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Lesson planC260 minsNew. New: checked automatically for level, grammar, facts and originality; a teacher's review is still to come. Spotted a mistake? Tell us.
Words That Move: The rhetoric of speeches
Students analyse rhetorical devices, like the rule of three and rhetorical questions, in a graduation speech, then write a short speech of their own.
Rhetoric · Public speaking · Speeches · Register
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Plan at a glance
Aims
- Practise the rhetoric of speeches
- Learn and use 14 words and phrases in 2 sets: Words for speeches, Devices and phrases for speeches
- Read for detail: a speech remembered
- Writing task: a short speech
Stages · 60 min
- 5 minLead-in: Pairs talk about public speaking and share ideas with the class.
- 5 minLanguage focus: Go through the grammar notes together and check understanding.
- 10 minControlled practice: Ex. 1
- 5 minVocabulary: Ex. 2–3
- 10 minAccuracy practice: Ex. 4–5
- 10 minReading: Ex. 6
- 15 minWriting: Ex. 7
Printables
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Download all (ZIP, 2 PDFs)Grammar notes
Four classic rhetorical devices
- Tricolon: a list of three parallel words or phrases – Your teachers inspired, challenged and supported you.
- Antithesis: two contrasting ideas set side by side in a balanced structure – Talent opens the door; character keeps it open.
- Rhetorical question: a question asked for effect, not for an answer – Who among us has never doubted themselves?
- Anaphora: the same word or phrase repeated at the start of successive clauses or sentences – Remember this room. Remember these faces.
The register of formal speeches
- Speeches mix formal language with direct address to the audience (you, we, all of us).
- Short sentences after long ones create emphasis; pauses and repetition replace the visual structure of a written text.
- Fronting and inversion add drama: Never have I been prouder. Rarely does a speech change a life.
Study tips
- Watch a speech you admire with the transcript in front of you and mark every device you can find.
- When you write a speech, read it aloud: if a sentence is hard to say in one breath, split it.
Glossary
- Words for speeches8 items
- Devices and phrases for speeches6 items
Complete the exercises, then check your answers.
1
Name the device
Read the lines from graduation speeches. Which device does each one mainly use? Put each line in the right group.
- a
Some of you will build bridges. Some of you will cure diseases. Some of you will write books. Some of you will raise families.
- b
Talent opens the door; character keeps it open.
- c
Remember this room. Remember these faces.
- d
What is a degree worth if we keep what we learned to ourselves?
- e
We arrived as strangers in September; we leave as a family in June.
- f
This college gave me friendship, purpose and a second chance.
- g
Your teachers inspired, challenged and supported you.
- h
Who among us has never doubted themselves?
- i
Failure is an event, not an identity.
- j
Every time you speak up, every time you stand beside a colleague, every time you refuse to look away, every time you admit you were wrong – that is leadership.
- k
And is that not the whole point of an education?
- l
The work was long, difficult and unpaid.
2
Words for speeches
Match each word with its meaning. There is one extra meaning.
Tap an item…
…then its match
3
Word families
Use the word in capitals to form a word that fits the gap.
- a
Her moved the whole audience to tears.
ELOQUENT - b
The speech ended on a deeply note, with a tribute to her late father.
POIGNANCY - c
He made an plea for the hospital to stay open.
PASSION - d
The argument was so that even the sceptics changed their minds.
COMPEL - e
She is widely regarded as the finest of her generation.
ORATORY - f
Her final words were a call to action for the students.
GALVANISE - g
A rhetorical question is designed to provoke rather than an answer.
REFLECT
4
Rewrite for effect
Complete the second sentence so that it means the same as the first. Use the word given and between two and five words. Do not change the word given.
- a
Everyone here has been afraid of failing at some point.
WHO
been afraid of failing at some point?
Use 2–5 words, including the word given.
- b
The speech meant a great deal to the audience.
CHORD
The speech with the audience.
Use 2–5 words, including the word given.
- c
Her speech made the students take action immediately.
INTO
Her speech immediate action.
Use 2–5 words, including the word given.
- d
Many people found the argument very convincing.
COMPELLING
Many people found the argument .
Use 2–5 words, including the word given.
- e
Behind the fine words, there was very little substance.
RHETORIC
The speech was little substance.
