Public Speaking Part 13

6. Consider and weigh the value of your material.

7. Why is it good?

8. What limits, or drawbacks has it?

9. What could be said against it from the other side?

Interview. If a person cannot himself experience or observe all he wants to use for material his first impulse will be to interview people who have had experience themselves. In this circ.u.mstance the speaker becomes the reporter of details of knowledge furnished by others. The value of this is apparent at once. Next to first-hand knowledge, second-hand knowledge will serve admirably.

Every newspaper and magazine in the world uses this method because its readers' first query, mental or expressed, of all its informative articles is "Is this true?" If the author is merely repeating the experience of an acknowledged expert in the field under discussion, the value of the interview cannot be questioned. In this case the resulting report is almost as good as the original testimony or statement of the man who knows.

The first requisite, therefore, of material gathered in such a manner is that it be reproduced exactly as first delivered. The man who told a woman that a critic had p.r.o.nounced her singing "heavenly" had good intentions but he was not entirely accurate in changing to that nattering term the critic's actual adjective "unearthly." The frequency with which alleged statements published in the daily press are contradicted by the supposed utterers indicates how usual such misrepresentation is, though it may be honestly unintentional. The speaker before an audience must be scrupulously correct in quoting.

This accuracy is not a.s.sured unless a stenographic transcript be taken at the time the information is given, or unless the person quoted reads the sentiments and statements credited to him and expresses his approval.

Signed statements, personal letters, printed records, photographs, certified copies, and other exhibits of all kinds are employed to substantiate material secured from interviews and offered in speeches.

If you notice newspaper accounts of lectures, political speeches, legislative procedure, legal practice, you will soon become familiar with such usages as are described by the expressions, filing as part of the record, taking of a deposition in one city for use in a lawsuit in another, Exhibit A, photograph of an account book, statement made in the presence of a third party, as recorded by a dictaphone, etc.

The first danger in securing material by the personal interview is the natural error of misunderstanding. The second danger is the natural desire--not necessarily false, at that--to interpret to the user's benefit, the material so secured, or to the discredit of all views other than his own. It is so easy, so tempting, in making out a strong case for one's own opinions to omit the slight concession which may grant ever so little shade of right to other beliefs. Judicious manipulation of any material may degenerate into mere juggling for support. Quotations and reports, like statistics, can be made to prove anything, and the general intellectual distrust of mere numbers is cleverly summed up in the remark, "Figures can't lie, but liars can figure."

To have the material accepted as of any weight or value the person from whom it is secured must be recognized as an authority. He must be of such eminence in the field for which his statements are quoted as not only to be accepted by the speaker using his material but as unqualifiedly recognized by all the opponents of the speaker. His remarks must have the definiteness of the expert witness whose testimony in court carries so much weight. To secure due consideration, the speaker must make perfectly clear to his audience the position of his authority, his fitness to be quoted, his unquestioned knowledge, sincerity, and honesty.

Knowledge secured in this manner may be used with signal effect in a speech, either to supply all the material or to cover certain portions. If you listen to many speeches (and you should), notice how often a speaker introduces the result of his interviews--formal or merely conversational--with persons whose statement he is certain will impress his audience.

EXERCISES

1. Make a list of five topics of which you know so little that you would have to secure information by interviews.

2. Of these choose two, define your opinion or feeling in each, and tell to whom you could apply for material.

3. Choose one dealing with some topic of current interest in your locality; define your own opinion or feeling, and tell to whom you could apply for material.

4. Explain exactly why you name this person.

5. Prepare a set of questions to bring out material to support your position.

6. Prepare some questions to draw out material to dispose of other views.

7. Interview some person upon one of the foregoing topics or a different one, and in a speech present this material before the cla.s.s.

8. In general discussion comment on the authorities reported and the material presented.

Reading. The best way and the method most employed for gathering material is reading. Every user of material in speeches must depend upon his reading for the greatest amount of his knowledge. The old expression "reading law" shows how most legal students secured the information upon which their later practice was based. Nearly all real study of any kind depends upon wide and careful reading.

Reading, in the sense here used, differs widely from the entertaining perusal of current magazines, or the superficial skimming through short stories or novels. Reading for material is done with a more serious purpose than merely killing time, and is regulated according to certain methods which have been shown to produce the best results for the effort and time expended.

