Moneynomist "Seize the Advantage" Series of Workshops: The Instant Language Evaluator

The following article is expanded from points based on my slide notes for my 30-minute workshop, “The Instant Language Evaluator”, which is about getting Toastmasters to step up as language evaluators by providing them with the basic tools to undertake that role, and gain proficiency.  This is part of the wider Moneynomist “Seize the Advantage” programme, along with Eric Tan Shi Wei, Gerald Yong Kim Heong, Margrette Lo Foong Quan, Oh Cheng Kok, and Zhuo Shu Zhen.  The Moneynomist team is from AIA Toastmasters Club, and are all past presidents. 

I have been a Toastmaster since July 2018.  In that time, I have held several appointments at club, and District level, I have given almost a hundred project speeches in that time, and twice more, project evaluations.  However, the one thing I am known for, in District 80, is language evaluation.  The purpose of this workshop is to prove my point that with the correct motivation, and guidance, any competent Toastmaster can step forward and become a language evaluator. 

This workshop has been crafted to be flexible, being from 20-minites to a full seminar with three hours of material, depending on the needs of the club.  By the end of this session, I hope that we have equipped the average Toastmaster, with average command of language, with the skills to become a language evaluator.  Becoming a language evaluator is easy.  Mastering the role is a learning journey in and of itself. 

The process of the programme is as follows.  We will begin with the definition of what a language evaluation actually is, the purpose of the language evaluation, some key rhetorical devices that a language evaluator should be familiar with, the checklist for the language evaluator, and the structure of the language evaluator report. 

Imam Abu Hamid Muhammad ibn Muhammad al-Ghazali at-Tus (r.a.), the Persian philosopher and theologian once said that before we speak of a cup, it is important to know what a cup is.  It has always been my practise to begin with definitions.  A proper definition sets the parameters of understanding. 

Language evaluation is a process to evaluate the effectiveness of communication, in putting forward a coherent argument for or against a position.  It is more than the art of rhetoric.  It is the art of breaking down what is said in a chapter meeting, and looking to enhance it.  Like any evaluation, the language evaluator is meant to inspire the people in a meeting to greater heights in the art of rhetoric. 

There are three primary attributes that we must have to become competent language evaluators.  These are skills we should expect in every Toastmaster. 

Firstly, we need to hone our skill of active listening, which is the process of discerning the speaker intent - why what was said, was said at that moment on the speech, and how can it be better.  We do not merely consider the apparent meaning of the words, but also the metaphorical and allegorical context. 

Secondly, we require a logical mind to look for the connection between points, and understand why they are in that order, and how it could be enhanced, or shortened.  An effective communicator does not speak a lot.  Rather, he uses as little words as possible to say as much as possible. 

Finally, we need to have a love of poetry and music, because that is what a good speech is.  That is why we look for rhetorical devices, turns of phrase that make a speech pleasant to hear.  A moving speech speaks to the symphony of the soul.  This is what we encourage. 

On the other hand, contrary to what most Toastmasters believe, it is not required to have a mastery of the English language.  What we prioritise is effective communication, not correctness in language. 

We do not require a vast vocabulary.  The best speeches use simple words, because it is about connecting with the audience, not cowing them into submission with bombast.  For example, in Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill’s famous “Never Surrender” speech, he availed himself to simple words, that were understood by the common man in uncertain terms.  Whilst it was not a particularly long speech, we consider this section: 

“We shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be.  We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender ...” 

We do not require a command of grammar.  The best speeches tend to be narrative speeches, meaning that they are in the past tense.  Factual speeches are in the present tense.  This makes it easy for the audience to follow the story.  A novice language evaluator will , over time, gain some mastery of the basic tense. 

Now that we have defined what a language evaluation is, and the basic requirements to be a language evaluator, we have to understand the purpose of a language evaluation.  A language evaluation is the process of elevating the argument, by encouraging good use of rhetorical devices, and eliminating elements of speech that diminish the speaker, or the argument.  As such, we look for things like direct speech, oblique references, uncertainty in wording, and the structure of the argument, and whether the points are elaborated with rhetorical devices.  These are points that either enhance speech or detract from the message intended. 

