5 tricks for successful performances by professional speechwriter
A Life / / December 19, 2019
Simon Lancaster
Chapter Bespoke Agency. He wrote speeches for well-known politicians and businessmen.
1. Create voltage via jerky phrases
When in 2008, Barack Obama became president, he delivered his famous speech. It vividly described difficulties politician who expected to: "Although we are celebrating today, we know that tomorrow We expect the greatest challenges of our generation: two wars, a planet in peril, the worst financial crisis century. "
Note the last part of the sentence - "two wars, a planet in peril, the worst financial crisis of the century." She soaked voltage not only because of the content, but also because as delivered. Phrase is short and clipped. She seemed to be imitating our speech in a hurry or anxiety. Try to use this technique if you need to pass the audience a sense of extreme importance and urgency of what you say.
2. Use the rule of three
In the same part of the proposal is another trick - the rule of three. Usually we better remember things when they are listed by three. It is used in:
- Political speeches. For example: "The power of the people, by the people and for the people" from the speech of Abraham Lincoln.
- Slogans. For example: «Reduce, reuse, recycle» - reduce consumption, reuse, recycle (slogan conscious consumption).
- Titles of books and movies. For example:. "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly"
When we list their arguments in threes, they sound more impressively, convincingly authentic. In addition, it conveys the emotional state of the speaker, and infects the audience with enthusiasm.
3. Maintain balance
"Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country." This famous phrase from speeches John F. Kennedy uttered in 1961, made a great impression on the audience and touches people so far. The fact that it is built from two opposite parts of the meaning. If an offer sounds so, it seems to us that the thoughts in it, too harmonious, and our brain likes harmony. As a result, we can easily accept the speaker's arguments.
Such proposals have attracted even if harmony in them only in words. For example:
- We look to the future, not the past.
- We work together, not against each other.
- We think about what we can do, not what you can not.
4. use metaphors
Metaphors - the most powerful tool of political communication. Offers them get very imaginative and cause instant emotional response from the audience, so plentifully seasoned politicians of his speech. With the help of metaphors easier to take some thought.
Unfortunately, this technique is often used to manipulate, to incite and vilify. For example, in 2015-2016, some politicians called the place of residence of refugees in France are not camps or settlements, and the jungle. This word is the idea that migrants - wild animals, which need to be afraid, that they represent a threat to others. This is a very dangerous metaphor that can incite hatred. Media quickly picked up her and constantly called the settlement "Calais jungle".
5. Add rhyme
They help us remember childhood, something "Ms, shea write a letter and"" Bow - from seven disease. " Rhyme sound musically and remain in the memory as the obsessive melody. This method may seem trivial, but if you use it rarely and to the point, the effect can be very powerful.
The attractiveness of the rhymes because the brain is easier to handle them. When we use long words and sentences, as if we are giving to man a large piece of meat and ask to swallow him whole. But succinct phrases rhyme - it's like a glass of light wine, they are easy to digest.
These five tricks will be useful not only for those who often appears in public. Even if you personally will never use them, you learn to recognize the described techniques. Politicians, advertisers and various crooks use them to gain votes, to impose their views and sell unwanted items. Keep this in mind so as not to fall into the trap, and do not use such methods to deceive.