EFFECTIVE USE OF
LANGUAGE
Written vs. Spoken Language
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?
Five Basic Differences
1.
Spoken language is generally less
formal than written language.
a. Uses dialect
b. Writing is more cold/impersonal
Five Basic Differences
2.
Spoken language tends to be less
precise than written language.
a. Continually changing
b.
c.
d.
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
Five Basic Differences
3.
Sentences are long, complicated, and
complete in written language; they are
short, simple, and often fragments in
spoken language.
a. Less organized than writing
b. More often a circular than a linear
pattern
Five Basic Differences
4.
Written language is often more
articulate and sophisticated than spoken
language.
a. Uses higher level ideas and
vocabulary (more time to think)
b. Viewed as more prestigious than
speech
Five Basic Differences
5.
Spoken language can be more
communicative than written language
due to extra cues such as body
language and tone.
a. Dynamic and immediate
b. Allows for clarification and additional
information
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?
Clear Language
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
Clear language characteristics


Short/simple
Concrete


Specificity


Specific examples/terms given, rather than broad, general
ones
Restatement


Words and examples are not abstract ideas, but relatable
to audience
Tell your audience what you’re going to tell them, tell them,
tell them what you told them
Economy of language

Removing unnecessary words
Identify the following words as
concrete or abstract:








Pines
Justice
Honor
Automobile
Person
Poodle
Gracious
Wild






Decision
Circus
House
Home
Picture
Art
Identify the following words as general
or specific:








Stars
War
Builders
Precipitation
Human race
Dancing
Theatre
Animals
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.”
Checklist for clear language
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
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?
Emphasis
Emphasis


What needs to be emphasized in a speech?
Why is it important to create levels of emphasis?
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)
Levels of Emphasis

Contrast – expressing distinctions between words
 Enhances
 Contrast
meaning of words
words:
 However
 In
comparison
 In contrast to
 But
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)

Levels of Emphasis

Parallelism
 Creating
 "The
a pattern by repeating sentence structure
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)
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.
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!
"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 selfhood 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)
Levels of Emphasis

Look for all 6 levels of emphasis in Lou Gehrig’s
speech
Figures of Speech
Figures of Speech


Where do you see rich, imaginative language?
How does this type of language help
communication?
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
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
Personification

Personification - giving human qualities to an
inanimate object



The sun winked at me
The flag waved
The couch swallowed him
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)
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 Merkin Muffley in Dr.
Strangelove, 1964)
COMMON PROBLEMS IN
CHOOSING LANGUAGE FOR
SPEECHES
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?
Common problems
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Connotations
Euphemisms
Cliches
Stereotyping
Slang
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?
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
 misspoke for lie
 tactical withdrawal for retreat
 Passed wind for belch or fart

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

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.

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."
Slang


use of informal words and expressions that are not
considered standard in the speaker's dialect or
language
http://www.slangsite.com/