Basic style making
recourse of language
L7
Ing. J. Šnajdar
2014
Basic style making recourse/ alternative of language
Humans use verbal communication to interact with
other people. Communication, words alone have no
meaning. Only people can put meaning into words.
Language reflects social factors such as class,
gender and age group. People want their words to
be understood, but most times only assume that the
recipients have received the message. People also
have a tendency to believe that what is important to
them as individuals is equally important to everyone
else. A speaker, whether involved in an
interpersonal conversation or speaking to
thousands, must develop effective communication to
relate to the audience.
Use of power words.
An example from the great Winston Churchill:
„We have before us an ordeal of the most grievous
kind. We have before us many, many long months
of struggle and of suffering. You ask, what is our
policy? I can say: It is to wage war, by sea, land and
air, with all our might and with all the strength that
God can give us; to wage war against a monstrous
tyranny, never surpassed in the dark, lamentable
catalogue of human crime. That is our policy. You
ask, what is our aim? I can answer in one word: It is
victory, victory at all costs, victory in spite of all
terror, victory, however long and hard the road may
be; for without victory, there is no survival.“
Use of power words.
Each word makes the audience feel something. In
this case, Churchill intermixes words that cause
fear, such as “struggle,” “tyranny,” and “terror,” with
words that cause hope, such as “strength,” “God,”
and “victory.” The last, in particular, is repeated over
and over, practically drilling the emotion into the
minds of the audience.
Smart speakers, as well as their speechwriters,
sprinkle their speeches with carefully-chosen power
words, drawing the audience from one emotion to
another as skillfully as any novelist or screenwriter.
Granted, that’s not all they do. The best writers use
an entire tool chest of techniques to create emotion,
and power words are only one such tool.
Whenever you need to create curiosity, sprinkle
these power words throughout your writing, and
readers won’t be able to help being intrigued.
Fear is without a doubt the most powerful emotion
for grabbing and keeping an audience’s attention. To
make sure you don’t change the channel, news
networks load up with fear words, making you worry
you might miss something important.
Catastrophe, Crisis, Death, Disastrous, Hurricane
… Terror
By using the below power words, you can connect
with people’s anger, and slowly but surely, you can
work them into a frenzy.
Abuse, Arrogant, Bully, Coward, Money-grubbing,
Ruthless …
Skim through good sales copy, and you’ll find a lot
of these power words. Many of them are so
overused they’ve become cliché, but that doesn’t
stop them from working.
Bargain, Best, Cheap, Discount … Reduced
They need to trust both you and your product or
service. They need to have confidence you’ll deliver.
They need to believe they’ll get results.
Best-selling, Cancel Anytime, Certified, Endorsed,
Guaranteed, … No Risk
Words are powerful. In fact, it’s safe to assume that
words have the potential to unleash overwhelmingly
strong emotions in each and every one of us.
They cause us to fall in love, go to war and save the
dolphins. They persuade, convince and move us to
take unique action.
However, you may be shocked to discover that there
are only a handful of words that are powerful and
compelling enough to move your prospects to
action.
When it comes to writing ad-copy (whether it’s a
webpage, sales page or e-mail), choosing the right
words absolutely matters.
You can accomplish this best by cherry-picking from
proven “power words” that will instantly achieve
winning results for your small business.
In fact, choosing the right “power words” in your
sales copy can uncover hidden profits that you didn’t
know existed.
When you use quality power words, your prospects
will respond to you in a different manner. They will
pay attention to you; they will be more involved in
your ad-copy; they will stay on your page for a
longer period of time. And, of course, they will
eventually feel compelled to make a purchase.
Verbal Tools
Pausing
Silence can be golden.
Silence can also feel uncomfortable. The pace of
a conversation will affects both the emotional and
intellectual climate. Frequent well placed
pauses contribute to a inductee’s (novice)
confidence and capacity.
In order to reach higher levels of thinking, the
inductee must have time to process. However, for
most of us, consciously pausing to provide for
space for thinking requires patience and practice.
Providing wait time to think and process can be a
great gift. Pause to Enhance Thinking and Thought
fulness.
