Otis College of Art and Design, Liberal Arts and Sciences Department

Joan Takayama-Ogawa

Lend Me Your Ears: Rhetorical Devices

Tell ‘em what you’re going to tell’em, then tell’em, then tell’em what you told’em”  William Safire

Contrapuntal Turnaround: figure of speech, speech by figures, switching and using the antithesis.  Lincoln used the device “might make right” to the moral imperative, “right makes might.”  Phrasemakers contrapunt and pray hoping they have created a golden nugget, quotable quote, or sound bite.

Golden Nuggets: Sound bites, singers, aphorisms, epigrams, one-liners provided oral communication in context, human persuasion in action.

            “duty, honor, country” Douglas MacArthur

            “Give me liberty, or give me death!” Patrick Henry

            “blood, toil, tears, and sweat.” Winston Churchill

            “First in war, first in Peace” Henry Lee

            “Let no man write my epitaph” Robert Emmet, (Irish rebel)

Shapeliness, Structure, Organizing Principle: Forget about the pompous, “The well-crafted speech should begin with an introductory survey of the content to come and conclude with a summary of the main points.”  Instead it creates an imperative mood, the force of a command, the parallel structure that invites  rhythm in delivery.

Parallel Structure: A list with the same number of words, the same parts of speech.  Ie.“I came, I saw, and I conquered” Julius Caesar

Pulse: A good speech has a beat, a changing rhythm, a sense of movement that gets the audience, tapping its mind’s foot.

Anaphora: The repeated beginning.  And Jesus said, “Blessed are the poor in spirit… Blessed are the meek… Blessed are the peacemakers.”

Occasion: A dramatic moment in the life of a person, party, or a nation crying out for the uplift and release of a speech.  Someone is called upon to articulate the hope, pride, or grief of all.  The speaker is out there on the cusp, the world stops to look and listen.  ie. Lincoln’s poem at Gettysburg, Martin Luther King’s “I have a dream today”

Focus: A great speech need not start out great and stay great all the way through to a great finish.  It should first engage interest, hook the audience and allow a dip for the audience to get comfortable as the speaker works his/her way into the theme.  It should build toward its key moment well ahead of time. 

Purpose: A speech should be made for a good reason. No worthy speech was ever made to sound off, to feed the speaker’s ego, to flatter or intimidate the crowd.  Why not?”  Because a great speech is made for a high purpose- to inspire, to ennoble, to instruct, to rally, to lead.

Put in a little story rather than a quotation: ie. John Stuart Mill loved a woman for twenty years, but she was married; only when her husband died did the philosopher have the chance to marry the widow who had been his lifelong inspiration. She died before On Liberty was published.  The heartbroken philosopher dedicated it to the woman he had “waited for, loved and lost.”

Metaphor: ie.the iron curtain, the bamboo curtain

Alliteration: “Hillsboro, Heavenly Hillsboro, the Buckle on the Bible Belt.” Inherit the Wind.

Theme: What is the speech about.  Be able to answer this question.

Create a visual picture.

Delivery: The final step to eloquence requires, practice, discipline, and drill.  Think of yourself as a personal trainer.  Develop a self-confidence that puts at audience at ease, or sits them up.  Your eye is in contact with the people, not the page.  Your joy in your job is contagious.  “Passion is the pith of eloquence.”  Woodrow Wilson.

A sense of completion: Start with a quiet declarative sentence.  Build with semicolons.  Employ parallelism.  Reverberate with the action and passion of time.  Use short sentences, self-quotation.  Reach into the hearts and souls of human kind.  And say, and “this and this” is the best speech you’ve ever had the good fortune to experience.  End with sustained applause with “Bravo” “You tell’em” and the cynical pundit will say, “What did he really say?”