For Unit 2, the desk study, there is a strong possibility that you will be asked to script a planned speech. What follows is part of a worksheet that I compiled, during the first term. It includes five dominant, rhetorical techniques (the list is not exhaustive). For revision, you could analyse planned speeches at http://www.famousquotes.me.uk/speeches/ , considering, in particular, how the speakers employ rhetorical techniques to persuade the audience and to shape the listeners' responses to what they say.
Rhetorical Techniques
When examining the language of planned speeches, we will still need to consider the frameworks of lexis and grammar, as we do with spontaneous speech. However, it is essential that we consider another framework, which is specific to planned speeches, and that framework is rhetorical techniques.
Rhetorical Techniques
Rhetoric is, essentially, the art of public speaking. Rhetorical techniques are employed by public speakers to persuade listeners and shape their responses in various ways.
Here are a number of the most important rhetorical devices:
1) Repetition of sounds/ words/ sentence structure
E.g. ‘The economy today, under the Labour party, is weak, weak, weak!’
2) Rule of three
‘We wouldn’t surrender then, we won’t surrender now, and we will not surrender in the future.’
3) The rhetorical question
‘Are we a nation that has lost its way?’
4) Emotive language
‘I stand before you, appalled and disgusted!’
5) Hyperbole (exaggeration)
‘Due to the incompetence of this present government, the country has come to a complete standstill.’
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