit to whomever it is due. I can conceive of no good reason for not doing so. But since one can never tell where his ideas come from, and since a preface is essentially egotistical, I will here set down, for those interested enough to read, a few remarks in regard to the influences I have been under. I was for four years in Hamilton College, and was much influenced by its traditions and by Professor Brainard G. Smith. Most of Professor Smith's teaching, as was usual twenty years ago, related to delivery. With my principles of teaching he can have little sympathy; but I am indebted to him for his common-sense standards. After two years spent in high school teaching, I came to Cornell and served under the stimulating leadership of Professor Duncan Campbell Lee, who showed me how to teach without rules and without demanding imitation. I have had the advantage of a summer term under Dr. and Mrs. S. S. Curry, and have been helped by Dr. Curry's books. But it would be unfair to these teachers and untrue to fact to say that I have derived any great part of the teachings of this book from them. I doubt if any one of them would own me as a disciple. The books from which I have dra'WTi are too numerous to remember; but I acknowledge an indebtedness, in regard to teaching delivery, to Kirby's Public Speaking and Reading.

In regard to the psychological foundations of this treatise, I beUeve I have made full acknowledgments;

PREFACE xiii

except that I have failed on page 83, to credit a citation to Scott's Psychology of Public Speaking.

I wish to express my gratitude for help received in a long evening's talk with my former teacher of psychology. Professor William Harder Squires, of Hamilton College, and in several conversations with Guy Montrose Whipple, now Professor of Educational Psychology in the University of Illinois. To Professors Frank E. Brown, of South Dakota State College, John M. Clapp, of Lake Forest College, Harry Bainbridge Gough, of DePauw University, James Milton O'Neill, of the University of Wisconsin, Charles W. Paul, of the University of Virginia, and. Charles H. Woolbert, of the University of Illinois, to men who are or have been my colleagues in the Department of Public Speaking in Cornell University, George A. Everett, Smiley Blanton, Alex M. Drummond, Guy B. Muchmore, Elam J. Anderson, Theodore T. Stenberg and Roland C. Hugins, for suggestions and encouragement, given in letters and conversations (and sometimes heated combats!); to William Strunk, Jr., Professor of English in Cornell University, for reading a large portion of my manuscript; to Messrs. Muchmore, Drummond, Anderson and Stenberg for reading portions of the manuscript and assisting in the proof-reading; to Professor Muchmore for preparing voice and gesture exercises; to Willard Austen, Librarian of the Cornell University Library for many helpful suggestions; and to my wife and my mother for their encouraging confidence, I make grateful acknowledgments.

November 8, 1915. J. A. Winans.

Table Of Contents

Chapter Pace

Public speaking and practical affairs. As a study.

I. Problem of Delivery — Conversing with an Acdiencb 17

Introduction

With the call for pubUc speakers from pulpit, bar, stump, and lecture platform remaining undiminished, and with the large additional call in these latter days from ever multiplying organizations, with their meetings, conventions and banquets, it comes about that there is to-day greater opportunity and demand for speech-making than ever before. The average man finds it greatly to his advantage in civic, organization and business affairs to be able to stand up and speak his mind; while any man who is known to have anything of interest to say, or who has in any way aroused favorable public attention, will be fairly dragged upon the platform. Thus it comes about that never before did so many untrained and ill-prepared men find themselves upon their legs facing audiences, — not unfrequently to the regret of both parties. While many work out their own salvation, hterally with fear and trembKng, more have but scanty success.

I shall not enter upon any praises of the art of public speaking. It is good and it is bad; it is base and it is noble. It is part of human life and it is what one makes it. My point is that it is important. I wish we might start with a sane, well-balanced view of this subject, which seems pecuUarly unfortunate in the number of half truths that gather about it. We need not deny that it is better to "do noble deeds" than to talk about them, in order to recognize that often one must talk before he will be allowed to do; and especially that he must talk in order to induce others to do.

