[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
[Footnote 16: Quoted in The Working Principles of Rhetoric, J.F. Genung.]
[Footnote 16A: Quoted in The Working Principles of Rhetoric, J.F. Genung.]
[Footnote 17: G.C.V. Holmes, quoted in Specimens of Exposition, H. Lamont.]
[Footnote 18: Effective Speaking, Arthur Edward Phillips. This work covers the preparation of public speech
in a very helpful way.]
"1_1_21">CHAPTER XX. INFLUENCING BY DESCRIPTION
The groves of Eden vanish'd now so long,
Live in description, and look green in song.
--ALEXANDER POPE, Windsor Forest.
The moment our discourse rises above the ground-line of familiar
facts, and is inflamed with passion or exalted thought, it
clothes itself in images. A man conversing in earnest, if he
watch his intellectual processes, will find that always a
material image, more or less luminous, arises in his mind,
contemporaneous with every thought, which furnishes the vestment
of the thought.... This imagery is spontaneous. It is the
blending of experience with the present action of the mind. It
is proper creation.
--RALPH WALDO EMERSON, Nature.
Like other valuable resources in public speaking, description loses its power when carried to an extreme.
Over-ornamentation makes the subject ridiculous. A dust-cloth is a very useful thing, but why embroider it?
Whether description shall be restrained within its proper and important limits, or be encouraged to run riot, is
the personal choice that comes before every speaker, for man's earliest literary tendency is to depict.
The Nature of Description
To describe is to call up a picture in the mind of the hearer. "In talking of description we naturally speak of
portraying, delineating, coloring, and all the devices of the picture painter. To describe is to visualize, hence
we must look at description as a pictorial process, whether the writer deals with material or with spiritual
objects."[19]
"1_1_21">CHAPTER XX. INFLUENCING BY DESCRIPTION 121
The Art of Public Speaking
If you were asked to describe the rapid-fire gun you might go about it in either of two ways: give a cold
technical account of its mechanism, in whole and in detail, or else describe it as a terrible engine of slaughter,
dwelling upon its effects rather than upon its structure.
The former of these processes is exposition, the latter is true description. Exposition deals more with the
general, while description must deal with the particular. Exposition elucidates ideas, description treats of
things. Exposition deals with the abstract, description with the concrete. Exposition is concerned with the
internal, description with the external. Exposition is enumerative, description literary. Exposition is
intellectual, description sensory. Exposition is impersonal, description personal.
If description is a visualizing process for the hearer, it is first of all such for the speaker--he cannot describe
what he has never seen, either physically or in fancy. It is this personal quality--this question of the personal
eye which sees the things later to be described--that makes description so interesting in public speech. Given
a speaker of personality, and we are interested in his personal view--his view adds to the natural interest of
the scene, and may even be the sole source of that interest to his auditors.
The seeing eye has been praised in an earlier chapter (on "Subject and Preparation") and the imagination will
be treated in a subsequent one (on "Riding the Winged Horse"), but here we must consider the picturing mind:
the mind that forms the double habit of seeing things clearly--for we see more with the mind than we do with
the physical eye--and then of re-imaging these things for the purpose of getting them before the minds' eyes
of the hearers. No habit is more useful than that of visualizing clearly the object, the scene, the situation, the
action, the person, about to be described. Unless that primary process is carried out clearly, the picture will be
blurred for the hearer-beholder.
In a work of this nature we are concerned with the rhetorical analysis of description, and with its methods,
only so far as may be needed for the practical purposes of the speaker.[20] The following grouping, therefore,
will not be regarded as complete, nor will it here be necessary to add more than a word of explanation:
Description for Public Speakers
Objects { Still
" " { In motion
Scenes { Still
" " { Including action
Situations { Preceding change
" " { During change
" " { After change
Actions { Mental
" " { Physical
Persons { Internal
" " { External
Some of the foregoing processes will overlap, in certain instances, and all are more likely to be found in
combination than singly.
When description is intended solely to give accurate information--as to delineate the appearance, not the
technical construction, of the latest Zeppelin airship--it is called "scientific description," and is akin to
"1_1_21">CHAPTER XX. INFLUENCING BY DESCRIPTION 122
The Art of Public Speaking
exposition. When it is intended to present a free picture for the purpose of making a vivid impression, it is
called "artistic description." With both of these the public speaker has to deal, but more frequently with the
latter form. Rhetoricians make still further distinctions.
Methods of Description
In public speaking, description should be mainly by suggestion, not only because suggestive description is so
much more compact and time-saving but because it is so vivid. Suggestive expressions connote more than
they literally say--they suggest ideas and pictures to the mind of the hearer which supplement the direct [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
zanotowane.pl doc.pisz.pl pdf.pisz.pl szamanka888.keep.pl
[Footnote 16: Quoted in The Working Principles of Rhetoric, J.F. Genung.]
