How to speak effectively by Chas Seymour
If it is the earnest desire of the person into whose hands this work may fall to learn how to speak effectively, I would merely beg of him a reasonable amount of his leisure time, and I will do my best to speak to him from the leaves of this book as plainly and as lucidly as I might succeed in doing was he face to face with me in my own studio. Be it remembered that an elocutionist is not necessarily a good author.
Of this, I am sufficiently conscious, yet I may hope that the bluntness of my construction will prove an advantage rather than otherwise to the practical student. Let us proceed.
How is it that I fail to hold the attention of my audience? I experience no lack of ideas while facing a large assembly of people: I am satisfied that I possess a very fair command of the language, and am conscious of the ability to summon just that particular word which I conceive will convey my meaning to a nicety. It is my invariable practice to set apart several hours to the mastering of my facts, and it is customary with me to make copious notes of important points for occasional reference during a prolonged discourse, and yet it is apparent to me that I do not obtain from my audience that attention which my subjects merit or my efforts deserve ! . . . . Why is it?
The qualifications my questioner claims to possess might well cause many a student of oratory to express surprise that under such seemingly favorable conditions failure to hold the attention of an audience should have to be admitted.
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