The speaker reads for the single purpose of securing material to serve his need in delivered remarks. He has a definite aim. He must know how to serve that end. Not everyone who can follow words upon a printed page can read in this sense. He must be able to read, understand, select, and retain. The direction is heard in some churches to "read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest." This is a picturesque phrasing of the same principles.

You must know how to read. Have you often in your way through a book suddenly realized at the bottom of a page that you haven't the slightest recollection of what your eye has been over? You may have felt this same way after finis.h.i.+ng a chapter. People often read poetry in this manner. This is not really reading. The speaker who reads for material must concentrate. If he reaches the bottom of a page without an idea, he must go back to get it. It is better not to read too rapidly the first time, in order to save this repet.i.tion. The ability to read is trained in exactly the same way as any other ability.

Accuracy first, speed later. Perhaps the most prevalent fault of students of all kinds is lack of concentration.

Understanding. After reading comes understanding. To ill.u.s.trate this, poetry again might be cited, for any one can _read_ poetry, though many declare they cannot understand it. The simplest looking prose may be obscure to the mind which is slow in comprehending. When we read we get general ideas, cursory impressions; we catch the drift of the author's meaning. Reading for material must be more thorough than that. It must not merely believe it understands; it must preclude the slightest possibility of misunderstanding.

A reader who finds in a printed speech approval of a system of _representation_ but a condemnation of a system of _representatives_ must grasp at once, or must work out for himself, the difference between these two: the first meaning a relations.h.i.+p only, the second meaning men serving as delegates. When he meets an unusual word like _mandatory_, he must not be content to guess at its significance by linking it with _command_ and _mandate_, for as used in international affairs it means something quite definite. To secure this complete understanding of all his reading he will consult consistently every book of reference. He should read with a good dictionary at his elbow, and an atlas and an encyclopedia within easy reach. If he is able to talk over with others what he reads, explaining to them what is not clear, he will have an excellent method of testing his own understanding. The old-fas.h.i.+oned practice of "saying lessons over" at home contributed to this growth of a pupil's understanding.

Selecting. Third, the reader for material must know how to select. As he usually reads to secure information or arguments for a certain definite purpose, he will save time by knowing quickly what not to read. All that engages his attention without directly contributing to his aim is wasting time and energy. He must learn how to use books. If he cannot handle alphabetized collections quickly he is wasting time.

If he does not know how material is arranged he will waste both time and energy. He must know books.

Every printed production worthy of being called a book should have an index. Is the index the same as the table of contents? The table of contents is printed at the beginning of the volume. It is a synopsis, by chapter headings or more detailed topics, of the plan of the book.

It gives a general outline of the contents of the book. You are interested in public speaking. You wonder whether a book contains a chapter on debating. Does this one? You notice that a speaker used a series of jerky gesticulations. You wonder whether this book contains a chapter upon gestures. Does it?

The table of contents is valuable for the purposes just indicated. It appears always at the beginning of a work. If the work fills more than one volume, the table of contents is sometimes given for all of them in the first; sometimes it is divided among the volumes; sometimes both arrangements are combined.

The table of contents is never so valuable as the index. This always comes at the end of the book. If the work is in more than one volume the index comes at the _end of the last volume_. What did you learn of the topic _gestures_ in this book from your reference to the table of contents? Now look at the index. What does the index do for a topic?

If a topic is treated in various parts of a long work the volumes are indicated by Roman numerals, the pages by ordinary numerals.

Interpret this entry taken from the index of _A History of the United States_ by H.W. Elson.

Slavery, introduced into Virginia, i, 93; in South Carolina, 122; in Georgia, 133; in New England, 276; in the South, 276; during colonial period, iii, 69, 70; in Missouri, 72; attacked by the Abolitionists, 142-6; excluded from California, 184; character of, in the South, 208 _seq_.; population, iv, 82; abolished in District of Columbia, in new territories, 208; abolished by Thirteenth Amendment, 320, 321.

