Some orators are accustomed to write their speeches out in full after delivery. When the theme is important and time permits, this is a good exercise, but in many—perhaps the majority of cases—the labor would outweigh the profit.
No such objection applies to reviewing and correcting a verbatim report of our speeches. To many speakers such a review of the exact words they have uttered would be a striking and not altogether pleasing revelation. Pet phrases, which might otherwise be unnoticed for years; faults of expression, and especially the profuseness of words, in which extemporaneous speakers are tempted to indulge;—would all be forced upon our notice. We would be surprised to learn that we could often write the discourse in one-fourth the words employed in delivery. To form the habit of thus condensing our speeches after delivery would have a powerful tendency toward compacting thought in speech itself. The only hindrance in applying this capital means of improvement consists in the difficulty of obtaining such shorthand reports. Where this cannot be overcome a part of the advantage may be gained by taking the plan and from it writing out the same kind of a compact presentation of the thoughts as uttered. This differs from writing in full by making no effort to record exact words or forms of expression, but only to recall from memory and from the sketch the exact thoughts that were expressed in the language of the moment. Even if the same kind of brief sketch has been made previous to the act of speech, this does not take the place of what we now recommend; for the former outline may have been greatly modified by the experience of delivery.
In whatever form the best result of the discourse is recorded, great care should be taken in its preservation. The plan, sketch, or fully written discourse may be slipped into an envelope (which may also contain all illustrative scraps, notes, or references to books that bear upon the discourse) and on the back may be written the title, time, and character of delivery, with any other facts of importance. If the young speaker will faithfully follow up such a method of recording the results of his oratorical experience, he will find it one of the best forms of discipline, and the record itself—carefully indexed, frequently reviewed, and kept within reasonable bulk—will in time possess a value greater than gold.
FINIS.
ALPHABETICAL INDEX.
- Author’s own experience, [23]
- Advice to readers of discourses, [29]
- Ancients and moderns, [34]
- Augustine, [34]
- Antony’s speech analyzed, [57]
- Articulation, [116]
- Action in gesture, [122]
- Architecture of continuous thought, [160]
- Arrangement of thought, [164]
- Burdens of the extempore speaker, [15]
- Beecher, H. W., [40]
- Brutus’ speech analyzed, [54]
- Benevolent emotion, [97]
- Bautain’s comparison, [161]
- “Be bold,” [165]
- Bodily vigor, [193]
- Books of illustration, [243]
- Beatitudes in syllogistic form, [255]
- Coldness of reading explained, [23]
- Composite discourse, [25]
- Cicero, [33]
- Chatham, Lord, [36]
- Clay, [40]
- Calhoun, [40]
- Critical taste must not be too high, [44]
- Conclusion, [49]
- Cultivating emotional power, [95]
- Conversation, [105]
- Correcting faults of voice, [119]
- Correcting faults of gesture, [122]
- Confidence acquired, [125]
- Confidence, false and true, [127]
- Confidence, power of, [128]
- Confidence while silent before an audience, [129]
- Changing plan at last moment, [190]
- Complimentary introductions, [201]
- Citations as introductions, [204]
- Calamity from bad introductions, [205]
- Climax, law of, [208]
- Crisis of discourse, [211]
- Concluding, three ways of, [215]
- Conclusion should have no new matter, [215]
- Classification, [250]
- Correcting shorthand reports, [266]
- Demosthenes, [33]
- Discussion, [48]
- Dean Swift’s sermon, [53]
- Discussion in a free state, [66]
- Disease as a hindrance, [81]
- Disqualifications summed up, [86]
- Drill on the elementary sounds, [116]
- Duty as a remedy for fear, [126]
- Divisional or military plan, [168]
- Deep breathing, [195]
- Diffuseness remedied, [209]
- Definition in speech, [249]
- Division in speech, [249]
- Eloquence can be taught, [9]
- Eloquence, degrees of, [11]
- Essay or speech, [29]
- Extempore speech in schools, [65]
- Education in the popular sense, [89]
- Extempore speech cultivates reason, [94]
- Emotion and the will, [98]
- Etymology, use of, [104]
- Empty speeches, [212]
- Enriching extempore speech, [247]
- First speech, [46]
- Fear overcome, [63]
- Fluency and accuracy contrasted, [103]
- Failure, a preacher’s, [158]
- Five principles of introduction, [205]
- Funeral speech pronounced by Pericles, [218]
- Fallacies in reasoning, [253]
