Extemporaneous Speaking, with Speech Examples for Study

Originally published in the 1910s, this is a classic textbook for the course in extemporaneous speaking during that era, offered at the Department of Public Speaking, Swarthmore College.

In all professions the thing that lifts an individual above his fellows is usually facility in self-expression. Leadership is the reward of the man who possesses the power of effective speech. The aim of the course is to equip the college student with the capacity for leadership that comes with the ability to impress one's personality on other people by means of the spoken word.

The course is planned especially to meet the needs of the non-professional or informal speaker who desires to cultivate facility in clear, convincing and effective expression, whether in private conversation, in business, or in any of the social, political, or professional organizations with which he may be connected.

Contents Covered:

• Preface
• Efficient Speaking
• Preparing the Speech
• The Introduction
• The Conclusion
• The Discussion
• Personality
• After-Dinner Speaking
• Speaking in Business
• Speeches for Study
  • The Ethics of Corporate Management
  • The Principles of Business Success
  • The Unknown Quantities
  • Comparative Advertising Methods, East and West
  • Vanadium Steels
  • The Necessity for Adequate Railway Revenues
  • Hours of Service of Railway Employees
  • The Railway Rate Bill
  • Alaska: The Nation's Storehouse
  • On Withdrawing from the Union
  • Paul Before Agrippa
  • Paul at Mars' Hill
  • Nathan's Parable of the Ewe Lamb
  • Tertullus' Speech Against Paul
  • Paul's Reply to Tertullus
  • Julia Ward Howe
  • The Death of Lincoln
  • The Bible and Progress
  • International Conciliation
  • Future in Chemistry
  • The University is a Democracy
  • Inaugural Address
  • The Delays and Defects in the Enforcement of Law in this Country
  • The Indeterminate Sentence, the Parole, and the New Criminology
  • The Honor System
  • Jackson-Day Dinner
  • The Issues of Reform
  • After-Dinner Speech
• Appendix I, Synopsis
• Appendix II, Topics for Speech
• Appendix III, Extempore Speaking in High Schools
• Notes on Programs