If i devote an entire section to the introduction and the conclusion of a lecture, it is because these two sections are so often neglected.

First of all, the introduction and the conclusion must be related to the main theme in the matter of time. In the usual 45- to 60-minute lecture,, the introduction should not take more than about three minutes, and the conclusion perhaps five minutes.

The introductory remarks serve a twofold purpose: introducing the speaker personally and introducing his factual material. The speaker must first establish a personal relationship with his audience, if he has had no introduction as guest speaker; in addition, he must tell the subject of his talk and his reason for speaking. In speeches to clubs these two points are often appropriated by the chairman in his welcoming address. The speaker should therefore omit them from his introduction or restrict himself to a very few words on the subject. It is poor policy for him to repeat what the chairman has just stated in other words. This is a further argument against reading a speech from manuscript, for it is only the person accustomed to speaking extemporaneously who can at the last minute fit his opening remarks to the introductory words of the chairman.

If the speaker has been advertised, or if the occasion does not demand a personal introduction—as, for instance, a course in college—the subject should be defined at the outset. In doing so the speaker must remember that the public in most cases knows only the title of the lecture announced in the papers, on posters, or the like. Such a title, which is necessarily terse and rather commonplace, merely indicates the context without defining it. Very often the same title might apply to an entirely different aspect of the subject or a different treatment of it. But in a good lecture the introduction does not leave the auditor in doubt about what subject, or rather what aspect of the subject, the lecturer will treat. An exact definition of his theme is therefore the main point of the factual part of the introduction.

If, in his rather trite title and commonplace announcements, the speaker cannot avoid using a foreign word or a term not commonly known—such as "mnemotechny"— it is his duty to define it as clearly as he can in his introduction. If the subject itself is difficult to explain, as for instance a theoretical topic demanding experiments and illustrations, it is permissible and advisable, at the end of the introduction, to sketch a plan of the entire lecture and to tell the audience what they may expect. There is an advantage to this technique in that the auditor can come to a halt at the various stopping places along with the lecturer, and therefore be in a better position to concentrate.

One uses somewhat the same principle when taking a child for a walk. As modern psychology has long since recognized, one should never set out with the child without a plan of action. A distinct goal is necessary and, if possible, stopping places along the way in order that the child may take pleasure in the walk and not find it tedious.

The conclusion of a speech is even more important than the introduction. The speaker must always remember that his concluding words make the most lasting impression and must therefore be exact and definite. The conclusion has the task of summarizing the topic sentences of the main theme and impressing them on the auditor, not to say hammering them home if he has not followed the discourse attentively. The word "summarizing" of course does not mean a detailed repetition of statements previously made, since they weary and bore the auditor. Merely the most important thoughts in condensed form should and must be repeated in the conclusion. That is, the words "I approach the end of my discourse" or "I summarize briefly" are entirely permissible and customary. In fact, they are to be recommended, since the auditor, from experience, pays renewed attention to the words which follow—an attention comparable to the tension he experiences at the end of a prize fight. He knows that the most important things will follow—the conclusions drawn from the preceding lines of thought. He knows, also, that the end of the lecture is definitely at hand, and he will therefore concentrate his attention, if the speaker has been able to catch it at all, on the matter in hand.

Since the conclusion should be memorable, it is often desirable to enliven it with a suitable visual image, a quotation, or a proverb. The average man is inclined to accept a familiar quotation or a proverb as true. If the speaker is fortunate enough to tie up his deductions with a quotation or a proverb, so that the combination makes an impression on his listeners, they are often inclined to transfer the accuracy of the quotation to the contents of the speech itself. Of course, such an association should be handled with care; that is, proverbs and quotations must not be dragged in willy-nilly, but must come in quite naturally and easily if they are to make the intended impression.

What astonishing after-effects clear-cut and cleverly fashioned closing sentences can have is best shown by the fact that such words persist not only for decades but for centuries. As a case in point, think of Cato's remark, familiar to all school children::

"Delenda est Carthago!"

Our advice in regard to talking without a manuscript does not imply that the beginner should deny himself every kind of written aid. We have already discussed the excellent impression made by the man who can speak entirely extemporaneously and we know that we can call the chain method to our aid in order to cultivate the art ourselves.

But since we are proceeding step by step in this book, we shall first discuss the ways and means available to the beginner in freeing himself from the written speech on the one hand and keeping to written cues on the other.

These cues are usually called lecture notes. These are made to insure the speaker against getting stuck in passing from one train of thought to another, but they may claim his eye for only a split second at a time, for he must not let it stray from his audience for any length of time. It follows that lecture notes should never consist of complete sentences, but only cues which can be read at a glance and yet suffice in connecting one thought with another. These cues should refer to the most important thoughts in the lecture, so that no essential point will be overlooked. It is not practical to list the cue words one under the other.

It is better to write them down in a rather pictorial fashion so that they catch the eye.

Experiments have proved the majority of mankind to be eye-minded—to remember the pictorial best. If the cues are arranged pictorially their individual positions on the paper are unconsciously impressed on the mind through repeated reading, and the speaker need not, during the course of his speech, search for the cue to his talk at that point. For this reason notes should not be written down at the last minute, but as soon as the speaker has decided what plan he will use in his treatment of the subject. Then, as he develops his speech, he should lay aside his cue sheet and, at first silently but later aloud, memorize his train of thought with the aid of his notes. If, with the help of his cues and the vocabulary at his command, he is able to develop his thoughts and express them clearly in good style, he may rest assured that his ability to do so will not desert him at the critical moment of facing his audience.

And let the beginner take heart in the fact that there is scarcely a speaker who does not lose the thread of his discourse in the course of a rather lengthy lecture. No matter how disciplined his powers of concentration, he will wander from his subject to some degree during the course of his talk, either through some remark from the audience, the opening and closing of a door, or even some vagrant thought of his own. For the beginner, losing the thread of his discourse is the same as getting stuck. The experienced lecturer, if he does not immediately get back to his subject, will repeat his last statement in other words and meanwhile glance at the next phrase on his cue sheet, assuming he has a picture of his notes sufficiently clear in mind to know which cue was last used and about where on the sheet the next one will be.

It is not a bad policy for a speaker who has "run off the rails" in this way to develop a point more tersely than he had intended. It is even advisable to return to the point later on and add what was omitted, provided naturally that the speaker has not progressed beyond this division of his talk. If he has, he should pass it by, for if he does not he will make his address more involved for the audience. The lecturer should always take into account the fact that his public knows the plan of his address or at least can grasp it, but that it never knows in what way he will develop his subject matter under the various headings. Therefore he can make certain transpositions and changes in his original plans about which his audience does not know, so long as he does not disturb his main outline.

The same holds true for a not uncommon occurrence: the speaker suddenly gets a new idea while delivering his lecture, an idea he would like to incorporate. Such additions are possible if the new idea crops up during the discussion of the section in which it properly belongs. But if it appears as an afterthought, the speaker should not recapitulate and go back to a section in order to bring it in. This would do his lecture more harm than good. There is scarcely a single thought so essential as to justify disturbing the entire plan of a lecture for its inclusion.

Although we have referred quite generally to the cue sheet, we do not mean that one and only one sheet is permissible. But it is a good idea when you use several sheets of paper to use a small size, to write on only one side of the paper, and to clip the sheets together, so that one or more will not be misplaced during the lecture or slide from the stand or the table to the floor. Bending down to pick them up causes hilarity, breaks the contact between speaker and audience, and in general ruins the lecture.

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