We’ll follow up the “Speaking Stories” we learned about last week with a new, research-filled section called “Speaking Studies.”

People who have taken our companion course Good with Words: Writing and Editing may remember some of the rhetorical moves we’ll be learning about this week, including anaphora, epistrophe, and the Rule of Three. But even if these techniques are new to you, I hope you’ll soon try to incorporate them into your various speaking opportunities. There are good reasons why everyone from John F. Kennedy, to Margaret Thatcher, to Martin Luther King relied on them to get important points across.

Congratulations on making it to the final week of the first course in the series “Good With Words: Speaking and Presenting.” We’ll finish up with some additional material on rhythm and then get a chance to combine rhythm and poise together in a speaking exercise that involves a popular U.S. president, an acclaimed war correspondent, and the 1993 winner of the Nobel Peace Prize.