Want To Chiasmus like Kennedy?

Chiasmus pronounced: kīˈazməs/

I hate that word, yet love what the power it holds.

I once had a nightmare about this word: I was in class, and every time I said “chiasmus” out loud, somebody said, “bless you.”

I kept saying; I am not sneezing I want to teach you a powerful rhetorical device used by the most of the influential speakers of all time.

“Bless you.”

Chiasmus Definition and power

In rhetoric, chiasmus (Latin term from Greek χίασμα, “Crossing” is the figure of speech in which two sentences are related to each other through the reversal of their grammatical structures.

Have you ever heard the following phrase: If you fail to plan, you plan to fail.

Yes, that is an example of chiasmus with two related sentences flip-flopped.

If you prefer to avoid nightmares, just call it the flip-flop formula

More chiasmus examples:

When the going gets tough

The tough get going

-----

Ask not what your country can do for you

Ask what you can do for your country

-----

Let us preach what we practice

and practice what we preach

-----

All of the above are examples of Chiasmus or flip-flop sentences.

check it out:

Going get's tough > Tough get going

Your country can do for you > You can do for your country

Preach what we practice > Practice what we preach

Makes sense?

Here is how you use the Flip-Flop Formula

1- Think of a message you want to get across to your audience:

Example of message #1 : Don't use slides

Example of message #2: Respect your audience

2- Figure out a flip-flop structure for each message

Example for message #1

You either use your PowerPoints, or your PowerPoints will use you

Example for message #2

If you don't respect your audience, your audience will not respect you

What do you think?

It's your turn now: come up with something and share it in the comments below. I would love to see it.

Conclusion

It's no secret: people have shorter attention spans.

According to a study sponsored by Microsoft: The average attention span of a person in 2000 was 12 seconds, and by 2013 it was only 8 seconds.

That's not an impressive number when you compare it to the 10-second attention span of a goldfish.

With our society experiencing information overload and messages being reduced to 140 character tweets, smart professionals are learning to adapt their message to this new era.

One of the best ways to create these short messages is to follow flip-flop formulas. A chiasmus makes your core message easy to remember, quote, tweet, and share.

You either change your message based on your audience or change your audience based on the message. (haha, could not resist)

Society is changing, attention spans are dropping, and you can't change that. All you can do is change your message. Chiasmus will help you re-formulate your message, so it fits our current times. As a result, you will be more memorable, quotable and resonant.

Quiz to test your Chiasmus knowledge:

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