Crafting Memorable Word Structures 12.4 245
Earlier in this chapter, we discussed the importance of using words that are con
crete, unbiased, vivid, simple, and correct. In this section, we turn our attention
to groups of words—phrases and sentences—that create drama, figurative images,
and cadences. The memorable word structures summarized here can help you
craft a speech that has both “eye and ear appeal.”^15
Creating Figurative Images
One way to make your message memorable is to use figures of speech to create
arresting images. A figure of speech deviates from the ordinary, expected mean
ings of words to make a description or comparison unique, vivid, and memorable.
Common figures of speech include metaphors, similes, and personification.
metaPhors anD simiLes A metaphor is an implied comparison of two
things or concepts that are similar in some vital way. Writer and actor Erik
Stolhanske used his own prosthetic leg as a metaphor for any mental or physical
obstacles his audience members might face:
... everyone has a “wooden leg” of some kind. I’m living proof that once
you realize your “wooden leg,” whatever it may be, is really just in your
head, that’s when you can stay true to yourself, pursue your dreams
with foolish perseverance, and truly achieve success in life—whatever
that may mean to you.^16
Whereas a metaphor is an implied comparison, a simile is a more direct
comparison that includes the word like or as. United Parcel Service CEO Scott
Davis advised an audience to ignore “naysayers,” whose negative message he
compared to that of the main character in “Chicken Little”:
[Naysayers] scurry around like the Henny Pennys of the world, loudly
proclaiming to anyone who will listen: “The sky is falling!” “Don’t do
it!” “It can’t be done!”^17Speakers often turn to metaphor and simile in times that are especially
momentous or overwhelming—times when, as one speaker has said, “the ordi
nary diction of our lives finds itself unequal to the challenge.”^18 In the hours
and days after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the United States,
various speakers used such metaphorical phrases as “one more circle of Dante’s
hell,” “nuclear winter,” and “the crater of a volcano” to describe the site of the
destroyed World Trade Center in New York.^19 Such language is often catego
rized as crisis rhetoric.
PersonifiCation Personification is the attribution of human qualities to
inanimate things or ideas. Franklin Roosevelt personified nature as a generous
living provider in this line from his first inaugural address:
Nature still offers her bounty and human efforts have multiplied it.
Plenty is at our doorstep.^20