What's a "Period"? It Comes from the Breath of the Gods

Monday, November 2, 2015 at 07:52AM
Figaro

I recently gave a keynote speech at the European Speechwriters Conference in Berlin. The subject had to do with a concept I’ve been noodling over for many years: the rhetorical period. I shared a discovery I made some time ago: that the climaxes of great speeches in movies and politics last 12 seconds.

Here’s a short version of what I said.

 

 

Article originally appeared on Figures of Speech (http://inpraiseofargument.com/).