So want want our speeches to have style, but what does that mean exactly? Now style can be both large and small. It provides meaning. So the style for legal contracts is different from the style for wedding toasts, or at least I would hope so, right? It's either that or you've got a terrible wedding or a weirdly intimate lawyer. No, contracts sound bureaucratic and weddings sound communal. And even within a style, we can have different tones, right? There can be a lighthearted graduation speech or serious one. Now, as early as Cicero, speakers were trying to figure out the sounds of these different styles. Now, in the Roman tradition, they divided speeches into three basic styles, plain, middle, and grand. Now, the plain style was conversational. And there was no stylistic phrasing. Now that doesn't mean there's no style. It's a plain style. And in fact, it can be very hard to write a conversational speech. Now, the middle style was much more ordained. It included rhetorical figures. And that grand style was high oratory. It was really reserved for weighty matters. And I think all of these categories are still very useful. But I do think there's a misconception that ceremonial speaking always demands a grand style, and it doesn't. Because when I think of that grand style, I think of orators like Frederick Douglass. His speech, what to a slave is the 4th of July is grand, high eloquence. At one point he says, to drag a man in fetters into the grand illuminated temple of liberty, and call upon him to join you in joyous anthems, were inhuman mockery and sacrilegious irony. Now, that's pretty weighty stuff, right? And it goes on like that for over 10,000 words. It's a long speech. Now, we can't do that in our ceremonial speeches. The demands of the 19th century are not our own. The 21st century has different style expectations. On this, I like the speechwriter Peggy Noonan's advice, where she says, your style should never be taller than you are. Now, that doesn't mean only ever speak in a plain style. No, grieving a lost friend calls for special language. It calls for eloquence. But I would suggest that, that eloquence comes from well-chosen words, not necessary from long ones. We want clarity of emotion, not an emotional verbosity. So, for us, I think middle grand is appropriate for most ceremonial situations, right? We're dealing with important issues. And we want to draw the attention to the importance of these issues with language. But that language use needs to fit the situation. And that's often no small task. So if I've got something like that, imitation helps me a lot in finding the right language fit. So if I'm doing a ceremonial address, I think on the occasion, I think on the audience, and then I look around for models. Who did a similar speech well? And kind of how was their style working? And that can often get me in the ballpark. And then I can focus more on stylizing the sentences. So what we're going to do is, over the next few videos, we're going to look at some stylistic devices to help you find your eloquence. Now, we discussed stylistic devices in the persuasive course in this specialization. And I'll repeat here what I said there. Stylistic devices are equations for eloquence. Basically, the structure works. All you need to do is pop in some variables. Those variables can be the key values that you're talking about. They can be the traits of the organization you're praising, whatever. Drop them into these equations. And you're probably going to sound pretty good. So what we're going to do is we're going to listen to some great examples of stylistic usage. Now on that, I want to thank americanrhetoric.com. They've allowed us to use their audio clips. And talking about style is fine. But hearing it really makes a difference. And this is important because ceremonial speaking lends itself to good stylistic writing. But, remain focused on the clarity of your ideas. Don't get lost in a thicket of flowery words. But with a few well-chosen stylistic devices, your next ceremonial speech will sound good. And people are going to think of you as an eloquent speaker. [MUSIC]
