Features Of Prepared Talk/Speech

Grammatical Features
1. Parallelism
  1. Phrase/clause/sentence(s) with similar grammatical structure
  2. Create strong, emphatic rhythm + stress key ideas
  3. e.g Earl Spencer (Princess Diana's Funeral): "I stand before you today as the representative of a family in grief, in a country in mourning, before a world in shock."
    1. "--of a family in grief" (=) "in a country in mourning" (=) "before a world in shock"
      1. Think: phonology, stress, syntax, adverb, lexis, the power of three
    2. Progression from "family" to "world" via parallelism
    3. EMPHATIC
2. Repetition:
  1. Words/phrases/sentenses
    1. Think: the -diplosis trio
      1. Anadiplosis
        A word/phrase at the end of a sentence or phrase is repeated at the beginning of the next sentence or phrase.
      2. Mesodiplosis
        Repetition of the same word(s) in the middle of successive sentences.
      3. Epanadiplosis
        Repetition of a word or phrase at the beginning and end of a phrase, clause or sentence
    2. Think: antimetabole
      1. Word/phrase in one clause/phrase repeated in the opposite order in the next clause/phrase
    3. Think: triple repetition
      1. e.g Tony Blair: "Education, education, education."
  2. Emphasis & Cohesion
3. Contrast & Antithesis
  1. CONTRAST: words & phrases that contrast in some way
  2. ANTITHESIS: words involved have directly opposite meanings
  3. Why? Rhythm & the transition +ve to -ve or -ve to +ve always emphasizes the latter!
    1. e.g Abraham Lincoln: "The brave men living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated far above our power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here.
      1. Think: contrast pairs, living-dead; add-detract; little-long; remember-forget; what we say here-what they did there
4. The power of three
  1. Memorable rhythm
  2. e.g Winston Churchill: "--blood, toil, tears and sweat"
    1. Think: modern expression "blood, sweat & tears"
5. Interrogatives (the Q&A)
  1. Way of involving the audience & instigating emotion
  2. Question demands change in intonation -> gives speech variety and dynamics
  3. Rhetorical questions
  4. Questions answered by the speaker themselves
    1. e.g Tony Blair: "And what has the government done about it? Nothing!"
  5. Think: audience specificity
6. Listing
  1. Reinforce an idea/argument with a cumulative effect
  2. Think: asyndetic vs. syndetic listing
    1. SYNDETIC: connected by a conjunction
      1. e.g flock and wheel and cry.
    2. ASYNDETIC: connected by a comma instead of a conjunction
      1. e.g flock, wheel, and cry
7. Sentence Length
  1. Usually short, direct & powerful
  2. Alt: long sentences that build to a climax
  3. Why important? Emphasis, structure, rhythm, interest/comprehension of the audience
  4. Think: simple, compound, complex & compound-complex sentence structures
8. Use of 1st Person Plural
  1. Create feeling of unity & solidarity + selflessness
  2. Relationship between speaker & audience
9. Use of 2nd Person Plural
  1. Involve audience by addressing them directly
Lexical Features
1. Simple Vocabulary
  1. Often monosyllabic
  2. Used in order to be clear, direct & forceful
2. Elaborate / Elevated / Professional Vocabulary
  1. Adds solemnity and weight
  2. Make speech sound dramatic, uplifting etc.
  3. Attain credibility by (what appears to be) professionalism - impression of certainty & drive
    1. Appeals to audience's sense of rationality
3. Emotive Vocabulary
  1. Attain an emotional reaction from the audience
    1. e.g Winston Churchill during early WWII: "Side by side, the British and French peoples have advanced to rescue not only Europe but mankind from the foulest and most soul-destroying tyranny which has ever darkened and stained the pages of history.
  2. Connect the audience to the issue at hand by stirring up own opinions, concepts, memories etc.
  3. Think: "The manipulative tool."
  4. Think: "An invisible highlighter."
4. Hyperbole
  1. The use of exaggeration
  2. Used for emotive effect or dramatic impact
  3. e.g Neil Kinnock during the General Election of 1987: "Why am I the first Kinnock in a thousand generations to be able to get to university? Why is Glenys [his wife] the first woman in her family in a thousand generations to be able to get to university?"
5. Figurative Language
  1. Metaphors & Imagery
    1. e.g Martin Luther King: "[the abolition of slavery will be] a joyous daybreak to end the long night of captivity" - "[black Americans inhabited] a lonely island of poverty in the middle of a vast ocean of material prosperity."
  2. Similes
  3. Anecdotes
  4. Painting a carefully constructed picture with your words.
    1. Think: taking the audience on a journey -> making it memorable!
  5. Evoking associations & personalizing the speech to the specific audience, or the specific speaker to build an own "style".
Phonological Features
1. Phonological Devices
  1. Alliteration
  2. Assonance
  3. Rhyme
2. Rhythm
  1. Think about the effect of:
    1. Word length
    2. Sentence length
    3. Pauses
3. Intonation
  1. Stress
  2. Articulation
  3. Volume
Speeches you should hear/read
1. Kennedy Inauguration, John F. Kennedy , 1961
2. Pericles’ Funeral Oration Pericles, 5th Century BC
3. Freedom or Death Emmeline Pankhurst, 1913
4. Urban II Speech at Clermont Pope Urban II, 1095
5. The Pleasure of Books William Lyon Phelps, 1933
6. Ain’t I A Woman? Sojourner Truth, 1851
7. I Am The First Accused Nelson Mandela, 1964
8. I Have A Dream Martin Luther King, 1963
9. Gettysburg Address Abraham Lincoln, 1863
10. We Shall Fight On The Beaches Winston Churchill, 1940

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Features Of Prepared Talk/Speech

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	Created by Liisi Emilia Kilpelä over 10 years ago