We need not deny that public speaking was comparatively more important in ancient than in modem times.

The point is that it is still important to-day, and that apparently in this age of discussion and government by public opinion, it is increasingly important. It would be easy to fill a book with expressions by men of affairs to the effect that ability to speak well is important to success. Earl Curzon, the former Viceroy of India, told' the students of Cambridge two years ago that "never was eloquence, i. e. the power of moving men by speech, more potent than now; never was it more useful, or I may add, more admired as an accomplishment." The late Senator Hoar, long a leader in the United States Senate, declared in his old age:^

"The longer I live, the more I have come to value the gift of eloquence. . . . Every American youth, if he desires for any purpose to get influence over his countrymen in an honorable way, will seek to become a good public speaker."

Eloquence and oratory are words which easily acquire bad meanings; for the art of public speaking is readily prostituted to foolish or base uses. It is precisely as easy to "emit chatter and futihty" and to utter hes upon the platform as in conversation; though there is more risk of exposure. When I use the word oratory, I shaU use it in the sense assigned by Earl Curzon to eloquence, "the highest manifestation of the power of speech." It was used in its sinister meaning by Andrew D. White when he said in a public address, "Nothing is so cheap as oratory."

But the same gentleman, statesman, educator and Cornell's Grand Old Man, has had a different thought in mind when on several occasions he has invited groups of students to his home to urge them to improve themselves in public speaking. At such times he has said to them

^Modern Parliamentary Eloquence, p. 4.

' Introduction to Vol. XI of Heed's Modem Eloquence.

that while there is much regrettable speaking in this country, he holds it particularly important that young men of education and honor should train themselves to speak; for the ability to speak well will greatly increase their influence. And this is true not only in America but in every country in Europe, unless it be Russia.

Two motives for learning to speak well are suggested by the preceding: increasing one's chance to succeed and increasing one's power to serve. In an age of service and in an age when educated men are being recognized as leaders as never before, the more generous motive must appeal to young men with force.

Educators are waking up to the value of this discipline. I shall cite only those best known to me. President Schurman has often spoken publicly of its value, pointing out that the decrease in the influence of the editorial writer has increased the importance of the speaker. And Dean Crane of Cornell, while Acting President in 1912-13, used his influence to stimulate interest in speaking. He said in an interview granted the University's daily paper:

"It is interesting to note the great revival of interest in public speaking all over the country at the present time. A man is not considered educated imless he can present his views clearly and forcibly. The importance of college training in this subject has been emphasized at more than one alumni banquet this year."

To the assertion that the press has taken the place of the speaker, Senator DoUiver of Iowa replied:

"There need be no fear that the spoken word will ever lose its power to influence the world. The newspaper will have no more potency in abolishing the political speech than the Tract Society will have in diminishing the importance of the preacher. It may change, and in fact already has changed, not only the taste of the audience but the style of the orator. And the opinion is ventured here that in both cases the alteration has been for the better."

There is no good in discussing the comparative importance of press and platform when both are potent. The press has its important function; but just so long as men are influenced by personality so long will the speaker, who employs this influence in the most direct way, have his place. Let me quote, not from an orator, but from one of the most thoughtful editorial pages in America:'

"The strange notion that the day of the orator is gone by was again disproved at Saratoga. [The reference is to the struggle ia the New York State Republican convention in 1910.] We do not mean that there was much that could be called oratory, but it is plain that the completeness of Roosevelt's triumph was due, in some measure, to his ability to take the platform for a vigorous and homegoing statement of what he wanted to impress on the men before him, and no less to the absence of any one of opposing views who could do the same thing. Great orators, like Mr. Dooley's 'gre-a-at iditors,' may be all dead; but that they would be without profession, and have to turn their energies to writing for the press, if they were to come back, is preposterous."

