The book continues to be informed by classical and contemporary theories of rhetoric but does not present theory for its own sake. Keeping a steady eye on the practical skills of public speaking, it offers full coverage of all major aspects of speech preparation and presentation. Throughout "The Art of Public Speaking" I have followed David Hume's advice that one 'who would teach eleoquence must do it chiefly by examples.' Whenever possible, I have tried to show the principles of public speaking in action in addition to telling about them. Thus you will find in the book a large number of narratives and extracts from speeches - set off from the text in a contrasting typeface. There are also many speech outlines and sample speeches. All these are provided so students can see how to formulate specific purpose statements, how to analyze and adapt to audiences, how to organize ideas and construct outlines, how to assess evidence and reasoning, how to use language effectively, and so forth.
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