McGraw-Hill Public Speaking

Speaking to an audience




Adding stylistic devices

Style is the specific way we use language to communicate powerfully and effectively with an audience. Style has been recognized as a vital part of public speaking since ancient Greek and Roman times. As you might imagine, this topic is as complicated and extensive as language itself. However, beginning speakers can immediately improve the effectiveness of their language by following a few, basic guidelines.

Be Clear

Speakers will sometimes try to baffle their audiences with difficult vocabulary words, complex sentences, or jargon. This misplaced effort to appear sophisticated will almost always backfire. The purpose of giving a speech is to communicate clearly. Use language designed to accomplish this purpose. Whenever possible, use simple terms instead of complicated ones. Convey your thoughts in sentences that are straightforward and easy to understand. Avoid specialized language, called jargon, unless the audience expects it.

Adapt to Your Audience

Not only should speakers adapt the content of their messages to different kinds of audiences, they should also carefully adapt the specific language they use. The basic concept of a nuclear power plant could be explained effectively to an elementary school class, as well as a college-level class, but the language used for each group would obviously be different. Remember, the goal of public speaking is to get ideas across to an audience, not to impress listeners with your expertise or vocabulary.

Use Interesting Language

There are a number of ways to hold your audience's attention through the use of interesting or moving language. Students often assume that poetic, figurative language is vague or unclear. In fact, quite the opposite is true, provided that speakers use stylistic devices properly. Here are a few techniques you can use to make your language more eloquent:
  1. Try using metaphors or similes. A metaphor is a stylistic device that assigns the characteristics of one thing to another. For example, when Martin Luther King described Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation as "a great beacon light of hope for millions of Negro slaves," he was saying that the Emancipation Proclamation had the attributes of a shining beacon light. Similes are akin to metaphors, except they use the terms "like" or "as" to make the comparison. If King had said the Emancipation Proclamation was "like a great beacon light of hope," he would have been using a simile.

  2. Try using vivid description. Abstract language is usually boring for an audience. Instead, appeal to your listeners' senses by using concrete, descriptive language. In a famous nineteenth-century murder case, Daniel Webster recreated the murder scene in the minds of the jurors: "The room is uncommonly open to the admission of light. The face of the innocent sleeper is turned from the murderer, and the beams of the moon, resting on the gray locks of his aged temple, show him where to strike. The fatal blow is given!"

  3. Try using repetition. A number of effective stylistic techniques are based on the repetition of key words or phrases. Repetition focuses the attention of your audience, quickens the pace of your words, and creates an insistent rhythm. Consider this famous example uttered by Winston Churchill during World War Two: "We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing-grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills."


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