Tag Archives: rhetoric

Some little lessons in rhetorical oratory

Metaphor, million dollar message, Persuasive message, punchline, , , ,
Joe Biden's acceptance speech contained numerous rhetorical devices
Joe Biden’s acceptance speech contained numerous rhetorical devices. Photo by Ian Hutchinson on Unsplash

Amid the sound and fury of the recent American elections, an eloquent acceptance speech by Joe Biden was missed by many.

Unlike the bombastic ‘us versus them’ utterances of Donald Trump, Biden’s speech was a uniting ‘we’ – paraphrased from a term he used in it talking about the ‘Soul of America’.

It contained a number of rhetorical devices – devices that without us realising it use the power of words to seduce us to (what most of the world hopes) is a new dawn.

The speech contains some wonderful illustrations of employing language in a way that we can emulate for business, for social good (and of course for politics!)

Apparently Biden’s speech had major contributions from a Joe Meachem, a Presidential historian. He’s undoubtedly aware of, and has repurposed previous Presidential speeches – but that in no way diminishes the power of the prose Biden gave to all Americans, not just those who voted for him.

So what’s some examples (I should note a thanks to Hilary Bryan for pointing out some of these devices in the first place)?

Repetition (also known as anaphora)

Numerous examples, including:

“Ahead to an America…” Five in a row, outlying future aspirations.

“We…” “We stand…”, “we have…”, “we can…”, “we must…”

Focus on We and Us

The main emphasis of the speech, including its first five sentences.

“My fellow Americans, the people of this nation have spoken. They have delivered us a clear victory. A convincing victory. A victory for “We the People.”

A poetic call for change

“Let this grim era of demonisation in America begin to end – here and now.”

Reverse the order of words (chiasmus)

“And we will lead not by the example of our power, but by the power of our example.”

Of course the difference between the desire of Biden’s speech, and the reality of the system he’s inherited is vast.

But at least it provides a hope, reflected through rhetoric, that an America as a force for good rather than a one that appeals to its “darkest impulses” (wonderful backhand slap to Trump) is just around the corner.

The world waits.

The power of language

Marketing, million dollar message, Persuasive message, punchline, value proposition,
Rhetoric is the wonderful use of language to persuade people
One example of rhetoric is a pithy saying which captures a shared frustration. Photo by Rosie Kerr on Unsplash

Words have power, and people have “an appetite for well-expressed wisdom, motivational or otherwise,” says Ward Farnsworth.

He’s dean of the University of Texas School of Law, and author of Farnsworth’s Classical English Rhetoric.

The book shows examples of rhetoric (the art of persuasion) from the famous such as Churchill, Lincoln and Dickens, and lesser well known speakers.

Phrasing contributes to effectiveness. A 2000 study by cognitive scientists at Lafayette College found when people were shown two statements of the same pithy saying, study participants were more likely to say the rhyming aphorism seemed true.

“As O.J.Simpson’s lawyer once said, ‘If the glove doesn’t fit, you must acquit.’ The study shows that the way an idea is expressed can affect judgments about its merit,” Ward Farnsworth says.

A more motivational example is Napoleon Hill’s dictum, “Whatever the mind of man can conceive and believe, it can achieve.”

The details of wording make a difference Farnsworth says.

“While there are many ways to say the same thing, one may be more pleasing and convincing than all the others because of the way words are arranged. For example, parallel construction where two halves of a claim are ‘attractively balanced,” can be effective he says.

‘Marry in haste, repent at leisure’ is a parallel construction.

A reversal of structure, or ‘chiasmus’ is also attractive – “ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country” he says.

Ward Farnsworth says metaphor use can make a simple idea compelling.

When business people talk about ‘dropping the ball’, or ‘scoring an own goal’ – they are making implied comparison to sports.

A metaphor usually succeeds by making its subject more visible, or by making it simpler, or by caricaturing it.

The quote ‘Everyone is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid’, woud be far less powerful or evocative if it stopped after the first sentence.

These are some of the principles he lays bare in opening up the tools of rhetoric.

What use could your business make of such persuasive language (or even a Million Dollar Message!)?