I had the pleasure of being Master of Ceremonies at the Western Sponsorship Congress on November 23 & 24th. MCing is delightful – it really is heaps of fun helping delegates at an event relax, connect, and engage with the program and with each other. It also positions me to meet the interesting, smart…
Book Review: Thank You For Arguing Author: Jay Heinrichs Updated Edition. Three Rivers Press, 2013. ISBN: 9780385347754. 432 pages. After group class the other day, one of the participants and I got into a conversation about oratory and rhetoric. And I can’t talk about rhetoric without recommending my favourite book about speaking. If you don’t…
Demagogue, n.: A leader of a popular faction, or of the mob; a political agitator who appeals to the passions and prejudices of the mob in order to obtain power or further his own interests; an unprincipled or factious popular orator. (Oxford English Dictionary) In democracies the principal cause of revolutions is the insolence of…
I made something. It has next to no instructional value, aside from demonstrating what it’s like when you use a certain word so often that it becomes meaningless and threadbare. But it’s fun! So here, for your viewing pleasure, I present to you The 2016 Debates Disaster Supercut! Embedded video not working? Click here…
We’ve made it. Sweet merciful mother of everything that’s holy, we’re at the end of the debates. Praise be, hallelujia. We’ve withstood the mud slinging, the ludicrous claims, the hurled invective, the hastily invented “facts.” I feel like we all need and deserve a long, hot shower. But not before another lesson in rhetoric. In debate…
Sunday October 9th represented Canadian Thanksgiving. I, along with many other of my fellow Canadians, gleefully stuffed myself full of turkey and pie, then settled down for a spectacular evening of sport. Mud was slung, invective was hurled. Tactics were tried and plays made, as calculated discipline on one side and flailing onslaught on the other. Oh…
It’s the night before your big talk. You’ve crafted your presentation, practiced it, and are ready to deliver it at tomorrow’s event. You’re nerves are jangling a bit, for better or worse, and the bulk of the heavy lifting is done – the only thing left to do is give the talk itself. Or…
Oh, how I love election season! Oh how I love debate night! Granted, I’d love it more if an evening of making pop-up rhetoric videos wasn’t bookended with a cranky, gassy, screaming baby, but such is life. In this Pop-Up Rhetoric video, we get into Red Herrings, Straw Man arguments, and Ad Hominem attacks. That’s…
Despite all best efforts, some people are simply difficult to communicate with. You’ve probably met this person; no matter how hard you try, they seem to miss chunks of conversations. No matter how clear the note, they still twist the message. No matter how explicit the instructions, they still manage to screw them up. It doesn’t seem…
I’ve been doing a fair bit of reading lately of both the print and audiobook variety, and want to share with you some of the more interesting books I’ve come across. So from time to time I’ll be sharing with you reviews for books that have caught my attention. I hope you enjoy them and…
