CHAPTER II ORAL REPORT OF A PRINTED ARTICLE Language is but the instrument conveying to us things useful to be known. - MILTON. HITHERTO the class has been asked to write or speak only on subjects already familiar. So reading of books or periodicals in search of something to say has been expected or permitted. An examination of the contents of one's own mind, by the method of inventory, division, and outline, has been the only preparation for composition. Besides class exercises, each student has written at least twice and spoken once on subjects based on his own experience. By the criticism and correction of errors in oral and written compositions certain elementary faults have been eliminated. By the practice in analysis afforded in each student's own work and in the class discussions, some sense of unity, coherence, and emphasis in the structure of short expositions has been developed. Exposition of material studied for the purpose. - The next assignment in simple exposition will undertake precisely what was prohibited in the first and second, namely, a report or summary of facts or opinions gained from an outside source. This task is an exercise, not in investigating and arranging the contents of one's own mind, but in grasping and reproducing clearly the essentials of another's thought. In Chapter II the problem was simply to place A's thought in B's mind. In this chapter A's problem is to grasp C's thought and interpret it to B. One point should be insisted on in this connection. At this stage in the freshman's study of exposition it is best for him to make oral report of written material, and written report of oral material. The reason for this is that a written report of a single piece of written material is likely to be a mere inferior paraphrase with no valuable training in expression, and that an oral report of oral material is sure to be too brief and superficial. For the oral exposition the students should be asked to choose encyclopedia or recent magazine articles on such subjects as those in the following list. Specific articles may be named in a posted list, or free choice may be encouraged among the current periodicals in the library. No narrative or argumentative subjects are to be selected. The object should be to choose nothing that is not worth while for its own sake. The student who studies and reports, and the class which listens, should gain much useful information through the exercises in oral exposition. This benefit will be much increased if the class is required to keep brief notes of the oral expositions, according to the methods explained in the next chapter. SUBJECTS FOR ORAL EXPOSITION BASED ON READING 1. Causes of Accidents in Aviation. 2. Sanitation of the Panama Canal Zone. 3. Old Age Pensions in England. 4. The Cause of Yellow Fever. 5. Our Indian Reservations. 6. Long Distance Records in Wireless Telegraphy. 7. Recent Discoveries in Crete. 8. The Mormon Propaganda. 9. Smoke Prevention. 10. The Adulteration of Woolen Goods. 11. Provisions for Safety at Sea. 12. What is the Hague Tribunal ? 13. The Increase in Urban Population. 14. Treatment of Tuberculosis. 15. Recent Progress of Woman Suffrage. 18. The Nile Dam. 19. The Wheat Supply of the World. 20. The United States Weather Bureau. 21. The Work of a Trained Nurse. 22. Outdoor Schools. 23. The American Library Association. 24. The National Educational Association. 25. Pneumonia. 26. Game Laws of the State. 27. What is Home Economics? 28. Organization of the United States Army. 29. What is Syndicalism? 30. Long Distance Transmission of Electrical Power. 32. German Universities. 33. The Rhodes Scholarships at Oxford. 34. Coöperative Stores in England. 35. Garden Cities in England. 36. Present Conditions in the Philippine Islands. 37. Industrial Education for the Negro. 38. Floods as a Result of Deforestation. 39. The Montessori Method of Primary Education. 41. American Lighthouses and Lightships. 42. The Life Saving Service. 43. The United States Marine Corps. 44. The Reclamation Service. 45. The Fly as a Carrier of Disease. 46. Japanese Rule in Korea. 47. The New Capital of Australia. Selection of an article. The On none of these subjects has the ordinary freshman enough information already in hand for a five-minute talk. To make an inventory of the contents of his mind would be useless; the facts are not there. If he has ever read them or heard of them, they have been forgotten. need arises at this point for general reference books. Inasmuch as the purpose of this assignment is not to weigh and compare sources, but to reproduce effectively a single source, not much time should be spent in the library hesitating among several possible subjects or books. In most cases an article of several pages in the Encyclopedia Britannica, the Encyclopedia Americana, the New International Encyclopedia, or a recent magazine will suffice. The magazine article is to be preferred, if one can be readily found, because of the more interesting treatment and the greater use of illustrative examples. For magazines the pupil should consult first the current numbers (paper cover) of The Readers' Guide to Periodical Literature, containing a cumulative alphabetical list of magazine articles for the current year. If nothing suitable is found, the bound volume for the preceding year may be examined. The table of abbreviations in the front of the volume gives the full title of the magazine desired. The student then obtains the required number from the magazine stand or the bound volume from the shelves. Further instructions in regard to the use of periodicals will be given when the general subject of library research is taken up. Making notes for oral exposition. With an encyclopedia or magazine article of several printed pages before him, the student confronts first of all the task of mastering the essential points most thoroughly and most quickly. It is a mistake to suppose that time spent in dawdling over a book, with one's mind in a muddle and one's eye on the clock, is study. More will be said later on proper methods of study (Chapter V). At present the first step is to read the article through once rather rapidly in order to determine the writer's division of his subject, and to note the phrasing of his principal points or keysentences. The next step is to write the several principal points at the top of separate sheets of the notebook, or separate cards. What is the relative importance of these four or five or more points? The space and position accorded them by the writer will usually answer this question. Subheads, heavy-faced or fine type, may give a further clew. Since the student is preparing to talk five minutes on a large subject, he must leave out all but the essentials. In a 5000-word article on smoke prevention, for example, may be treated the following topics: Injurious effects of city smoke on human health, textile fabrics, vegetation, light-colored buildings. Esthetic objections. Causes of excessive smoke, such as the use of low-grade fuels, improperly designed furnaces, chimneys of insufficient height or capacity, improper stoking, indifference of manufacturers. Attempts made to control the evil by legislation, ineffectual on account of incompetent inspection and lax prosecution. Experiments made in research laboratories in the smokeless combustion of low-grade bituminous fuels. Practicable remedies, such as photographic and stop-watch evidence gathered by inspectors to aid prosecution of offenders, instruction of engineers and firemen in proper methods of firing, stimulation of public spirit and rivalry among manufacturers by newspaper publicity; most of all, arousing the public to the extent of this preventable damage. The problem of selection. All these points are interesting, but not all can be made interesting to an audience if hurriedly enumerated in a five-minute talk. There must be selection. After his first rapid reading the student writes at the top of his first card or page, "City smoke does vast damage." He does not stop now to fill in that card, but heads another, "The causes of dense smoke are largely preventable." The third is entitled "Legal penalties have been inadequate to abate the nuisance." The fourth division is that "Research has proved that the softest coal can be burned with little smoke." fifth card bears the heading "What more can be done?" It is now for the reader to decide what he will omit. Shall it be the first division, inasmuch as damage wrought by smoke is not strictly a part of the subject, "Smoke Prevention," though introductory to it? No, because that division provides the motive for popular interest in the subject. Shall the causes be omitted or slighted? Is the failure of legal prosecution as a remedy important for our purpose? Do the detailed figures of The |