Public Speaking Part 22

Religions.

Magazines.

The buildings in a city.

Aircraft.

Desserts.

Canned goods.

Skill in division is valuable not only as a method of exposition but it is linked closely with an effective method of proving to be explained in the next chapter--the method of residues. Can you recall any extracts given in this book in which some form of division is used? Is this form of material likely to be more important in preparation or in the finished speech? Explain your opinion--in other words, present a specimen of exposition.

Definition. One of the simplest ways of explaining is to define a term. Dictionary definitions are familiar to everyone. In a great many instances the dictionary definition is by means of synonyms.

While this is a convenient, easy method it is seldom exact. Why?

Recall what you learned concerning the meanings of synonyms. Do they ever exactly reproduce one another's meanings? There is always a slight degree of inaccuracy in definition by synonym, sometimes a large margin of inexactness. Is the following a good definition?

A visitor to a school began his address: "This morning, children, I propose to offer you an epitome of the life of St. Paul. It may be perhaps that there are among you some too young to grasp the meaning of the word _epitome_. _Epitome_, children, is in its signification synonymous with synopsis!"

London Tid-Bits

Logical Definition. An exact definition is supplied by the logical definition. In this there are three parts--the term to be defined, the cla.s.s (or genus) to which it belongs, and the distinguis.h.i.+ng characteristics (differentia) which mark it off from all the other members of that same cla.s.s. You can represent this graphically by inclosing the word _term_ in a small circle. Around this draw a larger circle in which you write the word _cla.s.s_. Now what divides the term from the cla.s.s in which it belongs? Indicate the line around the _term_ as _distinguis.h.i.+ng characteristics_, and you will clearly see how accurate a logical definition is. The cla.s.s should be just larger than the term itself. The main difficulty is in finding exact and satisfying distinguis.h.i.+ng characteristics. There are some terms which are so large that no cla.s.ses can be found for them. Others cannot be marked by acceptable distinguis.h.i.+ng characteristics, so it is not possible to make logical definitions for all terms. Consider such words as _infinity, electricity, gravity, man_.

The words of the definition should be simple, more readily understood than the term to be defined.

Term Cla.s.s Distinguis.h.i.+ng characteristics

A biplane is an airplane with two sets of supporting surfaces.

A waitress is a woman who serves meals.

Narration is that form of discourse which relates events.

A word is a combination of suggesting an idea.

letters A dictionary is a book of definitions.

A corporal is an army officer just higher than a private.

EXERCISES

1. Make logical definitions for the following:

A dynamo A circle A hammer A curiosity Lightning A trip-hammer Moving picture camera Democracy A lady Curiosity An anarchist A Lady A door A sky-sc.r.a.per Man

2. a.n.a.lyze and comment on the following definitions:

Man is a two-legged animal without feathers.

Life is an epileptic fit between two nothings.

Genius is an infinite capacity for taking pains.

The picture writings of the ancient Egyptians are called hieroglyphics.

A fly is an obnoxious insect that disturbs you in the morning when you want to sleep.

Real bravery is defeated cowardice.

A brigantine is a small, two-masted vessel, square rigged on both masts, but with a fore-and-aft mainsail and the mainmast considerably longer than the foremast.

A mushroom is a cryptogamic plant of the cla.s.s _Fungi_; particularly the agaricoid fungi and especially the edible forms.

Language is the means of concealing thought.

A rectangle of equal sides is a square.

Hyperbole is a natural exaggeration for the purpose of emphasis.

Amplified Definition. While such definitions are the first positions from which all interpretations must proceed, in actual speech-making explanations of terms are considerably longer. Yet the form of the true logical definition is always imbedded--in germ at least--in the amplified statement.

Again, democracy will be, in a large sense, individualistic.

That ideal of society which seeks a disciplined, obedient people, submissive to government and unquestioning in its acceptance of orders, is not a democratic ideal. You cannot have an atmosphere of "implicit obedience to authority" and at the same time and in the same place an atmosphere of democratic freedom. There is only one kind of discipline that is adequate to democracy and that is self-discipline.

