RPR

Your review of personal reading will be completed in class time during the week beginning 5th November. You should have completed your book in time to give you at least a week to prepare notes and ideas, so that gives you around four more weeks of reading.

We will have time in class next week to discuss this, and if you still haven't settled on a book, you should talk to me. Try to stretch yourself a little in your choices; although this is meant to be an enjoyable task based on a text of your choice, you should also be pushing yourself somewhat.

Tips, ideas and inspiration for speechmaking

Some rough and ready tips for making a great persuasive speech

As well as the basics (have a clear message and articulate it clearly) the following ideas may be of some interest.

Make them cry; make them think; make them laugh
Give the audience an emotional roller coaster ride.

The track for the ride is your facts, information and practical suggestions for action.
The humps and dips are provided by:

• lots of personalisation such as, "all of us in this room..." or "those of us who..." or "each and every one of you..." or "go back to Bearsden; go back to Milngavie..."
• careful word choice: pick words which will arouse strong feelings. Emotive language might refer to children, death, birth, suffering, dreams, courage etc.
• powerful metaphors which carry meaningful connotations and suggest movement or action

The "rule of three".

I'm not quite sure why, but speakers have often found that by clumping things together in threes they can hammer home their message.
General Charles De Gaulle put the rule to particularly good use. Instead of calling on men who have served in "any of France's armed forces" he issued his summons in sequence to men of the army, navy and air forces ("de terre, de mer et de l'air"). The rhythm reinforces the entreaty for everyone to do their bit.

Look to the old school
Here is a rather daunting list of rhetorical devices. Flick through a few and see if there are any which grab your interest. Don’t worry about the Greek and Latin names; you will be familiar with many of the techniques from having heard them already. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhetorical_device

Use soundbites Turning a phrase that encapsulates a message has always been an essential part of crafting a great speech. Even the best soundbites rely on very old tricks. One is phrase reversal - John F Kennedy's "ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country". Another is taking an established cliche and adapting it. Margaret Thatcher, for example, wheeled out the then well-worn phrase about Labour's "winter of discontent" but then held out promise in its place of "an autumn of understanding" and "a winter of common sense".

The eyes have it Cicero said that the eyes are “the window to the soul.” They make the most eloquent gestures of all. Think about those soulful orbs, and your facial expressions will follow. This works even before a large audience that can’t actually see your eyes; for one thing, doing the windows-to-the-soul thing makes you less likely to do silly gestures with your hands or wave your arms around.

Sell sell sell

Use the expertise of marketing people. They’re trained in the ancient art of parting people from their money, and generally know what they’re about. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AIDA


Be inspired
Have a look at The Guardian's great speeches site. Find your inspiration.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/greatspeeches