Week 7 · Chapter

Chapter 7 — Language & Style

Public Speaking Free sample edition

The module's primary reading · ~40–50 minutes · Objective 5 (use clear, vivid, and appropriate language written for a listener, including ethical and inclusive language, and deliver extemporaneously with effective vocal delivery (rate, pitch, volume, pauses, articulation, vocal variety) and physical delivery (eye contact, gestures, movement, posture, facial expression), distinguishing the four delivery methods), Objective 2 (listen actively and critically, distinguishing hearing from listening and matching the type of listening to the situation, and analyze an audience through demographic, psychographic, and situational lenses to adapt a message's content, examples, language, and level to that audience and occasion without stereotyping) · Read it first this week; the lecture, the slide deck, the tutorial, the quiz, and the Speech Workshop all build on it.

In plain language

This week you choose the words inside your outline, and you choose them for the ear. Oral style (language built to be heard once) uses short sentences, repetition, and words a listener can picture. Clarity (being understood the first time) means cutting the words that blur a message. Vividness (language a listener can picture and remember) comes from a handful of devices that great speeches use on purpose. You also learn to fit your words to the room and to describe people accurately and with respect.

Why you already care about this

A volunteer coordinator at a food bank stands in front of 25 volunteers and 40 boxes of canned food, with a 2-page safety memo in her hand. She reads it word for word: "Utilization of appropriate protective equipment is required for all personnel engaged in handling activities." Nobody moves. Two volunteers look at each other. One shrugs.

Then she looks up from the page and says, "Gloves on. Every box. Every time." Everyone in the room reaches for the gloves. The scene is illustrative and attributed to no one, but you have seen it happen.

The memo was not wrong. It was written for a reader, who can slow down, go back, and work out what "personnel engaged in handling activities" means. A listener hears it once, at the speed you say it, and cannot scroll back up. The second version used 6 words in 3 short pieces, a repeated word, and things you could see. That is the whole week in one moment.

By the end of this chapter you will be able to:

tell oral style from written style, and revise a flat written sentence into oral style;
find and fix the four killers of clarity: abstract words, jargon, long sentences, and vague quantifiers;
name the six devices of vividness on verified fragments of real speeches, and tell a simile from a metaphor;
fit your words to the audience, the occasion, the topic, and yourself as the speaker;
tell what a word names from what it suggests, and choose ethical and inclusive language;
check a chatbot's "rewrite for speech" by hand and keep your own voice.

Carry this line with you: write for the ear, not the eye — then read it aloud.

Where we are

Already covered: Weeks 1 to 4 built the message, from the audience to the oral citation. Week 5 chose the pattern, and Week 6 put the speech on paper as a preparation outline and five cards.
This week: oral style versus written style, the four killers of clarity, the six devices of vividness, appropriateness, denotation and connotation, ethical and inclusive language, and a chatbot's "rewrite for speech."
How they connect: Week 6 gave you the sentences of a preparation outline, and this week you make each of those sentences easy to hear.
Where we're going next: Week 8 reviews Weeks 1 to 7 before the midterm and names the five canons of rhetoric as the map of the whole preparation workflow.

Here is what each week gave you. Week 2 taught you to read an audience through three lenses, and this week that reading decides your words: a nursing cohort and a robotics club can hear the same idea in different language. Week 4 taught you to name who, what, and when before a statistic, and this week that oral citation becomes the cure for a vague word like "a lot." Week 6 wrote the running speech in complete sentences. This week those sentences learn to sound like a person talking.

1. Oral style versus written style: write for the ear

Think about a group text versus a voice memo from the same friend. The text can be long, with a link and a list. The voice memo is shorter, repeats the key part, and says "you" a lot. Your friend changed style because the channel changed, and you would be lost if they read the text aloud.

Speeches work the same way, and the course names both styles.

Oral style is language built to be heard once rather than read: shorter sentences, more repetition, heavier signposting, first and second person, familiar concrete words, and rhythm built in, because a listener cannot go back and re-read.
Written style is language built for a reader who can slow down, skip back, and re-read, so it tolerates longer sentences, less repetition, and more abstract wording than a listener can follow.

Notice that oral style is not sloppy style. It is planned. The repetition is on purpose, the short sentences are on purpose, and the "you" is on purpose. Each one does a job a reader's eyes would otherwise do.

