You Don't Say "bullet Point"

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.

Let's look at how it was done in political speeches at the national conventions.

Obama: A nation of whiners? Tell that to the proud autoworkers... Tell that to the military families...

Hillary Clinton: ...America's greatness is bound up in the lives of the American people -- your hard work, your devotion to duty, your love for your children, and your determination to keep going...

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: "I ran for president to renew the promise of America.../ To promote a clean energy economy.../ To create a health care system.../ To fight for.../ To make America once again.../ To restore fiscal sanity.../ To restore America's standing..." 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 fight for Americans. I fight for you. I fight for Bill and Sue.../ I fight for Jake and Toni.../ I fight for the family of Matthew.../ I fight to restore the pride and principles of our party.

John McCain: Fight for what's right for our country. Fight for the ideals and character of a free people./ Fight for our children's future. Fight for justice and opportunity for all.

John McCain: Stand up to defend our country from its enemies. Stand up for each other, for beautiful, blessed, bountiful America./ Stand up, stand up, stand up and fight.

Anaphora is one of the easiest and most widely used techniques in public speaking. It is particularly common in political speeches where the oratory is more formal.

By: Thomas Christopher

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THOMAS CHRISTOPHER maintains a web page, How To Create Witty Sayings, showing some of the most important techniques for creating witty humor.