RECEIVED Give Attention to Reading I N HIS LATE YEARS Charles Laughton captured audiences ljith his reading. On the evening of his pcrformancc people jammed th, hall. At curtain time he strollcd onto the stage with n stack of bookr, seated himself on a high stool, and just read. The a~~dirnce hung on his words, enthralled. Charles Laughton knen hon to rcad. I-le followed the rules of oral interpretation faultlessl! . Behind everv skill are rules which the lilaster of his craft foll~,\~ Oral interpretation also has rules. Thc rilles are surprisingly fen., and reading according to the rules can iml~rove an). man's oral inter- pretation. This article hopes to help you in1pro1.e your reading of the Scriptures. Lionel Crocker once said that a person can ignore tht rules for oral interpretation only if he is naturally good. But fen. pea- ple are. AIost of us hale to know what the rules arc; n.e must iiiastcl them and then spend the rest of our lives practicing. The first thing a readcr ought to do is to understand the passage For example, Psalm 90 has a somber mood because it was written in the ~vilderness when God's people were both digging fresh graves and covering olcl ones, clay after day. It is always very hclpful to know the context of a given selection. Then, too, a person must convey the emotions behind the ~ords of a speaker in a gi\?en passage. Our voice has to tell not oi11y what the person said, but IIIUS~ also reveal his emotional state as he said it. If you think that I am saying that vou must play as man) roles as there are speakers, you are correct. Having mastered the mood or moods of a selection, the oral in- terpreter has to read the passage so that it sounds like ad libbing. To do that a person must know the rules for emphasis and for pausins. Isn't it remarkable that in ordinar). conversation n7c generally follo\i the rules, but when we read we often do not? ThC following are rule5 for emphasis ant1 for pausing. I. Somc rules for emphasis 1. Generally, stress is indicated by increasing the volume and raising one's pitch. \\'hen you wish to give emphasis to a \vholt. passage, change your tempo. If the action is exciting, increase you1 rate. To indicate pathos or deep feeling, speak more slo~~rl~, 2nd at times, more quietly. 2. Stress the word or words which carry the thought. Don't tr! to stress too many words; avoid the kind of patterned stress of tllc local newscaster; avoid the habit of stressing all verbs. 3. Emphasize the new idea or the contrast but subdue all ol(i idea. Try this rule on Proverbs 4: '7: "\\'isdom is the pincipal thine: