NFGS_ch5.1_lecppt.pptx

1. Chapter 5.1
Using Language
Copyright © 2022 W. W. Norton & Company

2. Introduction
• Language is the best place to start a discussion of how to
successfully engage an audience
• The great American writer Mark Twain once declared, “The
difference between the almost right word and the right word is
really a large matter—’tis the difference between the lightning
bug and the lightning”
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3. Defining Language
• Language is a system of interrelated words and grammatical rules
used to express thoughts and construct messages that can be
understood by other people
• Language allows us to create and share complex stories, follow
and give meticulous directions, or express and explain a full range
of emotions
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4. Denotative and Connotative Language
• Denotation refers to the objective, literal meaning or meanings of
a word
• Make sure you understand the proper usage of every word in
your presentation
• Connotation refers to the feelings that words arouse in a person
who reads, hears, or speaks them
• Choosing a word with a negative connotation can leave your
listeners offended
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5. Abstract and Concrete Language
• An abstract word refers to an idea or concept that cannot be
observed or touched
• Examples: love, patriotism, transportation
• A concrete word refers to a specific thing that can be perceived by
our sense
• Examples: diamond engagement ring, American flag, ten-speed
bicycle
• Effective speakers choose words that help them achieve their
purpose
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6. Active and Passive Voice
• Voice refers to whether the subject of a sentence performs or
receives the action of the verb
ACTIVE VOICE: Sign this petition.
PASSIVE VOICE: The petition should be signed by all of you.
• An active voice keeps your presentation moving, while a passive
voice takes the focus away from the subject of your sentence
• Active voice also requires fewer words, keeping your sentences
short and direct
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7. Speaking Styles
• Speaking style refers to how you use vocabulary, sentence
structure and length, grammar, and stylistic devices to convey a
message
• There are four CORE speaking styles:
• Clear
• Oral
• Rhetorical
• Eloquent
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8. The Clear Style (1 of 2)
• In highly effective presentations, clarity always comes first
• Precision builds trust in the speaker’s competence
• The clear style uses:
• Short, simple, common words
• Direct language
• Concrete words
• Active voice
• Using short, simple, and common words is not the same as
repetition
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9. The Clear Style (2 of 2)
• Consider as an example President George W. Bush’s televised
address to the nation on the day of the 9/11 attacks:
This is a day when all Americans from every walk of life unite in our
resolve for justice and peace. America has stood down enemies before, and
we will do so this time. None of us will ever forget this day, yet we go
forward to defend freedom and all that is good and just in our world.
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10. The Oral Style (1 of 2)
• The oral style sounds more like the way you talk than the way you
write
• The oral style uses:
• Short, familiar, conversational words
• Short, simple sentences
• Contractions
• Personal language
• Personal pronouns intensify the connection between you and the
audience and increase your credibility
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11. The Oral Style (2 of 2)
• Consider the following example:
Eight o’clock Wednesday night. I have an English exam bright and early
tomorrow morning. It’s on Homer’s Iliad. And I haven’t read page one. I
skip tonight’s beer drinking and try to read. Eight forty-five. I’m only on
page 12. Only 482 more to go. Nine thirty, it hits me. Like a rock. I’m not
going to make it.
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12. The Rhetorical Style (1 of 3)
• The rhetorical style is used when a speaker wants to persuade,
motivate, and/or impress an audience
• The rhetorical style uses:
• Intense language
• Vivid language
• Powerful words
• Language intensity refers to the degree to which your language
deviates from dull, neutral terms
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13. The Rhetorical Style (2 of 3)
• Vivid language refers to the level of detail you describe, eliciting
strong, memorable images in the minds of listeners
• Powerful words express your confidence, certainty, and
commitment to your purpose
• Avoid the following words that characterize powerless speech:
• Hesitations and fillers
• Qualifiers and hedges
• Tag questions
• Disclaimers
• Feeble intensifiers
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14. The Rhetorical Style (3 of 3)
• Consider the following example:*
I believe the President is fundamentally a bully which I’ve said too many
times and I’ve known him very well for a very long period of time. It
doesn’t work in New York because you can’t bully New Yorkers. We just
don’t get bullied. We don’t respond well to it. . . . This nation has not been
attacked by an enemy who has killed more and ravaged more than
COVID since World War II, and the president and commander-in-chief
has been an abysmal failure in the war against COVID. That’s the facts.
