You should also speak in the fashion
you deem most effective with them, whether or not it be one to which your
own natural instincts prompt you.
Let us say you are discussing conditions in Europe. You must speak in one
way to the man who has traveled and in an entirely different way to the
man who has never gone abroad--in one way to the well-read man, in an
entirely different way to the ignoramus. Let us say you are discussing
urban life, urban problems. You must speak in one way to the man who lives
in the city, in another to the man who lives in the country. Let us say
you are discussing the labor problem. You must speak in one way to
employers, in another to employees, possibly in a third to men thrown out
of jobs, possibly in a fourth to the general public. Let us say you are
discussing education, or literature, or social tendencies, or mechanical
principles or processes, or some great enterprise or movement. You must
speak in one way to cultivated hearers and in another to men in the
street, and if you are a specialist addressing specialists, you will cut
the garment of your discourse to their particular measure.
The same principle holds regardless of whether you expound, analyze,
argue, recount, or describe.
Pages:
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87