Those who want to present successfully should also know some rhetorical stylistic devices and be able to use them effectively. If you enrich your presentation with a few rhetorical tools, it will be much more lively and interesting for the audience, without having to make any adjustments to the content. In this way, you can increase the entertainment value of your presentation and gain the attention of your audience easily. The most frequently used rhetorical figures in speeches are the following:
Alliteration
If you string together terms that have the same initial sound, you are using alliteration. This kind of word combination is very memorable and can capture your audience’s attention. If you summarize the core contents of your presentation with alliterative terms, the audience will be able to remember them easily.
Example: Easy, Exciting, Equal
Anaphora
An anaphora is the deliberate repetition of words at the beginning of a sentence or part of a sentence. This stylistic device not only helps you to structure your presentation, but also ensures that the corresponding content will be easily remembered by the audience.
Example: IaaS offers you a tailor-made package, IaaS is scalable at any time – IaaS is the model of the future.
Metaphor
In a metaphor, you use a term that actually comes from a different contextual meaning in a new context. For example: A foot is a body part, but in the phrase “at the foot of the mountain”, the word is brought into a new context. Metaphors make your lecture more imaginative.
Example: The curtain of night fell upon us.
However, be careful not to overuse this device, and make sure to use easily understandable metaphors. Otherwise, your audience may not be able to follow you or your presentation may become unintentionally funny.
Climax
A climax also increases the entertainment value of your presentation. With this stylistic device, you express a step-by-step increase, for example by first stating a less significant fact, following by increasingly important facts.
Example: With the new marketing strategy, you will first conquer the regional, then the national and, in the near future, also the global market.
Rhetorical questions
Rhetorical questions are questions to which no answer is expected. They do not serve to gain information, but are intended to activate the listener by provoking approval or rejection of an idea.
Example: Would you jump out of a plane in mid-air without a parachute?