CHAPTER IV

THE PLAN OF AN ORATION

AVING considered the nature and kinds of oratory

and the main rhetorical divisions into which an oration is separated, let us now give attention to the subject of The Plan.

What the plan is needs little explanation. The name itself defines it. It is simply the framework on which the production is built. Its purpose is to insure clearness, unity, comprehensiveness, order, symmetry, logical coherence, progress, and climax to the whole work,— in a word, it covers the work of “invention," so far as invention has to do with the selection and arrangement of material. It includes the logic of discourse, and is as essential in making the speech effective in accomplishing its chosen end as is the language in which the speech is pronounced.

I-NECESSITY OF A PLAN

It would seem as if the importance of the plan would be sufficiently apparent to obviate the necessity of emphasizing its value; yet, as a matter of fact, the inexperienced writer and speaker seems to have an inborn aversion to working from a skeleton. Students almost invariably

question at first its advantages and yield reluctantly to its demands. "Why restrict," they ask, "the free operation of the mind? Why shackle the feet of genius or clip its wings?" Adherence to a rigid plan, they claim, hinders invention, robs composition of ease and grace, if not, indeed, of power, and makes the entire work stiff and mechanical.

Although these sentiments are based on mistaken notions, such objections are so prevalent that it is worth while to consider, briefly, some of the reasons for insisting on a carefully wrought-out plan.

The objection to working from a plan, so far as it has any validity, is a confession on the part of the speaker of a lack of skill in making and using a plan, not an objection to the plan itself. If it makes the speech seem mechanical, it is because the speaker is not yet a good mechanic. It is not any proof that a tool is not a good tool because it cuts the workman's fingers. It may be an indication that the workman has not learned how to handle the tool. It may mean, simply, that he needs more practice. Ease and grace of style, when writing or speaking to a plan, are largely a matter of skillful transition and of command of one's materials.

For the orator to speak without a plan and expect the highest success is as irrational as it would be for the architect to build a cathedral without a plan.

1. In the first place, a carefully wrought-out skeleton is a great help both to the speaker and to the hearer. It aids the speaker in perspicuity of thought and of dis

cussion. Clear mental action of necessity involves orderly mental action. The writer or speaker clarifies his own. mind on a subject by putting an outline of his thinking and reading on that subject in definite, exact, logical, and climacteric form- his own thoughts are more lucid for the exercise.

2. Secondly, such analysis is an aid to composition. By giving a concreteness to the treatment, it suggests lines of reasoning and illustration that would altogether elude the mind without such device. When the outline is well worked out, the orator can devote all his energies to the work of composition.

3. Still further, a good plan is a help to the memory. It answers the purpose of a system of mnemonics, one division suggesting another as its supplement or correlative, as the case may be, and each part serving to remind the speaker of the subordinate topics that are marshaled under its leadership.

4. Once more, a thorough analysis also promotes comprehensiveness of treatment. Instead of hindering, it By the classification of

helps the work of invention. materials demanded by his plan, the degree of the completeness of his discussion is revealed to the maker of a speech at a glance. Is an argument defective? A good outline will reveal the fact. Is an illustration needed to enforce or vivify the thought? A well-made plan will show the need of illumination. Is some point of the discussion left unguarded? The plan will indicate the fact and point out the place that demands further forti

fication. Is an appeal made to wrong motives? Or is it not legitimately drawn from the discussion that precedes? The plan will call attention to the fallacy and direct to the right path. Whatever be the defect in the discussion, a well ordered plan will reveal the deficiency and suggest measures for remedying it.

5. Another reason for insisting on a careful plan is that it promotes unity. As the proposition insures a center of thought, so the plan promotes a development on the basis of that center. He must, indeed, be a wild thinker who can deliberately make a plan wander incoherently over the surface of a subject, until his production is a mere crazy quilt of logic, beginning somewhere. in the region of the nowhere and ending at the same place. To classify materials in the plan is to unify those materials in the discussion.

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6. Again, a well ordered plan is a promoter of progress. It aids the speaker in getting on in his work. At every step he feels, and his hearers are made to feel, that he is advancing by a chosen route. He is not, as someone has well said, perpetually “ marching round the periphery of a treadwheel; not a top, spinning on its own axis but never advancing." He can realize at every division of his plan that so much is done: he has finished that, he is ready to consider this; he is so far along toward his goal.

7. The last advantage of a good plan that needs here to be mentioned is that it promotes permanence of impression. If it is a help to the memory of the orator in pronouncing his speech, it is no less a help to the memory