Tools of Wit Blog

Style in Political Speeches: "Anaphora"

Dr. King's "I have a dream..." or Winston Churchill's "We shall fight them..." are both examples of the use of "anaphora." Anaphora occurs when you begin each of a sequence of paragraphs, sentences, clauses, or phrases with the same word or words. Anaphora is to speaking what bullet points are to writing.

The speeches at the national conventions give many examples of the use of anaphora.

Barack Obama: America, we cannot turn back. Not with so much work to be done. Not with so many children to educate, and so many veterans to care for. Not with an economy to fix and cities to rebuild and farms to save. Not with so many families to protect and so many lives to mend.

Hillary Clinton: No way. No how. No McCain.

Hillary Clinton: I will always remember the single mom .../ I will always remember the young man .../ I will always remember the young boy .../ I will always be grateful to everyone ...

Hillary Clinton did violate the rule to replace bullet points by anaphora in her speech: "But we don't need four more years of the last eight years./ More economic stagnation.../ More high gas prices.../ More jobs getting shipped overseas..." and on for several more. I'll bet in her script these had bullet points. In the CNN transcript, they were translated into paragraphs of sentence fragments.

John McCain: ... I understand who I work for. I don't work for a party. I don't work for a special interest. I don't work for myself. I work for you.

John McCain: I know how the military works,.../ I know how to work with leaders.../ I know how to secure the peace.

John McCain: I fell in love with my country when I was a prisoner in someone else's. I loved it not just for the many comforts of life here. I loved it for its decency, .../ I loved it because it was not just a place, but an idea,...

Try adding anaphora to your own speeches. It is easy and powerful.

Labels: anaphora, national conventions, political speeches, rhetoric, speech, style

posted by TC @ 4:37 PM