Tuesday, January 28, 2014

A speech is not the same as an essay




















James A. Winans (1872 - 1956) said that:

“A speech is not merely an essay standing on its hind legs.”

Hamilton College has a web page about Spoken vs. Written Language that briefly discusses how oral language differs from written language. It has that quote, minus the word merely. The version with merely comes from page 17 of a 1931 book, A First Course in Public Speaking by James Albert Winans  and Hoyt Hopewell Hudson.

There’s a shorter version attributed to William Norwood Brigance:

“A speech is not an essay on its hind legs.”

mentioned by Stephen Boyd in a web page titled May I Quote You.

























A page from an essay needs pleats before it can stand up. 

The image of a Kodiak Bear came from Wikimedia Commons.

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