But I must beware of alarming some with this talk of orators and oratory, of political affairs and great influence. While every year there come into my classes students who wish to become orators, there are also others who are much afraid that they may be tricked into oratory against their will. They need not fear. No one will be an orator till there are added to skUl a message and an occasion. But with the real desires of these students I have full sympathy. In the first place, they do not wish to take up work in which they will be expected to deliver bombastic clap-trap, which is their idea of oratory; and in the second place, they wish to learn how to speak effectively in a plain way in their business and professional

iThe New York Evening' Post, jOctohei 1. 1910.

affairs. The teachings of this text are a^ applicable to such simple speeches as to the grandest "efforts." They will apply as well to getting a job, or persuading the town council to put in a sewage system, as to "moving the Hstening thousands" to favor great reforms. ^That these students are right in their hope that ability to speak well will help them in their practical affairs is testified to by many. Justice Hughes, when he was one of the leaders of the New York bar, in a lecture before the Cornell College of Law urged the students to cultivate public speaking. That the trial lawyer needs this abiUty is patent; but we are told that this is the day of the "ofiBce lawyer." An important member of the law department of one of our greatest railways, a strictly office lawyer, tells me he is greatly hampered by his inabifity to make a speech, and that he could serve his company much better if he were able to represent it, particularly at dinners. But what of those men of deeds, the engineers.'' The dean of a certain college of civil engineering declares that if graduates in engineering could have thorough training in speaking, and some training in law, they could take their places as presidents of all the corporations in the land. In the new generation, he holds, the engineer will cease to be the hired man and will take charge of affairs. A graduate of the same college, a practicing engineer, has established generous prizes to encourage engineering students to cultivate skill of speech. And in opening the contest last year, the dean of a college of mechanical engineering declared that the donor of the prizes had acted wisely in anticipating the future; and that the engineer must be able to carry conviction of the truth of his results, for otherwise great enterprises cannot be carried on.

In a certain university the only students required to take a course in pubhc speaking are those in sanitary engineering and in architecture. The reason for this requirement is that the faculties concerned have been impressed with the failures of certain practitioners to secure acceptance for excellent plans, when presenting them before boards and committees.

Mr. H. M. Waite, City Manager of Dayton, writes:

"I am delighted to hear that at last some of the universities are paying some attention to what I have felt for some time was of great importance; that is, the teaching of engineers to express themselves. . . It isn't oratory that is necessary. It is simply that men in the engineering profession should have experience in presenting their propositions before people."

But no class of men dwell more earnestly on the ability to speak well than those who describe themselves as "plain business men." "It isn't oratory I want," such a man hastens to say, "but just the abihty to get up and say what I think when things are being discussed." And those who have had a little training will testify to its help in meeting and deahng with men in all sorts of relations; for example, in deahng with their workmen, in selling goods, and in taking part in the affairs of their communities. Of course men do succeed in most vocations without the ability to make a speech. The just claim is that they find this ability a help in most callings and indispensable in some.

Let those who shy at the thought of "oratory," or even "public speaking," forget those words and think in terms of attention. We shall find that that is the essential thing, attention and the right sort of attention, whether we are trying to tell people things, or to get them to believe things or to do things ; whether we consider the case of the teacher, the preacher, the reformer, the solicitor, the salesman, or any other who seeks to exert influence. President Lowell has written,' "For anyone who desires to advocate a new idea, the difficulty is not so much to convince as to get a hearing, not so much to be judged

'■Public Opinion and Popular Government, p. 59.

fairly as to be judged at all." And he dwells upon the need of advertising new ideas. Now public speaking is an important means of advertising, or drawing attention to, ideas. We shall be more and more impressed with this truth as we proceed.

But should speaking be studied? To some, speaking is a wonderful art, requiring remarkable powers which must be the gift of natiure. It is true that a liberal natural endowment is necessary to the great orator; but I have met with extremely few who could not by persistent effort become good speakers. There are others who think that speaking is too simple for study ; as if a subject which is concerned at every point with human nature could be simple !