THE POWER OF EMOTIONAL ENGAGEMENT IN PUBLIC SPEAKING

The power of emotions in public speaking.

Why Emotional Language Is Key to Effective Speaking

Why Emotional Language Is Key to Effective Speaking

Another way to elicit an emotional response in an audience is to use emotional language.

Want to hear how powerful that can be? This week, when Democratic presidential candidate Michael Bloomberg finally appeared in a debate (after spending in excess of $400 million in ads), Sen. Elizabeth Warren came out of her corner swinging. Here's what she said as her first contribution of the night:

So I'd like to talk about who we're running against, a billionaire who calls women "fat broads" and "horse-faced lesbians." And, no, I'm not talking about Donald Trump. I'm talking about Mayor Bloomberg. Democrats are not going to win if we have a nominee who has a history of hiding his tax returns, of harassing women, and of supporting racist polls like redlining and stop and frisk. Look, I'll support whoever the Democratic nominee is. But understand this: Democrats take a huge risk if we just substitute one arrogant billionaire for another.

It's a statement dripping with unconcealed contempt, using language that feels like the opening of the door to a blast furnace.

Emotional language also works in the other direction, of course (even in politics). And that can work for you overtime in turning on positive emotions in listeners. Listen to Abraham Lincoln at his first inauguration, just a month before the horror of the American Civil War erupted:

I am loath to close. We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained, it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battle-field and patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature.

Lincoln took the suggestions for this famous closing from his designate for Secretary of State, William Seward. But by using "deft touches which reveal a literary taste beyond that of any statesman of his time, transformed [them into] the tender spirit and chaste beauty of these closing words."

Notice how the phrases Lincoln chose connote strong, uplifting emotions: "bonds of affection"; "mystic chords of memory"; "patriot"; "living heart and hearthstone"; "chorus of the Union"; and "better angles of our nature." Do you think about the words and phrases you can use in your own speeches and presentations, to make sure you achieve what Mark Twain called not the lightning bug, but lightning itself?

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