Worked example — the flat-to-oral pair. This course's model pair is illustrative and attributed to no one. Here is the flat version, in written style:

"There are many challenges faced by first-year college students when it comes to the management of their time and academic responsibilities."

Here are the first three sentences of the oral version:

"First-year students are often overwhelmed — not because they are unprepared, but because college time works differently. No one tells you the assignments stack. No one tells you the due dates do not care about each other."

The model goes on with a third "No one tells you" line, about how fast the weekend runs out, which completes the run. Now measure what changed.

Count the flat sentence. It holds 21 words in 1 sentence.
Count the oral sentences. The first three hold 16 + 7 + 13 = 36 words in 3 sentences.
Average the oral sentences. 36 ÷ 3 = 12 words per sentence.
Compare. 21 − 12 = 9, so each oral sentence is 9 words shorter on average than the flat one.
Name the added device. "No one tells you" opens 3 lines in a row. That repetition is anaphora, which section 3 defines.

In words: the oral version cut the sentence length, switched to "you," traded "challenges" and "management" for things you can picture, and added a repetition that lets a listener feel the list growing. The word counts are illustrative arithmetic; they describe this one pair, not a rule for every sentence.

One habit catches written style before an audience does. The read-aloud test is the habit of saying every sentence of a speech out loud before keeping it, and rewriting any sentence that makes the speaker stumble, run out of breath, or lose the point. Try it on the flat sentence, and notice where you run short of breath.

Misconception check. Students often think a good speech is a good essay read aloud. That is tempting, because the essay already exists and it got a good grade. But an essay is built for the eye: long sentences, little repetition, and abstract nouns a reader can untangle. Read aloud, it flattens. The cure is to write the speech for the ear from the start, then run the read-aloud test on every sentence before you keep it.

Memory hook: one breath per sentence; one pass per listener.

2. Clarity: cut the four killers

Picture a phone call where the other person keeps saying "the thing" and "that stuff." Every word is English, and you still cannot follow. Clarity fails that way in speeches too: not from big errors, but from words that make a listener do extra work.

Clarity is the quality of language a listener can understand the first time it is heard, which a speaker protects by removing abstract words, jargon, long sentences, and vague quantifiers.

Those four are the killers of clarity:

An abstract word is a word that names an idea, quality, or category a listener cannot picture, such as "outcomes" or "challenges"; one of the four killers of clarity. Its cure is a concrete word, a word that names something a listener can see, hear, touch, or count, such as "plate," "scale," or "gloves," which makes an idea easier to follow and remember.
Jargon is the specialized vocabulary of a field or group that outsiders do not share; it is a killer of clarity unless the audience shares it or the speaker explains it.
A long sentence makes a listener hold the start in memory while waiting for the end.
A vague quantifier is a word such as "many," "a lot," or "some" that hints at an amount without stating it, which a speaker fixes with a sourced figure or a plain count.

Worked example — one fix for each killer. The first three passages are illustrative and attributed to no one. The fourth is from the running speech, which is illustrative too.

Four flat passages, the clarity killer in each, and an oral rewrite
Killer	Flat (written style)	Oral rewrite
Abstract word	"The program improved sustainability outcomes." (a sustainability report)	"The kitchen now throws out less food."
Jargon	"Modules are delivered in an asynchronous modality." (a syllabus paragraph)	"You can do each week's work online, on your own schedule."
Long sentence	"Prior to initial operation, ensure that the unit has been placed on a level surface and that all packaging materials have been removed." (a product manual)	"Before you start, set the machine on a flat surface. Then take out all the packing."
Vague quantifier	"A lot of food gets wasted." (the running speech's draft)	Oral citation 1, below

The vague quantifier gets the running speech's first oral citation, which Week 4 built and checked:

"According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Food Waste FAQ page, which draws on the department's Economic Research Service, between 30 and 40 percent of the food supply in the United States goes to waste."

In words: each fix trades a word the listener has to decode for one the listener can see, hear, or check. The last fix also shows that clarity and honesty work together. "A lot" hides who counted; the oral citation says who, what, and when.

Honesty note: jargon is not always a killer. If you speak to a room of nurses about a medication schedule, their shared terms are the clearest words you have. Jargon kills clarity when the audience does not share it, which is why Week 2's audience analysis comes before word choice.