Use 2–5 words, including the word given.
- f
She spoke with great feeling about the refugees.
IMPASSIONED
She made about the refugees.
Use 2–5 words, including the word given.
5
Correct the commentary
Each sentence from a review of a speech has one mistake. Write the correction: the corrected word(s) or the whole sentence.
- a
The speech resonated to everyone in the hall.
- b
She gave a remarkably eloquence speech.
- c
Her words galvanised the students for protesting.
- d
Never before I had heard such a powerful speech.
- e
It was a poignantly moment when she mentioned her father.
- f
The argument was compelled enough to change my mind.
6
Read: a speech remembered
Read the text. Are the sentences true, false or not given?
At this year's graduation ceremony at Ashcombe College, the novelist Ines Varga – herself a former student – delivered an address that many in the hall described as the most eloquent they had ever heard. Varga, who left school at sixteen and returned to education in her thirties, opened not with a joke, as speakers on such occasions often do, but with a question: 'How many of you nearly didn't make it to today?' Hands went up across the hall. What followed was less a lecture than a conversation. Varga spoke of the night shifts she had worked throughout her first degree, of the tutor who had refused to give up on her, and of the poignant moment when her father, who had never learned to read, held her first published book. The speech was carefully structured – critics later pointed to its three-part lists and its balanced contrasts – yet it never felt rehearsed. 'Rhetoric gets a bad name,' she told the graduates, 'because people use it to hide things. Use it to reveal them instead.' Not everyone was persuaded. One columnist argued afterwards that the address, for all its warmth, offered little practical advice to graduates entering a difficult job market. Even so, a recording of the speech was shared widely online, and the college reports that enquiries from mature students have risen since.
- a
Varga had studied at Ashcombe College herself.
- b
Varga began her speech with a joke.
- c
Varga worked at night while she was studying for her first degree.
- d
Varga's father taught her to read.
- e
Varga believes that rhetoric is always used dishonestly.
- f
The speech lasted more than half an hour.
- g
Every commentator praised the speech without reservation.
- h
Varga has published more than one novel.
7
Write: a short speech
Write a short formal speech.
You have been asked to give a short speech at an event of your choice: a graduation, a colleague's retirement or the opening of a community centre. Write the speech (180–230 words). Use at least three of the four devices from this worksheet (tricolon, antithesis, rhetorical question, anaphora) and at least three words from the box. Read it aloud before you finish. Word box: eloquent · poignant · galvanise · resonate · compelling · rhetoric · impassioned · oratory Example: Thirty years ago, Maria walked into this office as a stranger; today she leaves it as a friend to every one of us.
Suggested minimum: 180 words
0 words · aim for at least 180
Spotted a mistake in this lesson?· tell us the exercise and item
Revise with a game
This lesson's own words and questions. Play on your own, or in teams on the classroom screen.
- Step UpAnswer the lesson's questions to climb to the top.
- Pair UpMatch the lesson's words to their meanings against the clock.
- SnapA word and a meaning: do they go together? Answer fast.
- Fix ItFind the mistake in each sentence, then correct it.
- Quiz BoardTeams choose questions worth 100 to 500 points.
- Retro arcadeWord Invaders, Word Snake, Word Maze and Word Crossing: classic arcade games with the lesson's words.
Glossary
The 14 words and phrases this lesson teaches, in 2 sets.
Words for speeches
- eloquent
- fluent and persuasive in speaking or writing
- poignant
- causing a sharp feeling of sadness or regret
- galvanise
- to shock or excite someone into taking action: galvanise people into action
- resonate
- to seem meaningful to someone; used with 'with': it resonated with me
- compelling
- so convincing or interesting that it holds your attention
- rhetoric
- language designed to persuade; often disapproving, suggesting it lacks substance
- impassioned
- full of strong feeling, usually about a cause
- oratory
- the art and skill of public speaking
Devices and phrases for speeches
- tricolon
- a list of three parallel words or phrases: inspired, challenged and supported
- antithesis
- two contrasting ideas placed side by side: an event, not an identity
- anaphora
- repeating the same words at the start of several sentences or clauses
- rhetorical question
- a question asked for effect, not to get an answer
- strike a chord
- to make people feel sympathy or recognise something from their own lives
- call to action
- words that urge an audience to do something
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