Some Philpott Gems:
Start by considering:
There are as many different kinds of speeches as there are audiences. Nevertheless, there are some traits that all speeches have in common, despite their different audiences. Before we look at these defining characteristics below, it is important to note that there are three over arching principles that govern speech writing in general. The ancient Greeks referred to them as ethos, pathos and logos.
Ethos – ‘What gives you the authority to speak before me today?’
Pathos – ‘Why should I care, emotionally, about what you are saying?’
Logos – ‘How does your speech makes sense, logically? Give me persuasive arguments to take action.’
Keep these in mind when reading or viewing your chosen speech
Characteristics. To achieve Ethos, Pathos and Logos certain stylistic features are employed:
| Allusion – Allusion is when one refers to the words of someone else. Including allusion in a speech gives it more ethos. |
| Attention grabber – You can grab the audience’s attention in several ways, with a quote, a joke, or a big, bold statement. |
| Bond – Gaining a rapport with your audience is easier when you say inclusive plurals like ‘we’, ‘our’, or ‘us’. Bond is very much a part of ethos. |
| Destination – Where is this speech going? Why should people continue to listen? |
| Figurative speech – Using metaphors and similes is one way of making abstract ideas become concrete. |
| Parallelisms – A parallelism is grammatical construction in which the form of several sentence parts line up nicely in a sequence. |
| Anaphora – This refers to the repetition of a particular idea or phrase. |
| Varied sentence length – Long sentences with many clauses, which state several points related to the main point like this one, can become highly effective when off-set with a kind of powerful punchy small sentence that follows shortly thereafter. This is one. |
Here are some technical features given in the Jodi Foster article (http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2013/jan/14/genius-jodie-foster-speech-golden-globes)
(1) Anaphora: repetition of words or a phrase at the beginning of a clause or sentence.
(2) Polysyndeton: overuse of conjunctions.
(3) Ethos: attempt to establish authority or connection with the audience.
(4) Occultatio: a figure that brings in material while pretending not to talk about it.
(5) Tricolon: three units of speech put in a row.
(6) Peroration: final part of an argument.
(7) Chiasmus or antimetabole: four terms in a criss-crossed relation to each other
I’ll add more as I get a chance…
Thanks, Phillypott
mrtoogood 
Leave a comment