Misconception check. Students often think clear language sounds less smart. That is tempting, because long words and long sentences can feel impressive on a page. But a listener who has to decode "asynchronous modality" misses the next sentence while doing it. Plain words are not a lower level of thinking. They are the level at which a listener can follow your thinking.

Pause and reflect. Choose one option and jot two or three sentences.

(a) Think of a time an instruction, a lecture, or a meeting lost you because of jargon or a long sentence. What word or sentence lost you, and how would you have said it?

(b) Read one paragraph of a speech or paper you are writing out loud. Which of the four killers shows up first, and what is your fix?

Memory hook: picture it, keep it; blur it, lose it.

3. Vividness: name the six devices on real fragments

Think about a song chorus you cannot get out of your head. It repeats a line, it sets two ideas against each other, or it uses a sound twice in a row. None of that is an accident. Speeches use the same tools, and the course gives them names.

Vividness is the quality of language that helps a listener picture, feel, and remember an idea, often built with devices such as metaphor, simile, parallelism, anaphora, antithesis, and alliteration.

Here are the six devices this course names:

A metaphor is a device that describes one thing as if it were another, with no "like" or "as," such as calling leadership a torch that is passed on.
A simile is a device that compares two unlike things using "like" or "as," which is the word that separates it from a metaphor.
Parallelism, which Week 6 taught as an outlining rule, is giving ideas of equal rank the same grammatical form. Inside a sentence, it gives a listener a rhythm to ride.
Anaphora is a device that repeats the same opening word or words at the start of several sentences or clauses in a row, so each repetition builds on the one before.
Antithesis is a device that places two contrasting or opposite ideas side by side in matching grammatical form, sometimes by reversing the order of the same words.
Alliteration is a device that repeats the same opening sound in nearby words, which makes a phrase easier to hear and remember.

Worked example — the six devices on verified fragments. Every speech fragment below is copied word for word from the archived transcript the course links. The simile is illustrative, because none of the three speeches supplies one. The analysis is of each speech's craft, of what a device does to a listener's ear, and never of whether you agree with the speaker.

The six devices, each named on a verified fragment or a labelled illustrative sentence
Device	Fragment	Source
Metaphor	"the torch has been passed to a new generation of Americans"	Kennedy's inaugural address (1961)
Simile	"A due date sneaks up like a bus you thought was running late."	Illustrative, attributed to no one
Parallelism	"of the people, by the people, for the people"	Lincoln's Gettysburg Address (1863)
Anaphora	"Last night Japanese forces attacked Hong Kong. Last night Japanese forces attacked Guam. Last night Japanese forces attacked the Philippine Islands."	Roosevelt's address to Congress (1941)
Antithesis	"ask not what your country can do for you--ask what you can do for your country"	Kennedy's inaugural address (1961)
Alliteration	"pay any price, bear any burden"	Kennedy's inaugural address (1961)

Now walk through what each one does.

Metaphor. Kennedy never says leadership is "like" a torch. He says the torch has been passed. With no "like" or "as," the listener sees a runner handing off a flame.
Simile. The illustrative sentence says a due date sneaks up "like" a bus. The word "like" is the tell. Take it out and turn the sentence into "a due date is a bus," and the simile becomes a metaphor.
Parallelism. Lincoln's close gives 3 phrases in the same form: a small word, then "the people." Kennedy does it at length after "Let every nation know": "pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe." That series is 5 phrases of 3 words each, so 5 × 3 = 15 words that march in step.
Anaphora. Roosevelt opens sentence after sentence with "Last night," and the fragment quotes 3 of them. Each repetition adds a place, and the list feels heavier with every line. The listener hears the case build.
Antithesis. Kennedy sets "what your country can do for you" against "what you can do for your country." The library's transcript prints the dash between them as two hyphens, and the course keeps it as printed. He also uses antithesis by reversal: "Let us never negotiate out of fear. But let us never fear to negotiate."
Alliteration. Inside the same series, "pay" and "price" share an opening sound, and so do "bear" and "burden." The sound repeats, so the phrase sticks.

In words: every device here works on the ear. A listener cannot underline a key phrase, so the speaker builds the underline into the sound.

Why the transcript, and never the memory

You might remember Roosevelt's line as "a day that will live in infamy." The National Archives transcript says "a date which will live in infamy." That small gap is the reason this course names every device on a fragment checked against its transcript. Week 4's Sojourner Truth case makes the same point at a larger scale. Two published versions of her 1851 speech differ so much that the famous refrain is not in the earlier report, so the course names no device on any line from that speech.

