University of Alabama Use of Vivid Language in Speeches Discussion and Responses

This Discussion is about word choice.  Vivid language makes a speech memorable, but should only be used to a certain degree. Give examples of metaphors, similes, personification, parallelism, and alliteration, that you could actually use in a speech without sounding out-of-place.  

student 1

Metaphor: Useful when trying to convey a point and stir listener visualization and imagination. Eg, “The afternoon heat is the yoke that wears people down to exhaustion. It’s burden brings work to a slow, grinding pace, and can kill if one pushes too hard.”Simile: Similar to a metaphor, but more literal than figurative. Compares two things. Eg, “The ware house is to truckers as a hive is to bees.”Personification: Assigning human attributes to non-human things can help persuade or inform or entertain. Eg, “The marigolds bobbed cheerfully in the warm summer breeze as I cycled by.” Parallelism: This helps make a sentence sound unified and complete. Eg, “The old family land was cleared, listed, and sold within weeks.”Alliteration: Helps capture the audiences attentions and create emphasis or flow. “The one who laughs last laughs loudest.”

student 2

Metaphors are helpful in regards to helping the audience visualize certain aspects by comparing. For example “ The canvas portrayed an image of the night sky, river of stars, clusters of darkness.”  Similes are helpful phrases that are used to describe certain aspects by using “like” or “as” to compare. For example “ Happiness blossomed through the little boy as a flower blossoms during the spring.” Personification is used to impute human characteristics to non-human objects. An example is “The ray of sunlight danced through the forest”. Parallelism is helpful when constructing a list of characteristics, parallelism helps bring clarity, balance, and rhythm. For example “The artist felt relieved, accomplished, and joyful after finishing their painting.” Alliteration creates a rhyme which emphasizes certain words/ phrases. For example “ Celine couldn’t concentrate considering Caleb’s cries.”