An observant foreigner has lately remarked, somewhat paradoxically, that the Americans seemed to him the best disciplined people in the world. In no other country does a line form itself at a ticket office or at the entrance to a place of amus.e.m.e.nt with so little disorder, so little delay, and so little help from a policeman. In no other country would an appeal of the government for self-control in the use of food or fuel, for a restriction of hours of business, for "gas-less Sundays," have met with so ready, so generous and so sufficient a response. Our American lads, alert, adaptable, swiftly-trained, self-directed, have been quite the equal of the continental soldiers, with their longer technical training and more rigorous military discipline. In these respects the English, and especially the British colonial soldiers have been much like our own. Democracy, whether for peace or for war, in America or in England, favors individuality. Independence of thought and action on the part of the ma.s.s of the people are alike the result of democracy and the condition of its continuance and more complete development, and it is visibly growing in England as the trammels of old political and social cla.s.s control are being thrown off.

EDWARD P. CHEYNEY: _Historical Tests of Democracy_

What is a const.i.tution? Certainly not a league, compact, or confederacy, but a fundamental law. That fundamental regulation which determines the manner in which the public authority is to be executed, is what forms the const.i.tution of a state. Those primary rules which concern the body itself, and the very being of the political society, the form of government, and the manner in which power is to be exercised--all, in a word, which form together the const.i.tution of a state--these are the fundamental laws.

This, Sir, is the language of the public writers. But do we need to be informed, in this country, what a const.i.tution is? Is it not an idea perfectly familiar, definite, and well settled? We are at no loss to understand what is meant by the const.i.tution of one of the States; and the Const.i.tution of the United States speaks of itself as being an instrument of the same nature.

DANIEL WEBSTER: _The Const.i.tution Not a Compact between Sovereign States_, 1833

Particulars of a General Statement. A general statement made at the beginning of a paragraph or section, serving as the topic sentence, may then be explained by breaking the general idea up into details and particulars. This may partake of the nature of both definition and part.i.tion, as the terms may be explained and their component parts listed. Note that in the following selection the first sentences state the topic of the pa.s.sage which the succeeding sentences explain by discussing the phrase _variety of evils_.

So likewise a pa.s.sionate attachment of one nation for another produces a variety of evils. Sympathy for the favorite nation, facilitating the illusion of an imaginary common interest, in cases where no real common interest exists, and infusing into one the enmities of the other, betrays the former into a partic.i.p.ation in the quarrels and wars of the latter, without adequate inducement or justification. It leads also to concessions to the favorite nation of privileges denied to others, which is apt doubly to injure the nation making the concessions; by unnecessarily parting with what ought to have been retained, and by exciting jealousy, ill-will, and a disposition to retaliate, in the parties from whom equal privileges are withheld, and it gives to ambitious, corrupted, or deluded citizens (who devote themselves to the favorite nation), facility to betray, or sacrifice the interests of their own country, without odium, sometimes even with popularity; gilding with the appearances of a virtuous sense of obligation, a commendable deference for public opinion, or a laudable zeal for public good, the base or foolish compliances of ambition, corruption or infatuation.

GEORGE WAs.h.i.+NGTON: _Farewell Address_, 1796

Examples. A statement may be explained by giving examples. The speaker must be sure that his example fits the case exactly; that it is typical--that is, it must serve as a true instance of all cases under the statement, not be merely an exception; that it is perfectly clear; that it impresses the audience as unanswerable. The example may be either actual or suppositious, but it must ill.u.s.trate clearly and accurately. The use of examples is a great aid in explanation. John C.

Calhoun expressed the value very distinctly in one of his speeches.

I know how difficult it is to communicate distinct ideas on such a subject, through the medium of general propositions, without particular ill.u.s.tration; and in order that I may be distinctly understood, though at the hazard of being tedious, I will ill.u.s.trate the important principle which I have ventured to advance, by examples.

