How to develop eloquence or how to become a great speaker yourself

The art of eloquence is of great importance, because a person with his words can convince people of anything. Good speech in both personal life and career is a calling card. Therefore, many would like to know how to develop eloquence. Such a skill is certainly necessary in personal self-development. There are special trainings and courses in public speaking. But you can learn eloquence on your own. Simple recommendations and special techniques will help improve your communication skills.

Enrich your vocabulary

Of course, a beautiful speech does not have to be replete with fanciful phrases and bookish words, but you must be able to express your thoughts as accurately and as vividly as possible - this is eloquence.

Don't limit yourself to just words: get acquainted with beautiful phraseological units, catchphrases and euphonious synonyms of words that have already set your teeth on edge. Learn to come up with metaphors and make apt comparisons.

And remember that it is not enough just to know some words and expressions. In eloquence, only active vocabulary matters.

Main types of eloquence

The contemporary art of public communication is diverse. It can be divided into the following types:

1. Academic or scientific eloquence - a scientific report, review, lecture, speech in a scientific discussion. It is distinguished by its logical presentation, the presence of objective assessments, conclusions, and formulations. Helps develop a scientific worldview.
2. Socio-political eloquence - reports at congresses and conferences, reviews of economic and political topics, speeches at rallies. This type of eloquence is characterized by argumentation, literacy, accuracy, persuasion and calls to action.
3. Judicial eloquence is the speech of all participants in trials: accusatory, defensive, self-defense. It has a purposeful influence on the court, with the goal of forming certain views on what happened in order to reach a verdict.
4. Theological-ecclesiastical or spiritual eloquence - a sermon, a speech at a council. Emphasizes the inner world of a person, fosters high morality. It is expressive and simple.
5. Social and everyday eloquence - speeches at official receptions, anniversaries. This type is characterized by an easy and relaxed style, without polemics and discussions.
6. Pedagogical eloquence - the teacher’s speech in lessons and meetings, essays by schoolchildren and students, speeches at school events. It is distinguished by its informativeness, literacy and the presence of most of the elements of beautiful speech.
7. Military eloquence is combat orders, appeals, regulations and military memoirs. Conciseness, unambiguousness, clarity, imperative speech form and a high degree of motivation pursue the goal of verbal influence on military personnel.
8. Diplomatic eloquence - speech during diplomatic communication between representatives of different states, as well as correspondence. Compliance with the mandatory norms of speech etiquette, wit, grace, expressiveness are the characteristic qualities of this type of eloquence.

Each type of eloquence corresponds to its own sphere of communication. Each of them has its own goals and distinctive features. In general, the science of effective speech communication is called rhetoric and is one of the oldest in human history.

Of course, the skill of eloquence is a successful career, high self-esteem, and a strong personality.

Get rid of mistakes

First of all, you need to get rid of speech errors, that is, errors in the use of words. First, understand the paronyms. You need to distinguish the addressee from the addressee, the instigator from the instigator, and the ignorant from the ignorant.

Be sure to pay attention to spelling: spoiled or spoiled? normalize or normalize? envious or envious?

Also use phraseological units correctly and follow stylistic norms. We recommend reading about other possible mistakes here (in general, you can easily enroll in the Russian Language online program, which will improve your speech).

From the history

Initially, the art of eloquence, or oratory, originated in Ancient Greece. Over the centuries, the techniques of rhetoric have been constantly updated, transformed, and new forms of communication have appeared. But no matter what improved types of verbal interaction between people are created, as Blaise Pascal said, eloquence is, first of all, a picturesque presentation of thoughts.

For example, Plato was in great admiration for the power of the extraordinary presentation of the thoughts of his teacher, Socrates. He deeply respected the talent of his mentor, whose works are very interesting for modern people to familiarize themselves with.

Get rid of what spoils your speech

We are talking about filler words, obscene language and jargon. Get rid of them. We offer two strategies:

1. Write down the words that you want to clear from your speech. Select synonyms for them in advance and memorize them. Subsequently, you will replace unwanted words and expressions with them.
2. Get used to pausing. Instead of another “uh-uh” or “ah-ah-ah”, it’s better to just be silent. Among other things, such a pause will give weight to your words and give listeners time to think about what you said.

It is better, of course, to combine both strategies. You can also keep a progress journal in which you note how clear your speech was throughout the day.

Rule 3: Use body language

Eloquence is not the only requirement for a successful presentation. Gestures and facial expressions play a significant role in the perception of information. A person who takes an open posture, smiles, and makes eye contact with those present is more credible than a speaker who is immersed in his story.

Look for an opportunity to “lock” someone’s gaze, so the audience will feel that a dialogue is taking place between you. In addition, such contact helps to see immediate feedback.

You can see from the listener’s face how he reacts to your information, whether everything is clear to him and whether the pace of the story should be changed.

It is best to find contact with the person sitting in the middle of the room. Don't hold your gaze on someone for too long, otherwise others present may become bored. A few seconds will be enough for the listener to feel that your words are addressed specifically to him.

Don't forget to use gestures: people pay attention to active hand movements. The larger your audience, the more energetic your gestures should be.

Advice. Reinforce what is said with body language: nod at moments of approval, demonstrate open hands, position your body in the direction of the listeners, smile. Emotions and open gestures will show the audience that you really want to connect with them and are open to dialogue.

Take an example

Try to regularly read authors whose style you like. Try to highlight what exactly attracts you. Perhaps it is a certain style of speech, perhaps a wealth of vocabulary, perhaps something else. Identify the most “delicious” in someone else’s text and borrow it.