Depending on how we classify them, the English language has between 50 to over 60 rhetorical devices.  It is not required for a language evaluator to know every single one of them, and master them.  It is enough that we have an understanding of these few. 

An allusion is any reference in the speech to an event, person, thing, or place.  It may be direct or indirect.  It may be self-referencing.  There are six major types in the English language, but we are looking for allusions that reference the meeting, the people in it, and common events and experiences.  This is to diminish the distance between speaker and audience. 

The word “allusion” is derived from Late Latin, “alludere”, which denotes a pun, metaphor, or parable.  However, in English, an allusion is a figure of speech, a rhetorical device, in which an object, an event, or, indeed, anything, from a distinct, unrelated context, is referred to.  This may be a direct reference, such as phenomenon from popular culture, or is may be a subtle reference known only within a certain group.  This makes allusions a useful device to make a crowd feel like they are part of an in joke, and create intimacy with the audience.  Technically, an allusion is a passing or a casual remark that has a wider meaning.  It is an incidental mention of something, whether direct or indirect, which has a broader implication.  For example, you could say, of someone whose business venture failed spectacularly, “His Titanic has sunk.” 

Richard F. Thomas, in “Virgil’s Georgics and the Art of Reference, from Harvard Studies in Classical Philology, distinguished six specific categories of allusive reference applicable to a wider cultural sphere:  casual reference, which is “the use of language which recalls a specific antecedent, but only in a general sense” that is relatively unimportant to the new context; single reference, where the audience is intended to “recall the context of the model and apply that context to the new situation”; self-reference, where you reference your own body of work, or even the same speech; corrective allusion, where the imitation is clearly in opposition to the original source’s intentions, perhaps, a parody; apparent reference, where the allusion seems to refer to something specific, but is found to be otherwise upon closer inspection; and multiple reference or conflation, which is several simultaneous allusions to several sources, but fusing them into something new. 

Martin Luther King, Jr., famously alluded to the Gettysburg Address in the beginning of his “I Have a Dream” speech, by starting it with “Five score years ago ...”; reminding the audience of Abraham Lincoln’s “Four score and seven years ago”, which opened the Gettysburg Address.  This was a clever attempt at equating the gravity of his speech with the Gettysburg Address. 

Another form of an allusion is a sobriquet.  A sobriquet is a title or phrase we associate with something else.  For example, instead of referring to Singapore, we call it “The Lion City”; or New York is “the Big Apple”, or “the city that never sleeps”. 

Certain allusions should be avoided in speech because they have been diminished through overuse, becoming trite and a cliché. 

An example is “15 minutes of fame”.  This is based on a quote by Andy Warhol, the 20^th century American artist.  He commented on his sudden popularity, saying, “In the future, everyone will be world-famous for 15 minutes.”  Today, every time someone gets airtime on the news, we hear someone talk about those “15 minutes of fame”, an allusion to Andy Warhol’s remark. 

Another famous example is “Catch-22”.  This phrase originates from a 1961 Joseph Heller novel by that name.  Catch-22 is set on a U.S. Army Air Force base in World War II; “Catch-22” itself refers to a regulation that states an airman’s request to be relieved from flight duty can only be granted if he is judged to be insane.  However, since anyone who does not want to fly dangerous missions is obviously sane, there is no way to avoid flying those missions. 

Next, we consider the alliteration.  “Alliteration” is from the Latin, “ad” meaning, in this case, “more”; and “littera”, which means “letters”.  In essence, alliteration is conspicuous and obvious repetition of identical initial consonant sounds in successive or closely associated syllables within a group of words, regardless of spelling since it is about how the words sound, not how they are written. 

Whilst some literary experts may accept the repetition of vowel sounds, or repetition at the end of words, as alliteration; alliteration narrowly refers to the repetition of a letter in any syllables that, according to the poem’s meter, are stressed. 

Alliteration is actually part of a broader literary device known as consonance.  Consonance is a broader literary device identified by the repetition of consonant sounds at any point in a word.  Alliteration, however, is a special case of consonance where the repeated consonant sound is in the stressed syllable.  Alliteration may also refer to the use of different but similar consonants, such as alliterating “z” with “s”, such as from the medieval poem, “Sir Gawain and the Green Knight”. 

