As you use the resources of language, strive to meet the standards of clarity, color, concreteness, correctness, conciseness, and cultural sensitivity. Clear language is simple and direct and draws its comparisons from everyday life. Amplification promotes clarity by dwelling on important, difficult points.
Color refers to the emotional intensity and vividness of language and is especially vital to the sharing of feeling. The more concrete a word, the more specific the information it conveys. Correctness is vital to ethos because grammatical errors and improper word choices can lower perceptions of your competence. Malapropisms, confusions among words based on similarities of sound, can be quite damaging. Concise speakers strive for brevity, often using comparisons that reduce complex issues to the essentials. Maxims are the ultimate in conciseness. Cultural sensitivity demands that a speaker be aware of the diversity within an audience and respectful of cultural differences.