Page 17 - Sixty Nine Tools
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“Let’s take a look at the side. It’s really thin. It’s thinner than any “Well, I’ve got a staff meeting to go to and so do you, you elitist,
smart phone out there, at 11.6 millimetres. Thinner than the Q, Harvard, fascist, missed-the-dean’s-list-two-semesters-in-a-row
thinner than the Blackjack, thinner than all of them. It’s really nice”. Yankee jackass”.
(Steve Jobs, 2007 Keynote Address) (Allison Janney as C.J. Cregg in “The West Wing”)
“An empty stream, a great silence, an impenetrable forest. The air “Cigarettes are a filthy, horrible, disgusting habit. They pollute the air
was thick, warm, heavy, sluggish, . . .” and poison children. Their purveyors are evil, wicked and
(“Heart of Darkness” by Joseph Conrad) mendacious promoters of death.”
(changingminds.org – Use of language)
“We shall go on to the end, we shall fight in France, we shall fight on
the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence . . .” Bomphiolgia
(Winston Churchill)
A rhetorical device in which the speaker is involved in bombastic
The unemployed were given caring, self-respect, training, jobs . . . ! speech and exaggerates in a self-aggrandising manner. If you want
to use this technique, try writing as many appropriate words that you
Reduce, Reuse, Recycle. can think of, and then use a thesaurus to get others.
Watch, Absorb, Understand. Example:
Hardly breathing, pale and still, totally exhausted. I am the love of your life, the stars in your sky, your hero, your
handsome partner. You could not possibly ask for anything else!
Brachyology
Bdelygmia
Brachyology is the removal of words that are not necessary for the
A rhetorical device derived from the Greek word meaning “filth” used core meaning being expressed. Sentences or phrases are
to express hatred through a series of criticisms. The device is used condensed making the expression stronger.
to get the emotions of the audience, in this case hatred, in sync with
the emotions of the speaker. Examples:
Bdelygmia is a type of hyperbole, and the extreme exaggerations Love, hope, charity.
are often a little “tongue in cheek”.
Me? (Is what you have for me?)
Examples:
“Morning!” (for “good morning”)
“A custom loathsome to the eye, hateful to the nose, harmful to the
brain, dangerous to the lungs, and in the black, stinking fume
thereof, nearest resembling the Stygian smoke of the pit that is
bottomless”. Cacophony
(King James 1, 1604, “Counterblast to Tobacco”)
Cacophony is a mixture of harsh sounds.

