Cleaning Up Your Language: Persuasive Oration

Language, like persuasion, is an art. It's an art that can be mangled, yes. And as with any art, unless you're a prodigy, as Mozart was with music, as H.P. Lovecraft was with poetry, as Pablo Picasso was with painting, then most likely you will have to practice to be good at the art of language.

Becoming a world class persuader requires us to use language powerfully and intentionally. We are served well, especially with our affluent clientle, to clean up and polish our language.

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.

And once you get over the fear of speaking and have something to say of importance or interest, then there's the next obstacle. . . 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.

I just started a book called "Um. . . Slips, Stumbles and Verbal Blunders and What They Mean" by Michael Erard. Something phenomenal I learned in just the first few pages is that the word 'um. . .' is universal. All languages have their own version of 'um'. In Spain it's 'eh' and in France 'euh'. Mr. Erard goes on to say that the use of these fillers has been around since at least as far back as the Ancient Greeks and Egyptians.

Only since the twentieth century has 'um. . .' become unpopular. Academics and teachers frown upon its use. This likely coincides with the advent of television and radio.

'Um. . .' (the book) starts out with the transcriptionists of the Federal News Service. They're the ones that do the closed captions for the hearing impaired. The style guidelines of the FNS state that all of the 'umms' and 'uhs' and 'ahs' and 'ers' are left out, false starts of one or two words are left out, and partial words are left out. The one exception is: policymakers. . .everything a policymaker says is typed out verbatim.

I haven't finished the book yet, but I couldn't stop myself from skipping to the chapter on George W. Bush. It's not as funny as the book 'Bushisms' but it is an interesting perspective. People view him, as a result of what the author calls 'disfluencies', either as 'down home', 'one of the common people', with his gaffes making him appear more accessible, others consider his blunders a lack of intelligence and a dangerous indication that he is not connected to reality. Regardless of which side of the argument you fall, some of the more memorable disfluencies are pretty funny.

This week pay attention to the way you talk. See how many ums, uhs, false starts, stumbles, gaffes and blunders you make. 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?

Article Source: http://www.rightbiz.com

Kenrick Cleveland teaches techniques to earn the business of affluent clients using persuasion. He runs public and private seminars and offers home study courses and coaching programs in persuasion techniques.

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