Using Language Efficiently III

Choose Words That Build Credibility

- Use language that is appropriate, accurate, assertive and respectful.

1. Use Words Appropriately

- Uphold conventional rules of grammar and usage

- Code-switching: Selective use of dialect

- Key is to ensure your meaning is clear and your use is appropriate for your audience.

2. Use Words Accurately

- Beware of malapropisms: the inadvertent, incorrect uses of a word or phrase in place of one that sounds like it.

   (It's a strange receptacle > It's a strange spectacle)

3. Use The Active Voice

- Active voice is clear and assertive

- Passive voice is indirect and weak

- Voice: Feature of verbs that indicates the subject's relationship to the action

Passive: A test was announced by Ms. Carlos for Tuesday.

           A president is elected by the voters every four years.

Active: Ms. Carlos announced a test for Tuesday.

         The voters elect a president every four years.

4. Use Culturally Sensitive and Gender-Neutral Language

- Eliminate unfounded assumptions, negative descriptions, or stereotypes

- Colloquial expressions: Sayings specific to a certain region or group of people

- Avoid third person generic masculine pronouns (his, he)

     mankind > humankind       policeman > police officer

Choose Words That Create A Lasting Impression

1. Denotative vs. Connotative Meaning

- Denotative: Literal, dictionary meaning, definition of a word

- Connotative: The special association to it

      "slender" not 'skinny'

      "thrifty"  not 'cheap'

2. Use Repetition To Create Rhythm

- Anaphora: In this form of repetition, speaker repeats a word or phrase at the beginning of successive phrases, clauses or sentences

For example, Martin Luther King repeated, "I have a dream" many times.

3. Use Alliteration For A Poetic Quality

- Alliteration: Repetition of the same sounds, usually initial consonants, in two or more neighboring words or syllables

    

          "Down with dope, up with hope", "Nattering nabobs of negativism"

4. Experiment With Parallelism

- The arrangement of words, phrases, or sentences in a similar form

- Creates a sense of steady or building rhythm

    ~Orally numbering points ("first", "second", "third")

    ~Grouping speech concepts or ideas into three parallel grammatical elements or triads ("Of the people, By the people, and For the people")

    ~Setting off two strongly contrasting ideas in balanced (parallel) opposition (the device of antithesis, for example, "One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind")

    ~Repeating key word or phrase that emphasizes central/recurring idea of the speech

:)CLN

Using Language Efficiently II

Choose Concrete Words and Vivid Imagery

Help audience members grasp meaning and encourage their involvement.

1. Use Concrete Language

- Concrete language conveys meaning that is specific, tangible and definite.

- Abstract language is general or nonspecific, and leaves meaning open to interpretation.

- Politicians use abstract language to appeal to mass audience or to be noncommittal. In most speaking situations, though, listeners will appreciate concrete nouns and verbs.

Abstract                       Less Abstract                      Concrete

summer         ->           hot weather           ->     sweltering heat

congestion     ->            traffic jam            ->          gridlock

-Give listeners a mental picture.

2. Offer Vivid Imagery

- Imagery: Concrete language that uses senses of smell, taste, sight, hearing and touch to paint mental pictures.

- Modify nouns and verbs with descriptive adjectives and adverbs (Pearl Harbor   > "dark hour")

- Figures of speech: Expressions (such as metaphors, similes, and analogues) where words are used in a non-literal fashion to achieve rhetorical effect.

- Simile: Compares one things to another, using 'like' or 'as'

- Analogy: Extended metaphor or simile that clarifies an unfamiliar concept by comparing it to a more familiar one.

For example:

"Our house is on fire! The truck arrives, but we won't come out, because we're afraid the folks from next door will see that we're in that burning house. AIDS is a fire raging in our community and it's out of control!" - Minister preaching about AIDS

:)CLN

Using Language Efficiently I

Using Language

-Choosing the right words is crucial to creating a dynamic connection with your audience and helping listeners understand, believe in, and retain your message.

-Style is the specific word choices and rhetorical devices (techniques of language) speakers use to express their ideas.

1. Prepare your speeches for the ear.

Unlike readers, listeners have only 1 chance to understand a spoken message.

2. Strive For Simplicity

Translate jargon into commonly understood terms.

For example:

"Good hard simple words with good hard clear meanings are good things to use when you speak. They are like pickets in a fence, slim and unimpressive on their own but sturdy and effective when strung together." - speechwriter Peggy Noonan notes in Simply Speaking.

3. Be Concise (To The point!)

-Try to use fewer rather than more words to express your thoughts.

-Use shorter rather than longer sentences.

-Compare these two sentences. Which would you rather hear?

"It is difficult to believe that the United States government is attempting to tax us at every level of our personal and professional lives, whether it be capital gains taxes, value-added taxes, or, of course, your favorite and mine: income taxes."

"It's hard to believe but true. The U.S. government is taxing us to death. It's got its hands in every conceivable pocket. Capital gains tax. Value-added taxes. And, of course, your favorite and mine: income taxes."

4. Make Frequent Use Of Repetition

-Repetition adds emphasis to important ideas, helps listeners follow your logic, and imbues language with rhythm and drama.

-To make your speech come alive, experiment with phrases and sentence fragments in place of full sentences.

For example:

"I'm just a simple bone-and-joint guy. I can set your broken bones. Take away your bunions. Even give you a new hip. But I don't mess around with the stuff between your ears...That's another specialty." - physician

5. Use Personal Pronouns

The direct form of address (we, us, I, you) draws audience into message.

:)ChelseyLeilaniNatividad

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