Paraphrasing
Purposeful paraphrasing signals our full attention.
It lets the inductee know that we understand his or
her thoughts, concerns, questions, and ideas, or
we are trying to.
By showing we are listening, we earn permission
to inquire for details and press for elaboration.
Questions may often be interpreted
as interrogation.
Paraphrasing helps establish a safe environment
and trigger more thoughtful responses than simply
asking questions alone. Paraphrasing should not
slip to the low level of “parrot phrasing.”
Three Types of Paraphrases
Acknowledge and Clarify,
Summarize and Organize ,
Shifting Levels of Abstraction
Posing Questions
Skillful mentors are purposeful in their use of
questions.
The intention of inquiry is to support
a colleague in exploring issues, problems,
concerns, and ideas.
Our verbal and non verbal actions
during questioning will impact the effectiveness of
the activity.
Questioning needs to provide the opportunity for
open thinking, multiple responses, and
a collaborative approach.
Questions should take the thinking to a deeper
level without intimidation.
An Invitation to Engage and Think,
Question Types : Clarifying,
Mediational: hypothesize what might happen,
analyze, imagine possibilities, compare/ contrast
What’s another way you might….What would it
look like it…. how was (this) different from (that)…
What do you think…
Positive Suppositions
Assuming that others’ intentions are positive
encourages honest conversations. The
environment for dialogue and discussion becomes
safer and allows us to deeper our understanding of
issues.
Frustrated Speaker: I never know what to expect
when I come to work in the morning. My neighbor
knows more than I do and she doesn’t even work
here.
Respondent: As you think about how we communi
cate at our school, what might be some important
components for us to implement to help you better
gain the information you need?
Accent (phonetics), prominence given to a particular
syllable in a word, or a word in a phrase.
Stress (linguistics), dynamic prominence.
Pitch accent, tonal prominence
Accent is the phonetic prominence given to a
particular syllable in a word, or to a particular word
within a phrase.
When this prominence is produced through greater
dynamic force, typically signaled by a combination
of amplitude (volume), syllable or vowel length, full
articulation of the vowel, and a non-distinctive
change in pitch, the result is called stress accent,
dynamic accent, or simply stress; when it is
produced through pitch alone, it is called pitch
accent; and when it is produced through length
alone it is called quantitative accent.
A prominent syllable or word is said to be accented
or tonic; the latter term does not imply that it carries
phonemic tone.
Other syllables or words are said to be unaccented
or atonic.
Syllables are frequently said to be in pretonic or
post-tonic position; certain phonological rules apply
specifically to such positions.
A metaphor is a figure of speech that describes a
subject by asserting that it is, on some point of
comparison, the same as another otherwise
unrelated object.
Metaphor is a type of analogy and is closely related
to other rhetorical figures of speech that achieve
their effects via association, comparison or
resemblance including allegory, hyperbole, and
simile.
In simpler terms, a metaphor compares two objects
or things without using the words "like" or "as".
You may have often heard expressions such as “he
drowned in a sea of grief” or “she is fishing in
troubled waters,” or “success is a bastard as it has
many fathers, and failure is an orphan, with no
takers.”
All these expressions have one thing in common:
a situation is compared to a real thing, although the
situation is not actually that particular thing.
Time is a thief - Time isn't really stealing anything,
this metaphor just indicates that time passes
quickly and our lives pass us by.
Bubbly personality - A bubbly personality doesn't
mean a person is bubbling over with anything, just
that the person is cheerful.
Rollercoaster of emotions - A rollercoaster of
emotions doesn't exist anywhere, so when people
are on a rollercoaster of emotions, they are simply
experiencing lots of ups and downs.
All of these expressions are examples of
metaphors.
They are juxtaposing an actual (literal) thing and a
figurative thing in order to give more meaning to
the figurative concept.
To use the above examples, the literal expression
in the phrase is “sea,” while “grief” is the figurative
item.
Expressions are used to give effect to a statement.
Imagine how bland a statement such as “he was
sad” is, compared to a statement describing a “sea
of grief.”
