Multiple Choice Questions
13.2 Using Language Effectively
Learning Objectives
1. Explain what it means to use appropriate language.
2. Explain what is meant by vivid language.
3. Define inclusive language and explain why using it is important for public speakers.
4. Explain the importance of using familiar language in public speaking.
Kimba Howard – megaphone – CC BY 2.0.
When considering how to use language effectively in your speech, consider the degree to which the language is
appropriate, vivid, inclusive, and familiar. The next sections define each of these aspects of language and discuss
why each is important in public speaking.
Use Appropriate LanguageUse Appropriate Language
As with anything in life, there are positive and negative ways of using language. One of the first concepts a
speaker needs to think about when looking at language use is appropriateness. By appropriate, we mean whether
the language is suitable or fitting for ourselves, as the speaker; our audience; the speaking context; and the speech
itself.
Appropriate for the SpeakerAppropriate for the Speaker
One of the first questions to ask yourself is whether the language you plan on using in a speech fits with your
own speaking pattern. Not all language choices are appropriate for all speakers. The language you select should
be suitable for you, not someone else. If you’re a first-year college student, there’s no need to force yourself to
sound like an astrophysicist even if you are giving a speech on new planets. One of the biggest mistakes novice
speakers make is thinking that they have to use million-dollar words because it makes them sound smarter. Actu-
ally, million-dollar words don’t tend to function well in oral communication to begin with, so using them will
probably make you uncomfortable as a speaker. Also, it may be difficult for you or the audience to understand the
nuances of meaning when you use such words, so using them can increase the risk of denotative or connotative
misunderstandings.
Appropriate for the AudienceAppropriate for the Audience
The second aspect of appropriateness asks whether the language you are choosing is appropriate for your specific
audience. Let’s say that you’re an engineering student. If you’re giving a presentation in an engineering class,
you can use language that other engineering students will know. On the other hand, if you use that engineering
vocabulary in a public speaking class, many audience members will not understand you. As another example, if
you are speaking about the Great Depression to an audience of young adults, you can’t assume they will know
the meaning of terms like “New Deal” and “WPA,” which would be familiar to an audience of senior citizens. In
other chapters of this book, we have explained the importance of audience analysis; once again, audience analysis
is a key factor in choosing the language to use in a speech.
Appropriate for the ContextAppropriate for the Context
The next question about appropriateness is whether the language you will use is suitable or fitting for the context
itself. The language you may employ if you’re addressing a student assembly in a high school auditorium will
differ from the language you would use at a business meeting in a hotel ballroom. If you’re giving a speech at an
outdoor rally, you cannot use the same language you would use in a classroom. Recall that the speaking context
includes the occasion, the time of day, the mood of the audience, and other factors in addition to the physical loca-
tion. Take the entire speaking context into consideration when you make the language choices for your speech.
Appropriate for the TopicAppropriate for the Topic
The fourth and final question about the appropriateness of language involves whether the language is appropriate
for your specific topic. If you are speaking about the early years of The Walt Disney Company, would you want
to refer to Walt Disney as a “thaumaturgic” individual (i.e., one who works wonders or miracles)? While the word
“thaumaturgic” may be accurate, is it the most appropriate for the topic at hand? As another example, if your
speech topic is the dual residence model of string theory, it makes sense to expect that you will use more sophis-
ticated language than if your topic was a basic introduction to the physics of, say, sound or light waves.
Use Vivid LanguageUse Vivid Language
After appropriateness, the second main guideline for using language is to use vivid language. Vivid language
helps your listeners create strong, distinct, clear, and memorable mental images. Good vivid language usage helps
an audience member truly understand and imagine what a speaker is saying. Two common ways to make your
speaking more vivid are through the use of imagery and rhythm.
ImageryImagery
Imagery is the use of language to represent objects, actions, or ideas. The goal of imagery is to help an audience
member create a mental picture of what a speaker is saying. A speaker who uses imagery successfully will tap
into one or more of the audience’s five basic senses (hearing, taste, touch, smell, and sight). Three common tools
of imagery are concreteness, simile, and metaphor.