Symmetrical alliteration is a specialised form of alliteration containing parallelism, or chiasmus.  In this case, the phrase must have a pair of outside end words both starting with the same sound, and pairs of outside words also starting with matching sounds as one moves progressively closer to the centre.  An often-cited example would be “rust brown blazers rule”.  In that sense, a symmetrical alliteration is similar to palindromes because of their language symmetry. 

The following are some examples of alliteration in speech: 

Winston Churchill, referring to Nazi Germany’s invasion of Russia, said, “I see also the dull, drilled, docile, brutish masses of the Hun soldiery plodding on like a swarm of crawling locusts.”  The reference to the Germans as Huns is a historical allusion. 

John Fitzgerald Kennedy, in his inaugural address, said, “To those people in the huts and villages of half the globe struggling to break the bonds of mass misery, we pledge our best efforts to help them help themselves, for whatever period is required - not because the communists may be doing it, not because we seek their votes, but because it is right.” 

Finally, when have Gaius Julius Caesar, speaking of his exploits in Gaul, saying, “Veni, vidi, vici.” 

An assonance is a rhetorical device in which the repetition of similar vowel sounds takes place in two or more words in proximity to each other within a line of poetry or prose.  Assonance, here, refers to the repetition of internal vowel sounds in words that do not end the same.  Assonance is derived from the French, “assonance”, from “assonant”; and in turn derived from Latin “assonantem” meaning, “to sound”. 

For example, Edgar Allen Poe’s most famous poem, “The Raven”, uses assonance consistently and to great poetic effect: 

“Ah, distinctly I remember it was in the bleak December;

And each separate dying ember wrought its ghost upon the floor.

Eagerly I wished the morrow; — vainly I had sought to borrow

From my books surcease of sorrow — sorrow for the lost Lenore —

For the rare and radiant maiden whom the angels name Lenore —

Nameless here for evermore.” 

Another example is found in Robert Lewis Balfour Stevenson’s satirical piece, “The Feast of Famine”” 

“The quiet passage of souls over his head in the trees;

And from all around the haven the crumbling thunder of seas.

‘Farewell, my home,’ said Rua.  ‘Farewell, O quiet seat!

To-morrow in all your valleys the drum of death shall beat.’” 

The next rhetorical device is the anaphora.  In rhetoric, it is simply the repetition of a word or phrase at the beginning of successive clauses.  An anaphora is a rhetorical device that consists of repeating a sequence of words at the beginnings of neighbouring clauses, lending them emphasis.  The opposite of an anaphora is the epiphora, or epistrophe.  An epiphora is repeating words at the end of clauses. 

The combination of anaphora and epistrophe results in symploce.  In rhetoric, symploce is a figure of speech, in which a word, or phrase, is used successively, at the beginning of two, or more, clauses or sentences, and another word, or phrase, with a similar wording, is used successively at the end of the clauses.  It derives from the Greek word, meaning “interweaving”. 

The term “anaphora” is itself derived from the Greek “ana”, which means, “back”, and “pherein” which means, “to bear”.  In Greek, “anaphora” (ἀναφορά) literally means, “repetition”.  It arrived in the English through Latin. 

Aside from the obvious function of emphasising ideas, an anaphora is a rhetorical device which adds rhythm to a word, making it more pleasurable to read and easier to remember.  The repetition at the beginning of a sentence creates emphasis.  Anaphoras may also create an artistic effect to a passage.  It is also used to appeal to the emotions of the audience in order to persuade, to inspire, and to move them for, or against a position. 

The following are three examples of anaphoras.  In each, there is an emphasis on a certain theme.  For Charles John Huffam Dickens, it was about the complexities of the time.  And for Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., it was an expansive call to action, for unity. 

Charles Dickens wrote , in “A Tale of Two Cities”, “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way ...”  This is one of the best literary passages utilising anaphoras to juxtapose contrast. 

Winston Churchill, in his famous “Never Surrender” speech, said, “We shall not flag or fail.  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 and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills.  We shall never surrender.” 

Finally, this is an excerpt from Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have Dream Speech”, from the 28^th August 1963: 

“Let us not wallow in the valley of despair.  I say to you today, my friends, that in spite of the difficulties and frustrations of the moment, I still have a dream.  It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream. 

