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2 See Easley S. Jones, op. cit., p. 197. not think of the speaker's rhetoric as being good, or of his having good prose rhythm, but they would tend to comment on his having such an interesting and lively personality! While this proper rhetorical discrimination of ideas is very important, it is unfortunately no short cut. It requires considerable and continuous mental effort and self-discipline. A mere resolve is not enough. Fortunately there is another technique for giving life and personality to conversation, also necessary, but somewhat easier to acquire. It is the technique of being as specific as the circumstances warrant, of using a word which can best call up a definite picture. A really good talker will never say bird when he can say bobolink; house, when he can say bungalow; many when he can say fifty-nine; tall when he can say six feet, two. It isn't worms which catch the fish but a worm. The quickest and surest way to reasonably interesting speech is to replace the vague with the definite, the general with the specific, whenever possible. Edgar, in Shakespeare's King Lear does not merely tell his blind father that the beach is far below, he specifies items which indicate the drop. He says the croius (not vaguely birds but specifically crows) that wing the midway air look like beetles (not merely like insects but like beetles), and "The fishermen that walk upon the beach appear like mice." |
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