The most common and most likely answer to this crossword clue is the 3 plus 3 plus 5 plus 3 letter word HOW NOW BROWN COW
I've seen this crossword clue in Financial Times
H
O
W
N
O
W
B
R
O
W
N
C
O
W
Buddy explains!
The straight part
We know that "an exercise in elocution" is the straight/definition part of the clue. The straight part is often a synonym or definition, in this case an exercise in elocution = how now brown cow.The cryptic/wordplay part
In cryptic crossword there's often an wordplay/cryptic part as well.This part involves a more complex hint, such as an anagram, homophone, hidden word, etc.
Sadly, We don't have an explanation for this specific crossword clue yet.