The Art of Lecturing / Revised Edition

by Arthur M. Lewis

Anyone who suggested that university course lectures should have a presiding chairman would get no serious hearing. All the course lecturers now before the public dispense with chairmen. It is a case of survival of the fittest; the course lecturers who had chairmen didn’t know their business and they disappeared. This does not apply to a series of three or four lectures, for in that case when the speaker has become familiar with his audience, and the chairman should be dispensed with, his work is done and a new speaker appears who needs to be introduced.

Course lecturing is by far the most difficult of all forms of lecturing. The beginner will not, of course, attempt it. There are shoals of speakers of over five years’ experience who are not capable of more than two lectures; many of the best are exhausted by half a dozen. A course of thirty to fifty is a gigantic task, and no one who realizes how great it is will throw a straw in the lecturer’s way. To insist on his having a chairman could hardly be called a straw; it would more nearly approach a stick of dynamite.

I take up this question because it is certain that this method of lecturing will increase among Socialists in the future and we should learn to avoid sources of disaster.

Now, I will give reasons. First, in course lectures the chairman has no functions; he is entirely superfluous. There are no points of order or procedure to be decided, and the speaker does not need to be introduced.

There are notices to be announced, but these are better left with the lecturer for many reasons. They give him a chance to clear his throat, find the proper pitch of his voice, and get into communication with his audience; then, when he begins his lecture he can do his best from the very first word.

If the lecturer knows that the entire program is in his own hands he is saved a great deal of irritation and nervousness. How well I remember those little disputes with the chair when I knew the meeting was lagging late and the chairman insisted we should wait until a few more came.

The speaker’s request for a good collection will usually bring from twenty to forty per cent better results than if it came from a chairman.

In announcing the next lecture the speaker is usually able, by telling what ground he will cover, etc., to arouse the interest of the audience so that they make up their minds to attend.

Poor chairmen blunder along and make bad “breaks” which irritate both audience and speaker, while good chairmen feel they are doing nothing that could not be better done by the speaker and, that they are really only in his way.

I have only met two kinds of men who insist that the course lecturer should be handicapped with a chairman; those who say it gives him too much power—an argument that belongs to the sucking bottle stage of our movement—and those who enjoy acting as chairman.