In short, it is using fancy words used to sound smart or to deliberately confuse your audience. William Lutz called it this inflated language. Most of the time, your audience is confused and not impressed. My dad used to tell me not to confuse my audience or I would be “up the proverbial tributary of deification without and adequate means of propulsion.”
Avoid Powerless Language (It really makes you sound smart, don’t you think?)
Powerless language consists of words or phrases that weaken the language and undermine credibility. Powerless language results in the speaker being seen as less persuasive, less attractive, and less credible.
It is true that in social settings, you should be willing to use powerless language for the sake of cooperation, but in speeches, you should stick with sounding confident and powerful.
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Examples of Powerless Language
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Hedges:
Statements that make a phrase sound less forceful.
|
-
I’m
kinda
surprised at the research I found.
-
I
guess
I’d like to…
-
I
think
this point is important because
|
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Hesitations:
Words or sounds that are pauses in the speech like uh, um, er.
|
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Uh, I’d like to talk about…
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W-w-w we can all agree.
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I wish everyone would, er, uh consider this idea.
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Intensifiers:
Words that do not add meaning but attempt to magnify the emotional content.
|
-
I’m not
very
excited about…
The car is
really
expensive.
I’m
super
excited about this new…
“Substitute ‘damn’ every time you’re inclined to write ‘very’; your editor will delete it and the writing will be just as it should be.” Mark Twain
|
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Taq questions:
Adding questions to the end of the sentence to make an assertion sound like a question.
|
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I think this is a great idea,
don’t you
?
It is OK to ask the audience questions. It becomes powerless language when you tag the question on so you don’t sound certain of what you are saying.
|
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Disclaimers:
Information given before a statement that signals a problem, a lack of understanding, or anticipates doubts
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I’m not sure if I’m saying this right.
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I probably shouldn’t say this, but…
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Don’t get me wrong…
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I know this sounds crazy but…
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I’m no expert but…
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Self Critical:
Making negative statements about yourself
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Let me start by saying that I’m a terrible public speaker.
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PowerPoint is not my thing, but here is a slide I made to illustrate.
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Uptalk:
Making voice go up at the end of a sentence making it sound like a question
|
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Powerless language is not always a bad thing, Dr. Fragale found that when doing group work, powerless language can make you appear more cooperative.
When people hear someone who is very confident and certain in the way that they speak, others think of that person as really dominant and ambitious and assertive, but they also think of that person as less warm, less collaborative and less cooperative. In groups that require a lot of teamwork, team members are looking for people who have good team skills, who care about other people. Those personality attributes are more important than how dominant or ambitious you are.
Oftentimes, you will have a group project that leads up to a speech. In this scenario, you should use your cooperative speech for working with the team and your assertive language in the speech.
At first glance, this whole chapter looks like it is dedicated to things to avoid. In reality, it is dedicated to getting you to think about one big thing–context. Context matters. Who makes up your audience, what the expectations of the occasion are, and who you are in relation to each will impact how you should design your speech. The most important thing in speechmaking is to figure out how to share your message in a way that the audience can listen to and receive your message.
Key Takeaways
Remember This!
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The goal of your speech is to get your message across to your audience, by knowing the context, the occasion, and the audience you can avoid things that will cause them to not want to listen.
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Your credibility can be positively or negatively affected by your choice of words.
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Always be intentional with slang, jargon, and big words. Using them or not using them by choice in a way that connects with your audience.
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Always use inclusive language and adapt your vocabulary in a way your audience will feel respected and included.
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Beware of the curse of knowledge and realize that what is easy for you to understand may not be easy for your audience so adjust your speech accordingly.
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