1. Essentials of Public Speaking
Perfecting
Language
Style
Chapter 9
Essentials of Public Speaking
Cheryl Hamilton
5th Edition
Cheryl Hamilton, Ph.D.
Chapter 9 – Perfecting Language Style

2. Chapter 9– Perfecting Language Style
Key Ideas
Why language styles are important
Characteristics of effective language style
Language stylistic devices
Language and speaker bias
Chapter 9– Perfecting Language Style

3. Chapter 9– Perfecting Language Style
Flashback . . .
In his Orator, Cicero describes three kinds of rhetorical styles:
The Plain style—an “easy,” subdued style (Informative).
The Middle style—a polished style including humor, wit, and ornamentation of all kinds (Entertaining).
The Grand style—an eloquent, dramatic, and fiery style to be used with caution (Persuasive).
Chapter 9– Perfecting Language Style

4. Why Language Styles are Important
Language can clarify your ideas and arguments
Language can influence audience attitudes and behaviors
Language can make ideas and arguments personally resonate with audience
Language can add to audience interest and enjoyment
Chapter 9– Perfecting Language Style

5. Effective Language Style
Style defined – Style is the way you use language to express your ideas
Criteria for effective language style choices
Language should be simple
Language should be specific
Language should be vivid
Language should be forceful
Chapter 9– Perfecting Language Style

6. Chapter 9– Perfecting Language Style
Keep Language Simple
Using confusing language can make your message hard to understand and can result in the audience misunderstanding it.
Avoid overly technical language and jargon
Use simple words rather than complex ones (e.g. use rain rather than precipitation)
Chapter 9– Perfecting Language Style

7. Keep Language Specific
Avoid using abstract words – words that are difficult for listeners to picture such as devotion or health
Avoid ambiguous words – words with vague and unclear meanings
Avoid Euphemimisms – words with positive overtones substituted for words with negative overtones
Chapter 9– Perfecting Language Style

8. Chapter 9– Perfecting Language Style
Keep Language Vivid
Use active voice rather than passive voice by avoiding phrases such as it is believed
Use a variety of interesting supporting materials
Use concrete words that have high imagery to paint mental pictures in the minds of the listeners
Chapter 9– Perfecting Language Style

9. Keep Language Forceful
Forceful language involves the effective use of volume, emphasis and pitch
Forceful language adds to the audience’s confidence in the speaker and the speaker’s evidence
Forceful language is an important part of persuasively stating the speaker’s position in a persuasive speech
Chapter 9– Perfecting Language Style

10. A stylistic device rearranges sentences in unusual ways or
Stylistic Devices
Alliteration
Assonance
Antithesis
Simile
Metaphor
Onomatopoeia
Repetition
Parallelism
Hyperbole
Personification
A stylistic device rearranges sentences in unusual ways or
changes the ordinary meaning of a word.
Chapter 9– Perfecting Language Style

11. Chapter 9– Perfecting Language Style
Stylistic Devices
Alliteration - repetition of consonants- usually the first or last letter in a word (e.g. Each Wednesday Wally washes his woolens.)
Assonance – repetition of vowels (e.g. The low moan of our own soldiers.)
Anthesis – a sentence containing ideas in parallel phrases (e.g. Let us never negotiate out of fear, but let us never fear to negotiate.)
Chapter 9– Perfecting Language Style

12. Chapter 9– Perfecting Language Style
Stylistic Devices
Hyperbole – an extreme exaggeration for emphasis (e.g. We either vote for this bill or we die.)
Onomatopoeia – words that sound like their meanings (e.g. buzz, fizz, ring)
Can help the speaker create a mood
Martin Luther King Jr. used it in his I Have a Dream speech
Personification – giving human characteristics or feelings to an animal or object
Chapter 9– Perfecting Language Style

13. Chapter 9– Perfecting Language Style
Stylistic Devices
Repetition and Parallelism
Repetition – repeating a word or series of words in successive clauses or sentences
Martin Luther King Jr. repeated the phrase, Let Freedom Ring
Parallelism – grouping of similarly phrased ideas
Parallelism increases the pace of a speech and generates psychological momentum
Chapter 9– Perfecting Language Style

14. Chapter 9– Perfecting Language Style
Stylistic Devices
Simile and Metaphor
Simile – making direct comparisons using the words like or as (e.g. Happiness is like ice cream-both can melt away if you aren’t careful.)
Metaphor – making implied comparisons not using like or as by speaking of one item as if it were another (e.g. Happiness is an ice cream cone.)
Chapter 9– Perfecting Language Style

15. Biased Language: Gender Bias
Avoid using the generic he when referring to males and females
Use proper terminology and not gender specific terminology when referring to many professions
Use Police Officer NOT Policeman
Use Firefighter NOT Fireman
Use Fight Attendant NOT Stewardess
Chapter 9– Perfecting Language Style

16. Language Bias: Cultural Bias
Listeners supply word meanings from their own frame of reference
The more diverse your audience the more the audience’s frame of reference will likely be different from yours
Effective speakers are aware of cultural differences that may exist in the audience and choose words that will minimize possible cultural bias
Chapter 9– Perfecting Language Style

17. Essentials of Public Speaking
Perfecting
Language
Style
Chapter 9
Essentials of Public Speaking
Cheryl Hamilton
5th Edition
Cheryl Hamilton, Ph.D.
Chapter 9 Perfecting Language Style