You must understand that there are no steel-riveted rules of emphasis. It is not

always possible to designate which word must, and which must not be emphasized.

One speaker will put one interpretation on a speech, another speaker will use

different emphasis to bring out a different interpretation. No one can say that

one interpretation is right and the other wrong. This principle must be borne in

mind in all our marked exercises. Here your own intelligence must guide--and

greatly to your profit.

 

QUESTIONS AND EXERCISES.

 

1. What is emphasis?

 

2. Describe one method of destroying monotony of thought-presentation.

 

3. What relation does this have to the use of the voice?

 

4. Which words should be emphasized, which subordinated, in a sentence?

 

5. Read the selections on pages 50, 51, 52, 53 and 54, devoting special

attention to emphasizing the important words or phrases and subordinating the

unimportant ones. Read again, changing emphasis slightly. What is the effect?

 

6. Read some sentence repeatedly, emphasizing a different word each time, and

show how the meaning is changed, as is done on page 22.