Limitation: six devices is this course's list. Rhetoric names many more, and treatments sort them differently. The six are enough to hear most of what makes a speech memorable.

Misconception check. Students often treat a simile and a metaphor as the same figure. That is tempting, because both compare two unlike things. But a simile says the comparison out loud with "like" or "as," and a metaphor says one thing is the other. A second wrong turn piles devices into every sentence. One anaphora in a conclusion is memorable; five in a row are noise. And vividness is not the same as fancy words. "Last night" is two plain words, and they carried a nation's attention.

Memory hook: one device used well — not five piled up.

4. Appropriateness, connotation, and inclusive language: fit the words to the room

Picture the same story told twice: once to your best friend in the car, once to a hiring panel. Same facts, different words. You did not lie in either version. You fit your language to the moment.

Appropriateness is the fit between a speaker's words and four things: the audience, the occasion, the topic, and the speaker, including the choice of register, slang, and humor. Register is the level of formality a speaker chooses, from casual to formal, matched to the audience and the occasion.

Run each word choice through the 4 fits:

Audience: will these listeners know this word, and how will it land with them? Week 2's three lenses answer this.
Occasion: a toast at a cousin's wedding allows a joke that a eulogy does not.
Topic: a serious topic, such as a safety briefing, calls for steady, exact words.
Speaker: the words should sound like you on your best day, not like someone else.

What a word names and what it suggests

Every word does two jobs at once. Its denotative meaning is the literal meaning of a word, the thing or idea it names, as a dictionary would define it. Its connotative meaning is the feelings, judgments, and associations a word carries beyond its literal meaning, which can differ from one listener to the next.

"Thrifty" and "cheap" name the same habit of spending little. One praises; one sneers. Choosing between them is choosing a judgment for your listener.

That is why loaded language is an ethics issue. Loaded language is wording chosen for its strong connotation to push a listener toward a judgment the evidence has not earned, which makes it an ethics issue for a speaker.

Worked example — two word choices in the running speech. Both drafts are illustrative and attributed to no one.

Loaded language. A draft sentence calls it "the dining hall's shameful waste." "Shameful" is a judgment, and this is an informative speech, which describes rather than judges. The fix is "the dining hall's plate waste," which names what was measured.
Inclusive language. A draft of the introduction mentions "a wheelchair-bound student" who helps with the waste audit. "Wheelchair-bound" is inaccurate, because a wheelchair gives mobility rather than binding anyone. The fix is "a student who uses a wheelchair."

In words: the first fix removed a judgment the evidence did not earn, and the second fix described a person accurately. Both made the speech more honest, not less lively.

Ethical and inclusive language

Inclusive language is wording that describes people accurately and with respect, using people-first wording, unbiased wording, and the names communities use for themselves. Two kinds have their own names:

People-first language is wording that names the person before a condition or trait, such as "a student who uses a wheelchair," so the person is not reduced to that one fact.
Unbiased language is wording that does not assume or signal a group's traits, such as using "firefighter" rather than a title that assumes one gender for the job.

The third habit has no special term: when a community has a name for itself, use that name. Treat this as an audience-centered speaker's choice, the same kind of choice as cutting jargon. It is about accuracy and respect for the people in your audience, not about taking a side on any public question.

Caveat: communities do not always agree on one preferred name, and preferences change over time. When you are unsure, the honest move is to use the wording your sources and the people you are describing use, and to say "people who…" rather than a label.

Misconception check. Students often think inclusive language is a set of rules that limits what they can say. That is tempting, because the advice can arrive as a list of banned words. But the goal is the same as clarity: the audience hears what you mean and nothing you did not mean. A word that insults part of the room is noise in Week 1's sense. It blocks shared meaning. A second wrong turn treats denotation and connotation as unrelated, as if a word could carry only a dictionary meaning. Every word carries both.

Memory hook: fit the room; never leave a listener out.

5. Put it together: the read-aloud test and a chatbot's "rewrite for speech"

You will use a chatbot as a rehearsal coach this term, so see how it handles style. Ask one to make a sentence "sound better for a speech," and it often hands back something longer and stiffer. It is fluent, but fluent for a reader.

