writing for the ear

Speech Writing Techniques

STYLE: Writing for the EAR

Preamble:

So far…

• We’ve tasted what is like to give a speech:

• We’ve re-written someone else’s speech of introduction

• We’ve written an introduction speech form scratch

• We’ve looked at the general structure of speeches, techniques for opening, and closing, for organizing information etc.

Now, let’s take a closer look at various techniques for speech writing itself, STYLE


1. Alliteration

A Poetic device used to ease the injection of notions not now in their noggin.

It is the repetition of sounds at the start of two or more words to create melody, which makes the content sometimes more memorable.

An example:

Big Boys of Boston
High Hills of Hamilton
The Dead Dogs of Denver


2. Tri-Colon: The rule of THREE

Descriptive phrases, lists and adjectives are more memorable when they travel in threes.

The first two set the pace, the last one hammers the thought home.

So great is the ears retention for threes, that it alters the memory of Winston’s Churchill’s famous line

“all we have to offer is blood, sweat and tears.”

When he really said:

Blood, toil, sweat and tears





3. Imagery

Be specific, colorful and vivid…this will add memo ability to your speech. Pant a picture.




4. Anaphora

Successive sentences are begun with the same word or the same group of words.

I had a dream…


5. Balanced Phrase / Inversion of elements

A balances phrase opposes two elements (the first spoken with the pitch going up, and the second with the pitch going down.

Ask not what your country and do for you, but what you can do for your country.

We did not land on Plymouth Rock. Plymouth Rock landed on us.



6. The Rhetorical Question

A question that you are not meant to answer directly…

Used to:

• Issue a challenge
• Issue a debate
• To indicate misunderstanding
• Make an accusation

7. Hyperbole

An exaggeration used to emphasize a point – whether to weaken it or strengthen it.

If I’ve told you a thousand times, don’t exaggerate.

8. Repetition

A thematic word or phrase is repeated through a speech. Repetition is the oldest technique known for getting something into memory.

It can unify long blocks of spoken words.