ConcretenessConcreteness
When we use language that is concrete, we attempt to help our audiences see specific realities or actual instances
instead of abstract theories and ideas. The goal of concreteness is to help you, as a speaker, show your audience
something instead of just telling them. Imagine you’ve decided to give a speech on the importance of freedom.
You could easily stand up and talk about the philosophical work of Rudolf Steiner, who divided the ideas of free-
dom into freedom of thought and freedom of action. If you’re like us, even reading that sentence can make you
want to go to sleep. Instead of defining what those terms mean and discussing the philosophical merits of Steiner,
you could use real examples where people’s freedom to think or freedom to behave has been stifled. For example,
you could talk about how Afghani women under Taliban rule have been denied access to education, and how those
seeking education have risked public flogging and even execution (Iacopino & Rasekh, 1998). You could further
illustrate how Afghani women under the Taliban are forced to adhere to rigid interpretations of Islamic law that
functionally limit their behavior. As illustrations of the two freedoms discussed by Steiner, these examples make
things more concrete for audience members and thus easier to remember. Ultimately, the goal of concreteness is
to show an audience something instead of talking about it abstractly.
SimileSimile
The second form of imagery is simile. As you probably learned in English courses, a simile is a figure of speech in
which two unlike things are explicitly compared. Both aspects being compared within a simile are able to remain
separate within the comparison. The following are some examples:
• The thunderous applause was like a party among the gods.
• After the revelation, she was as angry as a raccoon caught in a cage.
• Love is like a battlefield.
When we look at these two examples, you’ll see that two words have been italicized: “like” and “as.” All similes
contain either “like” or “as” within the comparison. Speakers use similes to help an audience understand a spe-
cific characteristic being described within the speech. In the first example, we are connecting the type of applause
being heard to something supernatural, so we can imagine that the applause was huge and enormous. Now think
how you would envision the event if the simile likened the applause to a mime convention—your mental picture
changes dramatically, doesn’t it?
To effectively use similes within your speech, first look for instances where you may already be finding yourself
using the words “like” or “as”—for example, “his breath smelled like a fishing boat on a hot summer day.” Sec-
ond, when you find situations where you are comparing two things using “like” or “as,” examine what it is that
you are actually comparing. For example, maybe you’re comparing someone’s breath to the odor of a fishing ves-
sel. Lastly, once you see what two ideas you are comparing, check the mental picture for yourself. Are you getting
the kind of mental image you desire? Is the image too strong? Is the image too weak? You can always alter the
image to make it stronger or weaker depending on what your aim is.
MetaphorMetaphor
The other commonly used form of imagery is the metaphor, or a figure of speech where a term or phrase is applied
to something in a nonliteral way to suggest a resemblance. In the case of a metaphor, one of the comparison items
is said to be the other (even though this is realistically not possible). Let’s look at a few examples:
• Love is a battlefield.
• Upon hearing the charges, the accused clammed up and refused to speak without a lawyer.
• Every year a new crop of activists are born.
In these examples, the comparison word has been italicized. Let’s think through each of these examples. In the
first one, the comparison is the same as one of our simile examples except that the word “like” is omitted—instead
of being like a battlefield, the metaphor states that love is a battlefield, and it is understood that the speaker does
not mean the comparison literally. In the second example, the accused “clams up,” which means that the accused
refused to talk in the same way a clam’s shell is closed. In the third example, we refer to activists as “crops” that
arise anew with each growing season, and we use “born” figuratively to indicate that they come into being—even
though it is understood that they are not newborn infants at the time when they become activists.