The metaphor is sure to give the reader a better
idea of the depths of grief in this situation.
Alliteration
In language, alliteration is the repetition of a
particular sound in the prominent lifts (or stressed
syllables) of a series of words or phrases.
Alliteration has developed largely through poetry, in
which it more narrowly refers to the repetition of a
consonant in any syllables that, according to the
poem's meter, are stressed as in James Thomson's
verse "Come…dragging the lazy languid Line
along".
Another example is Peter Piper Picked a Peck of
Pickled Peppers.
Consonance (ex: As the wind will bend) is another
'phonetic agreement' akin/alike to alliteration. It
refers to the repetition of consonant sounds.
Alliteration is a special case of consonance where
the repeated consonant sound is at the stressed
syllable.
Alliteration may also include the use of different
consonants with similar properties.
Brand Names and Alliteration
Companies use this alliterative effect all the time.
The major reason companies use this technique is
to ensure that their brand name is memorable.
Think, for example, of all of the famous and well
known brands and companies that have used
alliteration in their names:
Dunkin’ Donuts, PayPal, Best Buy, Coca-Cola,
LifeLock
A many famous phrases, quotes and saying also
make use of alliteration:
Busy as a bee, Dead as a doornail, Give up the
ghost, Good as gold, Home sweet home, Last
laugh, Make a mountain out of a molehill, Method
to the madness, Neck and neck, Not on your nelly,
Out of order
Alliteration is commonly used since it adds interest
to a sentence and can be a great way to help you
remember names and phrases that you might other
wide forget.
Enjoy alliteration. It is a very fun and useful literary
device.
Common Literary Forms and Genres
literary genre - a style of expressing yourself in
writing
writing style, genre
drama - the literary genre of works intended for the
theater
prose - ordinary writing as distinguished from verse
expressive style, style - a way of expressing
something , that is characteristic of a particular
person or group of people or period; "all the
reporters were expected to adopt the style of the
newspaper"
form - an arrangement of the elements in a
composition or discourse;
poesy, poetry, verse - literature in metrical form
Jargon is the technical terminology or characteristic
idiom of a special activity occupational or social
group.
Jargon is like a type of shorthand between
members of a particular group of people, often
words that are meaningless outside of a certain
context. Following are some examples of jargon
that will help illustrate the concept.
Bang for the buck - A term that means, to get the
most for your money
Due diligence - Putting effort into research before
making a business decision
Sweat equity - Getting a stake in the business
instead of pay
The 9-to-5 - Business jargon meaning a standard
work day
Chief cook and bottle-washer - A person who holds
many responsibilities
In other words, the term covers the language used
by people who work in a particular area or who
have a common interest.
Much like slang, it can develop as a kind of
shorthand, to express ideas that are frequently
discussed between members of a group, though it
can also be developed deliberately using chosen
terms.
A standard term may be given a more precise or
unique usage among practitioners of a field. In
many cases this causes a barrier to communication
with those not familiar with the language of the
field.
For example, bit, byte, and hexadecimal are jargon
terms related to computing.
Each of these different types of jargon is used as a
shorthand by people in-the-know to make
communicating easier.
By learning the jargon for a particular industry, you
can develop a deeper understanding of its culture
and commonly-used phrases.
Jargon is largely present in every day language, in
newspapers, government documents and official forms.
Several advocacy organisations work on influencing
public agents to offer accessible information in different
formats.
One accessible format that offers an alternative to
jargonised language is Easy Read, which consists of a
combination of plain English and images. Another
alternative is a jargon buster, incorporated to certain
technical documents.
There is a balance to be struck - excessive removal of
technical terminology from a document leads to an
equally undesirable outcome - dumbing down.
George Orwell, a socialist, leftist, and Marxist, believes
in the modern style of language, deeming that good
writing is clear and simple.
In his essay, “Politics and the English Language,” he
states the following arguments: technical language is
nothing but an oratorical trick, simple language is
required to clarify difficult concepts, while complex
language is needed to explain simple concepts, and
lastly, political language is structured to make lies seem
like the truth.
In short, Orwell is articulating that specialized language
is not essential.