A blog about rhetoric, speech, and argumentation.

Photo by Kevin Gonzalez on Unsplash A quick scan of public speaking advice articles, especially on business sites like Forbes, will...

Flesch-Kincaid tests don’t explain political speeches.

“A speech is not an essay on its hind legs.” ---James Winans Photo by Florian Klauer on Unsplash Speaking and writing share much in...

When the pandemic hit, I thought I was ready for online teaching and speaking. I had already recorded hundreds of short educational...

The debate over vaccines has against shone light on the tremendous importance of understanding the difference between technical and...

Linguistics can help you reduce your ums, but it’ll also tell you that you probably don’t need to. Many years ago, I gave a 15-minute...

Perhaps one the most frustrating experiences is being drawn into a debate that isn’t actually a debate. This can happen for a number of...

Baltasar Gracian was a writer and philosopher in seventeenth century Spain. His works were so influential that the village where he was...

There is a growing literature that seeks to crack the code of TED talks for the rest of us. I think that’s great, but TED talks are a...