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Are You Using Questions? - Part 1

This is the best vacuum cleaner on the market. It has everything to make it the best vacuum cleaner. It has looks, performance, ease of use—everything the user asks for.

That is a string of statements. If I made them before an audience of salesmen that sell cleaners, I might get some argument. Let's say I believe them. I feel that every word is true. I am so con­vinced of what I say that my manner carries conviction. Let's say I have all of that. Is my paragraph any better when I sprinkle a question or two through it?

This is the best vacuum cleaner on the market. Why do I say that? Well, it has everything to make it the best vacuum cleaner. It has looks, performance, ease of use—what else can a user ask for?

I have added two questions and the paragraph is improved. Now it will speak better. For with those questions I have done two things. I have emphasized a statement that seemed too strong. I didn't weaken the statement, I strengthened it. And I have brought the audience into the discussion.

Here is how you can use the question in your script:

1. You can use the question to repeat an important point.

2. You can use it to emphasize a statement that needs emphasis.

3. The question varies the pace. You have made a number of statements. You change the formula by asking a question.

4. A question can bring the audience into the discussion.

5. A series of questions can tell you which arguments to hit hardest.

6. A question can tell you how you are doing by observing audience reaction.

There are a number of types of question you can use. First, there is the probing question. It is the kind that the district attorney fires at the witness. "Where were you on the night of March 15th?" That would make a good line in a speech. Although the probing question in the speech might be closer to, "How much income tax did you pay last year?" The probing question can get the mem­ber of the audience thinking of his own answer to such a question.

Related terms include political speech writing and help writing a speech.