Wednesday, February 8, 2017

Speech Analysis

Strategies to become a more persuasive and engaging speaker


  • Alliteration
    • repeating a phrase or group of words
    • adds lyricism to your language
    • makes your phrases more vivid and easier for audience to grasp
  • Amplification
    • arrange words or ideas in order of increasing force or importance
    • oftens uses a list, or repeating key terms while building to a climax
    • creates an emotional response in the audience
  • Analogy
    • compares 2 things using "like" or "as"
    • provides a simple explanation for a more complicated idea
    • delivers a vivid image to fully capture audience's imagination
    • a well-timed analogy adds depth to your speech as it helps audience understand your central points
  • Anamnesis
    • recollection of the past
    • can be used effectively to emphasize commonalities between speaker and audience
    • demonstrates a speaker's mastery of a subject
    • forms a part of a larger appeal to ethos, or the character and authority of the speaker
    • Example:
  • Anaphora
    • same word or phrase begins sentences or clauses that appear close to one another
    • adds emphasis to the repeated idea
    • creates a pleasing rhythmic effect
    • often used at beginnings and endings of speeches, making the speech more powerful and memorable
    • Example:
  • Antithesis
    • occurs when two ideas are placed in opposition to one another
    • uses a parallel structure to create contrast
    • Since ideas are easier to grasp when we understand their opposites, antithesis is a useful rhetorical device to convey arguments so they are approachable and easy to remember
    • Example:
  • Appeal to Ethos
    • What: an appeal to the speaker's authority and trustworthiness (ethos means character)
    • How: ethos can be established prior to a speech by a speaker's reputation, or established by demonstrating knowledge about a subject
    • Why: earns audience's trust and respect, and therefore results in an effective speech
    • Example:
  • Appeal to Pathos
    • an appeal to audience's emotion and imagination (pathos means experience or suffering)
    • aim is to help audience understand and share in the speaker's own viewpoint
    • works best when the speaker emphasize a shared value between speaker and audience and when paired with logical argument
  • Asyndeton
    • what: intentionally omit a conjunction e.g. "and" from a list, while maintaining the usual grammatical form of the sentence
    • results in the sentence that feels more immediate and dramatic
    • powerful tool to add emphasis at crucial points of a speech
  • Humor
    • keeps audience engage, appear more personable, make an unpopular idea acceptable
    • used inappropriately or too frequently -- is damaging to a speech
    • used sparingly and at right moments-- makes speeches significantly more memorable
    • Example:
  • Inclusive language
    • examples: "we", "our"
    • develop good rapport with audience 
    • shows speaker identifies with audience and has their interests in mind, making speaker appear more trustworthy to them
  • Metaphor
    • using a word or phrase to something to which it does not literally apply
    • can create strong emotional response in audience; or make a difficult idea or argument easier to grasp
  • Parallelism
    • occurs when the speaker uses a similar grammatical structure within a sentence or across multiple sentences (repeating a central element)
    • adds clarity to a speech, makes it easier for audience to grasp a central idea
    • can also add rhythm to a speech, making it more powerful and memorable
    • Example:
  • Repetition
    • important because audience can't pause or return to what you have said
    • state your ideas clearly and return to them often
    • can also be used to highlight specific words and ideas in particular parts of your speech
    • add rhythm to your language as it emphasizes a single idea
  • Rule of Three
    • common and powerful device
    • easy for an audience to grasp and remember items that appear in groups of three, often to dramatic effect
    • use RoT to make sure you focus on your most important points, and to avoid overwhelming the audience with superfluous information
    • Example:

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