Dave Bricker: Want to expand your speaking and storytelling skills and grow your influence? This is Speakipedia Media brought to you by speakipedia.com. I’m your host, Dave Bricker, bringing you straight talk, smart strategies and amazing stories from visionary speakers … More ☛
Catachresis is a bold, often startling use of language where a word is used in a way that dramatically changes its usual meaning, pushing boundaries to create a striking effect. Essentially, it’s exaggerated metaphor. Shakespeare was a master of this. … More ☛
Transcript Dave Bricker (00:03) Want to expand your speaking and storytelling skills and grow your influence business? This is Speakipedia Media brought to you by speakipedia .com. I’m your host, Dave Bricker, bringing you straight talk, smart strategies, and amazing … More ☛
by Dave Bricker Load a demo and experience the AI-generated results. Get Started Opening Prompt Intro Call to Action Pitch! We’ve all suffered through the round-robin ramble—where meeting participants each deliver a boring, too-long, me-focused, exposition on who they are … More ☛
Nothing screams “amateur” like a poorly crafted book cover. The standards for book design aspired to by trade publishers are not all that high, but self-publishers routinely fall short of them. If you want your book to be taken seriously, … More ☛
Adynaton. Pronounced ad-uh-NAY-ton, is a form of hyperbole that describes something so exaggerated, it’s impossible. It’s like saying, ‘You’ll get this project done when pigs fly,’ which means it’s highly unlikely to happen. Why is this useful in storytelling and … More ☛
Antimetabole—pronounced an-ti-muh-TAB-uh-lee—involves repeating words in successive clauses, but in reversed order. Listen to Winston S. Churchill‘s famous example: ‘This is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the … More ☛
Catechresis is a bold, often startling use of language where a word is used in a way that dramatically changes its usual meaning, pushing boundaries to create a striking effect. Essentially, it’s exaggerated metaphor. Shakespeare was a master of this. … More ☛
Chiasmus, pronounced ky-AZ-mus. Chiasmus is a rhetorical device in which two or more clauses are balanced against each other by the reversal of their structures, not necessarily repeating the words. An example is the famous quote by John F. Kennedy: … More ☛
Euphony refers to the quality of being pleasing to the ear, especially through a harmonious combination of words. It’s a literary device used to create beautiful, melodious sounds within a phrase or sentence, enhancing the auditory appeal of poetry and … More ☛
Epistrophe is used to emphasize a point and create a memorable rhythm in speech. A classic example comes from Abraham Lincoln in his Gettysburg Address: ‘…of the people, by the people, for the people.’ This repetition reinforces the message of … More ☛
Climax. Yeah, we all know what that is … but in the context of storytelling and public speaking, a climax is the moment of greatest tension or conflict, where the stakes are highest and the outcome is decided. It’s the … More ☛
Alliteration. Alliteration artfully arranges adjacent and alike initial sounds in closely clustered words. It’s a superb stylistic strategy that stitches sound, symmetry, and sonority into sentences. It significantly spices up speeches and prose, and makes your messages more memorable and … More ☛
Hyperbole—an exaggerated statement or claim not meant to be taken literally but used to grab attention, emphasize a point, or convey strong emotions. ‘That speaker went on forever!’ ‘I thought I was going to die of old age before she … More ☛
Malapropism—the misuse of a word by confusing it with a similar-sounding word, resulting in nonsensical, often bituminous statements. A classic example is the character Mrs. Malaprop in the play ‘The Rivals,’ who says ‘He is the very pineapple of politeness,’ … More ☛
Orotund refers to a style of speech that is rounded, full, and imposing. It describes a voice or tone that is clear and resonant, ideal for public speaking and theatrical performances. A rotund person is round and plump; an orotund … More ☛
Oxymoron—a figure of speech in which contradictory terms appear in conjunction. It’s used to create a dramatic effect or to highlight complex truths through contradiction. Examples include ‘deafening silence’ and ‘bittersweet.’ “A verbal contract isn’t worth the paper it’s written … More ☛
An Aphorism is a pithy observation that contains a general truth, such as, ‘Actions speak louder than words.’ These short, memorable lines pack a punch, encapsulating wisdom in a nutshell. Aphorisms are fantastic tools in public speaking and storytelling because … More ☛
Peroration refers to the concluding part of a speech, designed to inspire enthusiasm and drive home the speaker‘s key points with maximum impact. A famous example is Martin Luther King Jr.’s ending in ‘I Have a Dream,’ where he powerfully … More ☛
Parody is a form of satire that imitates the style of a particular genre, work, or artist in a way that makes fun of those styles or works, often exaggerating distinctive features to comic effect. Here’s a classic version of … More ☛
Polysyndeton, a stylistic device that involves the use of multiple conjunctions in close succession, often where they are not grammatically necessary. ‘We have ships and men and money and supplies,’ The repeated use of ‘and’ adds a cumulative effect to … More ☛
Paronomasia, or punning, involves using words that sound similar but have different meanings, often to humorous effect. ‘Time flies like an arrow; fruit flies like a banana.’ This pun plays with the word ‘flies’ to entertain and engage the listener. … More ☛
Tricolon is a rhetorical device that involves the use of three parallel clauses, phrases, or words, which happen to increase in power and intensity. A famous example is Julius Caesar’s ‘Veni, Vidi, Vici,’ which translates to ‘I came, I saw, … More ☛
Zeugma is a figure of speech where a word, usually a verb or an adjective, is applied to more than one noun, blending together grammatically and logically different ideas. ‘She broke my car and she broke my heart!’ ‘Broke’ is … More ☛
Scansion is the process of analyzing a poem’s meter by marking the stresses in each line and determining the metrical pattern. This technique is essential for understanding the rhythmic structure of verse and enhancing poetic expression. For example, in analyzing … More ☛
A simile is a figure of speech that compares two different things using ‘like’ or ‘as’ to highlight similarities explicitly. Think of the word “simile” as being related to “similar.” This is similar to that. ‘Busy as a bee’ uses … More ☛
(366 words) Patrick Henry gave his famous speech to the Second Virginia Convention on March 23, 1775, at St. John’s Church in Richmond, Virginia, which convinced the convention to muster troops for the Revolutionary War. According to Edmund Randolph, the … More ☛
The Rule of Threes suggests that concepts or ideas presented in threes are inherently more interesting, more enjoyable, and more memorable. Groups of three blend of rhythm and emphasis. Three is the smallest number required to form a pattern, and … More ☛
Franklin D. Roosevelt said, “There is nothing to fear but fear itself.” Why is it that some words naturally stick in our heads… like the lyrics to a song that keeps spinning in our brains? What if we could harness … More ☛
Many of us can recite poems and lyrics we first heard when we were children. Rhythm and rhyme are beyond memorable. So why don’t we use them more often when we speak? I was bored with my elevator pitch and … More ☛
Anaphora is the repetition of a phrase to drive home the impact of a speech. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. used anaphora to great effect in several parts of his famous “I have a dream” speech. Here are a few … More ☛
The “elevator pitch” is an essential professional tool—a tool that should be kept razor sharp and as ready to deploy as a handshake and a smile—and yet, most professionals are woefully bad at introducing themselves. Have you ever attended a … More ☛
How do stories work? You knew that movie was going to stink as soon as you got through the opening scene … but you sat through the whole thing to find out how the story ended. Numerous studies have explored … More ☛
Speakers are commonly asked, “What’s your topic?” or “What’s your message?” Such questions may sound intuitively reasonable but they lead would-be speakers astray before the first word is written. Questions about “your topic” or “your message” imply that your speech … More ☛
