Chapter 49 Make your language more convincing

If you want to win in an argument, you have to improve your words in a variety of more acceptable ways.And this method is commonly referred to as rhetoric.If you pay attention, you will find that the reason why lawyers can speak eloquently is because they often use it. The rhetoric we usually use is as follows, and I will give a brief explanation here. "The kingdom of heaven is like yeast, and they put it in the cornmeal, and it will all ferment..." "The kingdom of heaven is like a merchant looking for pearls..." "The kingdom of heaven is like a net thrown into the sea..."

"Heaven" may not be familiar to people, but yeast, merchants, and the net are things that are familiar to everyone.It is the use of these wonderful and appropriate metaphors that help people understand the speaker's meaning more easily.These words are a very good way that Jesus used when explaining the "Kingdom of Heaven", which is to use what people are familiar with to explain what they are not familiar with. The reason why metaphors are more acceptable, more vivid, and more persuasive is that it is easier for people to understand when comparing the two similarities.Here, Jesus used such an ingenious method.

When speaking, if you want to emphasize a certain point, it is very good to use some exaggeration when appropriate.Do you sometimes do that too?When you want the other person to be faster, you may say to him: "I hope I won't become a 'mummy' when you finish it!" Not "mummy", but you're clearly exaggerating. In fact, this rhetorical method is to stimulate other people's nerves, so that others consider what you think the other party's behavior may have serious consequences.For example, you might say, "It's like opening Pandora's box when you do this," and he's sure to know what you mean by that.

Repeating the same meaning with the same rhythm, this rhetorical method is called repetition.The beauty of this rhetorical approach is that not only will you be able to grab the audience's attention so they know what your main point is, but you will also be able to integrate your main idea with the overall speech. For example, an orator, speaking of a department, says: "This system, it's got terrible public services, government employees far outnumber factories." "This system, with its meddling government, is ready to meddle in your business affairs and your private life at all times."

"This system, it eats up nearly half of the country's budget." Through this rhetorical repetition, the orator convinced his audience that there were indeed many problems in the department and that it was in dire need of reform. We often use the rhetorical method of "quoting from the classics" to strengthen persuasion. In fact, this rhetorical method is the one we use most often.I often quote a lot of famous orators (such as Lincoln) and students' stories in this book to illustrate my point of view, and it turns out that this has indeed received very good results.

Sometimes, we don't intend to quote a long story, but just choose a certain sentence or even a certain word that someone said.There is also such a situation, sometimes we quote an old saying (such as an old saying in China) or a common saying to illustrate our point of view, which is also very effective.Quoting is not only simple and effective, but it will make your words more persuasive. When you are expressing a point of view, on the one hand, you think the facts are clearly like this; on the other hand, you may not need the audience to answer this question, then you may say: "Isn't it so?" The rhetorical method is rhetorical questioning.

However, the role of rhetorical questions is far more than that, let us look at a story. Once, the great Napoleon proudly said to his secretary: "Brian, do you know? You will be immortal." Briand didn't understand what he meant, and asked Napoleon why he said that. Napoleon said: "Aren't you my secretary?" After Briand understood, he said to Napoleon not to be outdone, "Excuse me, who is Alexander's secretary?" Napoleon did not answer, he praised Briand and said: "Good question!" Do you understand the mystery of this conversation?Napoleon meant that Brion would be famous because he was his secretary.However, Briand did not agree with Napoleon's point of view.However, because Napoleon was his coach, he could not directly refute Napoleon's point of view, so he cleverly expressed his point of view with rhetorical questions.

Sometimes, rhetorical questions can express more meaning.Just like Napoleon's secretary, if you want to convince someone, the best way is to ask the question with examples, which is more convincing than a positive debate. Contrast means listing two opposite or opposing things at the same time.Contrast can really make the original plain words wonderful and make you very eloquent.Let's first look at how Charles Dickens skillfully uses the rhetorical device of contrast in the novel: "It was the best of times and it was the worst of times; it was the epoch of wisdom and it was the epoch of foolishness, it was the epoch of faith, it was the epoch of doubt; it was the season of light, it was the season of darkness; it was hope spring of despair, and winter of despair: before us there is a mountain of piles and nothing; we are all going to heaven, and we are all going to hell..."

how does it soundIsn't it very touching?You also hope that such beautiful and persuasive sentences will appear in your words! Don't worry about why this rhetorical method works the way it does. These questions can be left to the linguists or psychologists to answer. Just know that it works and use it as much as possible. When you encourage everyone to complete the task as soon as possible, you can say: "Let's stop talking and start acting." And when you remind everyone not to waste food, you can say: "You are indeed full now, but this There are many starving people in the world.” If you need more examples, you can find and summarize them yourself.

"...we hereby affirm that their deaths will count; that this nation, under God, will be born free; that government of the people, by the people, and for the people will not disappear from this face of the earth. .” This is the last part of Lincoln's famous Gettysburg Address, where Lincoln uses two parallels. (The Chinese and English parallelisms are different. The original English text is:...that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain——that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom——and that government of The people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth. There are indeed two parallel sentences in English——Editor’s Note.) This makes the original plain words vivid and powerful, thus to the The audience had a great appeal.

Parallelism is to put 3 or more of the same sentence patterns together instead of expressing the same meaning.You've probably seen many examples of this too.The unique advantage of parallelism is that it can be applied to any topic.No matter what you have to say, you can always use this figure of speech. Mastering the above rhetorical methods, we can better express our meaning and manipulate the art of language.You don't need to be troubled by the need to master so many rhetorical methods. In fact, it is precisely because of them that your speech becomes more persuasive.For more rhetorical methods, you can look for related works.