Rhetoric

Rhetorical devices, figures of speech, turns of phrase, schemes, tropes, ornaments, colors, flowers

Speech matters. A lot. Here are two stories that demonstrate this. When you carefully examine the flow of an exhibition final round, the substance is not usually very different from what you’d find in any solid varsity speech. But time after time, a handful of speakers are able to rise above the pool and win. How do they do it?On a few occasions over the years, we’ve taken the outline of a case and had a series of different speakers deliver it and others would score it. At the end, we compared notes and learned that from speech to speech, we had a spread from 22 to 28 points, despite the fact that the content of the speech was the same in every case. The only difference was HOW the substance was delivered and explained. Still not convinced? Look back at the Presidential election of 2008, especially the Democratic primaries. In terms of policy, candidates Hillary Clinton & Barack Obama were basically identical. So how was it that the unknown, exotic upstart Illinois Senator was able to upset the ambitions of the “inevitable,” nationally-recognized presumptive nominee? When given the national stage, it turned out that the black guy whose middle name was synonymous with terrorism and dictatorship could give speeches like no other. His speaking was so powerful, he ended up upending not only Ms. Clinton, but also a widely-respected, long-serving Senator and war hero, John McCain. The secret sauce was certainly not experience or name recognition. Instead, it turned out to be his remarkable control of language, his ability to convince the nation that despite being unknown and untested, he was the right guy to turn around the economy. Ronald Reagan also used the power of language to persuade Americans that a former B-movie actor who spent much of his career playing alongside a chimpanzee named Bonzo could be an effective leader. And both in turn used their office to enact several new policies. While we can and should debate the wisdom of their choices as President, there can be little doubt that their use of rhetoric was one of the most important factors that enabled them to win the White House.

And the good news for you is that this stuff can be learned. To debate well, you need not remember the definitions of litotes, anaphora, metabasis, and hypophora, but you do need to teach yourself to use them when you need them. If you look them up, and practiced adding them to your speech patterns, you will undoubtedly speak better. Rhetorical devices, figures of speech, turns of phrase, schemes, tropes, ornaments, colors, and flowers are the spices that make our ideas attractive and easily digestible for others. (In case you're wondering, yes, that was a similie.)

Spend some time reading about them and try applying them in this week’s practice, in class, and in your next tournament. As you read, you’ll probably learn that you are already using some of them already. So try some you don’t know. Like a musician, the more tunes and styles you can play the more gigs you’ll get (another simile). Practice makes perfect (that’s alliteration!) Enough... get busy!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scheme_%28linguistics%29

http://www.virtualsalt.com/rhetoric.htm

http://rhetoric.byu.edu/