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Speechwriting

12 Language in Speechwriting

What language is and does

In this chapter . . .

Regardless of how interesting your speech topic is or how well it’s structured, if the language you choose is difficult for the audience to understand, they will become confused and disengaged. We explain both how to shape language through rhetorical techniques to enhance mental imagery and sound sense and what type of language should be avoided.

We would be wrong to treat language as an “add-on” to the ideas and structure of the speech. Language is far too complex and foundational an aspect of our lives for us to consider it as an afterthought for a speech. In this chapter we will look at how language functions in communication, what standards language choices should meet in public speaking, and how you can become more proficient in using language in public speaking.

As a means of communication, language functions on two levels we call denotative and connotative. Denotative is the specific meaning associated with a word. We sometimes refer to denotative as dictionary definitions. Connotative, on the other hand, is the idea associated with a word at a cultural or personal level. It’s the way a specific listener interprets a word. For example, the word “police” denotes, according to common dictionary definitions, “the civil force of a national or local government, responsible for the prevention and detection of crime and the maintenance of public order.” Connotations for the word “police,” however, vary according to individuals. In practice, listening involves processing both denotation and connotation.

While as speechwriters we can’t control exactly how an audience hears the words we speak, if we work towards language clarity, effectiveness, and elegance, which are discussed in the next sections, we can improve understanding between speaker and listener.

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Public Speaking as Performance Copyright © 2023 by Mechele Leon is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted.

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