Business English Part 53

(_c_) Affords them pleasure.

(1) Outdoor and indoor games.

(2) Bathing at beaches connected with gymnasiums.

One more suggestion is in place here. In writing an outline, be careful that you express similar subdivisions of a topic by similar grammatical elements. For example, in the first outline above, (_a_) under I is a phrase; (_b_) under I should be a similar phrase. It would be incorrectly worded _Winter_ or _What the winter problem is_. What is the advantage of such similarity?

Using the divisions you made for one of the subjects under Exercise 155, develop an outline for a theme.

=Exercise 157=

Choose one of the following subjects; restrict it or expand it, if necessary; select a proper t.i.tle; write an outline; and then write or deliver your composition, following your outline closely. Notice that the shorter your t.i.tle the more it includes, and therefore the longer your composition must be to deal adequately with the subject.

1. Giving talks before a cla.s.s develops self-reliance.

2. Most inventors would not have succeeded without perseverance.

3. The more training a man has, the better chance he has to succeed.

4. Most rich men learned to save early.

5. The value of courtesy in a retail business.

6. The dangers of football.

7. The various methods of heating a house.

8. The sporting page often sells the newspaper.

9. Educational features of the modern newspaper.

10. Our national game.

11. Baseball is a better game than football.

12. The use of machinery has lowered the cost of manufactured articles.

13. How to prevent taking colds.

14. Athletic contests develop courage.

15. Qualities essential to good salesmanship.

16. Our debate with ----.

17. The qualities of a good street car advertis.e.m.e.nt.

18. A good cartoon.

19. Learning to swim.

20. The trials of washing day.

21. Birds as money savers.

22. Birds as destroyers.

23. Open air as a cure for tuberculosis.

24. Making a raft.

25. Every one should open a savings account.

26. Laziness.

27. Tennis is better than baseball.

28. Our respiratory system.

29. The bad effects of ridicule.

30. The good effects of ridicule.

=Exercise 158=

Recall one of the books that you have read recently. Name two subjects that it suggests to you and that you can talk about. Write a careful outline for each of them, and be prepared to speak on one.

=Exercise 159=

Name a subject taken from one of your studies, history for example. Let it be definite enough so that you can tell all the details that you know about it in a speech lasting two or three minutes. Use examples and ill.u.s.trations to make the subject interesting and clear. Prepare an outline.

=Exercise 160=

Reproduce an article that you have read in a current magazine. Be careful that you make the material your own before attempting to retell it. Do not under any circ.u.mstances try to memorize the article.

Understand fully what it says, make an outline of the facts that you wish to reproduce, and then give them as if they were your own ideas. At the beginning of your speech tell the name and date of the magazine from which you are taking the facts.

=Exercise 161=

As has been said, most of us get our ideas of what is taking place in the world from the articles that we read in current newspapers and magazines. We cannot always form our opinion from what one newspaper on one day says of a particular event. We must read what it says on successive days and, if possible, consult other newspapers on the same subject, for it is well known that not all newspapers are non-partisan.

If one in the city is known to be so, that is the paper to read for the material for this exercise. Then, if we can read what one of the magazines says on the same subject, our knowledge will probably be more definite and more nearly true.

Let the cla.s.s be divided into different sections, representing different kinds of news; for example, national, local, foreign, and business news.

Under national news, you can perhaps find articles on national politics, legislative measures being discussed at Washington, rumors of war, immigration; under local news, anything pertaining to the city or the state in which you live; under foreign news, anything of interest to any of the other countries of the world; under business news, the prices of food products, strikes, panics, and their effect on business conditions.

These are but suggestions. Such topics change so rapidly that nothing more definite can here be given.