[Footnote 16A: Quoted in The Working Principles of Rhetoric, J.F. Genung.]
[Footnote 17: G.C.V. Holmes, quoted in Specimens of Exposition, H. Lamont.]
[Footnote 18: Effective Speaking, Arthur Edward Phillips. This work covers the preparation of public speech
in a very helpful way.]
"1_1_21">CHAPTER XX. INFLUENCING BY DESCRIPTION
The groves of Eden vanish'd now so long,
Live in description, and look green in song.
--ALEXANDER POPE, Windsor Forest.
The moment our discourse rises above the ground-line of familiar
facts, and is inflamed with passion or exalted thought, it
clothes itself in images. A man conversing in earnest, if he
watch his intellectual processes, will find that always a
material image, more or less luminous, arises in his mind,
contemporaneous with every thought, which furnishes the vestment
of the thought.... This imagery is spontaneous. It is the
blending of experience with the present action of the mind. It
is proper creation.
--RALPH WALDO EMERSON, Nature.
Like other valuable resources in public speaking, description loses its power when carried to an extreme.
Over-ornamentation makes the subject ridiculous. A dust-cloth is a very useful thing, but why embroider it?
Whether description shall be restrained within its proper and important limits, or be encouraged to run riot, is
the personal choice that comes before every speaker, for man's earliest literary tendency is to depict.
The Nature of Description
To describe is to call up a picture in the mind of the hearer. "In talking of description we naturally speak of
portraying, delineating, coloring, and all the devices of the picture painter. To describe is to visualize, hence
we must look at description as a pictorial process, whether the writer deals with material or with spiritual
objects."[19]
"1_1_21">CHAPTER XX. INFLUENCING BY DESCRIPTION 121
The Art of Public Speaking
If you were asked to describe the rapid-fire gun you might go about it in either of two ways: give a cold
technical account of its mechanism, in whole and in detail, or else describe it as a terrible engine of slaughter,
dwelling upon its effects rather than upon its structure.
The former of these processes is exposition, the latter is true description. Exposition deals more with the
general, while description must deal with the particular. Exposition elucidates ideas, description treats of
things. Exposition deals with the abstract, description with the concrete. Exposition is concerned with the
internal, description with the external. Exposition is enumerative, description literary. Exposition is
intellectual, description sensory. Exposition is impersonal, description personal.
If description is a visualizing process for the hearer, it is first of all such for the speaker--he cannot describe
what he has never seen, either physically or in fancy. It is this personal quality--this question of the personal
eye which sees the things later to be described--that makes description so interesting in public speech. Given
a speaker of personality, and we are interested in his personal view--his view adds to the natural interest of
the scene, and may even be the sole source of that interest to his auditors.
The seeing eye has been praised in an earlier chapter (on "Subject and Preparation") and the imagination will
be treated in a subsequent one (on "Riding the Winged Horse"), but here we must consider the picturing mind:
the mind that forms the double habit of seeing things clearly--for we see more with the mind than we do with
the physical eye--and then of re-imaging these things for the purpose of getting them before the minds' eyes
of the hearers. No habit is more useful than that of visualizing clearly the object, the scene, the situation, the
action, the person, about to be described. Unless that primary process is carried out clearly, the picture will be
blurred for the hearer-beholder.
In a work of this nature we are concerned with the rhetorical analysis of description, and with its methods,
only so far as may be needed for the practical purposes of the speaker.[20] The following grouping, therefore,
will not be regarded as complete, nor will it here be necessary to add more than a word of explanation:
Description for Public Speakers
Objects { Still
" " { In motion
Scenes { Still
" " { Including action
Situations { Preceding change
" " { During change
" " { After change
Actions { Mental
" " { Physical
Persons { Internal
" " { External
Some of the foregoing processes will overlap, in certain instances, and all are more likely to be found in
combination than singly.
When description is intended solely to give accurate information--as to delineate the appearance, not the
technical construction, of the latest Zeppelin airship--it is called "scientific description," and is akin to
"1_1_21">CHAPTER XX. INFLUENCING BY DESCRIPTION 122
The Art of Public Speaking
exposition. When it is intended to present a free picture for the purpose of making a vivid impression, it is
called "artistic description." With both of these the public speaker has to deal, but more frequently with the
latter form. Rhetoricians make still further distinctions.
Methods of Description
In public speaking, description should be mainly by suggestion, not only because suggestive description is so
much more compact and time-saving but because it is so vivid. Suggestive expressions connote more than
they literally say--they suggest ideas and pictures to the mind of the hearer which supplement the direct [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]