37. The Great Essential.—We have now discussed certain matters which will be of service to you if you write your thoughts for others to read. Will these principles still hold if you speak your thoughts for others to hear? Yes, in the main; but you must remember that in the one case the persons you address have simply to read; if they do not understand, they can simply look back and reread. In the other case, the persons you address are listening, and they must understand each sentence as it comes to them, for of course any one in an audience cannot stop a speaker because he fails to hear a word or a phrase. A speaker must therefore, first of all, take pains that each person in his audience hears clearly every word he says.

38. How to be Heard.—If you wish to speak so that every one in your audience can hear all that you say, you must take pains about several things:—

1. Proper Position.—Speech is sound produced by a stream of air forced from the lungs (as from a bellows) and striking against certain cords in the throat. By altering the tightness of these cords and by changing the position of the palate, tongue, and teeth, we change the character of the sound. If we are to speak to a considerable number of people, then, we must make sure that all this bodily machinery works with special ease and force, and first of all, that the lungs (the bellows) move freely. This means that they must have space to work, and this in turn means that we must stand erect, with the shoulders thrown back, the chest out, and the stomach in. The body should not be held stiffly or else the throat muscles are likely to become rigid also; but we should stand naturally, and firmly, not as if we were about to tumble over or to jump, but as if we were ready to speak quietly to our friends—which is just what we are to do.

2. Proper Breathing.—We should breathe slowly, regularly, and deeply, from the abdomen rather than from the top of the lungs. If we breathe too fast or too irregularly, we shall speak in a rapid, jerky way, and find it very difficult to make ourselves understood.

3. Proper Use of the Muscles of the Throat and Mouth.—We must be careful not to cramp the muscles of the throat, but to let them move easily. We can thus produce a loud clear tone without tiring ourselves unduly. If the head does not hang down, if the mouth is opened wide, and the throat muscles are allowed to work freely, without rigidity, the voice will be clear and distinct.

4. Proper Pitch.—We must be sure (particularly the girls) not to pitch the voice too high, as if it were a siren whistle or a fife. A clear, rather low-pitched voice is the most pleasant to hear. We must be careful, too, not to talk (as so many of us do) through our noses. A nasal voice is almost always a disagreeable voice.

5. Clear Articulation.—So much for the voice in general; now, last of all, we must be careful to pronounce clearly, to articulate distinctly, that is, to give each syllable its proper value. Of course we do not ordinarily like to listen to a very prim and precise speaker, who pronounces every syllable with equal distinctness, uttering sharply, for instance, the d in such an unimportant word as and. It is the custom of our language to distinguish between the accented syllables, which we pronounce distinctly, and the unaccented syllables, over which we pass lightly. But, on the other hand, we do not like to listen to the slovenly speaker, who drops entirely the d in and and the g in ing, and who sounds all his vowels very much alike. In this matter of articulation, you will do well to take some older person, a good speaker or reader, as a model, and to imitate him or her. Practice reading aloud to your friends, standing sometimes at the very end of the room, or at the end of a suite of rooms, as far as possible from your hearers, asking any one of them to interrupt you the moment that anything you say is not distinctly heard.

39. Pronunciation.—As to pronunciation, you must remember that often custom is not uniform. There are sometimes two or even more ways of pronouncing a word, both or all of which are given in the dictionaries; and occasionally there is a thoroughly proper way of pronouncing a word which the men who make the dictionaries have unfortunately omitted, but which is used by many educated and cultivated people. In general, you should use the pronunciation of the most intelligent and respected people you know, and in particular that of your teacher and your school. It is quite proper and desirable that every school or teacher should establish its own custom for words which are usually pronounced in one of several ways, and the pupil should do his best to conform, for the convenience of all, to the custom of the class or the school in this respect.

40. A Plan Necessary.—There is no other important difference which you need now consider between oral composition and written composition. In both it is better, before you begin, to think carefully over what you have to say. In oral composition, as in written, it is wise to make a plan, and you can make it in precisely the same way.

Note for the Teacher.—It does not seem necessary to insert special exercises in oral composition. Almost any of the exercises from the following chapters may be used with advantage.