Command of Language.  What was lacking in their case?  Certainly, to be charitable, we cannot say they lacked a clear understanding of their own topic.  It must have been something else.  That second element, which is at times almost entirely absent when the first is present, is the command of language.  Many a man knows a great deal but is incapable of transmitting his knowledge.  He lacks the gift of expression.  He has not cultivated it—­for it can be cultivated.  The man whose desire or vocation forces him to make the effort to speak will train himself in methods of communication, until he arrives at comfort and fluency.

The district manager of a large electric company related that as he would sit at a meeting of the directors or committee of a large corporation and realized that the moment was approaching when he would be called upon to speak he would feel his senses grow confused, a sinking feeling amounting almost to faintness would sweep over him.  Strong in his determination to do the best he could for his company he would steady his nerves by saying to himself, “You know more about this matter than any of these men.  That’s why you are here.  Tell them what you know so plainly that they will understand as well as you do.”  There was, you see, the reassurance of complete understanding of the subject coupled with the endeavor to express it clearly.  These two elements, then, are of supreme significance to the public speaker.  Even to the person who desires to write well, they are all-important.  To the speaker they are omnipresent.  The effect of these two upon the intellectual development is marked.  The desire for clear understanding will keep the mind stored with material to assimilate and communicate.  It will induce the mind continually to manipulate this material to secure clarity in presentation.  This will result in developing a mental adroitness of inestimable value to the speaker, enabling him to seize the best method instantaneously and apply it to his purposes.  At the same time, keeping always in view the use of this material as the basis of communicating information or convincing by making explanations, he will be solicitous about his language.  Words will take on new values.  He will be continually searching for new ones to express the exact differences of ideas he wants to convey.  He will try different expressions, various phrases, changed word orders, to test their efficacy and appropriateness in transferring his meaning to his hearers.  Suggestions offered in the chapter of this book on words and sentences will never cease to operate in his thinking and speaking.  There will be a direct result in his ability as a speaker and a reflex result upon his ability as a thinker.  What is more encouraging, he will realize and appreciate these results himself, and his satisfaction in doing better work will be doubled by the delight in knowing exactly how he secured the ends for which he strove.

Methods of Explaining.  In order to make a matter clear, to convey information, a speaker has at his disposal many helpful ways of arranging his material.  Not all topics can be treated in all or even any certain one of the following manners, but if the student is familiar with certain processes he will the more easily and surely choose just that one suited to the topic he intends to explain and the circumstances of his exposition.