Public Speaking

156 CHAPTER 12^ Choosing Effective Language

Use Vivid Language

Colorful, vivid language helps keep listeners’ attention and interest. Vivid linguistic

devices include alliteration, rhyming, metaphors and similes, and personification.

Alliteration is the use of words with the same recurring initial sounds. It can occur

within a sentence: one activist wondered what “traits, tenacity, and talents” make a good

environmentalist?^26 Alliteration is also a good way to help listeners remember main

points. This speaker alliterated both the title and the main points in his speech, “What’s

Promised, What’s Possible”:^27

I’d like to tell you about the five C’s of healthcare.... Two of these five C’s you

already know—cost and coverage. These are the issues we hear about all the

time.... And while everyone is talking about the costs of health care and the lack

of coverage, meaningful change will only come when we address other issues.

These are the other     3    C’s—the issues we’re not hearing about: consistency,

complexity, and chronic illness.

Rhymes—whether single words, longer phrases, or entire lines—are defined as

words that end in the same sounds. Although rap artists rhyme their entire presentations,

most people use rhymes in more limited ways. In his speech about electronic drums,

Bob rhymed three words within one sentence: “What or who would you rather have in

your band, a mean and clean drum machine or a stereotypical rock drummer?”

Rhymes are also effective for wording your main points to make them more memo-

rable. Here are two examples:

We are faced with two choices: retreat or compete.

Workplaces typically have three generations of employees: boomers, bloomers, and

zoomers.^28

A metaphor compares two dissimilar things without using the words like or as.

To Professor Michael Osborn,^29 speech students are builders who frame and craft their

speeches, or they’re weavers who intertwine verbal and nonverbal elements into a

successful performance, or they are climbers who scramble over barriers or obstacles such

as speech anxiety on their way to a successful speech. Each metaphor lends a different

perspective to the subject. Which comparison best describes you as a speech student?

Can you come up with a better metaphor for speech making?

One hazard in using metaphors is the possibility of creating a mixed metaphor,

beginning with one comparison and ending with another. To illustrate, one panelist on

a news program said, “We must solve the root problem, or the line will be drawn in the

sand, and we’ll be back in the soup again.” Unfortunately, he combined three images,

which left his listeners with no clear image of the problem. Should they dig out the root,

avoid the line, or stay out of the kitchen?

Similes, like metaphors, compare two different things that are alike in one essential

detail; however, they use like or as to explicitly state the connection. Here are two

examples:

When we harbor resentment, it’s like drinking poison and hoping the other person

dies.^30

There was a time when our people covered the land as the waves of a wind-ruffled

sea cover its shell-paved floor, but that time long since passed away with the

greatness of tribes that are now but a mournful memory. (Chief Seattle)^31

Many metaphors and similes arise from our experiences of being human, and

people the world over understand them. For instance, all human groups experience

alliteration word with a
recurring initial sound

rhymes words that end in
the same sound

metaphor comparison of
two dissimilar things

mixed metaphor combining
metaphors from two or more
sources, starting with one
comparison and ending with
another

simile short comparison
that uses the word like or as
to compare two items that
are alike in one essential
detail

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