About this Video

• Video Title: How to Make Everyone Remember Your Writing – Mark Forsyth
• Channel: David Perell
• Speakers: David Perell, Mark Forsyth
• Duration: 00:55:20

Introduction

This video features David Perell interviewing Mark Forsyth, author of "The Elements of Eloquence," about how to write memorable prose. Forsyth discusses various rhetorical devices and techniques used by renowned writers and speakers throughout history, illustrating how these techniques create memorable impact. The interview explores how understanding and utilizing these techniques can significantly improve one's writing.

Key Takeaways

• Progressio: Using a series of antitheses (contrasting ideas) creates memorable phrases, seen in works ranging from Katy Perry's songs to the Bible and Charles Dickens' novels. This technique signals to the reader when to pay attention.
• Rhetorical Devices: Various rhetorical devices, including chiasmus (reversing sentence structure), diacope (repeating a word or phrase with other words in between), and epistrophe (repeating a word at the end of successive clauses), make writing memorable and impactful. Examples are drawn from famous speeches, songs, and literature.
• The Importance of Structure: Just as music uses buildup and release to create impact, writing benefits from a structure that guides the reader's attention. A sudden burst of impactful language without proper buildup can be jarring and less effective.
• Cultivating Voice: Developing a unique writing voice involves establishing geographical, social, and tonal context early in the piece, similar to an establishing shot in a film. Using specific vocabulary and sentence structure can help convey this context.
• Writing Process: Forsyth emphasizes the importance of preparation and practice before writing quickly to achieve a natural flow. He suggests practicing iambic pentameter and using an imaginary listener as a way to clarify one's thoughts before writing.

The transcript doesn't explicitly categorize examples by a single "literary drive," but rather by rhetorical devices. However, I can provide quotes of examples given for each rhetorical device mentioned, along with the source where applicable. Note that the speaker sometimes paraphrases or summarizes rather than giving exact quotes.

Progressio:

• Katy Perry's "Hot and Cold": "You're hot then you're cold, you're yes then you're no..." (This is a paraphrase; the full lyrics aren't quoted.)
• A Tale of Two Cities: "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times..."
• Ecclesiastes: "There is a time to weep, and a time to rejoice; a time to build, and a time to cast down..." (This is a paraphrase)
• Traditional Marriage Service: "for richer, for poorer; in sickness and in health..." (This is a paraphrase)

Chiasmus:

• John F. Kennedy's Inaugural Address: "Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country."
• Coolio's "Gangsta's Paradise": "And my mind on my money and my money on my mind."
• George W. Bush: "If we cannot bring our enemies to justice, we must bring justice to our enemies."
• Barack Obama: "You stood up for America, now America must stand up for you."

Diacope:

• The Wizard of Oz (false memory): "Fly, my pretties, fly!" (This line isn't actually in the movie, but it illustrates the power of the device.)
• Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech: "Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!"
• Richard III: "A horse! A horse! My kingdom for a horse!"
• The Rime of the Ancient Mariner: "Alone, alone, all, all alone, Alone on a wide wide sea!"

Epistrophe:

• Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech (repeated "will be able to"): The full quote isn't given, but this phrase is mentioned as using epistrophe.
• Winston Churchill's speech: "We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets..."

Pop Toon:

• "Dream a Little Dream of Me"
• "We are the dreamers of dreams"
• The Bible: "to be a light to lighten the Gentiles" (light used as a noun and verb)
• Shakespeare: "Let me not to the marriage of true minds admit impediments" (Alters - verb and noun)
• Taylor Swift's "Shake it Off": "The haters gonna hate, hate, hate, hate, hate..."

Note that some examples are paraphrased, and exact wording may vary slightly from the original sources. The focus is on illustrating the rhetorical devices, not providing perfect verbatim transcriptions of every cited work.

No, those were not the only rhetorical devices mentioned. While the transcript heavily focuses on progressio, chiasmus, diacope, and epistrophe, several other devices are mentioned, often briefly or as examples within the discussion of the main four. These include:

• Anadiplosis: Repeating the last word of one clause as the first word of the next. (Example from Here, There and Everywhere by The Beatles is discussed.)
• Epanalepsis: Starting and ending a phrase or clause with the same word. (Example from Yesterday by The Beatles is given.)
• Isocolon: Using successive clauses of similar structure and length. (Example from Alexander Pope's "To err is human, to forgive divine.")
• Tricolon: Using a series of three parallel words, phrases, or clauses. (Example: "anytime, anyplace, anywhere").
• Periodic sentence: Delaying the main clause until the end. (Example from Kipling's If is discussed)
• Alliteration: Repetition of consonant sounds at the beginning of words. (Mentioned in relation to Shakespeare's use in adapting from Plutarch)

The interview primarily uses these other devices as supporting illustrations within the larger discussion of the core four. The analysis centers on those four because they were seen as particularly effective for memorability.

The common theme between the rhetorical devices discussed is their effectiveness in creating memorable and impactful language. They all achieve this by employing techniques that play on patterns, repetition, symmetry, or unexpected contrasts to make the phrasing more striking and easier to retain in memory. They enhance memorability by making the writing more engaging and rhythmic.