Retaining Knowledge. The only valid test of the reader's real equipment is what he retains and can use. How much of what you read do you remember? The answer depends upon education, training in this particular exercise, and lapse of time. What method of remembering do you find most effective in your own case? To answer this you should give some attention to your own mind. What kind of mind have you? Do you retain most accurately what you see? Can you reproduce either exactly or in correct substance what you read to yourself without any supporting aids to stimulate your memory? If you have this kind of mind develop it along that line. Do not weaken its power by letting it lean on any supports at all. If you find you can do without them, do not get into the habit of taking notes. If you can remember to do everything you should do during a trip downtown don't make a list of the items before you go. If you can retain from a single reading the material you are gathering, don't make notes. Impress things upon your memory faculty. Develop that ability in yourself.

Have you a different kind of mind, the kind which remember best what it tells, what it explains, what it does? Do you fix things in your brain by performing them? Does information become rooted in your memory because you have imparted it to others? If so you should secure the material you gather from your reading by adapting some method related to the foregoing. You may talk it over with some one else, you may tell it aloud to yourself, you may imagine you are before an audience and practise impressing them with what you want to retain.

Any device which successfully fixes knowledge in your memory is legitimate. You should know enough about your own mental processes to find for yourself the best and quickest way. It is often said of teachers that they do not actually feel that they _know_ a subject until they have tried to teach it to others.

Taking Notes. Another kind of mind recalls or remembers material it has read when some note or hint suggests all of it. This kind of mind depends upon the inestimably valuable art of note-taking, a method quite as worthy as the two just considered if its results justify its employment. Note-taking does not mean a helter-skelter series of exclamatory jottings. It means a well-planned, regularly organized series of entries so arranged that reference to any portion recalls vividly and exactly the full material of the original. Books and speeches are well planned. They follow a certain order. Notes based upon them should reproduce that plan and show the relative value of parts.

When completed, such notes, arranged in outline form, should enable the maker to reproduce the extended material from which they were made. If he cannot do that, his reading and his note-taking were to little purpose. A speaker who has carefully written out his full speech and delivers it form the ma.n.u.script can use that speech over and over again. But that does not indicate that he really _knows_ much about the topic he is discussing. He did know about it once. But the man who from a series of notes can reconstruct material worked up long before proves that he has retained his knowledge of it. Besides, this method gives him the chance to adapt his presentation to the changing conditions and the new audience.

In using this method, when a particularly important bit of information is met, it should be set down very carefully, usually verbatim, as it may be quoted exactly in the speech. This copy may be made upon the paper where the regular notes are being entered so that it may be found later embodied in the material it supports. Or it may later be cut from this sheet to be s.h.i.+fted about and finally fixed when planning the speech, or preparing the outline (discussed in the next two chapters). Many practised speech-makers copy such material upon the regularly sized library catalog cards (3 by 5 inches), some distinguis.h.i.+ng by the colors of cards the various kinds of material, such as arguments supporting a position, opposite arguments, refutation, statistics, court judgments, etc. The beginner will find for himself what methods he can use best. Of course he must never let his discriminating system become so elaborate that he consumes unjustifiable time and thought in following its intricate plan.

In all cases of quotations--either verbatim or in resume--the authority must be noted. Author, official t.i.tle or position, t.i.tle of work, circ.u.mstances, date, volume, page, etc., should be clearly set down. In law cases the date is especially important as so frequently the latest decision reverses all the earlier ones. For convenience of filing and handling these items are placed at the top of the card.

Monroe Doctrine--Meaning

W. Wilson--Hist. Amer. People, V, 245

The U.S. had not undertaken to maintain an actual formal protectorate over the S. Amer. states, but it did frankly undertake to act as their nearest friend in the settlement of controversies with European nations, and no President, whether Rep. or Dem., had hesitated since this critical dispute concerning the boundaries of Brit. Guiana arose to urge its settlement upon terms favorable to Venezuela.

The following notes were made by a student in preparation for a speech upon the opposition to the Covenant of the League of Nations. These excerpts are from the notes upon the newspaper reports of the debate in Boston in 1919 between Senator Lodge and President Lowell of Harvard. Notice how accurately they suggest the material of the original. The numbers represent the paragraph numbers.

[Sidenote: Monroe Doctrine.]

35. Monroe Doctrine a fence that cannot be extended by taking it down.

36. Monroe Doctrine a corollary of Was.h.i.+ngton's foreign policy.