have to use very careful selection. It is impossible to read everything. What we do read should be determined by the precise nature of our subject and the quality of the material available rather than simply by the fact that we came upon a given book or magazine first. If you have time to read three books on a subject, do not read the first three you find, but spend some time in working over the available books and select the three that will be most useful to you in the particular kind of treatment which you have decided to give your subject on the particular occasion and before the particular audience for which you are getting ready. When investigating a new subject it is well to follow the order given here in regard to reading material: first, read books to get the broad basis of the subject, its background, its history, its general outlines; second, pamphlets, committee reports, magazine articles, lecture notes; third, come down to specific newspaper articles, dealing with incidents connected with the subject. In other words read from the general to the particular. III. HANDLING MATERIAL It is important not only to be able to get the right kind of material, but to be able to handle it properly when we get it. It is of first importance to handle our material in such fashion that we have it available for use in convenient form, and, second, that we have it in permanent form, so that we can refer to it again and again without wearing it out, rubbing it out, or losing it. An accurate record which can be used over and over and be preserved indefinitely is the only satisfactory kind of record of material gathered for use in speeches. A rule which should never be departed from is this: Every note taken should contain an accurate reference to the exact source of the material. This means both the person and the place the writer or speaker and the book, article, letter, conversation, or speech in which the material was found. An accurate reference is one which is so clear and detailed that another person using it could find the material without diffi culty. A good reference is "The Quarterly Journal of Speech Education, Nov. 1925, page 319." A poor reference is simply "The Quarterly Journal of Speech Education," or "The Quarterly Journal of Speech Education for 1925," or "The Quarterly Journal of Speech Education, Vol. XI," or "The Quarterly Journal of Speech Education for Nov., 1925." This last reference would be satisfactory if the note simply recorded the name of an article; but if we are taking a statement of fact from within the article, we should give the exact page. The card form used in the following example is well suited to filing. Placing all of the references at the top of the card makes handling in a file very easy. "For many years suffrage tended constantly to The card system is to be preferred to any other for general note-taking. The first advantage of this method is the ease with which we can sort and arrange material. We can have a few cards with us at any time to note down material as we find it; and when we have an accumulation of such cards we can sort them, putting in separate packs the material which relates to separate divisions of our subject. In the second place, if desirable, we can file the cards in order under the proper divisions and subdivisions, and have a great deal of material so organized that any particular item can be taken out, used, and put back with the least possible confusion. EXERCISES 1. Make a list of subjects for speeches on which you could gather material, and indicate after each one the method or methods mentioned in this chapter which you would employ. 2. On a subject selected, with the approval of the teacher, from the list prepared for Exercise 1, present material (covering at least ten cards) gathered by personal observation and experience. 3. Do the same by the method of talking or interviewing. 4. Do the same covering at least three cards with material, gathered by thinking. 5. Hand in letters written to three actual people asking them for information, data, facts, on some proposition of your own choice. 6. Repeat the above exercise asking for opinions rather than facts. 7. On a proposition approved by the teacher hand in at least twelve cards of notes drawn from printed material, using at least three different sources. 8. Starting with the cards prepared for Exercise 7, add whatever is necessary to make an accumulation of material which will contain the following clearly indicated: (a) Three cards of facts (b) Three cards of opinions (e) One good argument from authority 9. Clip a long argumentative editorial from a daily newspaper. Paste it on the left-hand side of full-sized sheets (8 x 11). Write out on the sheets the following exercises: (a) Indicate to what extent each of the five methods mentioned in this chapter was used in getting the material for this editorial. (b) Indicate to what extent each of the types of material mentioned in this chapter was used. (c) Indicate what exact sources were cited in the editorial. CHAPTER XIV THE DIVISIONS OF A SPEECH I. THE INTRODUCTION A. The Divisions of a Speech in Ancient Rhetoric B. The Function of the Introduction C. The Length of the Introduction D. Common Faults 1. False Assumptions 2. Excuses and Apologies 3. Ill-Advised Funny Stories 4. False Leads E. Good Types 1. Headlines at ting its fronsprech 2. Comparison-tween present & stre 3. Text 4. The Common Bond . II. THE DISCUSSION 4 A. The Function of the Discussion u think lace. I. THE INTRODUCTION There A. The Divisions of a Speech in Ancient Rhetoric. have been no revolutionary changes in the main divisions of fully developed speeches since the beginning of formal rhetoric. Corax in 466 B.C. used four divisions: introduction, narration, proof, conclusion. Aristotle in 330 B.C. mentioned substantially the same four: exordium, exposition, proof, peroration. Cicero in 55 B.C. made some variation, using six divisions: introduction, narration, proposition, proof, refutation, conclusion. Most modern writers include under the term "introduction" what Corax and Aristotle covered in their first two divisions, and what Cicero covered in his first three. In each of these early authorities the words "introduction" and "exordium" meant simply the opening remarks by which the speaker established his contact with his audience and prepared for the real work of the speech, which began in the division called either "narration" or "exposition" and which consisted of an explanation of the case, the history of the controversy up to the moment of the speech. Cicero made a separate division at the conclusion of such an explanation, for the precise statement of the proposition to be dealt with in the speech. In modern rhetoric, however, all of the work up to this point is usually covered by the term "introduction." The modern term "discussion" is of course the parallel of the older word "proof" and includes also the material which Cicero put in a separate section and labeled "refutation." The common modern use of the word "peroration" limits it to a narrower meaning than that carried by the word "conclusion," the term "peroration" usually being used for the closing remarks of a genuinely emotional oration, and the word "conclusion" covering the closing remarks of any type of speech. B. The Function of the Introduction. - Perhaps the bestknown statement concerning the purpose of the introduction to a speech is that which Cicero applies to the exordium, |