Worked example — checking a chatbot's rewrite by hand. The exchange is illustrative and names no product. You paste in the flat sentence from the flat-to-oral pair and ask the chatbot to rewrite it for speech. It returns:

"Numerous challenges are encountered by first-year college students in the effective management of their time and the fulfillment of their academic obligations."

Run the oral-style checks, one at a time.

Sentence length. The rewrite holds 22 words, so it is 22 − 21 = 1 word longer than the flat sentence it was meant to fix. That is 1 long sentence.
Person. It uses no "you" and no "we." That is 1 missing second person.
Concrete words. It keeps "challenges" and "management" and adds "fulfillment" and "obligations." That is 1 set of abstract words.
Count the problems. 1 + 1 + 1 = 3 problems caught.

Then read the course's oral version aloud beside it. The oral version's sentences average 12 words, use "you," and repeat "No one tells you." The chatbot's version swapped words but kept the shape of written style.

In words: "rewrite for speech" produced a sentence still written for a reader, and three quick checks found what the chatbot did not mention.

There is a quieter problem too. A chatbot's rewrite can sand your voice down into boilerplate that sounds like everyone and no one. Keep its useful idea, if it has one, and put it back into words you would say.

Misconception check. Students often think a chatbot's rewrite is automatically more "speech-like" because it sounds polished. That is tempting, because the grammar is clean and the words are long. But polish for a reader is not clarity for a listener. Run the read-aloud test and the four killers on every rewrite, and keep your own words wherever they are clearer.

Memory hook: the chatbot drafts; your ear decides.

Key terms

Oral style — Language built to be heard once rather than read: shorter sentences, more repetition, heavier signposting, first and second person, familiar concrete words, and rhythm built in, because a listener cannot go back and re-read. (first used: 1. Oral style versus written style: write for the ear)
Written style — Language built for a reader who can slow down, skip back, and re-read, so it tolerates longer sentences, less repetition, and more abstract wording than a listener can follow. (first used: 1. Oral style versus written style: write for the ear)
Read-aloud test — The habit of saying every sentence of a speech out loud before keeping it, and rewriting any sentence that makes the speaker stumble, run out of breath, or lose the point. (first used: 1. Oral style versus written style: write for the ear)
Clarity — The quality of language a listener can understand the first time it is heard, which a speaker protects by removing abstract words, jargon, long sentences, and vague quantifiers. (first used: 2. Clarity: cut the four killers)
Abstract word — A word that names an idea, quality, or category a listener cannot picture, such as "outcomes" or "challenges"; one of the four killers of clarity. (first used: 2. Clarity: cut the four killers)
Concrete word — A word that names something a listener can see, hear, touch, or count, such as "plate," "scale," or "gloves," which makes an idea easier to follow and remember. (first used: 2. Clarity: cut the four killers)
Jargon — The specialized vocabulary of a field or group that outsiders do not share; it is a killer of clarity unless the audience shares it or the speaker explains it. (first used: 2. Clarity: cut the four killers)
Vague quantifier — A word such as "many," "a lot," or "some" that hints at an amount without stating it, which a speaker fixes with a sourced figure or a plain count. (first used: 2. Clarity: cut the four killers)
Vividness — The quality of language that helps a listener picture, feel, and remember an idea, often built with devices such as metaphor, simile, parallelism, anaphora, antithesis, and alliteration. (first used: 3. Vividness: name the six devices on real fragments)
Metaphor — A device that describes one thing as if it were another, with no "like" or "as," such as calling leadership a torch that is passed on. (first used: 3. Vividness: name the six devices on real fragments)
Simile — A device that compares two unlike things using "like" or "as," which is the word that separates it from a metaphor. (first used: 3. Vividness: name the six devices on real fragments)
Anaphora — A device that repeats the same opening word or words at the start of several sentences or clauses in a row, so each repetition builds on the one before. (first used: 3. Vividness: name the six devices on real fragments)
Antithesis — A device that places two contrasting or opposite ideas side by side in matching grammatical form, sometimes by reversing the order of the same words. (first used: 3. Vividness: name the six devices on real fragments)
Alliteration — A device that repeats the same opening sound in nearby words, which makes a phrase easier to hear and remember. (first used: 3. Vividness: name the six devices on real fragments)
Appropriateness — The fit between a speaker's words and four things: the audience, the occasion, the topic, and the speaker, including the choice of register, slang, and humor. (first used: 4. Appropriateness, connotation, and inclusive language: fit the words to the room)
Register — The level of formality a speaker chooses, from casual to formal, matched to the audience and the occasion. (first used: 4. Appropriateness, connotation, and inclusive language: fit the words to the room)
Denotative meaning — The literal meaning of a word, the thing or idea it names, as a dictionary would define it. (first used: 4. Appropriateness, connotation, and inclusive language: fit the words to the room)
Connotative meaning — The feelings, judgments, and associations a word carries beyond its literal meaning, which can differ from one listener to the next. (first used: 4. Appropriateness, connotation, and inclusive language: fit the words to the room)
Loaded language — Wording chosen for its strong connotation to push a listener toward a judgment the evidence has not earned, which makes it an ethics issue for a speaker. (first used: 4. Appropriateness, connotation, and inclusive language: fit the words to the room)
Inclusive language — Wording that describes people accurately and with respect, using people-first wording, unbiased wording, and the names communities use for themselves. (first used: 4. Appropriateness, connotation, and inclusive language: fit the words to the room)
People-first language — Wording that names the person before a condition or trait, such as "a student who uses a wheelchair," so the person is not reduced to that one fact. (first used: 4. Appropriateness, connotation, and inclusive language: fit the words to the room)
Unbiased language — Wording that does not assume or signal a group's traits, such as using "firefighter" rather than a title that assumes one gender for the job. (first used: 4. Appropriateness, connotation, and inclusive language: fit the words to the room)