By the use of an example he does make himself distinctly understood.

Let us, then, suppose a small community of five persons, separated from the rest of the world; and, to make the example strong, let us suppose them all to be engaged in the same pursuit, and to be of equal wealth. Let us further suppose that they determine to govern the community by the will of a majority; and, to make the case as strong as possible, let us suppose that the majority, in order to meet the expenses of the government, lay an equal tax, say of one hundred dollars on each individual of this little community. Their treasury would contain five hundred dollars. Three are a majority; and they, by supposition, have contributed three hundred as their portion, and the other two (the minority), two hundred. The three have the right to make the appropriations as they may think proper.

The question is, How would the principle of the absolute and unchecked majority operate, under these circ.u.mstances, in this little community?

JOHN C. CALHOUN: _Speech on The Force Bill_, 1833

The example should be taken from the same phase of life as the proposition it explains. As Calhoun was discussing governmental regulation he supposed an example from majority rule. In the next the topic is copyright, so the ill.u.s.tration is not taken from patents. In introducing your own examples avoid the trite, amateurish expression "take, for instance."

Now, this is the sort of boon which my honorable and learned friend holds out to authors. Considered as a boon to them, it is a mere nullity; but, considered as an impost on the public, it is no nullity, but a very serious and pernicious reality. I will take an example. Dr. Johnson died fifty-six years ago. If the law were what my honorable and learned friend wishes to make it, somebody would now have the monopoly of Dr. Johnson's works. Who that somebody would be it is impossible to say; but we may venture to guess. I guess, then, that it would have been some bookseller, who was the a.s.sign of another bookseller, who was the grandson of a third bookseller, who had bought the copyright from Black Frank, the doctor's servant and residuary legatee, in 1785 or 1786. Now, would the knowledge that this copyright would exist in 1841 have been a source of gratification to Johnson? Would it have stimulated his exertions? Would it have once drawn him out of his bed before noon? Would it have once cheered him under a fit of the spleen? Would it have induced him to give us one more allegory, one more life of a poet, one more imitation of Juvenal? I firmly believe not. I firmly believe that a hundred years ago, when he was writing our debates for the _Gentleman's Magazine_, he would very much rather have had twopence to buy a plate of s.h.i.+n of beef at a cook's shop underground.

THOMAS BABINGTON MACAULAY: _Copyright_, 1841

Comparison. Unfamiliar matter may be made plain by showing how it resembles something already clearly understood by the audience. This is comparison. It shows how two things are alike. The old geographies used to state that the earth is an oblate spheroid, then explain that term by comparison with an orange, pointing out the essential flattening at the poles. In any use of comparison the resemblance must be real, not a.s.sumed. Many a speaker has been severely criticized for his facts because he a.s.serted in comparison similarities that did not exist.

Contrast. When the _differences_ between two things are carefully enumerated the process is termed contrast. This is often used in combination with comparison, for no two things are exactly alike. They may resemble each other in nearly all respects, so comparison is possible and helpful up to a certain limit. To give an exact idea of the remainder the differences must be pointed out; that requires contrast.

In contrast the opposing balance of details does not have to depend necessarily on a standard familiar to the audience. It may be an arrangement of opposite aspects of the same thing to bring out more vividly the understanding. In his _History of the English People_, Green explains the character of Queen Elizabeth by showing the contrasted elements she inherited from her mother, Anne Boleyn, and her father, Henry VIII. Such a method results not only in added clearness, but also in emphasis. The plan may call for half a paragraph on one side, the second half on the other; or it may cover two paragraphs or sections; or it may alternate with every detail--an affirmative balanced by a negative, followed at once by another pair of affirmative and negative, or statement and contrast, and so on until the end. The speaker must consider such possibilities of contrast, plan for his own, and indicate it in his brief.

Nearly any speech will provide ill.u.s.trations of the methods of comparison and contrast. Burke's _Conciliation with America_ has several pa.s.sages of each.