ts dangers
are grave. Few people can recite memorized passages with the personal
appeal and direct significance that effective spoken discourse should
have. Emphasis is lacking. Variety is absent. The tone becomes
monotonous. The speech is so well committed that it flows too easily.
If several speakers follow various methods, almost any listener can
unerringly pick the memorized efforts. Let the speaker in delivery
strive for variety, pauses, emphasis; let him be actor enough to
simulate the feeling of spontaneous composition as he talks, yet no
matter how successful he may be in his attempts there will still be
slight inconsistencies, trifling incongruities, which will disturb a
listener even if he cannot describe his mental reaction. The secret
lies in the fact that written and spoken composition differ in certain
details which are present in each form in spite of the utmost care to
weed them out.

Memorizing Parts. The third manner can be made effective if the
speaker can make the gap just described between written and spoken
discourse extremely narrow. If not, his speech will appear just what
it is--an incongruous patchwork of carefully prepared, reconsidered
writing, and more or less spontaneously evolved speaking.

Speaking from Outline or Brief. The fourth method is by far the best
for students training themselves to become public speakers. After a
time the brief or outline can be retained in the mind, and the speaker
passes from this method to the next. A brief for an important law case
in the United States Supreme Court is a long and elaborate instrument.
But a student speaker's brief or outline need not be long.

Directions, models, and exercises for constructing and using outlines
will be given in a later chapter.

The Best Method. The last method is unquestionably the best. Let a man
so command all the aspects of a subject that he fears no breakdown in
his thoughts, let him be able to use language so that he need never
hesitate for the best expression, let him know the effect he wants to
make upon his audience, the time he has to do it in, and he will know
by what approaches he can best reach his important theme, what he may
safely omit, what he must include, what he may hurry over, what he
must slowly unfold, what he may handle lightly, what he must treat
seriously; in short, he will make a great speech. This manner is the
ideal towards which all students, all speakers, should strive.

Attributes of t