To use a metaphor effectively, first determine what you are trying to describe. For example, maybe you are talking
about a college catalog that offers a wide variety of courses. Second, identify what it is that you want to say about
the object you are trying to describe. Depending on whether you want your audience to think of the catalog as
good or bad, you’ll use different words to describe it. Lastly, identify the other object you want to compare the
first one to, which should mirror the intentions in the second step. Let’s look at two possible metaphors:
1. Students groped their way through the maze of courses in the catalog.
2. Students feasted on the abundance of courses in the catalog.
While both of these examples evoke comparisons with the course catalog, the first example is clearly more nega-
tive and the second is more positive.
One mistake people often make in using metaphors is to make two incompatible comparisons in the same sentence
or line of thought. Here is an example:
• “That’s awfully thin gruel for the right wing to hang their hats on” (Nordquist, 2009).
This is known as a mixed metaphor, and it often has an incongruous or even hilarious effect. Unless you are
aiming to entertain your audience with fractured use of language, be careful to avoid mixed metaphors.
RhythmRhythm
Our second guideline for effective language in a speech is to use rhythm. When most people think of rhythm,
they immediately think about music. What they may not realize is that language is inherently musical; at least
it can be. Rhythm refers to the patterned, recurring variance of elements of sound or speech. Whether someone
is striking a drum with a stick or standing in front of a group speaking, rhythm is an important aspect of human
communication. Think about your favorite public speaker. If you analyze his or her speaking pattern, you’ll notice
that there is a certain cadence to the speech. While much of this cadence is a result of the nonverbal components
of speaking, some of the cadence comes from the language that is chosen as well. Let’s examine four types of
rhythmic language: parallelism, repetition, alliteration, and assonance.
ParallelismParallelism
When listing items in a sequence, audiences will respond more strongly when those ideas are presented in a gram-
matically parallel fashion, which is referred to as parallelism. For example, look at the following two examples
and determine which one sounds better to you:
1. “Give me liberty or I’d rather die.”
2. “Give me liberty or give me death.”
Technically, you’re saying the same thing in both, but the second one has better rhythm, and this rhythm comes
from the parallel construction of “give me.” The lack of parallelism in the first example makes the sentence sound
disjointed and ineffective.
RepetitionRepetition
As we mentioned earlier in this chapter, one of the major differences between oral and written language is the use
of repetition. Because speeches are communicated orally, audience members need to hear the core of the message
repeated consistently. Repetition as a linguistic device is designed to help audiences become familiar with a short
piece of the speech as they hear it over and over again. By repeating a phrase during a speech, you create a specific
rhythm. Probably the most famous and memorable use of repetition within a speech is Martin Luther King Jr.’s
use of “I have a dream” in his speech at the Lincoln Memorial on August 1963 during the March on Washington
for Jobs and Freedom. In that speech, Martin Luther King Jr. repeated the phrase “I have a dream” eight times to
great effect.
AlliterationAlliteration
Another type of rhythmic language is alliteration, or repeating two or more words in a series that begin with
the same consonant. In the Harry Potter novel series, the author uses alliteration to name the four wizards who
founded Hogwarts School for Witchcraft and Wizardry: Godric Gryffindor, Helga Hufflepuff, Rowena Raven-
claw, and Salazar Slytherin. There are two basic types of alliteration: immediate juxtaposition and nonimmediate
juxtaposition. Immediate juxtaposition occurs when the consonants clearly follow one after the other—as we see
in the Harry Potter example. Nonimmediate juxtaposition occurs when the consonants are repeated in nonadjacent
words (e.g., “It is the poison that we must purge from our politics, the wall that we must tear down before the hour
grows too late”) (Obama, 2008). Sometimes you can actually use examples of both immediate and nonimmediate
juxtaposition within a single speech. The following example is from Bill Clinton’s acceptance speech at the 1992
Democratic National Convention: “Somewhere at this very moment, a child is being born in America. Let it be
our cause to give that child a happy home, a healthy family, and a hopeful future” (Clinton, 2005).
AssonanceAssonance
Assonance is similar to alliteration, but instead of relying on consonants, assonance gets its rhythm from repeating
the same vowel sounds with different consonants in the stressed syllables. The phrase “how now brown cow,”
which elocution students traditionally used to learn to pronounce rounded vowel sounds, is an example of asso-
nance. While rhymes like “free as a breeze,” “mad as a hatter,” and “no pain, no gain” are examples of assonance,
speakers should be wary of relying on assonance because when it is overused it can quickly turn into bad poetry.
Use Inclusive LanguageUse Inclusive Language
Language can either inspire your listeners or turn them off very quickly. One of the fastest ways to alienate an
audience is through the use of noninclusive language. Inclusive language is language that avoids placing any one
group of people above or below other groups while speaking. Let’s look at some common problem areas related
to language about gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation, and disabilities.
Gender-Specific LanguageGender-Specific Language
The first common form of noninclusive language is language that privileges one of the sexes over the other. There
are three common problem areas that speakers run into while speaking: using “he” as generic, using “man” to
mean all humans, and gender typing jobs.
Generic “He”Generic “He”
The generic “he” happens when a speaker labels all people within a group as “he” when in reality there is a mixed
sex group involved. Consider the statement, “Every morning when an officer of the law puts on his badge, he risks
his life to serve and protect his fellow citizens.” In this case, we have a police officer that is labeled as male four
different times in one sentence. Obviously, both male and female police officers risk their lives when they put on
their badges. A better way to word the sentence would be, “Every morning when officers of the law put on their
badges, they risk their lives to serve and protect their fellow citizens.” Notice that in the better sentence, we made
the subject plural (“officers”) and used neutral pronouns (“they” and “their”) to avoid the generic “he.”
Use of “Man”Use of “Man”
Traditionally, speakers of English have used terms like “man,” “mankind,” and (in casual contexts) “guys” when
referring to both females and males. In the second half of the twentieth century, as society became more aware
of gender bias in language, organizations like the National Council of Teachers of English developed guidelines
for nonsexist language (National Council of Teachers of English, 2002). For example, instead of using the word
“man,” you could refer to the “human race.” Instead of saying, “hey, guys,” you could say, “OK, everyone.” By
using gender-fair language you will be able to convey your meaning just as well, and you won’t risk alienating
half of your audience.
Gender-Typed JobsGender-Typed Jobs
The last common area where speakers get into trouble with gender and language has to do with job titles. It is not
unusual for people to assume, for example, that doctors are male and nurses are female. As a result, they may say
“she is a woman doctor” or “he is a male nurse” when mentioning someone’s occupation, perhaps not realizing
that the statements “she is a doctor” and “he is a nurse” already inform the listener as to the sex of the person
holding that job. Speakers sometimes also use a gender-specific pronoun to refer to an occupation that has both
males and females. Table 13.1 “Gender Type Jobs” lists some common gender-specific jobs titles along with more
inclusive versions of those job titles.
Table 13.1 Gender Type Jobs
Exclusive Language Inclusive Language
Policeman Police officer
Businessman Businessperson
Fireman Firefighter
Stewardess Flight attendant
Waiters Wait staff / servers
Mailman Letter carrier / postal worker
Barmaid Bartender
Ethnic IdentityEthnic Identity
Another type of inclusive language relates to the categories used to highlight an individual’s ethnic identity. Ethnic
identity refers to a group an individual identifies with based on a common culture. For example, within the United
States we have numerous ethnic groups, including Italian Americans, Irish Americans, Japanese Americans, Viet-
namese Americans, Cuban Americans, and Mexican Americans. As with the earlier example of “male nurse,”
avoid statements such as “The committee is made up of four women and a Vietnamese man.” Instead, say, “The
committee is made up of four women and a man” or, if race and ethnicity are central to the discussion, “The
committee is made up of three European American women, an Israeli American woman, a Brazilian American
woman, and a Vietnamese American man.” In recent years, there has been a trend toward steering inclusive lan-
guage away from broad terms like “Asians” and “Hispanics” because these terms are not considered precise labels
for the groups they actually represent. If you want to be safe, the best thing you can do is ask a couple of people
who belong to an ethnic group how they prefer to label themselves.
