Stylistic Devices In Public Speaking (Essay Sample)

ANALISIS OF THE DELIVERY OF THE "I CHOOSE TO BE HAPPY" SPEECH BY LIZZIE VELASQUEZ AT THE TEDx WOMEN CONVECTION IN 2012
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Lizzie Velasquez begins her speech by engaging the audience in an activity. Activities are often used by speakers to get the audience to focus on a specific title CITATION Llo11 \l 2057 (Lloyd-Hughes, 2011). She takes a dramatic pause after the first statement which is an invitation to go with her on a mental journey into her world. Of course the audience doesn’t know where or what she is going to lead them into. Requesting the audience, "to join her in doing something real quick," at the beginning of her speech she is asking for their attention CITATION TED12 \l 2057 (TEDx Austin Women,Lizzie Velasquez, 2012).
She uses suspense in her opening sentence to grab their attention a property that she maintains all thorough the speech especially by taking dramatic pauses just after narrating a significant event CITATION Llo11 \l 2057 (Lloyd-Hughes, 2011). Her intonation at the beginning is well moderated and the opening statement is delivered in a friendly tone which adds to the humble nature of her introduction.
In her speech, Lizzie emphasises that one’s beauty is subject to ones view of their selves rather than how they perceive the views of others. All along in her speech she highlights instances when despite being in an excellent state of mind she lets emotions decide her temperament. "... I approached her and when she turned she had this look like she had seen a very ugly thing..." she says about trying to make a friend on her first day at school CITATION TED12 \l 2057 (TEDx Austin Women,Lizzie Velasquez, 2012). In her confusion at the open stigmatising rejection she experienced during her first day she, wanted to avoid school. However her parents follow up on their initial resolve, when they chose to keep her as a child, by encouraging her to go back to school on the next morning.
At playtime she is not spared; despite, being accorded VIP status she is aware that its fear that is causing it. However it is the 8 second long YouTube video that broke her, and at the same time strengthened her resolve to view herself positively CITATION TED12 \l 2057 (TEDx Austin Women,Lizzie Velasquez, 2012). This is her core message all through the speech; take the positives and ignore the negatives.
On the back of the brilliant and catchy opening statement Miss Velasquez demonstrate an acute sense of direction and purpose. She uses rhetoric to subject the audience to the circumstances that confronted her at a particular time when she had to make a significant decision. The beauty of rhetoric is it gets the audience, if they were listening as well as get their attention if they weren’t, to process the forthcoming events ahead of time. Rhetoric has for this reason been employed by veteran revolutionists such as, Hitler and General Gagarin of the Soviet Union, to up the ante in their speeches CITATION Llo11 \l 2057 (Lloyd-Hughes, 2011).
In the delivery of her story Lizzie narrates the stories significant to her development to support her viewpoint, decisions and generally advance the main thesis. It’s clear that she has "mapped out the significant stories to narrate," so as to pass her message CITATION Llo11 \l 2057 (Lloyd-Hughes, 2011). The first of these is how her parents reacted to her condition as a child, at this time she is not aware of it but her parents choose to love her and raise her normally. This act of love is replicated in several of the other events narrated such as after the rejection at school, and after she stumble upon the YouTube video. Her parents form an important part of her perception at life by constantly offering their counselling sort of advice to help her out of each crisis.
Lizzie noticeably avoids using analogies too much during the speech preferring the more personal option of narratives. However the introductory part utilises this literary tool to get the audience engaged in her activity. She asks the audience to, "... go back to that moment when they were procrastinating homework... you are listening to a song online and you see a small ..." As one follows through with her analogy you are brought to face her first encounter with the label of, "the worlds ugliest woman." She also uses analogy to illustrate the unique circumstances of her happiness or anger dilemma. She is often heard following the illustration with a, "... I chose to be happy." CITATION TED12 \l 2057 (TEDx Austin Women,Lizzie Velasquez, 2012)
Lizzie is not hesitant to provide explanations in areas where she has called on supportive devices to get the audience to reason. "Thought automatically yields opinions and since it is every speaker intention that this opinion is in tandem with the main objective of their speech, it is imperative that a follow-up explanation is provided," CITATION Cav10 \l 2057 (Cavendish Films., Films for the Humanities & Sciences (Firm), & Films Media Group., 2010). You will notice that Lizzie is conscious of this fact because after each analogy she explains the circumstances around it. The explanations aid the audience to create connection between the analogy and the life of the speaker. A p...