Lesson 1.2 — Writing for speeches (Spoken English C1)

Listen first

A speechwriter reads one flat sentence, then rewrites it live for the ear.

🔊 Real audio — spoken by your browser in Spoken English. Tap any word below to hear it.

New vocabulary — tap to hear

tricolon/traɪˈkoʊlən/ · a three-part list that peaks on the third 🔊

anaphora/əˈnæfərə/ · repeating the opening words of successive clauses 🔊

parallelism/ˈpærəlɪlɪzəm/ · matching grammatical shape across items 🔊

cadence/ˈkeɪdəns/ · the rise and fall of a spoken line 🔊

antithesis/ænˈtɪθəsɪs/ · pairing opposites in balanced form 🔊

to land a line/lænd/ · idiom: make a sentence hit its mark aloud 🔊

Now say it

Tap the phrase to hear it, then press the mic and repeat — we score your pronunciation for real (Chrome/Edge).

« We will fund the classroom, back the family, and rebuild the town. » 🔊

Slow down and drop your pitch on 'rebuild' — the third beat wants weight, not speed.

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Pronunciation

Live conversation lab

Practise this dialogue live with a native-trained tutor. Next session opens soon.

Read the dialogue

Tap any line to hear it. Grammar appears in context, never as a dry rule.

'We will improve schools, help families and grow the economy.' Flat, right? 🔊Writer critiques own draft

It reads fine on paper. Why does it sag out loud? 🔊Client pushes back

Three items, but they don't build. Watch: 'We will fund the classroom, back the family, and rebuild the town.' 🔊Writer applies a rising tricolon

The last one hits hardest now. 🔊Client hears the peak

That's the pause doing the work — you leave air before 'rebuild'. 🔊Writer credits the silence

Grammar in focus · parallel structure

Parallelism means matching grammatical form across a list: verb-phrase, verb-phrase, verb-phrase. The classic advanced-learner slip is breaking the pattern midway — 'to fund the classroom, backing the family, and we rebuild the town' — which the ear registers as clumsy even when the audience can't name why. Keep every limb the same shape, and the line balances itself.

Full lesson: parallelism and rhetorical structure

Write it yourself

Write one 20-word sentence you'd use to open a speech, then mark the single spot where you'd pause.

Your answer

Saved to your writing portfolio

Tip for this task
One pause, not five. A speaker who pauses everywhere pauses nowhere.

Quick check

An adaptive quiz confirms you've got it and schedules the right words for review.

1. A tricolon works best when the three parts...

2. Which keeps parallel structure?

3. The pause in a speech mainly...

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