Business English: A Practice Book by Rose Buhlig

=Exercise 147--Successful Men and Women= How can one measure the success of men or women? Is it by the money they make? the land they acquire? the fame they win? the good they do? By what means have they won success? Was it through favorable circumstances? strength of character? favoritism? physical strength? mental energy? daring? doing what they thought was right in spite of opposition? or simply doing nothing and waiting for success to come? Study the life and character of one or more of the following. Have they gained what you consider success? What qualities of character do you recognize in them? Would you care to be like any of them? Make a list of the habits that you recognize in their life and in the way they worked. Make a list of the characteristics of the ones that you study. Florence Nightingale Frances Willard Bismarck David Maydole Ella Flagg Young Gladstone R. L. Stevenson Helen Gould Shepard Marshall Field Booker T. Washington Jane Addams Carnegie Captain Scott Napoleon J. Pierpont Morgan Mary Antin Franklin Edison Daniel Boone Lincoln Roosevelt Mary Lyon Nathan Hale Goethals =Exercise 148--Debating= A very great asset in business is the ability to see the truth or the falsity of a statement, and to advance proofs for or against it. This ability we shall try to acquire through the practice of debating; that is, through the making of speeches in which students take opposite sides of the same subject, trying by the presentation of facts and illustrations to prove that the side which they represent is the correct one. The statement that is thus argued is called a _proposition_. Debating is excellent practice because it teaches not only clear-cut reasoning, but also forceful expression. If a debater fails to make any of his several arguments convincing, if he introduces irrelevant matter, or, though he has prepared strong proofs, if he expresses them in incorrect English, the result will be poor. In working out a debate, therefore, observe the following carefully: