Rhetorical techniques are designed to help sear your words into your audience's brains and are just as powerful today as when they were created, over 2,500 years ago. In fact, they're one of the major reasons President Obama is in the White House. Despite this, some people are put off using them because they fear they'll sound 'false' or 'dramatic.' So a great way to ease yourself into using them is by trying out two of the most effective (and easiest to use): TRICOLON and ANAPHORA.

A TRICOLON (sometimes called the 'Rule of Threes') is really more of a general principle than a rhetorical technique, but it is very effective. For some reason, the human brain seems to absorb and remember information more effectively when it is presented in threes. Think of these famous examples:

• "Government of the people, by the people, for the people" ... President Abraham Lincoln
• "Never in the history of human endeavor has so much been owed by so many to so few" ... Sir Winston Churchill
• "Veni, vidi, vinci" ... Julius Caesar
• “Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I may remember. Involve me and I will learn” – Benjamin Franklin

It's one of President Obama's favorites. There are twenty two examples used in his Inauguration speech alone and fourteen in his speech in Prague (to take two speeches at random)! Here are a few examples:

• “I stand here today humbled by the task before us, grateful for the trust you have bestowed, mindful of the sacrifices borne by our ancestors”
•  “ Instead, they knew that our power grows through its prudent use; our security emanates from the justness of our cause, the force of our example, the tempering qualities of humility and restraint.”
• “Few would have imagined that the Czech Republic would become a free nation, a member of NATO, a leader of a united Europe.”
• “Rules must be binding. Violations must be punished. Words must mean something”

Think how easy it is to use this in business presentations. All you need to do is look through your script for places you have used two nouns or two adjectives or two verbs, and add a third!

For example, let's say you've originally written, 'Our objectives this year are both stretching and ambitious'. A few strokes of the keyboard and a simple addition later this becomes, 'Our objectives this year are stretching. They're ambitious. Make no mistake - they're BIG.'

If you've written, 'Due to a mixture of complacency and arrogance,' you can simply add a third noun and change it to 'Due to a mixture of complacency, arrogance and wishful thinking’.

‘The Board gives this their unequivocal, 100% backing' easily becomes ‘The Board gives this their full, unequivocal, 100% backing’.

Anaphora

A technique that is often used with a TRICOLON is ANAPHORA (from the Greek anaphero , or ‘I repeat'). It deliberately repeats the same word or words at the beginning of successive phrases or sentences. It's one of the most commonly used rhetorical techniques and you will hear it regularly employed by politicians. The untrained speaker might think it repetitive, but it is meant to be so; it's repetitiveness is what makes it effective.

For example, when Abraham Lincoln said, "But in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate, we cannot consecrate, we cannot hallow this ground," (note how this is also a TRICOLON) his school English teacher would probably have slapped his wrist and said it was grammatically correct to have said, “We cannot dedicate, consecrate or hallow this ground.”

But rhetoric often sacrifices correctness in the name of effectiveness. There is a big difference between words that are meant to be read and words that are meant to be heard.

Would Martin Luther King's most famous speech been half as effective without the multiple repetition of the words ‘I have a dream'? The excerpt below shows how he also used a variety of other techniques, which are highlighted in bold with their names in capital letters in brackets (if you can't wait to learn about these other techniques in further editions of the newsletter, check out my 284-page, 62,000-word Whole-Brain Presenting E-Manual, where you can learn about them all).

“I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal.

I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.

I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.

Even those of us who speak no German can remember the following:

“Ein volk! Ein reich! Ein Führer !” – Adolf Hitler (also a TRICOLON)

How about:

"I want to shake off the dust of this one-horse town. I want to explore the world. I want to watch TV in a different time zone. I want to visit strange, exotic malls. I’m sick of eating hoagies! I want a grinder, a sub, a foot-long hero! I want to LIVE, Marge!" - Homer Simpson (The Simpsons)

"And the Germans will not be able to help themselves from imagining the cruelty their brothers endured at our hands, and our boot heels, and the edge of our knives. And the Germans will be sickened by us. And the Germans will talk about us. And the Germans will fear us. And when the Germans close their eyes at night, and their subconscious tortures them for the evil they’ve done, it will be thoughts of us that it tortures them with" Brad Pitt as Lieutenant Aldo Raine ('Inglorious Basterds')

One of the most frequent users of anaphora was Sir Winston Churchill, who used it to great effect, as below in his ‘Fight them on the beaches' speech. Repetitive perhaps, but stirring? Definitely.

“We shall go on to the end, we shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our Island, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender ……”

Again, it's a favorite of President Obama's. Here are three examples from his speeches:

• “That means investments to create new jobs. That means resisting the walls of protectionism that stand in the way of growth. That means a change in our financial system, with new rules to prevent abuse and future crisis.“
• “For us, they packed up their few worldly possessions and travelled across oceans in search of a new life. For us, they toiled in sweatshops and settled the West; endured the lash of the whip and ploughed the hard earth. For us, they fought and died, in places like Concord and Gettysburg; Normandy and Khe Sahn.”
• “This is the price and the promise of citizenship. This is the source of our confidence - the knowledge that God calls on us to shape an uncertain destiny. This is the meaning of our liberty and our creed.”

So how can you use anaphora in your own presentations? It's one of the easiest techniques to use. As I always say, write your speech in ‘normal' English first and then go over it and see where you can introduce a rhetorical technique. For example, you might have originally written: ‘A successful year in which we grew sales by 5% and turned the company around.'

Whilst grammatically correct, this can easily be made more memorable by breaking it into two sentences and using ‘ A successful year in which …' to begin both. Adding a third sentence to use a TRICOLON, it could now read, ‘a successful year in which we grew sales by 5% and retained our position as market leader despite fierce competition. A successful year in which we turned the company around and placed it firmly in the black. A successful year in which we generated profits of £7 million and laid the foundations for future growth'.

If the original read, 'Back then we were losing £25 million per year and there were rum ours we were about to be sold' the same approach could easily change it to 'Back then, we were losing £25 million per year. Back then, our sales were in decline. And back then, there were rum ours that we were about to be sold.'

Let's say you originally wrote, 'They say that they will have knocked us from our number one slot within two years. They plan to do this by undercutting us on price, because they have a lower cost base than ourselves. According to them, independent tests show their widgets are just as good as ours, but 15% cheaper.'

This is easily changed to, 'They're saying that they aim to knock us from our number one slot within two years. They're saying they'll do it by undercutting us, because we are bloated, bureaucratic and burdened with high costs. They're saying that independent tests show their widgets are just as good as ours, but 15% cheaper.'

All of these revisions are far more memorable than the original sentences and phrases. So the next time you're giving a presentation, give these two techniques a try. And when you're comfortable with them, you can move on to the slightly more difficult ones.

Read MORE presentation skills ARTICLES here

If you want to comment on this article on our Facebook page click here If you've enjoyed this article, why not share it with someone else who'd find it interesting?

1-DAY SEMINARB SCHEDULE   Chicago 8 Sept Las Vegas 9 Sept Atlanta 20 Sept   New York 10 Oct Toronto 11 Oct Chicago 13 Oct Houston 17 Oct Dallas 18 Oct San Jose 19 Oct Los Angeles 20 Oct Las Vegas 21 Oct Atlanta 24 Oct         2-DAY SEMINARX SCHEDULE     TBC