Week 7 — Language & Style
Why this matters
A charge nurse giving a shift-change briefing and a team captain rallying players before a match both talk to people who cannot scroll back up, so short sentences, concrete words, and one well-placed repetition decide whether the message lands the first time.
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.
- Already covered: audience analysis (Week 2), the oral citation (Week 4), organizing (Week 5), outlining (Week 6).
- This week: oral style, the four killers of clarity, six devices of vividness, and words that fit the room.
- How they connect: last week's full sentences get rewritten for the ear.
- Where we're going next: Week 8, Midterm Review & Exam.
Focus
How do you choose words a listener can follow the first time and remember after?
By the end of this module, you should be able to:
- [ ] rewrite a flat written sentence in oral style and test it by reading it aloud
- [ ] fix abstract words, jargon, long sentences, and vague quantifiers
- [ ] name the six devices on verified speech fragments and choose accurate, inclusive words
To-do
Plan your week
- Read Chapter 7 (about 45 minutes), then the lecture and slides.
- Do the tutorial (60–90 minutes) and the practice set (about 20 minutes).
- Do the Speech Workshop (about 90 minutes), the discussion, and the assignment.
- Take the quiz.
This week's checkpoint: rewrite one passage of your speech for the ear and read both versions aloud.
You've got this
Ask your instructor if a step snags.
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