I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed, ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal.’ 

I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at a table of brotherhood. 

I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state, sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice. 

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the colour of their skin but by the content of their character. 

I have a dream today.” 

The opposite of the anaphora, as mentioned above, is the epiphora.  One of the most famous examples of epiphora is from Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address, on the 19^th November 1863, where he said, “… that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom — and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”  There is the repetition of “the people” in three successive clauses, an epistrophic triad, to emphasise his point. 

Another example would be John F. Kennedy’s, “The Strategy for Peace”, from the 10^th June  1963, where he said, “The United States, as the world knows, will never start a war.  We do not want a war.  We do not now expect a war.”  Again, it is an epiphora, and it is a triad. 

We come back to the famous “I Have a Dream“, by Martin Luther King Jr., where we have this passage: “With this faith, we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.” 

To help us remember, an alliteration starts with the letter “A”, so we know that the sounds are at the beginning of the sentence.  An assonance has two “s” in the middle, which helps us remember that the repetition is of vowel sounds in the middle of the sentence.  An anaphora is the same word or words at the beginning of a sentence, since we have “A” for the beginning of the alphabet, whereas an epiphora is the same word or words at the end of the sentence, with the letter “E”, meaning the end. 

It is the job of the language evaluator to spot similar examples, in the speeches delivered in a chapter meeting, and highlight them. 

And then, we consider the analogy.  “Analogy” is from Greek, “analogia” (ἀναλογία), meaning “proportion” which is derived from two Greek words: “ana”, “upon”, and “logos” “reckoning”.  More than merely a rhetorical device, it is a cognitive process of transferring information or meaning from a particular subject to another, the analogue to the target.  This may be a linguistic expression corresponding to such a process, or a deductive argument. 

An analogy is a comparison in which an idea, an object, or even a person, is compared to another idea, an object, or person, distinct from it.  The purpose of such a comparison is to explain the unfamiliar idea, an object, or person with the familiar idea, an object, or person which it is compared to.  Within the concept of rhetoric, it is explanation through parallel cases.  Metaphors and similes are used to draw an analogy.  An analogy is much more extensive and elaborate when compared to either a simile or a metaphor.  A simile is an expressed analogy, while a metaphor is an implied one. 

The function of analogy is, therefore, to link an unfamiliar or a new idea with common and familiar objects.  This makes it is easier for the audience to comprehend the new idea, which may be difficult to grasp, otherwise.  Analogies, used properly, bring ideas to life, and create a bridge to the audience. 

An example of an analogy would be George Orwell’s “A Hanging”: “They crowded very close about him, with their hands always on him in a careful, caressing grip, as though all the while feeling him to make sure he was there.  It was like men handling a fish which is still alive and may jump back into the water.” 

Another example would be the satirist, Peter De Vries’ “Let Me Count the Ways”: “If you want my final opinion on the mystery of life and all that, I can give it to you in a nutshell.  The universe is like a safe to which there is a combination.  But the combination is locked up in the safe.” 

The humourist, Douglas Noel Adams, wrote in “The Salmon of Doubt: Hitchhiking the Galaxy One Last Time”, “Every country is like a particular type of person.  America is like a belligerent, adolescent boy, Canada is like an intelligent, 35-year-old woman.  Australia is like Jack Nicholson.  It comes right up to you and laughs very hard in your face in a highly threatening and engaging manner.  In fact, it’s not so much a country as such, more a sort of thin crust of semi-demented civilisation caked around the edge of a vast, raw wilderness, full of heat and dust and hopping things.” 

And finally, there is William Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet”, Act II, Scene 2: 

What’s in a name?  That which we call a rose,

By any other word would smell as sweet.

So Romeo would, were he not Romeo called …” 

In all cases, analogies were used for humorous, or dramatic effect.  An analogy is a useful tool for bringing a dry subject to life, and is a good combination with allusions to create a relationship with the audience.  Entire speeches may be built around a good analogy, and that method is also a basis in stand-up comedy.

