OR THE ART OF SPEAKING BY ANTOINETTE KNOWLES INSTRUCTOR IN PUBLIC SPEAKING, HIGH SCHOOL "There can be no greater imputation on the in- -G. J. HOLYOAKE. D. C. HEATH & CO., PUBLISHERS BOSTON NEW YORK CHICAGO PREFACE This book has been written to supply a need. The vocational and civic importance of the ability to speak has been recognized by teachers of English throughout the country, but as yet the meaning of "Oral English" is rather vaguely and variously understood. We are conscious of our goal, but we lack method in our efforts to attain it. It is true that we no longer imagine that the art of speaking can be taught in a half-dozen lessons to the commencement speaker or the interscholastic debater, but we still lack that systematic basis of instruction which has already been furnished for the older subjects and which is necessary to a well-directed activity. This text is the outgrowth of ten years of experiment and research and in its present form is the result of many careful revisions. It is hoped that it may prove to be a useful guide in the oral work of the regular four years' English course as well as in the work of the special course in Public Speaking. Suggestions as to ways in which its usefulness may be increased will be cordially accepted. Certain features of the work are original; the chief of these are the general plan of presentation, the handling of the four forms of discourse, and the word-outline method of oral preparation described in Chapters VII and VIII. As to the remainder, the writer pleads guilty as does Kipling in the following verse: iii 392398 "When 'Omer smote 'is bloomin' lyre 'E went and took, the same as me.” For all that which has been contributed, either consciously or unconsciously, the author is duly grateful, and especially to those who have courteously permitted the use of extracts from copyrighted material. SAN JOSE, CALIFORNIA, June 26, 1916. |