Each one of us wants to make a deep impression on our readers or listeners. Whether we are a teacher teaching an inattentive, rowdy, or recalcitrant class; a priest or preacher preaching to a flock of insensate, glassy-eyed believers; a lawyer making logical or semantic convolutions to convince judge or jury that a guilty defendant is innocent; an advertising person hawking an old, jaded product as something excitingly new; or a ward leader trying to pass off a thoroughly unworthy candidate as the best there is for an elective post, we will always want to emphasize the things we want to be accepted as true and de-emphasize those we want to be rejected as untrue. The objective is the same in all cases: to convince the audience of the wisdom of the position we have taken, whether we are speaking with the light of truth or with a forked tongue.
IMAGE CREDIT: PINTEREST.COMFilipina classroom teacher interacting with her pupils
The easiest way to emphasize things, of course, is to embellish them with such off-the-rack qualifiers as “new and improved,” “the one and only,” “especially,” “particularly,” “most of all,” and “the best choice,” as in this sentence: “X Facial Cream is
especially designed for tropical use, but
best of all, it gives 100% expert conditioning for crease-free cheeks.” As tools to snare the unthinking mind, however, such self-serving adverbs could be persuasive for at most only one or two hatchet jobs apiece. Discerning audiences can only take so much of words that demand acceptance not on the basis of logic but on blind faith.
A much better way to emphasize the things that we deem important is creative repetition. This is the technique of repeating in speech or in writing the same letters, syllables, or sounds; the same words; the same clauses or phrases; or the same ideas and patterns of thought. When done just right, this time-tested rhetorical strategy beats most other devices for achieving emphasis, clarity, retention and emotional punch.
Just to see how this strategy works, take a look again at how the first paragraph of this column tried to hook you to the subject of repetition. In the first sentence, the word-pair “teacher teaching” deliberately repeated the first syllable “teach”; the phrase “a priest or preacher preaching” used the “pr-” sound thrice and the syllable “preach” twice (this figure of speech is known as
alliteration); the phrase “judge or jury” repeated the first syllable “ju-” sound (
alliteration, again); and the five clauses that carry the examples of people wanting to make a great impression repeated the same structure and pattern of thought (
parallelism). This reiteration of the same grammar and semantic patterns certainly didn’t come by accident; those patterns were intentionally constructed in the hope of making a human-interest appeal strong enough to make the reader read on. (Did they succeed? You be the judge.)
A staple device to achieve emphasis by repetition, of course, is to use the same key word or idea in a series, as in this statement: “At Village X, enjoy
cosmopolitan living with a touch of country: a
life with all the amenities but without the inconveniences of the big city, a
life amidst lush farmlands fringed by pristine mountain and lake, a
life that someone of good taste who has definitely arrived truly deserves.” (Recall from a recent lesson in this column that “a life” here functions as a
resumptive modifier.) The repeated use of the key words “a life” emphasizes the promise of “cosmopolitan living with a touch of country,” progressively building up the imagery and giving it a strong emotional appeal. This kind of repetition is actually what most advertising in the mass media routinely uses to persuade us, for good or ill.
Even more powerful than simply repeating key words or phrases is suddenly breaking that pattern once it is established: “Airline X is
first in passenger comfort and amenities,
first in both in-flight and ground service, and
last in delayed departures and arrivals.” The disruption by the word “last” of our expectation of a series of all “firsts” dramatizes the airline’s claim of being the industry leader in flight reliability. It’s a neat semantic device that rarely fails to catch immediate attention.
Persuasion by repetition is a powerful device for inducing audiences to identify, recognize, and respond to our messages, but we have to do it with an eye and ear and feel for words and sentence structure. Uncreative repetition, like the ones that regularly assault us during election campaigns, are too predictable, awkward, tedious, and boring—if not downright untruthful. But when done purposively and competently, like the mesmerizing prayers and chants that we live by and the melodious songs, poems, mottos, and credos we love to sing or recite ad infinitum, repetition could shape our beliefs and likes and dislikes for life, Pavlov-like and unalterable. (March 8, 2004)
From the weekly column “English Plain and Simple” by Jose A. Carillo in The Manila Times,
March 8, 2004 issue © 2004 by The Manila Times.
All rights reserved.-----
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