- Gladstone, W. E., [41]
- Gladstone, letter from, [42]
- Gibbon’s militia service, [92]
- Gathering thought, [159]
- Grasping the subject in a single idea, [183]
- Great addresses, three plans of, [217]
- Good results from a poor speech, [264]
- Healthfulness of extempore speech, [19]
- Hortensius, [33]
- Heroic self-denial in speech, [156]
- Holyoke’s experience, [193]
- Henry Clay’s eloquence, [214]
- Humor and pathos, [246]
- Humor cultivated, [246]
- Introduction, [46], [196]
- Impromptu speeches, [49]
- Initial fear, [60]
- Increasing thought-power, [90]
- Intellectual emotion, [95]
- Imagination, [109]
- Imagination in the Bible, [109]
- Instructive addresses, [141]
- Introduction memorized, [197]
- Introduction needed, [198]
- Introductions, kinds of, [199]
- Keeping the speech fresh, [192]
- Luther, [35]
- Literary societies, [67]
- Language, [101]
- Laws in language, [102]
- Loudness, [119]
- Lawyers, [139]
- Lawyers not writers of speeches, [140]
- Lectures, platform, anniversary, and lyceum, [141]
- Lecture with varying titles, [155]
- Logical or mathematical plans, [168]
- Local allusions as introductions, [203]
- Language adapted to oratory, [210]
- Luxury of tears, [245]
- Logic for the orator, [248]
- Logic, its narrowness, [248]
- Lessons of speech, [263]
- Mental weakness, [79]
- Memorizing original and selected gems, [104]
- Mental picture painting, [110]
- Method of gathering and retaining thought, [162]
- Military plans, [168]
- Marks of a good plan, [171]
- Nerves quieted, [47]
- Natural orators, [74]
- Nature in the voice, [118]
- Narrative plans, [167]
- Naming divisions in advance, [173]
- Need of illustrations, [243]
- Oratory, natural and acquired, [13]
- Oratory of ornament, [28]
- Object of speech, [150]
- Objection to using plan in public, [178]
- Opponent’s position studied, [257]
- Prejudice, grounds for, [9]
- Popular desire for extempore speech, [19]
- Pericles, [34]
- Pericles, funeral speech by [218]
- Pitt, William, [36]
- Patrick Henry, [37]
- Plan of speech on Chinese immigration, [50]
- Persons who cannot extemporize, [75]
- Pronunciation, [103]
- Poetry of science, [112]
- Poetry described, [112]
- Persuasion in preaching, [137]
- Pen and tongue, [145]
- Power of memory, [145]
- Pen in gathering and arranging, [146]
- Pen in preserving speeches, [146]
- Plan in all discourses, [148]
- Plan, importance of a good, [166]
- Plans, varieties of, [167]
- Plan, marks of a good, [171]
- Plan, how to use, [177]
- Plan to be memorized, [180]
- Preserving the plan after speaking, [186]
- Passage from introduction to discussion, [207]
- Pleasure of speaking well, [207]
- Principles of logic, [249]
- Readers deceive themselves, [31]
- Recitations emotional, [32]
- Robertson, Frederick W., [37]
- Rude speech plans, [50]
- Rousing energy at the last moment, [191]
- Recited and extemporized introductions, [196]
- Rest after speech, [262]
- Repeating and amending speeches, [265]
- Sydney Smith’s sermon, [29]
- Spurgeon, [40]
- Spurgeon, sermon by, [230]
- Simplest framework, [46]
- Sketch containing three words, [52]
- Sketch memorized, [52]
- Sketch on the ocean, [53]
- Stimulus of controversy, [67]
- Sketches on the annexation of Cuba, [69]
- Seeing with our own eyes, [92]
- Source of Greek eloquence, [96]
- Sentence-casting, [131]
- Seductive but misleading methods, [133]
- Sermons, [136]
- Sermon texts, [136]
- Subject and object compared, [152]
- Subject definite, [153]
- Sydney Smith “sticking to his text,” [157]
- Sermon on Mars’ Hill, [169]
- Sermon dryness, [174]
- Shorthand, use of, [184]
- Speech as a battle, [187]
- “Stage fright,” [189]
- Sermon by Rev. C. H. Spurgeon, [230]
- Sermon on the Mount, [241]
- Sources of illustrations, [244]
- Syllogisms, [251]
- Syllogisms abbreviated, [255]
- Seeking praise, [265]
- Training, effects of, [10]
- Time saving, [24], [175]
- Transition, [48]
- Three classes of men in respect to eloquence, [74]
- Timidity may be overcome, [77]
- Thought and emotion, [87]
- Thought-gathering, [159]
- Textual plans, [167]
- Tertullus, [201]
- Topics of the day as introductions, [203]
- Things seen, heard, or imagined as introductions, [205]
- Taylor, the Methodist missionary, [258]
- Unconscious gesticulation, [124]
- Use of other speakers’ sketches, [171]
- Voice and gesture, [114]
- Various fields of oratory, [135]
- Why extempore speech is emotional, [22]
- Whitefield, [38]
- Wesley, [38]
- Webster, [40]
- Written composition a hindrance and a help, [45]
- Writer’s first speech, [61]
- Weak voices, [76]
- Wordless men, [83]
- Waiting for the moment of beginning, [189]
- Webster, anecdote of, [203]
- Writing after delivery, [265]
NATIONAL SCHOOL
OF
ELOCUTION and ORATORY.