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15. The Eloquent Style (1 of 2)
• The eloquent style combines artistry and persuasion in ways that
make thoughts and feelings clear, inspiring, and memorable
• The eloquent style is built on the foundation of clear, oral, and
rhetorical speaking styles
• Eloquence does not rely on long, fancy words
• It uses a subtle, plain style that projects power
• Eloquent speakers use personal pronouns and an oral style to call
on their own past and strong beliefs to inspire an audience
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16. The Eloquent Style (2 of 2)
• Consider as an example the following excerpt from Barrack
Obama’s “A More Perfect Union” speech:
I am the son of a black man from Kenya and a white woman from
Kansas. I was raised with the help of a white grandfather who
survived a Depression to serve in Patton’s Army during World War II
and a white grandmother who worked on a bomber assembly line at
Fort Leavenworth while he was overseas. I’ve gone to some of the
best schools in America and lived in one of the world’s poorest
nations. I am married to a black American who carries within her the
blood of slaves and slaveowners—an inheritance we pass on to our
two precious daughters. I have brothers, sisters, nieces, nephews,
uncles and cousins, of every race and every hue, scattered across
three continents, and for as long as I live, I will never forget that in no
other country on Earth is my story even possible.8
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17. Use All Four CORE Speaking Styles
• The CORE speaking styles are not separate and distinct and are
often heard in a single presentation
• There is a natural progression from clarity to eloquence:
• The clear style is concise and direct
• The oral style builds on this foundation and makes the
message more personal
• The rhetorical style adds vivid and effective language
• The eloquent style further adds memorable words and
phrases, effective storytelling, and personal revelations
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18. Stylistic Devices
• Stylistic devices include a variety of word strategies that can
make your message more effective, engaging, and memorable
• Among the hundreds of stylistic devices, the following select few
are effective and applicable to many speaking occasions:
• Repetition
• Alliteration
• Metaphors, similes, and analogies
• Lists of three
• Avoidance of clichés
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19. Repetition (1 of 2)
• Repetition helps reinforce ideas by repeating important words
and phrase
• Consider the following example:
I am here today to represent Courtlin Arrington. I am here today to
represent Hadiya Pendleton. I am here today to represent Taiyania
Thompson, who at just 16 was shot dead in her home here in
Washington, DC. I am here today to acknowledge and represent the
African-American girls whose stories don’t make the front page of every
national newspaper. Whose stories don’t lead on the evening news.10
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20. Repetition (2 of 2)
• Alliteration is a form of repetition where speakers use a series of
words (or words placed closely together) that begin with the
same sound
• Alliteration captures audience attention because it makes
language easier to remember
• Consider the following phrases from President Bush’s 2003 State
of the Union address:
“The dictator of Iraq is not disarming.
To the contrary, he is deceiving.”
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21. Metaphors, Similes, and Analogies (1 of 2)
• A metaphor compares two things or ideas without using
connective words such as like and as
• Examples: getting your feet wet; holding a dead end job
• Similes make a direct comparison between two things or ideas,
but they usually use the words like or as to link the two items
• Examples: Muhammad Ali’s famous quote, “Float like a
butterfly, sting like a bee.”
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22. Metaphors, Similes, and Analogies (2 of 2)
• Analogies expand similes and metaphors in order to report new
information and describe scientific phenomena
• Example: “Just as orchestra conductors must grasp the entire
musical score while inspiring great performances from
individual players, effective leaders must understand the big
picture while motivating team members to perform at their
full potential.”
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23. Lists of Three
• Audience members often expect speakers to have three key points
• The pattern is so common that some people will even prepare
to applaud as they hear the third item in a series
• Consider the following example:
I come [here today] as an American, filled with a sense of awe at the
heroism of my fellow citizens. I come as a wife, a daughter, and a sister,
heartbroken at the loss so many of you have endured. And I come as a
mother, thinking about what my daughters, and what all of our sons
and daughters can learn from the forty men and women whose
memories we honor today.18
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24. Avoidance of Clichés
• A cliché is a trite or tired expression that has lost its originality
or force through overuse
• Examples: Crystal clear; better late than never
• Further, clichés often make no sense
• Sometimes clever speakers will use a cliché to make a point, or
even convert the cliché into something interesting and original
• Example: “If the feeling in my stomach is caused by butter-
flies, there must be a horde of them, with horseshoes on”
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25. Language and Your Audience
• The following examples demonstrate the difference in language
used by scholar Dr. Henry Louis Gates Jr. when speaking to a
group of college educated and well-read listeners and a group of
sixth graders, respectively:
In the resonant words of W. E. B. Du Bois: “I sit with Shakespeare, and
he winces not. Across the color line, I move arm in arm with Balzac
and Dumas, where smiling men and welcoming women glide in gilded
halls. . . . I summon Aristotle and Aurelius and what soul I will, and
they come all graciously with no scorn or condescension.”
I grew up in a little town on the eastern panhandle of West Virginia,
called Piedmont, population two thousand, supposedly (we could
never find the other one thousand people). I started school in 1957,
two years after the Brown v. Board decision, and in that year, 1957, my
father bought a full set of the World Book encyclopedia.
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26. Avoid Gender Bias
• There are several ways to avoid gender bias and confusion in the
use of pronouns:
• Use gender-neutral terms for jobs and professions
• Use plural pronouns
• Avoid using a pronoun entirely
• Use the pronoun they/their when it is the subject’s preferred
gender pronoun or when you’re referring to someone whose
gender is unknown or not relevant to the matter at hand
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27. Avoid Cultural Bias in Your Language
• If your audience includes nonnative speakers of English, consider
the following strategies:
• Use language that is clear and simple
• Use complete sentences on presentation aids
• Use a more formal speaking style, and address individuals by
their formal titles
• Avoid clichés and common expressions that they may not
grasp
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28. Avoid Exclusionary Language
• Exclusionary language reinforces stereotypes, belittles people, or
excludes them from understanding a particular group’s message
• Exclusionary language widens the social gap by separating
the world into us and them
• Try not to mention age, health and abilities, sexual orientation, or
race and ethnicity unless these characteristics are relevant to
your presentation
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29. Conclusion
• If your message is clear, oral, rhetorical, and eloquent when
appropriate, your language will increase your presentation’s
effectiveness
• Pay attention to the use of concrete words, active voice,
appropriate speaking style, and audience-adapted language
choices
• It is important that your words match the characteristics of your
audience
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30. Credits
This concludes the Lecture PowerPoint presentation for Chapter 5.1.
For more resources, please visit The Norton Field Guide to Speaking:
http://digital.wwnorton.com/nfgspeaking.
Copyright © 2022 W. W. Norton & Company