A metaphor is a rhetorical device, where an expression is used to describes a person or an object by referring to something that is considered to have similar characteristics to that person or object.  It is a figure of speech in which a word or phrase is applied to an object or action to which it is not literally applicable, or a thing regarded as representative or symbolic of something else.  The word is from the late 15^th century, and is derived from French “métaphore”, via Latin, from the Greek “metaphora”, from “metapherein”, meaning “to transfer”.  For example, we could say, metaphorically, “She is an angel.”  We could also say that humanity is an ocean, or the world is a jungle.  These are all metaphors.

A simile is a rhetorical device involving the comparison of one thing with another thing of a different kind, used to make a description more emphatic or vivid.  It is the use of an expression comparing one thing with another, always including the words “as” or “like”, or similar.  The word is from late Middle English, derived from Latin, neuter of “similis”, meaning, “like”.  For example, using the above metaphors, we could say, “She is like an angel”, “Humanity is like an ocean”, and “The world is like a jungle”.

As can be seen, it is not difficult to identify an analogy, and the two subsets, the metaphor, which is an implied analogy; and the simile, which is an expressed one.

The antithesis is a person or thing that is the direct opposite of someone or something else.  It comes to us from late Middle English, where it originally denoted the substitution of one grammatical case for another; from late Latin; from Greek, before that.

Antithesis is originally from Greek, “antitithenai”, from “anti” (ἀντί), which means “setting opposite”, and “tithenai” (θέσις), which means “placing”.  The plural of antithesis is antitheses.  It is used as both a rhetorical and literary device as a proposition that contrasts with or reverses a previously mentioned proposition, or when two opposites are introduced together for contrasting effect.  Parallelism of expression serves to emphasise opposition of ideas in antitheses.

An antithesis must always contain two ideas within a single statement.  Whilst the ideas may not be structurally opposite, they serve to be functionally opposite when comparing two ideas for emphasis.  Aristotle said the use of an antithesis enhances the audience understanding of the point the speaker is trying to make.  This comparison of two situations or ideas makes choosing the correct one simpler.  Aristotle further stated that the use of antithesis in rhetoric is similar to syllogism due to the presentation of two conclusions within a statement.

An antithesis is used to strengthen an argument by using either exact opposites or contrasting ideas, but it may include both.  They typically make the argument memorable. In rhetoric itself, the antithesis is a figure of speech which involve highlighting a contrast in the ideas by an obvious contrast in the words, clauses, or sentences, within a parallel grammatical structure.  The following are some examples of antitheses, many taken from Aristotle’s “On Rhetoric” itself.

Marcus Tullius Cicero said, “I defended the Republic as a young man; I shall not desert her now that I am old.”  Here, the antithesis is a simple statement contrasting two things, using a parallel structure.

“Man proposes, God Disposes,” is a common antithesis of unknown origin.  This is what we call a double antithesis, where “man” is opposed to “God”, and “proposes” contrasts with “Disposes”.

This passage, from the Gospel according to Matthew, the point made is emphasised by first being contrasted with its negative: 

Matthew 10:34

³⁴ Do not imagine that I have come to bring peace to the earth; I have come to bring not peace, but a sword. 

Then there is John F. Kennedy’s famous line from his 1961 inauguration speech, where he said, “Ask not what your country can do for you – ask what you can do for your country.”  This is an example of a negative-positive antithesis, and the chiasmus-antithesis, combined.

As can be seen, an antithesis gives depth to an idea by providing contrast.  It is a simple way of making a pithy statement profound.  Once we understand how they work, an antithesis is easy to spot.

In rhetoric, an epizeuxis is the repetition of a word or a phrase in immediate succession, typically within the same sentence, and used for vehemence, impact, or emphasis.  A closely related rhetorical device is a diacope, which involves word repetition that is broken up by a single intervening word, or a small number of intervening words.  As a rhetorical device, an epizeuxis is utilised to create an emotional appeal, inspiring, and motivating the audience.

A famous example is the opening track for Star Wars: “A long, long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away.”

A more sober example is the speech by Winston Churchill, on the 29^th October 1941, where he said, “Never give in — never, never, never, never, in nothing great or small, large or petty, never give in except to convictions of honour and good sense.  Never yield to force; never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy.”

Another common example is the phrase associated with real estate since the 1920s, “Location, location, location.”

