BEWARE! BORING JARGON AHEAD!

Elocution; declination; speech; rhetoric. Students of the past often studied the art of persuasive public speech. Our modern world and current educational curriculums emphasize these less, but it doesn’t mean these tools are any less useful. Far from it! Equipping yourself to use alliteration, repetition for emphasis and contrast, antithesis, personification, and other poetic devices can give the modern professional access to glossed-over but powerful tools to win in a world of words. Participants in this session rediscover time-tested rhetorical tools of spoken language and when and how to apply them in a modern business context where functional jargon like “next steps,” “best practices,” and “stakeholder engagement” dominates our discourse. In this program we’ll also learn the structure and power of stories, perhaps one of the most important rhetorical tools available, and why humans are wired for them. All of these tools, when used with intention, can create powerful communication.