TEST QUESTIONS These questions are for the student to use in testing his knowledge of the principles in this lesson. They are suggestive merely, dealing largely with the practical application of the principles, and are to be placed in the notebook for future reference. 1. Why should a speaker exercise so as to improve his posture and breathing? 2. If a man has good ideas and is in earnest, does it make any difference in his effectiveness as a speaker if he stands awkwardly and breathes poorly? 3. Have you ever observed a speaker whose voice was weak and unpleasant to listen to? How did it affect you in listening to his ideas? 4. The next time you hear such a speaker, watch him closely and see if there is anything the matter with his trunk posture or his breathing. Do his shoulders rise and fall during his speaking? Is he hunched over? 5. Did you ever observe the curve or line of the back of an opera singer? Do singers who make full, carrying tones slouch, or do they stand erect with chest high? Have you noted the place of greatest movement when they breathe? Observe the men rather than the women, for the dress of the latter interferes with their movements during breathing. How does a speaker compare with a singer in the matter of producing sounds? 6. When you take your breathing exercise, do you become dizzy? If you do, rest a moment or even slap the cheeks lightly and the dizziness will cease. As you progress, this symptom will disappear. 7. Does the deep breathing make you a bit tired? It will if you have been breathing incorrectly hitherto. Practice will strengthen the muscles involved and they will work without weariness. 8. What are the two ways of increasing capacity mentioned in the lessons? 9. Why would it be bad to take breathing lessons to increase capacity and control if the posture were poor? 10. Someone said of a great speaker, "He owes his success to his diaphragm." What does that mean? Could it be true? Why? 11. Do you stand correctly? Practice the exercise given for the second day and the exercise given on page 110, over and over again. Do they help? 12. Which breathing exercises do you find most helpful? 13. What is the normal position? 14. Who was Demosthenes? What are some of his famous orations? 15. What is the value of a "good start"? How can you overcome nervousness? LESSON 8 SUBJECTIVE ASPECTS OF DELIVERY While the mechanical requirements of correct posture and breathing must be met, there are also certain subjective attributes which are essential to effective delivery. To insure success with audiences, attractive personal qualities must exist in the speaker. These qualities re-enforce the message itself, they add to its weight, or they make its acceptance more agreeable. Because of deficiency in these subjective attributes, many a keen thinker is listened to stolidly, if not defiantly, and his fairest conclusions only grudgingly granted. Yet, on the other hand, there are speakers with whom audiences are glad to agree so long as their ideas have the barest plausibility. Evidently something in the speaker either helps or hinders the most favorable acceptance of his words by the audience. It is the purpose of this lesson to outline the inner or subjective traits which make for efficiency and suggest methods of cultivating them in the speaker. 1. PERSONALITY The broadest term we can use to designate the subjective elements of charm, power, and attractiveness of a speaker is personality. It sums up those general, permanent attributes which show through all his transitory words and deeds. If that underlying, permanent self appeals to us, we say that the man has a good personality. Naturally all do not have the same taste in this matter and a man may seem pleasant to one person and be colorless or even repulsive to another. Indeed, as widely as individuals differ, just so wide is the divergence in response to personality. Yet there are certain attributes which are quite universally looked upon as positive elements in a good personality. Let us enumerate some of these features which are especially sought for in a speaker. (a) Magnetism The term magnetism is often used instead of good personality. It is peculiarly applicable to successful speakers and directs attention not so much to what is the source of the man's power as to the effect it has upon others. By magnetism we mean a composite of personal attributes which draws people to the speaker and tends to incline them to sympathize with or rally around him. An old gentleman once recounted to the writer the following incident in the life of Henry Ward Beecher. The gentleman was from the British West Indies and was visiting New York, just before the Civil War. All his sympathies were with the South on the slavery question and he could not understand why people like Beecher should agitate for abolition. Yet, out of curiosity, he went one Sunday to the Broadway Tabernacle to hear Beecher speak on slavery. In those days, such special lectures were advertised by hand stickers or posters slapped up against telegraph poles and walls. On this occasion the announcement said, "Henry Ward Beecher will speak on Slavery, at the Broadway Taber nacle," etc., etc. There was in New York at that time a volunteer fire company made up of ruffians who would now be called election repeaters and strong-arm men. It was led by a great bully and corrupt politicianlet us call him John Doe. The posters had not been up long before there appeared, under the announcement that Beecher would speak, the words, "Like Hell he will.-John Doe." Consequently, those who attended the lecture came expecting trouble and possibly bloodshed. The gentleman from the West Indies was in the front of the gallery. As he looked down, he saw there on the ground floor, filling all the seats back from the stage one-third into the house, a great number of the red-shirted, volunteer firemen-ruffians. The leader stood in front cursing and threatening in violent language what he would do to Beecher. At the appointed time, Beecher suddenly ascended the steps of the platform and began to speak. There was a pause in the uproar and then dead silence. Even John Doe and his followers were hushed. In that moment Beecher became master. The stranger in the gallery afterward said, "If that red-shirted devil had dared to stir a finger to harm Henry Ward Beecher, I'd have jumped down on his neck and killed him." Others must have felt the same way; even the would-be rioters were subdued by the spiritual power of the speaker. This was a victory of character, personality, and magnetism, quite independent of what Beecher said. Possibly we do not often get such a dramatic proof of the power of magnetism, but we have all experienced the force which some men display in manner, attitude, and presence external signs of something permanent and admirable within. Others, less fortunate, have to con |