Chapter III, in which it seemed advisable to combine the exercises with those of Chapter IV) I have placed exercises which I have. found valuable in my own classes for putting each principle into practical use.

A glance at the Table of Contents will show that the chief end of this book is to present the essentials of effective speech delivery; that it is not primarily a book dealing with speech structure. It was my original intention to write a book which would deal entirely with the delivery side, but various experiments with the material proved that this would not be most practical, since in order to teach how anything is to be said it is first necessary to have something worth while to say. My plan, therefore, finally resolved itself into twelve chapters, the first chapter having to do with planning what to say, the remaining eleven with how to say it. At first blush this plan might seem very unwisely proportioned to meet the needs of the average public speaker. But here let me remind the teacher that this book makes no claim of being a treatise upon speech structure. It is intended solely to teach the principles of practical speaking. Chapter I is devoted to planning the speech only because I have deemed a modicum of such information desirable as a foundation for effective work in delivery. The aim, therefore, is to give suggestions in that chapter which will enable the speaker to arrange his ideas in a manner sufficiently clear and logical, so that he will have something worth while to say; and in the remainder of the book to set forth the principles necessary to teach him how to say that something effectively.

More particularly, however, I desire to speak of the use to be made of the material that has been employed.

It may seem that some subjects have been treated too much in detail. No doubt my chapter on pronunciation will be subject to this charge, and I wish my purpose in presenting this

material to be perfectly clear. The many lists of words given in this chapter may seem to some teachers to be carrying the treatment of the subject a bit too far, but here I would call attention to the fact that they are not offered with any thought that the student will attempt to learn them by rote. Such a use of them would in many cases be a waste of much valuable time. They are presented, as I have suggested in a previous comment, for the purpose of furnishing the student with a helpful means of checking up his own pronunciation. In my own classes I have found this device to be very practicable and a great time saver. Therefore these lists are presented in the hope that other teachers will find them equally useful. If, however, other means may be used to accomplish the same end with equal success, well and good.

the

Likewise there should be no misunderstanding in regard to

purpose of the practical exercises that have been placed at the end of each chapter. There is no attempt to set down dogmatically exercises for practice and to say they are the means by which a given end is to be attained. I have in each case given those exercises that have been put to a thorough test in the classroom and have been found to bring the desired results. I believe, however, that every live teacher has his own way of doing things, and if he is able to agree with the general thesis of the discussion of each principle, it matters little what kind of exercises he uses as long as he is able to accomplish the desired end.

I do not wish to prescribe any certain manner in which the material of the book shall be used. This will depend in large measure upon the desire of the teacher and the needs of the pupils. I think I have made reasonably clear in each chapter the methods that I have found useful for getting certain results, but I would not impose them upon other teachers, unless in their judgment they are the best methods for them.

There may be some question in regard to the order in which the material has been presented. Some teachers may wonder why Chapter I was not devoted to a discussion of the breath as the foundation of all vocal processes, while others might prefer a different arrangement of material. In respect to this I may say that I have presented it in the order that I have found to be most practical for my own classes, but I see no reason why a different order might not be used with equally good results.

In the use of this material one teacher may perhaps find it most profitable to take the conversational mode as the point of departure; another, the breath; while perhaps another will find it best to begin with planning the speech and follow each chapter through in the order in which it is given.

I am frank to say that I do not believe there is an ironclad plan that must be followed in order to get results. As every teacher of experience knows, very much depends upon each individual class with which the work is to be done. The important thing is that we reach the desired goal, and so long as we do this it is not a matter of very great consequence what road we choose to travel.

Practically all the material used has grown out of actual classroom experience and discussion, and in presenting it I have departed somewhat from the conventional textbook style and have discussed each principle in very much the same manner that I might employ in my own classroom. I have tried to speak in a direct and personal way that would make the reader feel the importance of each principle for him. It is my hope that this feature will add a certain element of vitality to the text that will contribute much to its power as an instrument for conveying a body of important truth in regard to practical public speaking.

Moreover, I have sought to treat each principle in plain terms with the purpose of making the material available for all

classes of students; and while the book is designed primarily to meet a very important need in college classes at the present time, I believe it to be sufficiently untechnical to make it useful for preparatory schools.

But in whatever classroom this book may find a place, if it serves to furnish the teacher a means of doing his work with more facility and more effectiveness, and affords the student a body of information that will help to rid him of some of the false conceptions of public speaking and enable him to think his thoughts clearly and to express them adequately as he stands before an audience, my purpose will be accomplished.

APPENDIX II

DECLAMATION

Although the subject of declamation has no place in a discussion of the elements of public speaking, it has seemed advisable to offer some suggestions in regard to it for two reasons:

First, because many teachers employ declamation in the teaching of practical speaking.

Second, because pupils are constantly seeking declamations for use in speaking contests.

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Certain erroneous notions in regard to declamation seem to exist in many schools in which declamatory contests are held. In the first place, we find a distinction drawn between declamatory" and so-called "oratorical" contests; the former term applying to those contests in which selections of a more or less dramatic nature are used, and the latter to those in which orations serve as the chief material. Now if we stop to consider the matter carefully, we know that there is no warrant for a distinction of this kind. An oration employed for the purpose of winning a prize in a contest is as truly a declamation as any dramatic piece that is employed for the same purpose, so there is no reason why a distinction of this kind, which has no real foundation in fact, should be drawn. If a piece is declaimed it is a declamation, no matter whether it is dramatic, oratorical, narrative, descriptive, expository, or what not. Then why not call it what it really is?

But the most objectionable feature of declamatory work is the habit of choosing selections that are entirely unfit for purposes of declamation. It is a common custom for schoolboys