When a person is immersed in politics, she/he understands the importance of having a good speech, since this will make the difference between electoral victory and defeat. That is why one of the main characteristics of every politician is to be a good speaker, since every politician must be able to capture the attention of a large audience and convince them to trust an unknown person. Thanks to her/his speech, this person seems someone who is worth trusting the administration of a certain political position; from a councilman to a president, so everyone must have a good discursive strategy.
What is a discursive strategy?
It is the analysis of the speaker’s plan of action, in such a way that, whoever will deliver the speech, must have a kind of script that she/he prepares what she/he will say in front of an audience in advance. But beyond the words, a series of grammatical resources can be used in order to generate interaction with the audience.
But this is not all; a good discursive strategy must also be able to generate emotions, either of joy or anger. The emotion caused by a speech is what determines the acceptance or not of a certain group of people.
Types of discursive strategies
Depending on the image you want to promote for the audience, you should choose one or several types of discursive strategies. But what are they? We show them below:
- Descriptive: as its name indicates, it describes, through characteristics, qualities or properties, the central element of the message.
- Expository: conveys information that is little known by the receiver, so the speaker must be a specialist in that specific subject.
- Narrative: narrates events keeping a chronological order. Generally, this type of speeches are used in literary texts. It is also very useful when talking about a news item, to make a report or develop a report.
- Argumentative: ideal for those who wish to convince, persuade or change the receiver’s opinion. This type of speech tends to include the emotions of the listeners.
- Definition: it is considered a didactic resource, since it focuses on teaching a specific topic.
- Motivation: the speaker focuses on persuading listeners to think or act according to the message shared. It is widely used for personal growth, but at the political level it is very useful when motivating a group of people.
- Introduction: it is characterized by the use of simple words, where the speaker makes it clear that the message is important, so that it is a tool that allows awakening the public interest.
- Entertainment: its focus is to relax the listeners, so it generally uses personal anecdotes, jokes and even games to generate a trustworthy atmosphere.
- Acceptance: it is used when someone must accept any type of recognition or award; it can also be used when acknowledging guilt in a situation. This type of speech includes a considerable load of emotions.
What kind of discursive strategy do politicians use?
In general terms, the best thing is that every politician should be a good speaker, that is, capable of capturing the attention of an entire audience, since her/his electoral success will depend on it. Therefore, it must be someone who knows these discursive strategies and knows how to implement each of them, since one or the other may be necessary depending on the situation.
The most used discursive strategies are argumentative, motivational, introductory and acceptance strategies. This is because a politician focuses on capturing the attention of her/his audience and generating emotions. In this way, the idea is to convince her/his audience to trust in her/his speech.
That is why during an election campaign, politicians are in charge of elaborating slogans, speeches and motivational phrases that provoke emotions to citizens in order to motivate them to trust.
But, can someone really succeed in politics only with a good speech? In many occasions, there is a scenario in which a political leader does not meet the expected expectations; then, when analyzing her/his record, it turns out that objectively she/he was not a good choice, that is, when many ask themselves how she/he could win, the answer is thanks to her/his speech.
Many are those who underestimate the power of the words. But, the truth is that after a political campaign, who wins is not who is better qualified to hold a certain position, but who carries out the best electoral campaign. This is achieved through several speeches.
Now, it is not surprising why politicians share their messages in such a euphoric way, because they are aware of the impact it can have.