What I've Been Reading

Language Intelligence: Lessons on persuasion from Jesus, Shakespeare, Lincoln, and Lady Gaga by Joseph Romm.

Romm is an editor and blogger at  climateprogess.org; being at the forefront of the most "debated" issue in the recent decades, it probably has become self-evident that language is as (actually more) important as facts.

Key rhetorical strategies used by the greatest persuaders:

• Use short, simple words.  
• Repeat, repeat, repeat. Repetition is the essential element of all persuasion.     Master irony and foreshadowing. They are central elements of popular culture, modern politics, and mass media for a reason— they help us make sense of the stories of our lives and other people’s lives.
• Use metaphors to paint a picture, to connect what your listeners already know to what you want them to know. Metaphors may be the most important figure as well as the most underused and misused.
• Create an extended metaphor when you have a big task at hand, like framing a picture-perfect speech or launching a major campaign.
• If you want to avoid being seduced, learn the figures of seduction. If you want to debunk a myth, do not repeat that myth.