Concrete language and vivid imagery make a speech come alive for listeners, engaging their senses and encouraging involvement. Concrete language is specific, tangible, and definite. Words such as “mountain,” “spoon,” “dark,” and “heavy” describe things we can physically sense (see, hear, taste, smell, and touch). In contrast, abstract language is general or nonspecific, leaving meaning open to interpretation. Abstract words such as “peace,” “freedom,” and “love” are purely conceptual; they have no physical reference. Politicians use abstract language to appeal to mass audiences, or to be noncommittal (“We strive for peace.”) In most speaking situations, however, listeners will appreciate concrete nouns and verbs.

Note how concrete words add precision and color:

Offer Vivid Imagery

Imagery is concrete language that brings into play the senses of smell, taste, sight, hearing, and touch to paint mental pictures. Studies show that vivid imagery is more easily recalled than colorless language,⁷ and speeches using ample imagery also elicit more positive responses than those that do not.⁸ Adding imagery into your speech need not be difficult if you focus on using concrete and colorful adjectives and strong verbs.

Use Descriptive Adjectives and Strong Verbs

One easy but powerful means of creating imagery is to modify nouns with descriptive adjectives, such as describing the blue of a sky as “faint blue” or “sea blue.” President Franklin D. Roosevelt used this technique when he memorably portrayed the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor as “the dark hour,”⁹ conveying with one concise adjective the gravity of the attack.

Trading weak and mundane verbs with those that are strong and colorful is another means of producing imagery. Rather than “walk,” you can say “saunter”; in place of “look,” use “gaze.” Table 16.1 lists examples of mundane verb forms and more colorful alternatives.

Use Figures of Speech

Figures of speech, including similes, metaphors, and analogies, make striking comparisons that help listeners visualize, identify with, and understand the speaker’s ideas. A simile explicitly compares one thing to another, using like or as: “He works like a dog” and “The old woman’s hands were as soft as a baby’s.” A metaphor also compares two things, but does so by describing one thing as actually being the other. Metaphors do not use like or as: “Time is a thief” and “All the world’s a stage.”

Used properly, similes and metaphors express ideas compactly and cleverly. By comparing the unfamiliar to the known, they allow us to more quickly process information. However, try to avoid clichés, or predictable and stale comparisons (as in the above examples). Similarly, beware of mixed metaphors, or those that juxtapose or compare unlike images or expressions: for example, “Burning the midnight oil at both ends” incorrectly joins the expressions “burning the midnight oil” and “burning a candle at both ends.”

An analogy is simply an extended simile or metaphor that compares an unfamiliar concept or process to a more familiar one to help listeners understand the unfamiliar one. For example, African American minister Phil Wilson used metaphoric language in a sermon to a Los Angeles congregation about the dangers of AIDS:

Source: Some examples taken from Andrea A. Lunsford, The St. Martin’s Handbook, 7th ed. (Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2011).

Our house is on fire! The fire truck arrives, but we won’t come out, because we’re afraid the folks from next door will see that we’re in that burning house. AIDS is a fire raging in our community and it’s out of control!¹⁰

As useful as analogies are, they can be misleading if used carelessly—as they often are. A weak or faulty analogy is an inaccurate or misleading comparison suggesting that because two things are similar in some ways, they are necessarily similar in others. Some analogies are clearly faulty, as in suggesting that Israel is a “Nazi” state like Germany during World War II because of its clash over territory with the Palestinians. Many other analogies are less obviously so, requiring both speaker and listener to critically examine the limits of comparison and decide for themselves whether or not they agree with a particular analogy. (See Chapter 25 for a discussion of other logical fallacies.)

Table 16.2 on the previous page lists other figures of speech that contribute to vivid imagery, including personification, understatement, irony, allusion, hyperbole, and onomatopoeia.