A method for delivering a speech extemporaneously, without a manuscript, is of little use to those of my readers who do not know how to set about preparing the speech. That, too, must be studied. As preparing the speech is a necessary preliminary to delivering it in public, I shall give a few simple suggestions for guidance.

A definite, comprehensive outline of all your material is essential for every public address. It is not bad pedagogy for the school teacher to require that all compositions be first outlined. Although written assignments and extemporaneous speeches differ in many respects, they have this in common; both must be logically organized.

In order to plan and outline an address, the speaker must review all the material he has on his subject. Therefore if a man is called on to speak on a subject about which he is not well informed, he must begin by collecting and collating his material; that is, he must connect his material with familiar cue words or with cues he conceived for this particular address. Not until he has collected and sifted his material can he set up an outline, for he must so frame his outline that he can put all his material under the different headings. In addresses intended to be not only instructive but also persuasive to the speaker's point of view, it is essential to work out the end of the speech first. Since the correct ending is a condensed summary of the entire main theme of the address, it should therefore include the essential thoughts. So by carefully preparing a conclusion, the speaker can easily extract and put together leading sentences which at the same time serve as the skeleton of the entire speech.

In laying out his plan and outlining his material under the various subheads, the speaker must always keep the aim and purpose of his address in mind, the time allotted him, the place and the composition of the audience.

He must be especially clear in mind about the aim and purpose of his speech, so that he will not introduce ideas theoretically bearing upon his subject but extraneous to the expressed purpose of this particular address. In a good speech no sentence and, of course, no paragraph is superfluous. Therefore the speaker should ask at every point of his talk, Of what value is this to the subject as a whole? and, Is it necessary and requisite for the deductions which the listener is to make from the address?
And the speaker must consider these points in reference to the time allotted him. If it is not definitely specified (as in a college lecture), the speaker must bear in mind that an audience grows restive at the most interesting of addresses. Listening intently is a form of mental labor, and the more closely a person concentrates in listening to an address, the more he taxes his brain. The listener in most instances is learning something new, and as a consequence his brain works along with the speaker's in that it has to assimilate the new in some way. It is therefore inconsiderate and rather unwise for a speaker to take up too much audience time. An address of a purely theoretical nature, not enlivened by lantern slides or demonstrations, must not last more than 45 to 60 minutes. The speaker who has not had enough experience and practice to judge from his outline the length of time required for his address should therefore try out his whole speech aloud, at least once, on his intimates, talking at the tempo he will later use in public, in order to see how long it will take.

Nothing is more unfortunate than to have everyone, even the most ingenuous member of the audience, notice that the speaker is running over his time. Everyone notices then that the speaker, while he is conscious of the fact that he should no longer try the patience of his audience, nevertheless cannot resist the temptation of crowding in all he can in a few minutes―perhaps really essential points. The result is a feeling of nervous tension on the part of speaker and audience. This tension grows and yet it could have been prevented by the simple means mentioned above.

The speaker who runs over his time often suffers further misfortune. Swayed by the feeling that he must soon bring his address to a close, he uses such expressions as "In conclusion," or the like, without having the following sentences bear out his statement. He overlooks the fact that one should never promise his audience anything, not even the conclusion of a speech, without keeping his word. Such an occurrence allows the audience to ascribe unreliability to the lecturer. And they do not restrict it to the instance in question but extend it to the man's very personality and the contents of his address.

Along with a careful gauge of his allotted time the speaker must always take the place into consideration. The larger the hall, the slower must be his speaking tempo, in order that he may enunciate clearly and loudly enough to be heard in the last rows. Since one can speak much faster in a room, where the question of clear articulation is simple, than in a hall, the speaker must find out the size of the auditorium in advance in order to judge the time needed for his talk.

It is just as important, especially for the beginner, to consider what kind of public he will have before he prepares his speech. The degree of culture, the sex, and above all the factual knowledge must be considered in detail. If a doctor gives a talk on a course of treatment to a group of his colleagues, his address will be entirely different from what it would be to a lay audience. In the latter instance he must avoid medical terminology or at least explain his terms, which he would of course assume his fellow practitioners knew. The same holds true for diagnosis, prescriptions, and the like. The explanation of medical terms, unnecessary and therefore superfluous in a group of doctors, is, however, necessary and essential in a group of laymen. It would be a mistake to explain terms to the former, an error to omit explanations to the latter. In order to avoid unfortunate errors of this nature the speaker in preparing his address must bear the type of audience in mind. If he has a mixed public, professional people and laymen, it is necessary for him to turn from the one to the other as the occasion demands.

As another example: The lawyer who pleads his cases exclusively before learned judges will necessarily choose other words than for a speech before people not versed in law, as for instance a jury. In the first case, he will lay most emphasis on a clear style and the decisions in like cases before the court; in the latter instance, he will bear in mind the human and psychological factors involved.

But the speaker must fit himself not only to the factual knowledge of the public but also to their average education. In general one may say: Delight in independent thinking is measured by degree of culture. It is therefore a good idea for the speaker not to exhaust all the details of his subject and not to draw all the conclusions himself when he is addressing a cultured gathering. It is a better plan for him to give them the foundation stones, perhaps also the blue-print and plans, and let them build the mental structure themselves. But this treatment of his material is not advisable for a less cultured audience. Rather, it is necessary for him not only to introduce facts and examples, but even to draw the conclusions himself and explain them to his audience as clearly as he can.

But in any case the speaker should never exhaust his material and consequently land in a morass of unrelated details. Such an address easily loses all lucidity and bores the audience. It is also to his advantage and interest to present appropriate summaries showing that he is complete master of his subject, limited only by time and the mental capacity of the audience.

If the address calls for proofs or demonstrations, the speaker must be sure to make them general and understandable. There is no point in bolstering a statement with examples familiar to the speaker but unknown to a part of the audience. According to the degree of culture of the audience, the speaker must also make his basic statements before he develops them.

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