12.4: Conclusion: The Importance of Language
Jacqueline M. Gianico
Language is more than the medium of your message. It is the experience of your message. The words you choose, the imagery you create, and the rhythm you craft all work together to help your audience listen, feel, and understand. As you’ve seen throughout this chapter, effective speakers make intentional decisions about language: they choose words that match their purpose, adapt their phrasing to the needs of their audience, lean on vivid images to make ideas memorable, and select inclusive language that honors the diverse people listening.
Mastering public speaking does not mean sounding perfect. It means sounding attentive, thoughtful, and curious about how your words will land. When you pay attention to denotations and connotations, when you distinguish between oral and written language, and when you shape your message around the people in the room, you earn something far more important than applause because you earn trust.
As you continue practicing and preparing your speeches, notice how even small adjustments in wording can transform a message from confusing to clear, from generic to vivid, or from exclusive to welcoming. These choices matter not only in class, but everywhere you communicate. Language can build bridges or barriers; it can clarify or distort; it can open conversations or shut them down. When you choose your words with care, you’re not just improving a speech. You’re strengthening your relationships, enhancing your credibility, and contributing to a more thoughtful and inclusive public sphere.
Key Takeaways
- Using appropriate language means that a speaker’s language is suitable or fitting for themselves, as the speaker; our audience; the speaking context; and the speech itself.
- Vivid language helps listeners create mental images. It involves both imagery (e.g., concreteness, simile, and metaphor) and rhythm (e.g., parallelism, repetition, alliteration, and assonance).
- Inclusive language avoids placing any one group of people above or below other groups while speaking. As such, speakers need to think about how they refer to various groups within society.
- Language is important in every aspect of our lives because it allows people to communicate in a manner that enables the sharing of common ideas.
- Denotative definitions are the agreed-upon meanings of words that are often found in dictionaries, whereas connotative definitions involve what an individual conceives of when they think of the word.
- Misunderstandings commonly occur when the source of a message intends one denotative or connotative meaning and the receiver of the message applies a different denotative or connotative meaning to the same word or words.
- Oral language is designed to be listened to and to sound conversational, which means that word choice must be simpler, more informal, and more repetitive. Written language uses a larger vocabulary and is more formal.
- Five common language features that impact public speakers are clarity, accessibility, economy, power, and variety.
- When public speakers prepare, they need to make sure that their speeches contain clear language, define uncommon terms, use as few words as possible to get their point across, employ powerful language, and include variety.
References
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McBride, K. (2023, June 8). Using the term “food stamps.” NPR.
McCroskey, J. C., Wrench, J. S., & Richmond, V. P. (2003). Principles of public speaking. The College Network.
National Council of Teachers of English. (2002). Guidelines for gender-fair use of language.
Noack, R. (2025, July 22). The Taliban banned beauty salons, leaving women to labor in the shadows. The Washington Post.
Nordquist, R. (2009). Mixed metaphor. About.com.
Obama, B. (2008, January 20). The great need of the hour. Remarks delivered at Ebenezer Baptist Church, Atlanta. RealClearPolitics.
Wrench, J. S., McCroskey, J. C., & Richmond, V. P. (2008). Human communication in everyday life: Explanations and applications. Allyn & Bacon.
