Using Contrast in Presentations

What if in Shakespeare’s play, Hamlet had said, “I wonder if I should kill myself?” Nobody would have remembered it.  Instead, Hamlet says, “To be or not to be, that is the question.” Shakespeare knew the secret power of contrast. Contrast  is the second  rhetorical device in the acronym SCREAM (Simile, Contrast, Rhyme, Echo, Alliteration, […]

Similes in Your Speech Are Like Water in the Desert

He was as phony as a three dollar bill. She grinned like a Cheshire cat. Your mind works like a computer. “Like” and “as” are the typical words of comparison in similes.  Simile is the first rhetorical device in the acronym SCREAM (Simile, Contrast, Rhyme, Echo, Alliteration, and Metaphor).  Use the techniques of SCREAM to […]

Rhetorical Devices: SCREAM to Give Your Presentations Power

Colorful language can capture an audiences’ attention and it can anchor your points in their minds.  The following acronym was modified (by adding “simile”) from the book, Speak Like Churchill, Stand Like Lincoln (a book I highly recommend for any speaker!). The SCREAM structure was coined in 2005 by Dr. Randy J. Harvey, the 2004 World […]