Effective Use of Language

1. Effective Use of Language

2. Written vs. Spoken Language

3. Written vs. Spoken Language • Language varies according to the situation you are in • Who is speaking • Whom they are speaking to • What they are speaking about • When do you adjust your comments according to your audience? • What are some situations where verbal interplay is different than a written account?

4. Five Basic Differences • Spoken language is generally less formal than written language. • Uses dialect • Writing is more cold/impersonal

5. Five Basic Differences • Spoken language tends to be less precise than written language. • Continually changing • Includes contractions and slang • Ignores some language conventions, such as starting sentences with “but” or “because.” • Speakers make grammatical mistakes that they would never write

6. Five Basic Differences • Sentences are long, complicated, and complete in written language; they are short, simple, and often fragments in spoken language. • Less organized than writing • More often a circular than a linear pattern

7. Five Basic Differences • Written language is often more articulate and sophisticated than spoken language. • Uses higher level ideas and vocabulary (more time to think) • Viewed as more prestigious than speech

8. Five Basic Differences • Spoken language can be more communicative than written language due to extra cues such as body language and tone. • Dynamic and immediate • Allows for clarification and additional information

9. Double audience • Double audience – speaking to two different but very specific groups simultaneously • Suppose you were speaking before both an audience of your classmates and a panel of judges in a speech contest. How would this “double audience” affect your choice of language?

10. Clear Language

11. Clear language • Why is accuracy important in language? • Clarity is important in great speeches • Winston Churchill • John Fitzgerald Kennedy • Martin Luther King, Jr. • Simplicity of language

12. Clear language characteristics • Short/simple • Concrete • Words and examples are not abstract ideas, but relatable to audience • Specificity • Specific examples/terms given, rather than broad, general ones • Restatement • Tell your audience what you’re going to tell them, tell them, tell them what you told them • Economy of language • Removing unnecessary words

13. Identify the following words as concrete or abstract: • Pines • Justice • Honor • Automobile • Person • Poodle • Gracious • Wild • Decision • Circus • House • Home • Picture • Art

14. Identify the following words as general or specific: • Stars • War • Builders • Precipitation • Human race • Dancing • Theatre • Animals

15. Are these phrases economical or wordy? • “Regarding the situation in the flooded area, we must try to make a concerted effort to aid the local residents.” • “We must try to aid the residents in the flooded area.” • “A period of sunny weather set in and remained for a whole week.” • “We had sunshine for a whole week.”

16. Checklist for clear language • Am I planning to use a number of short and simple sentences? • Have I chosen words that my audience will understand? • Have I tried to express my ideas in concrete language? • Am I planning to use specific terms in my speech? • Have I considered restating my main ideas so my audience won’t miss them? • Have I removed any unnecessary words from my speech?

17. Emphasis

18. Emphasis • What needs to be emphasized in a speech? • Why is it important to create levels of emphasis?

19. Levels of Emphasis • Variety – the form of language that you use • Includes languages, dialects, accents, and registers/styles (language used in a particular social setting)

20. Levels of Emphasis • Contrast – expressing distinctions between words • Enhances meaning of words • Contrast words: • However • In comparison • In contrast to • But

21. Levels of Emphasis • Rhetorical questions • A question is posed without expectation of an answer • Examples: • Who knows? • Who cares? • "Isn't it a bit unnerving that doctors call what they do 'practice'?"(George Carlin) • "Hath not a Jew eyes?Hath not a Jew hands, organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions?If you prick us, do we not bleed, if you tickle us, do we not laugh?If you poison us, do we not die?(Shylock in William Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice)

22. Levels of Emphasis • Parallelism • Creating a pattern by repeating sentence structure • "The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of blessing; the inherent virtue of socialism is the equal sharing of miseries." (Churchill) • "The more we do, the more we can do."(William Hazlitt) • "They are laughing at me, not with me."(Bart Simpson, The Simpsons) • "Buy a bucket of chicken and have a barrel of fun."(slogan of Kentucky Fried Chicken)

23. Levels of emphasis • Repetition - the simple repeating of a word or phrase for emphasis • “Free at last, free at last, thank God Almighty, I’m free at last.” • Martin Luther King, Jr.

24. Levels of Emphasis • Climax ordering – stating items in a series moving from less significant to most significant • ends with the most important item • Builds anticipation • This is why creating an outline is important!