Summary

Write for the ear: a listener hears each sentence once.
Oral style uses short sentences, repetition, "you," and concrete words.
Run the read-aloud test on every sentence before you keep it.
The four killers of clarity: abstract words, jargon, long sentences, vague quantifiers.
Cure a vague quantifier with an oral citation or a plain count.
The six devices: metaphor, simile, parallelism, anaphora, antithesis, alliteration.
"Like" or "as" separates a simile from a metaphor.
Name a device on the transcript's words, never on a line as remembered.
One device used well beats five piled up.
Fit words to the audience, the occasion, the topic, and the speaker.
Every word has a denotative and a connotative meaning.
Loaded language is an ethics issue; inclusive language is accuracy and respect.
A chatbot's "rewrite for speech" is a draft; your ear decides.

Check your understanding

Work these before looking at the answers — they are ungraded, and the answers (with reasoning) are at the bottom of the page.

A gym's email says, "Members are advised that facility access may be subject to modification during the renovation period." The manager wants to say it out loud at a members' meeting. Name two clarity killers in the sentence and write an oral version.
A speaker at a neighborhood association splits one 28-word sentence into four sentences of 6, 8, 5, and 9 words. Check that no words were lost, and find the average sentence length after the split.
Name the device in each illustrative line: (a) "The new bridge is a ribbon of light." (b) "Her laugh went off like a smoke alarm." (c) "We came to learn; we stayed to teach."
In an informative talk to a city council, a speaker calls a road plan "a reckless scheme" and calls people who use the shelter "those people." Name the problem with each choice and rewrite both.

Answers (worked reasoning — read after attempting)

Two killers stand out. "Facility access" and "modification" are abstract words, and the sentence is long, with 15 words a listener must hold at once. An oral version: "While we rebuild, the locker rooms will be closed. Check the sign by the front desk before you come in." The fix uses "you," names things a member can see, and breaks one long sentence into two short ones.
Add the parts first: 6 + 8 + 5 + 9 = 28 words, so no words were lost. Then divide: 28 ÷ 4 = 7 words per sentence. Shorter sentences help, but the read-aloud test still decides; four choppy sentences in a row can sound like a list of orders, so vary the length.
(a) Metaphor: the bridge "is" a ribbon of light, with no "like" or "as." (b) Simile: "like" sets up the comparison out loud. (c) Antithesis. In that line, "came to learn" and "stayed to teach" set two contrasting ideas side by side in matching form. The tell for each is the shape of the words, not how fancy they sound.
"A reckless scheme" is loaded language: "reckless" and "scheme" carry a judgment, and an informative talk describes rather than judges. Say "the road plan" and let the facts speak. "Those people" pushes the listeners away from the people being described. Say "people who use the shelter," which is people-first and accurate.

Next up in this module: the Readings & Resources page, the lecture tutorial, the practice set, and the quiz; next week names the five canons of rhetoric, a classroom model in which this week is style.

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