Sexual OrientationSexual Orientation
Another area that can cause some problems is referred to as heterosexism. Heterosexism occurs when a speaker
presumes that everyone in an audience is heterosexual or that opposite-sex relationships are the only norm. For
example, a speaker might begin a speech by saying, “I am going to talk about the legal obligations you will have
with your future husband or wife.” While this speech starts with the notion that everyone plans on getting mar-
ried, which isn’t the case, it also assumes that everyone will label their significant others as either “husbands” or
“wives.” Although some members of the gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender/transexual community will use
these terms, others prefer for more gender neutral terms like “spouse” and “partner.” Moreover, legal obligations
for same-sex couples may be very different from those for heterosexual couples. Notice also that we have used
the phrase “members of the gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender/transexual community” instead of the more
clinical-sounding term “homosexual.”
DisabilityDisability
The last category of exclusive versus inclusive language that causes problems for some speakers relates to indi-
viduals with physical or mental disabilities. Table 13.2 “Inclusive Language for Disabilities” provides some other
examples of exclusive versus inclusive language.
Table 13.2 Inclusive Language for Disabilities
Exclusive Language Inclusive Language
Handicapped People People with disabilities
Insane Person Person with a psychiatric disability (or label the psychiatric diagnosis, e.g. “person with schizophrenia”)
Person in a wheelchair Person who uses a wheelchair
Crippled Person with a physical disability
Special needs program Accessible needs program
Mentally retarded Person with an intellectual disability
Use Familiar LanguageUse Familiar Language
The last category related to using language appropriately simply asks you to use language that is familiar both to
yourself and to your audience. If you are not comfortable with the language you are using, then you are going to
be more nervous speaking, which will definitely have an impact on how your audience receives your speech. You
may have a hard time speaking genuinely and sincerely if you use unfamiliar language, and this can impair your
credibility. Furthermore, you want to make sure that the language you are using is familiar to your audience. If
your audience cannot understand what you are saying, you will not have an effective speech.
Key Takeaways
• Using appropriate language means that a speaker’s language is suitable or fitting for themselves, as the speaker; our audience; the speaking context; and the speech itself.
• Vivid language helps listeners create mental images. It involves both imagery (e.g., concreteness, simile, and metaphor) and rhythm (e.g., parallelism, repetition, alliteration, and assonance).
• Inclusive language avoids placing any one group of people above or below other groups while speaking. As such, speakers need to think about how they refer to various groups within society.
• Using familiar language is important for a speaker because familiar language will make a speaker more comfortable, which will improve audience perceptions of the speech.
Exercises
1. Watch the news and find an example of someone using inappropriate language. Why did the speaker use inappropriate language? How could the speaker have prevented the use of inappropriate language?
2. Watch a presidential press conference or a political speech. Identify the uses of imagery and rhythm. How did the imagery and rhythm help the speech? Can you think of other ways the speaker could have used imagery and rhythm?
3. Why is inclusive language important? Write down the various groups you belong to in life; how would you want these groups to be referred to by a speaker? Share your list with a friend or class- mate and see if that person reaches the same conclusions you do. If there are differences in your per- ceptions, why do you think those differences are present?
ReferencesReferences
Clinton, W. J. (2005). My life. New York, NY: Vintage Books, p. 421.
Iacopino, V., & Rasekh, Z. (1998). The Taliban’s war on women: A health and human rights crisis in Afghanistan.
Boston, MA: Physicians for Human Rights.
National Council of Teachers of English (2002). Guidelines for gender-fair use of language. Retrieved from
http://www.ncte.org/positions/statements/genderfairuseoflang.
Nordquist, R. (2009). Mixed metaphor. Retrieved from About.com at http://grammar.about.com/od/mo/g/mixmet-
term.htm
Obama, B. (2008, January 20). The great need of the hour. Remarks delivered at Ebenezer Baptist Church,
Atlanta. Retrieved from http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2008/01/the_great_need_of_the_hour.html