An idiom is a phrase or expression which has a figurative, non-literal meaning.  The words of the phrase or expression are understood differently from the meaning of the words by themselves.  Essentially, an idiom is a phrase or expression that typically presents a figurative, non-literal meaning attached to the phrase; but some phrases become figurative idioms while retaining the literal meaning of the phrase.  Idioms are categorised as formulaic language, where the figurative meaning is different from the literal meaning.  In English alone, there are an estimated twenty-five thousand idiomatic expressions, and as language evolves, more are added, just as many fall into obsolescence.

Examples of idiomatic phrases or expressions, include the following:

1.         A blessing in disguise;

2.         A dime a dozen;

3.         Beat around the bush;

4.         Better late than never;

5.         Bite the bullet;

6.         Break a leg;

7.         Call it a day;

8.         Cut somebody some slack;

9.         Cutting corners;

10.       Get out of hand;

11.       Get your act together;

12.       Give someone the benefit of the doubt;

13.       Go back to the drawing board;

14.       Hang in there; and

15.       Make a long story short.

Finally, we consider the simplest of rhetorical devices, the quote.  A quote is the repetition or recounting of the words of another person; it is borrowed credibility.  In a situation where we have to speak about a subject matter we may be viewed as less than credible; we borrow that credibility by quoting a known authority on the subject.

Alternatively, it is possible to build a good speech around a meaningful quote, and making it the call to action.  An excellent quote can bring people together, by putting something profound in a succinct sentence.  Examples of some profound quotes include the following.

Oscar Fingal O’Flahertie Wills Wilde said, “We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.”

Lord Alfred Tennyson  said, “If I had a flower for every time I thought of you... I could walk through my garden forever.”

Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche said, “It is not a lack of love, but a lack of friendship that makes unhappy marriages.”

Lao Tzu  said, “Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength, while loving someone deeply gives you courage.”

However, I would caution against doing a Donald John Trump.  This is because of Donald Trump has this propensity to retweet quotations without checking the source, and many of them are from unsavoury characters.  Unless you are the President of the United States, accidentally quoting Adolf Hitler or Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini, or some war criminal, or anti-Semite – none of that will be good for your career, and it may take years to live it down.

It is also important to check quotes, the context, the attribution, and what was actually said.  As a language evaluator, we strive for accuracy.  If a quote is misattributed, or someone is misquoted, it is the language evaluator’s job to point it out.

Now that we have the parts of the evaluation, and what to look out for, we can put together the whole process.

The language evaluator, at the beginning of the chapter meeting, introduces the Word of the Day.  The Word of the Day is where we introduce the concept of mental and rhetorical flexibility.  This is an important skill for any person serious about becoming an effective communicator.  When we speak to people, and we use their vocabulary, their phrases, their words; they are more likely to be amendable to us, and agree with us.  This is what the Word of the Day trains us for.

When introducing the Word of the Day, explain its meaning, and its etymology.  Civilisation is built on language.  The moment one person was able to convince a group of people to accomplish something as a group, we started living for things larger than ourselves.  Words have a story, a history, a gravity.  They evolve, just as society evolves.  The word should challenge the audience, and stretch their vocabulary.

During the report, after highlighting the correct, and sometimes incorrect uses of the Word of the Day, the language evaluator highlights the good uses of language.  This would all the rhetorical devices we ran through earlier, for starters.  In this, the language evaluator names the speaker, and elevates them.  This is meant to inspire them, by encouraging them.

When it comes to uses of language that can be improved, we must understand that the role of the language evaluator is not to be a grammar Nazi.  We recognise that for many speakers in a chapter meeting, English may not be their mother tongue.  As such, we do not pick out every egregious misuse of language, every error, every mistake.  Rather, we pick some of the more common errors, and focus on addressing them.  The intent is that as people attend more meetings, and speak more, they gradually get more proficient, more confident, more fluent.  It is a process, not an event.

Finally, we summarise the evaluation.  We do this by picking on the theme, and one rhetorical device.  We then expound on how the art of rhetoric enlivens the theme, and give them a small point about how rhetoric is about us seeking a form of immortality by touching the hearts of others.

Language evaluation is the art of taking elements of the speech delivered in a chapter meeting, and elevating it, by highlighting enhancements, and diminishing the sins of language.  As long as the people in that meeting are inspired to try again, and be better, we have succeeded.