Public Speaking Handbook

248 12.4 Using Words Well: speaker langUage and style

rePetition Using a key word or phrase more than once gives rhythm and

power to your message and makes it memorable. Perhaps the best­known modern

example of repetition in a speech is Martin Luther King Jr.’s ringing declaration

of the words that became the title of his famous August 28, 1963, speech at the

Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C.

ParaLLeLism Whereas repetition refers to using identical words, parallelism

refers to using different words but the identical grammatical patterns. In a 2013

speech to Israeli students in Jerusalem, Barack Obama used parallelism to empha­

size similarities between Americans and Israelis:

We are enriched by faith. We are governed not simply by men and

women, but by laws. We are fueled by entrepreneurship and innovation.

And we are defined by a democratic discourse...^25

The four sentences that begin “We are enriched,” “We are governed,” “We are

fueled,” and “we are defined” follow the parallel grammatical pattern of pronoun

(we) + verb phrase.

antithesis The word antithesis means “opposition.” In language style, a

sentence that uses antithesis has two parts with parallel structures but contrasting

meanings. Speakers have long recognized the dramatic potential of antithesis.

In his first inaugural address, Franklin Roosevelt declared,

Our true destiny is not to be ministered unto but to minister to ourselves

and to our fellow men.^26

When William Faulkner accepted the Nobel Prize for literature in 1950, he spoke

the following now famous antithetical phrase:

I believe that man will not merely endure: he will prevail.^27

And when journalist David Brooks addressed the 2013 graduating class of

Sewanee: The University of the South, he advised,

Don’t think about what you want from life, think about what life wants

from you.^28

An antithetical statement is a good way to end a speech. The cadence that it

creates will make the statement memorable.

aLLiteration The repetition of a consonant sound (usually an initial conso­

nant) several times in a phrase, clause, or sentence is called alliteration. Allitera­

tion adds cadence to a thought. Consider these examples:

alliterative Phrase

discipline and direction

virility, valour, virtue

Seneca Falls, and Selma,

and Stonewall

speaker

Franklin Roosevelt

Winston Churchill

Barack Obama

occasion

First inaugural address^29

Speech to U.S. and civic

Congress^30

Second inaugural address^31

Used sparingly, alliteration can add cadence to your rhetoric.

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