PREFACE The purpose of this book is to illustrate the principles of public speaking in the more practical and familiar types of address that prevail today. Timeliness is a distinguishing factor in the effective speech. The good speaker fashions his talk to meet present, immediate and temporary interests that arise from a unique combination of audience and occasion. For this reason few speeches have permanent value. Most of them are naturally too local and restricted in subject matter and appeal to be printed, and those that are published are often disappointing because they lack the necessary energy and emphasis of the speaker's voice and bearing. The political, forensic and oratorical types of a generation ago are, as a rule, comparatively remote in content and style. They furnish few directly helpful suggestions, and are rather discouraging to the man who must talk about clothing, machinery, taxes or sales campaigns. The best speeches of all ages can, of course, make important contributions to the general culture of the student, and a liberal education is of decided advantage to every speaker. The speech is inevitably a reflection of the man. This book stresses in discussion and assignments the need of enriching and developing the whole mind. But it is written on the assumption that the ideal speech, even when it is concerned with the generalities of life and character, is practical in purpose and technical in means. The public speaker must have a vocational skill. He must take his audiences as he finds them and hit a given target with the first shot. He cannot compose a speech as whim or earnest conviction dictate, and send it about the country in a book until it finds congenial readers. He must be steeped in the best methods and devices of current practice. The speaker must make his own speeches. Memorizing and rehearsing well-known speeches not only puts off the real business of the student but is frequently harmful. It is exhibitional, instead of practical and communicative. The prize declaimer 535631 may become a good actor or reciter; he less easily attains success in public speaking. The incidental benefits of declamation— enunciation and pronunciation, voice and vocabulary building— may be more economically and wholesomely gained by earnest, intelligent practice in reading aloud. This text is intended not only for executives and others already active in business, but for classes of college grade. The assignments have been used by the writer for several years to encourage self-reliance and variety of effort. They meet every common situation for the speaker on business or other topics. There are many exercises in cooperative leadership, in arranging meetings and planning programs, in finding and adapting live subjects for talk. The common aim is to generate self-activity in thought and action. Students pride themselves in meeting this test like men and not like irresponsible school boys. They rarely fail to do the work assigned by a chairman or a committee in the execution of a class enterprise. He Confident, intelligent practice is the chief means of developing speakers. The instructor will do well, at first, to overlook some of the individual crudities in speech and manner. can afford to praise what is good and limit his criticism, for the time being, to the availability of the subject and the details of selection and preparation. At the close of the session he may discuss the more obvious and characteristic defects. The student must early acquire a sense of reality in his study. He must get the habit of seeing the class as a real audience to be informed, inspired or entertained. The young man who memorizes a passage from a newspaper or book and recites his lesson, should be kindly but firmly awakened from his abstraction by interrupting questions designed to make him think actively and talk extemporaneously. The sequence of chapters and assignments need not be rigidly followed as given in the book. Classes and conditions naturally vary. But the writer hopes that instructors will find this a usable practice book in answering the question, "What shall I give them next?" {BOSTON, MASS. September, 1923. W. G. HOFFMAN. CONTENTS PAGE The demand for trained speakers-Characteristics of the business talk-On being natural-Misconceptions-Public speaking as heightened conversation-Acquiring confidence-The platform the Visualizing the occasion and the audience-Choosing the subject -Finding and selecting material-The appeal to vital motives- The plan of the speech-The introduction-The body-The Completing the meaning-The use of notes-Platform manners- The psychology of action-Exercises for action and gesture- How grammar is learned-Common errors-Words and sentences for study-Condensation-Loose, balanced, and periodic sentences The "American" voice-Organic differences-Breathing-Volume -Control-Endurance― Relaxation-Resonance - Placing the tone-Emotion and the voice-Interpretation-Energy and PUBLIC SPEAKING FOR BUSINESS MEN CHAPTER I THE RIGHT POINT OF VIEW Public speaking is now so common in business that it has joined those other speech arts, advertising, salesmanship and letter-writing, as a subject for systematic study. The executive who cannot speak with confidence and skill in a conference, before a group of associates or a board of directors, at a dinner or convention, is failing in a major responsibility. He is unable to get a satisfactory hearing for needed changes and policies, or is missing opportunities for expanding the goodwill of his company and of advertising it in a dignified and effective way. Leaders as Speakers.-But there is a still more practical demand for trained speakers. Business is beginning a deliberate effort to get back from the "soulless corporation" attitude to something like the more social, intimate, man-to-man conditions of other days. The "industrial engineer" is succeeding the "efficiency expert." "Humanizing" industry is no longer a vague sentimentality, but a real and important problem. Employment management and the promotion of cooperative associations and enterprises require men who can talk well to groups large or small. The rank and file of employees who possess initiative and exceptional ability are being encouraged to come forward with their helpful ideas. The "cog in the machine" is urged to be somebody, to show and use his individual capability. Leadership must first express itself in speech. One must know how to ask for things, how to explain things, and how to speak persuasively enough to win the active support of others. Doing business is chiefly talking business. Resourcefulness and adaptability in speech may be regarded as essential to success in every occupation. The remarkable growth of interest |