Mastering Rhetoric #1: How to use rhetoric to start your speech

What is rhetoric? 

Rhetoric is the art of speaking to influence your audience.  You can learn the key skills of rhetoric and immediately increase your powers of persuasion when speaking and presenting.

Use Rhetoric to increase your influence when speaking

Rhetoric is sometimes called the language of leadership because mastery of rhetoric is an essential tool used by successful leaders today and throughout history.  It is no accident that many of the UK’s Prime Ministers and senior politicians and business leaders were all educated at the private school Eton – which also happens to be one of the last schools in the land to teach rhetoric. 

Rhetorical devices: Starting your speech

Start with three swift sentences – delivered with no gap between them. They should be quite short and pithy and capture the audience’s attention.

For example:  

A phone. An internet communicator. An iPod.

Broken homes! Failing marriages! Neglected children!

Closed factories! Empty shops! Silent high streets!

A world at war! Financial peril! The worst financial crisis in a generation! (Obama)

This evokes emotion in the audience – either fear or excitement – as they wonder what you are going to say next.

Always use three statements – no more, no less- as three is the magic number when it comes to rhetoric.  Two provides contrast whereas three things give a sense of completeness.

When you put things in threes, they sound more credible, complete and convincing.  

See what I mean?

Learn how to use rhetoric to influence your audience on our How to become a Motivational Speaker course