It's the same with speakers: what do you like, what don't you? Why does one performance make a strong impression, while another is forgotten after a couple of days? Try to answer these questions. Observe other people and learn the best from them.

Parasite words

Getting rid of parasitic words is not an easy task. They become a habit, and therefore during a conversation we simply do not notice our speech impediment.

The words “in short”, “well”, “like”, “this”, “as if”, “how to say”, “in general”, “you know”, “actually”, “let’s say”, when repeated many times, destroy all the charm of our presentation, even if we are talking about “smart” things.

Of course, this habit is not so easy to get rid of, which is why we gradually learn to speak without parasites. To do this, you can ask your family or friends to correct you.

As soon as others hear a forbidden word, let them immediately reprimand you. To increase efficiency, come up with a punishment for using filler words.

Get a special piggy bank and put a certain amount of money into it for each mistake you make in a conversation. There are “punishment boxes” in many offices. In this way, companies are fighting slang and profanity among their employees.

If you are an athlete, you may punish yourself differently. For every parasitic word spoken, force yourself to do push-ups.

It is not convenient to do exercises everywhere and not always, so you can write down tasks in a notebook and complete everything that has accumulated during the day in the evening or the next morning.

Just don't evade punishment. Your best assistant is self-control. Over time, you will speak clearly and intelligibly, the main thing is not to give up.

Practice constantly

Practice is the main secret of developing eloquence. Many people who decide to make their speech more beautiful learn new words, learn to build complex sentence structures, etc., but do this in a strictly allotted time, and, for example, continue to communicate with friends in the same way as earlier.

Of course, such an approach will not lead to a good result, and if it does, then this path will be too long and unreasonably difficult. You need to train your eloquence constantly. And in everyday communication as well. We would even say “especially in everyday communication.” Learn to speak beautifully with friends and family - learn to do this in any other conditions. And our course “Oratory: Rhetoric Lessons” will be a good help in this.

We wish you success!

We also recommend reading:

• Storytelling
• Why you need to improve your vocabulary
• How to transfer vocabulary from passive vocabulary to active?
• The power of words in practice
• Development of speech culture
• Rhetorical hand
• Rhetoric: how to make your speech effective?
• How to develop vocabulary
• Strategies for enriching your vocabulary
• Five Canons of Rhetoric
• How to learn to speak beautifully

Key words:1Rhetoric

What does it mean to “speak beautifully” and why is it important to learn it?

We all want to communicate freely with other people, easily convey our thoughts to them, be able to interest the interlocutor and look decent in his eyes. This helps us achieve a certain level of success and become popular.

Let's describe a well-delivered speech:

• leisurely;
• easy, without long awkward pauses and unexpected hesitations;
• it does not contain profanity or filler words;
• the narrative can be called meaningful;
• accompanied by moderate gestures and facial expressions;
• sounds emotional, not monotonous.

The ability to speak clearly, consistently and convincingly will be useful in all areas of life and will help out in any situation. Whether you are a professor at an institute or a teacher at school, a businessman, a sales manager - with the help of speech you can attract the attention of the audience or get an important contract signed.

The art of eloquence is useful to any person. It allows you to influence people, control their actions and actions, and charge the audience with your energy and mood. Ultimately, having mastered this art, you will easily become the life of the party, be able to speak brilliantly in front of people and successfully negotiate.

For a speech to sound beautiful and convincing, the speaker himself must be an energetic, educated, well-read and self-confident person. Only in this way can he captivate the audience, inspire trust and sympathy, penetrate human souls and motivate people. And it’s good if a person knows how to develop charisma. Then listeners will certainly want to make their secret dreams come true and begin to take active action.

But this is the emotional side of the issue. It is often discussed at various motivating and inspiring trainings, where they teach how to become a leader. However, sometimes a person simply needs to deliver a clear, intelligible, confident speech with a competent and logically structured narrative. It includes the following required elements:

• diction (clear pronunciation of sounds);
• pace (the ability to speak slowly or quickly, without slowing down or chattering);
• voice volume;
• intonation;
• literacy;
• rich vocabulary;
• purity (absence of parasitic words);
• accuracy (use of the most appropriate words to express thoughts, structured narration without “water”);
• expressiveness (metaphors, comparisons, synonyms, figurative expressions and other linguistic means).

A person begins to develop speaking skills from birth. Parents constantly communicate with the child, read fairy tales to him, teach him poetry - all this contributes to the formation of correct and beautiful speech. But an adult will have to develop his speaking skills on his own.

Five Canons of Rhetoric

One of the greatest orators of all time, Winston Churchill gave a weekly radio address aimed at boosting the confidence of his people during the war. He dispelled their fears and convinced people that they were fighting for a just cause. Over time, his eloquence became legendary. Churchill deeply understood the art of rhetoric and knew how to persuade as if he were communicating with one person - his words had an impact on all people, regardless of values, education or position in society. Special rhetorical canons played a significant role in Churchill’s eloquence, which we invite you to get acquainted with. Read more…

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Nora Gal's advice to those who work with words

Any form of activity that requires the ability to find the right words is a difficult challenge for most of us. Whether we are writing a novel, composing a text for a rap battle, or thinking through a public speech, we are faced with the agony of choice: which word or phrase to choose? How to structure the text in such a way as not to sound like a robot? The answer is simple: you need to tirelessly monitor your speech, remove unnecessary things from it, be in a constant search for suitable words and read Russian classics. However, a person is lazy, and in the modern world he also has little time for this. Therefore, we need a book, after reading which you will be eager to learn Russian for the rest of your life, without considering it a waste of time. This book was written by Nora Gal. Read more…

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