The Art of Public Speaking eBook

Stephen Lucas
This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 590 pages of information about The Art of Public Speaking.

The Art of Public Speaking eBook

Stephen Lucas
This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 590 pages of information about The Art of Public Speaking.

2.  Analyze and criticise the forms of appeal used in the selections from Hoar, Story, and Kipling.

3.  What is the type of persuasion used by Senator Thurston (page 50)?

4.  Cite two examples each, from selections in this volume, in which speakers sought to be persuasive by securing the hearers’ (a) sympathy for themselves; (b) sympathy with their subjects; (c) self-pity.

5.  Make a short address using persuasion.

6.  What other methods of persuasion than those here mentioned can you name?

7.  Is it easier to persuade men to change their course of conduct than to persuade them to continue in a given course?  Give examples to support your belief.

8.  In how far are we justified in making an appeal to self-interest in order to lead men to adopt a given course?

9.  Does the merit of the course have any bearing on the merit of the methods used?

10.  Illustrate an unworthy method of using persuasion.

11.  Deliver a short speech on the value of skill in persuasion.

12.  Does effective persuasion always produce conviction?

13.  Does conviction always result in action?

14.  Is it fair for counsel to appeal to the emotions of a jury in a murder trial?

15.  Ought the judge use persuasion in making his charge?

16.  Say how self-consciousness may hinder the power of persuasion in a speaker.

17.  Is emotion without words ever persuasive?  If so, illustrate.

18.  Might gestures without words be persuasive?  If so, illustrate.

19.  Has posture in a speaker anything to do with persuasion?  Discuss.

20.  Has voice?  Discuss.

21.  Has manner?  Discuss.

22.  What effect does personal magnetism have in producing conviction?

23.  Discuss the relation of persuasion to (a) description; (b) narration; (c) exposition; (d) pure reason.

24.  What is the effect of over-persuasion?

25.  Make a short speech on the effect of the constant use of persuasion on the sincerity of the speaker himself.

26.  Show by example how a general statement is not as persuasive as a concrete example illustrating the point being discussed.

27.  Show by example how brevity is of value in persuasion.

28.  Discuss the importance of avoiding an antagonistic attitude in persuasion.

29.  What is the most persuasive passage you have found in the selections of this volume.  On what do you base your decision?

30.  Cite a persuasive passage from some other source.  Read or recite it aloud.

31.  Make a list of the emotional bases of appeal, grading them from low to high, according to your estimate.

32.  Would circumstances make any difference in such grading?  If so, give examples.

33.  Deliver a short, passionate appeal to a jury, pleading for justice to a poor widow.

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Project Gutenberg
The Art of Public Speaking from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.