The speaker who is able to express himself without using hackneyed phrases, and who can inject color into his talk by means of a variety of images and a well-rounded vocabulary, can feel fairly sure of holding the attention of his audience, for it will not become apathetic from the boring conviction of knowing what is coming next.

There are few things which bore an audience more and make a lecture more thoroughly monotonous than the constant repetition of words.

An address is always more effective if the speaker can vary his vocabulary as well as his sentence structure. The good speaker employs a vocabulary of 10,000 to 15,000 words, whereas the average vocabulary embraces only 2,000 or 3,000 words. The other terms either are theoretically familiar to the student of public speaking but not freely used, or else they remain unknown to him. In order to enrich his vocabulary he should pay attention to unfamiliar words when he runs across them in books or newspapers or in his attendance at lectures, and even in his daily intercourse. He should impress them on his mind and, if need be, write them down. He should, as a further step, accustom himself gradually to use them and so in time widen his vocabulary. But if he reads or hears words whose meanings he does not know, he should never neglect looking them up in a dictionary or an encyclopedia. He must recognize the fact that the more words he has at his command the more fluently and effectively he will speak, but he must be sure that he knows a word before he uses it. This holds for foreign words as well as for the less familiar words in his native language.

The feeling for words can be sharpened and a vocabulary extended by collecting synonyms and determining what essential difference there is between them.

The words speak, tell, say, relate, narrate, like the words chapter, part, subdivision, unit, section, mean practically the same, but there is always a subtle distinction between any two of them. The beginner should try to make these distinctions very clear. To do this, let me repeat my advice: Always do these exercises aloud instead of silently, in order to approach your goal more closely.

Defining words is an excellent habit for anyone who wants to widen his vocabulary and practise speaking in public. As long as concrete objects are selected for definition, the matter is comparatively simple, for anyone can define the meaning of house, garden, or table. It is, how· ever, a little more difficult where abstract ideas are concerned, and the questions, What is humor? What is pride? What is self-defense? are not so easy to answer concisely in one sentence. In formulating the answer special attention must be paid to having the definition not only exact but so precise that it cannot apply to all sorts of other things.

And the speaker is often forced to employ foreign terms or difficult concepts out of context. I have already discussed the fact that an address to laymen must be treated differently from the one to professionals. Statements of fact which may be assumed to be familiar to colleagues must be explained thoroughly to laymen either in their own terms or in synonyms. The making of such substitutions belongs to the task of the student of speech.

If he has accustomed himself to defining concrete and abstract terms effortlessly and clearly, he can go a step further and attempt quotations and proverbs. Such practice is worthy of emulation because it helps develop quick thinking and the rapid and precise gathering and outlining of material.

Next to a varied vocabulary, variety in sentence structure is important in preventing monotony, in heightening dramatic effect, and giving the voice an opportunity to change its tone or rhythm. The beginner often is at fault in this respect. He goes to one of two extremes.

One speaker places one declarative sentence after another without daring to use questions, subordinate clauses, or declamatory statements. Such a person might begin a lecture on New York as follows: "New York is the largest city in the world. It consists of five boroughs. The focal point is Manhattan. Manhattan is bounded by the East River and the Hudson. Manhattan is sometimes referred to as New York City and it is the heart of the metropolis. There are many skyscrapers in Manhattan," etc. Such a monotonous use of the declarative sentence is, of course, deadly.

Another speaker, wishing to avoid this monotony, becomes so involved in explanatory phrases without point or conclusion, that he cannot disentangle himself. This is equally undesirable.

The good speaker must avoid periodic sentences which are too long, but must utilize all possibilities of the Ianguage, such as declamatory sentences, rhetorical questions, and a variety of subsidiary clauses, in order to give his speech color and variety. For this purpose, practice in everyday speech, in all manner of expression, is admirable.

Example of a simple declarative sentence: Industry in the United States prospers more when the people are convinced that peace is assured for a number of years.

The same in the form of an exclamatory sentence: May the people of the United States be convinced that peace is assured for a number of years, in order that industry may prosper!

Direct question: How will the conviction that peace is assured for a number of years affect the people of the United States? Industry will prosper.

Rhetorical question: Will the conviction of the people in the United States that peace is assured for a number of years, have an effect on industry?

Repetition of the original declaratory sentence, in inverse order: The more the people in the United States are convinced that peace is assured for a number of years, the more industry will prosper!

Such variations are indispensable to the speaker. During an address itself there is no time to indulge in lengthy meditation and gauge which form will be most effective. It is therefore necessary to cultivate the different forms of expression through practice in daily conversation, observing, as you do so, how each affects the listener.

Pay particular attention to the questions. The cited examples of direct and rhetorical questions differ in their effects: The direct question demands an answer which the speaker usually supplies himself. The rhetorical question, on the contrary, carries an implied answer. But one must be on guard lest the positive rhetorical question be interpreted negatively, and vice versa. If, for instance, in the sentence given above, the rhetorical question reads: Will the conviction of the people, that peace is assured for a period of years, not have a beneficial effect on industry in our country? the speaker through the insertion of the negative not wants to assert that the conviction will have a beneficial effect. But when the speaker asks, "Is that fitting and proper?" he wishes to express through this positive form of the rhetorical question that the matter under discussion is not to be construed as fitting and proper.

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