Rhetoric and Cadence

The study of rhetoric and cadence is increasingly attracting my interest. My occupation requires me to do many things including writing to an audience of 2,800 people and at times speaking to audiences totaling 1000. So...rhetoric and cadence are in essence part of my job. There have been time when I have been criticized for my public speaking (mainly the cadence part) and there have been times when I have been complemented on my ability to put together well thought-out sentences (rhetoric). I am young when it comes to this area, but that just fuels my desire to learn how to captivate audiences and move them to a place they rarely visit.

Recently I have been watching the best drama ever filmed, The West Wing. Aaron Sorkin in my opinion is a master writer. The speeches President Bartlett delivers, especially during re-election in season 4 are nothing short of magical. 

"We did not seek nor did we provoke an assault on our freedom, we did not expect nor did we invite a confrontation with evil." "Yet everytime we think we've met our capacity to meet a challendge, we look up and find that our capacity may well be limitless."

I'll get better I know...I just hope that I'll eventually move people to the place they rarely visit and when they get there I can say to myself "well done".