It’s Pop-Up Rhetoric time again! Pop-Up Rhetoric is a video series where I analyze parts of speeches and other communications. This lets you see how rhetoric works, how it infuses our communication even without us recognizing the devices and strategies at work. The latest Pop-Up Rhetoric video looks at the last few minutes of Trump’s…
It might be summertime, but it’s as good a time as any to hone your skills of persuasion! I’m happy to bring to you the second of four videos in this special Pop-Up Rhetoric video series, featuring the speeches I analysed in my book The Handy Communication Answer Book. Ever wonder how to unite people…
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…
This past weekend was the Canadian thanksgiving holiday, which I spent happily cocooned in a triptophan-induced semi-coma. Thankfully, I had the American presidential debates to giggle over while recovering from the turkey binge. Political debates are quite possibly the best fora to observe the spectrum of speaking and rhetorical competency. The unpredictability of the politicians’…
I’m currently watching yesterday’s episode of The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. His guest was Bill Clinton, who recently delivered an extraordinary speech at the Democratic National Convention. Clinton is one of the most highly regarded contemporary public speakers and delivers hundreds of speeches every year. When Jon Steward asked Clinton if he could tell that…
