ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the techniques for giving a speech “style,” meaning a sense of aesthetic wholeness that carries with it a clear and powerful meaning. It approaches style not as a series of superficial decorations that one can add to a speech, but as one category of artistic form that gives body to otherwise disconnected parts. Style is described by using familiar terms—meaning, concrete words, examples, metaphor, simile, rhythm, alliteration, repetition, parallelism, and antithesis. The goal is to provide a perspective on these techniques of style that give them greater significance (cognitively, emotionally, and practically) that is more than just external bedecking. Style is to be taken seriously.
