Cleaning Up Your Language: Persuasive Oration
Kenrick Cleveland
Language is a skill and an art, as is persuasion, and both can most definitely be mangled and turned into a disadvantage if used improperly. Unless you're a child prodigy, as Mozart was with composing and playing music, as H.P. Lovecraft was with writing poems, and as Pablo Picasso was artistically, then you will most likely have to practice whichever art you choose to become good at.
As persuaders we primarily use our language skills to work with our affluent prospects and clients. We are served well when we use these language properly and speak powerfully.
If you're a reader -- magazines, books, newspapers, internet, or what have you -- the bigger your vocabulary will be (unless you're reading gossip mags, in which case your vocabulary will not improve). So the first thing you can do to increase your vocabulary is read.
Even with a huge vocabulary, you might not be blessed with the gift of oratory skills. There's first the fear of public speaking to overcome (if you're one of the majority of people who have this fear). And once you overcome this fear, then there's the issue of having something of value or interest to say.
Okay, now you've got your vocabulary, you've overcome the fear of public speaking, you have something interesting and valuable to impart to your audience. . . now you have to deal with the delivery.
Recently my transcriptionist told me that I say the phrase 'in other words' a lot. She makes a good point. I suppose I do this for two reasons. The first is that I am attempting to deliver the information I have for my students in as many ways as possible. Secondly, I'm not one to use the stalling word 'um', and 'in other words' may be taking the place of 'um' in how I speak.
There's a great new book out called "Um. . . Slips, Stumbles and Verbal Blunders and What They Mean" by Michael Erard. One of the most interesting things I've read so far in 'Um. . .' is that this is a universal. All languages have their own version of 'um' (in Spain it's 'eh', in France 'euh') and the use of this filler has been around since at least as far back as the Ancient Egyptians and Greeks.
Only since the twentieth century has 'um. . . ' become unpopular likely with the advent of television and radio. And if you were in the debate club in school or did any public speaking in an academic setting, you know that teachers frown upon and attempt to vanquish 'um' from all presentations.
'Um. . .' starts out in the offices of the Federal News Service in the transcription department. These transcriptionists do the closed captions for the hearing impaired for news shows. As per the style guidelines of the FNS, all ers, uhs, umms, and ehs are left out, as are false starts and partial words. The exception to this rule is that everything a policymaker says is typed out verbatim.
Not being a patient man, I skipped ahead to the funny part -- the chapter on George W. Bush. The author contends that some folks consider him to be down home and accessible because of the way he talks, like he's really 'one of us' and understands the plight of the common people. Others consider his inability to speak properly a dangerous indication of his lack of intelligence. Either way, no matter which side of the fence you fall, some of his more memorable malapropisms are hilarious.
My suggestion this week: pay attention to the way you talk. See how many ums, uhs, false starts, stumbles, gaffes and blunders you make verbally. And pay attention to the way other people talk. Is there a secretary in your office who uses 'like' every other word, or an associate who constantly stumbles? How do you perceive them?
Kenrick Cleveland teaches techniques to earn the business of wealthy prospects using http://www.maxpersuasion.com/ persuasion. He runs public and private seminars and offers home study courses and coaching programs in http://www.maxpersuasion.com/ persuasion techniques.
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