224 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



printed report also demands care, but the opportunity for revision is 

 here of longer duration, extending even to the correction of the paged 

 proof. Finally, the diagrams, pictures and maps appropriate for a 

 printed essay may be minutely accurate ; but such accuracy is generally 

 unnecessary, if not indeed undesirable, in the illustrations that accom- 

 pany a spoken report. 



In view of these contrasts, it is evidently desirable that an investi- 

 gator should consider the use that he proposes to make of a report 

 while he is preparing it; just as he must consider the intellectual 

 standing of the audience or of the readers to whom it is addressed. Prac- 

 tice in the preparation of reports of different grades is therefore an 

 important part of the training of any student who wishes, in his maturer 

 years, to do his share in guiding the thought of the part of the world 

 that is interested in the subject which he cultivates. He should have 

 actual experience in the delivery of both short and long oral reports, 

 sometimes in elementary form for the easy edification of young hearers, 

 sometimes in advanced technical form for keen criticism by older hear- 

 ers ; also in the writing of short and long reports of elementary and of 

 advanced style. Conscious effort and repeated opportunity are neces- 

 sary for safe and rapid progress. 



Five Styles of Presentation. — Eeports, whether spoken or printed, 

 differ also in the method of presentation that they follow. The more 

 commonly employed methods may be named the narrative, the induct- 

 ive, the analytic, the systematic and the regional methods, each of 

 which may be advantageously employed in certain cases. The narrative 

 method is suitable in rendering preliminary account of journeys in new 

 fields, rather than final account of elaborate investigations ; the induct- 

 ive method is serviceable in reporting investigations of a relatively 

 simple character, in which abundant facts lead to an undisputed result; 

 the analytical method serves for more elaborate investigations, in which 

 several rival hypotheses have to be tested and a safe explanation dis- 

 covered and demonstrated; the systematic, when the related results of 

 many studies are to be compared, classed and arranged; and the 

 regional, for the climax of geographical work, when a specified district 

 is to be described. These various methods may of course be modified 

 or combined to suit individual needs, and various other methods may be 

 invented; but we can here give further attention only to the five 

 announced, with particular reference to their use in oral reports. What 

 has been said above as to the contrast between oral and written presen- 

 tation may suffice for the present to indicate the manner in which a 

 report that is to be printed and read must differ from one that is to be 

 spoken and heard. 



The Narrative Method. — The presentation of events, observations 

 and reflections in a chronological order is the essential feature of the 

 narrative method. A diary kept during the progress of an excursion, 



