In discussing clarity, we talked about the importance of amplification in speeches. Although it may seem contradictory, you must also be concise, even while you are amplifying your ideas. You must make your points quickly and efficiently. Follow the advice on speaking given by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt to his son James: “Be sincere . . . be brief
be seated!”
Long-drawn-out speeches lose audience interest. They kill the impulse toward action in persuasive speeches. A concise speech helps listeners see more clearly and feel more powerfully.
To achieve conciseness, work for simple, direct expression. Thomas Jefferson once said, “The most valuable of all talents is that of never using two words when one will do.” Use the active voice rather than the passive in your verbs: “We want action!” is more concise—and more direct, colorful, and clear—than “Action is wanted by us.”
You can also be concise by using comparisons that reduce complex issues to the essentials. Sojourner Truth, a nineteenth-century human rights activist, once had to counter the argument that society should not educate African Americans and women because of their alleged “inferiority.” She destroyed that then-powerful position with a simple parable: “If my cup won’t hold but a pint, and yours holds a quart, wouldn’t you be mean not to let me have a little half-measure full?”
The goal of conciseness encourages the use of maxims, those wise but compact sayings that summarize the beliefs of a people. During the Chinese freedom demonstrations of 1989, a sign carried by students in Tiananmen Square, “Give Me Democracy or Give Me Death,” adapted Patrick Henry’s famous maximum, “Give me liberty or give me death.” Sadly, the Chinese authorities 1s took them at their word. In Colorado, demonstrators at a nuclear plant carried a sign reading “Hell No, We Won’t Glow!”—a variation on a chant often heard in anti—Vietnam war rallies of the 1960s, “Hell no, we won’t go!” And, to reinforce his point that we need to actively (and audibly) confront the problems of racism, sexism, and homophobia, Haven Cocker- ham, vice president of human resources for Detroit Edison, said: “Sometimes silence isn’t golden—just yellow.”40
As these examples suggest, maxims can have special power in attracting mass-media attention. When printed on signs, they satisfy the hunger of the press for visual messages. Their brevity makes them ideally suited to the rigid time constraints of television news. Of even greater importance, maxims evoke cultural memories and invite identification. When the Chinese students adapted Patrick Henry’s maxim and displayed the goddess of liberty, they were in effect both declaring that they shared American values and appealing for our assistance in their desperate struggle. When their cause was crushed, many Americans felt the injustice in a personal way, and the resulting tension between the Chinese government and our own lingers to this day.