l the effect in sound of the phrases.

Preparing and Delivering Introductions. Actual practice in preparation
and delivery of introductions should follow. These should be delivered
before the class and should proceed no farther than the adequate
introduction to the hearers of the topic of the speech. They need not
be so fragmentary as to occupy only three seconds. By supposing them
to be beginnings of speeches from six to fifteen minutes long these
remarks may easily last from one to two minutes.

Aside from the method of its delivery--pose, voice, speed, vocabulary,
sentences--each introduction should be judged as an actual
introduction to a real speech. Each speaker should keep in mind these
questions to apply during his preparation. Each listener should apply
them as he hears the introduction delivered.

Is the topic introduced gracefully?
Is it introduced clearly?
Is the introduction too long?
Does it begin too far away from the topic?
Is it interesting?
Has it any defects of material?
Has it any faults of manner?
Can any of it be omitted?
Do you want to hear the entire speech?
Can you anticipate the material?
Is it adapted to its audience?
Is it above their heads?
Is it beneath their intelligences?

Topics for these exercises in delivering introductions should be
furnished by the interests, opinions, ideas, experiences, ambitions of
the students themselves. Too many beginning speakers cause endless
worry for themselves, lower the quality of their speeches, bore their
listeners, by "hunting" for things to talk about, when near at hand in
themselves and their activities lie the very best things to discuss.
The over-modest feeling some people have that they know nothing to
talk about is usually a false impression. In Elizabethan England a
young poet, Sir Phillip Sidney, decided to try to tell his sweetheart
how much he loved her. So he "sought fit words, studying inventions
fine, turning others' leaves, to see if thence would flow, some fresh
and fruitful showers upon my sunburnt brain." But "words came halting
forth" until he bit his truant pen and almost beat himself for spite.
Then said the Muse to him, "Fool, look in thy heart and write." And
without that first word, this is the advice that should be given to
all speakers. "Look in your heart, mind, life, experiences, ideas,
ideals, interests, enthusiasms, and from them draw the material of
your speeches--_yours_ because no one else could make that speec