25. "There are those who are asking the devotees of civil rights, 'When will you be satisfied?' We can never be satisfied as long as the Negro is the victim of the unspeakable horrors of police brutality. We can never be satisfied as long as our bodies, heavy with the fatigue of travel, cannot gain lodging in the motels of the highways and the hotels of the cities. We cannot be satisfied as long as the Negro's basic mobility is from a smaller ghetto to a larger one. We can never be satisfied as long as our children are stripped of their self-hood and robbed of their dignity by a sign stating 'For Whites Only.' We cannot be satisfied as long as a Negro in Mississippi cannot vote and a Negro in New York believes he has nothing for which to vote. No, no, we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters, and righteousness like a mighty stream.“(Martin Luther King, Jr., "I Have a Dream." August 28, 1963)

26. Levels of Emphasis • Look for all 6 levels of emphasis in Lou Gehrig’s speech

27. Figures of Speech

28. Figures of Speech • Where do you see rich, imaginative language? • How does this type of language help communication?

29. Simile & Metaphor • Simile • Comparing two unlike things using “like” or “as” • Examples: • My love is like a red, red rose • Her eyes shine like the sun • His muscle was as large as a molehill • Metaphor • Comparing two unlike things WITHOUT using “like” or “as” • Examples: • If you’re a bird, I’m a bird • The sun was a molten bowl of hot & sour soup

30. Analogy • Compares two things to explain or clarify some unfamiliar or difficult idea or object by showing how the idea or object is similar to some familiar one • “. . . For answers successfully arrived at are solutions to difficulties previously discussed, and one cannot untie a knot if he is ignorant of it.” --Aristotle

31. Personification • Personification - giving human qualities to an inanimate object • The sun winked at me • The flag waved • The couch swallowed him

32. Hyperbole & Understatement • Hyperbole – an obvious, intentional exaggeration • I’m starving to death • That class lasted all day • I had to write a trillion page paper last night • Understatement - a writer or speaker deliberately makes a situation seem less important or serious than it is • "It's just a flesh wound."(Black Knight, after having both arms cut off, inMonty Python and the Holy Grail)

33. Irony • Irony – words are used to convey the opposite of their literal meaning or the meaning is contradicted by the appearance or presentation of the idea • "Gentlemen, you can't fight in here! This is the War Room."(Peter Sellers as President MerkinMuffley in Dr. Strangelove, 1964)

34. Common problems in choosing language for speeches

35. Problems in language • Language devices are good, but what if they are overused? • Read “If Slang is Not a Sin” • Why is this essay not relevant today? • What is ironic about this essay?

36. Common problems • Connotations • Euphemisms • Cliches • Stereotyping • Slang

37. Connotations • Associations with a certain word or emotional suggestions related to that word • Can be positive or negative • Ex: Connotations with the word snake could be evil or danger • Home, house, residence, dwelling • How can connotations be useful? • What happens if you create an unintentional connotation that is negative?

38. Euphemisms • The substitution of an inoffensive term (such as "passed away") for one considered offensively explicit ("died") • Examples: • "The 'reconstruction' of New Orleans has become a euphemism for the destruction of the city's cultural and historic heritage."(Ghali Hassan, 2006) • Pre-owned for used or second-hand • enhanced interrogation for torture • industrial action for strike • misspokefor lie • tactical withdrawal for retreat • Passed windfor belch or fart

39. Cliches • A figure of speech whose effectiveness has been worn out through overuse and excessive familiarity • Examples: • Live and learn. • Stay the course. • What goes around comes around. • Bite the hand that feeds you • Give it to me straight • Fits like a glove

40. Stereotyping • oversimplified image of a person, place, or thing • Examples: • All Italians are in the Mob. • All southerners are rednecks and dim-witted. • All Chinese people are good at math. • All Jocks are stupid. • All Blondes are Stupid. • All Lawyers are crooks.

41. The Scribner Handbook for Writers (2003) asserts that "clichés are too predictable and too familiar to be interesting," while the editors of Writing: A College Handbook (W. W. Norton, 2000) insist darkly that "using worn-out phrases tells the reader that you have no imagination of your own."

42. Slang • use of informal words and expressions that are not considered standard in the speaker's dialect or language • http://www.slangsite.com/