On About.com: Grammar & Composition, Richard Nordquist writes about Barack Obama’s uncanny ability to stir a crowd. A large chunk of his article is devoted to a technique called a tricolon – that is, a series of three parallel words, phrases, or clauses. Here are some examples:

• "Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn." -Benjamin Franklin
• "…Government of the people, by the people, for the people." -Abraham Lincoln
• "We cannot dedicate -- we cannot consecrate -- we cannot hallow…" -Abraham Lincoln
• "I came; I saw; I conquered." -Julius Ceasar

You might notice that Abraham Lincoln got two mentions above. The tricolon is a repeated theme in Lincoln’s rhetoric, and I don’t think it’s any accident that Senator Obama is emulating his style. Mr. Nordquist writes:

…Rhetoric is an ancient art and a fairly consequential skill. Thomas Jefferson knew how to use words. So did Abraham Lincoln, John Kennedy, and Martin Luther King, Jr. As it happened, echoes of the words of all four men could be heard in Tuesday night's speech.

It’s a powerful oratorical technique, and, when coupled with repetition and alliteration, the power of three strengthens any argument. It’s a style of speaking that is reminiscent of a pulpit. Think “faith, hope, and love,” “Father, Son, and Holy Ghost,” “the things we touched, saw, and heard,” etc. How many good sermons follow a three point structure?

Until recently, I didn’t know an official name for this kind of rhetoric. I’ve just affectionally called it The Rule of Three. While tripods are not the steadiest of structures, a speech centered around the number three can be extremely successful at an emotional level, making your message all the more memorable to your audience.

Tags: barack obama, language, rule of three

Earlier this month, Seattlepi.com ran a comparative language analysis of Steve Jobs' and Bill Gates' keynotes for Macworld Expo and CES respectively. Simply put, Steve Jobs rated as the easier speaker to understand, and the site attributes this as a factor in Mr. Jobs' overall effectiveness as a speaker.

The language we use when speaking can either help us connect with our audience or distance ourselves from them. How many times have you groaned in a seminar of conference room presentation when something like this flits through the air?

We can phosfluorescently redefine out-of-the-box best practices before timely expertise and efficiently re-engineer inexpensive e-tailers with focused customer service. This allows us to enthusiastically synergize ubiquitous benefits for interactive methodologies.

In this, we credibly visualize integrated experiences through vertical best practices, giving us leverage to enthusiastically generate empowered technology and holistic total linkage and assertively redefine resource-leveling solutions via accurate potentialities.

bizarre buzz-speak courtesy of Corporate Ispsum

Speech like this requires so much time to digest and translate that the meaning is lost before it is reached. (To be fair, the above example is pure gibberish.) Kathy Sierra refers to one who speaks like this as a glib and as someone who should be ignored at all costs. Deep down, I think we already know this, and an audience is more likely to tune out a speaker following this pattern than engage him or her.

When giving a public presentation, think about how you are sating what you are saying. If you are using Microsoft Word to draft your talk, use the built-in Flesch-Kincaid readability scale. Easier to understand passages rate closer to 100 in Flesch Reading Ease, and the Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level gives you an approximation of the vocabulary level.


readability statistics in Word

Communicate clearly. Eliminate buzzwords, excessive acronyms, and unnecessary jargon from your speech. Think of how you would converse with the individuals in your audience, and take that approach to communicating your ideas. Remember, for anyone to connect with your presentation, they must first be able to understand it.

Tags: steve jobs, bill gates, language, connections