How to make speeches more vivid, engaging, and memorable?
Style exists on a continuum from plain to grand.
In Reagan’s 1987 Berlin Wall speech, which do you think is most powerful?
Avoid clichés that audiences tune out or no longer understand (“Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth”).
Giving things human or animal traits makes language vivid.
Rather than saying “It was foggy,” T.S. Eliot personifies fog as a cat: “the fog has a back, tongue, and ability to leap and sleep.”
Aim for 3–5 repetitions at the beginning phrase in successive sentences.
In Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech:
Use repetition at the ending of a phrase.
Bill Clinton: “There is nothing wrong with America that cannot be cured by what is right with America.”
Use multiple variations of the same word in one sentence.
Shakespeare: “Love is not love which alters when it alteration finds.”
Biblical proverb: “Judge not, lest you be judged.”
Use two or more words starting with the same letter.
Company names: Best Buy, Coca Cola, Dunkin Donuts
King: “[children] will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.”
Invert subject and predicate in successive phrases, forming an “X” pattern.
Kennedy: “Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country.”
Use two opposite words in parallel phrases.
Stock-market advice: “Buy low, sell high.”
Kennedy: “We choose to go to the moon…not because they are easy, but because they are hard.”
Armstrong: “One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.”
Use just enough repetition (neither too much nor too little).
Audiences only remember 50% immediately after a speech and 10–20% the next day. Repetition reinforces memory (Johnson 2024).
Use exaggeration for stylistic or ironic effect.
Use ironic understatement for rhetorical effect.
| Term | Meaning | Mnemonic |
|---|---|---|
| triad | group of three items or phrases | ?? |
| anaphora | repeat at the start of phrases | ?? |
| epiphora | repeat at the end of phrases | ?? |
| polyptoton | multiple variations of phrase | ?? |
| alliteration | words starting with the same letter | ?? |
| chiasmus | inverted structure | ?? |
| antithesis | opposite words in parallel phrases | ?? |
| hyperbole | exaggeration for effect | ?? |
| litotes | ironic understatement | ?? |
| Term | Meaning | Mnemonic |
|---|---|---|
| triad | group of three items or phrases | TRIcycle |
| anaphora | repeat at the start of phrases | ANAlysis begins at the start |
| epiphora | repeat at the end of phrases | EPIlogue comes at the END |
| polyptoton | variation of phrase | POLYgamists like variation |
| alliteration | words with the same initial letter | ALike beginnings |
| chiasmus | inverted structure | CHIASM crossing |
| antithesis | opposite words in parallel phrases | ANTIdote opposes poison |
| hyperbole | exaggeration for effect | HYPERactive |
| litotes | ironic understatement | LITtle can fit under |
Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe to assure the survival and the success of liberty.
And so, my fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you—ask what you can do for your country.
My fellow citizens of the world: ask not what America will do for you, but what together we can do for the freedom of man.
What stylistic flair might you use in your next speech?
What are four stylistic tactics and their mnemonics?