Rhetorical devices and flourishes play a big role in increasing impact and helping us remember what’s been said, and President Obama is a master at using them. Learn advanced–yet simple–speaking techniques likes anaphora, anapest, and chiasmus by breaking down last night’s State of the Union address (don’t worry, we’ll explain).

Media darlings and mavens of masterful storytelling who took center stage with aplomb in 2011.

Want a good lesson in how to tarnish your public image, put off your fan base, torpedo your career, or lose the trust of your clients? There’s plenty to pick from in our annual list of 2011’s communication losers.

If you’ve ever had to react on the spot to a situation that was so sticky, so icky that it left you speechless, read on to see how a friend of mine handled a recent conflict.

Congress decided to “mix it up” for the State of the Union address, to sit together instead of opposite sides of the aisle. It was even referred to as “dating,” and fraught with the same social complexity and awkwardness teenagers encounter. This seemed like an empty gesture, but I was quite surprised by the outcome.

In the wake of the horrific shooting of Arizona Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, I’ve been thinking a lot about how the words that we’ve been using in our political discourse may have impacted the situation.

Every year, I compile a list of who’s been naughty and who’s been nice as a speaker or communicator. Following is the 2010 list of winners and losers.

Yesterday was a great day for me to watch and observe two great communicators deliver high-stakes presentations. Steve Jobs launched the much-anticipated iPad and Barack Obama delivered his first State of the Union address. The presentations were surely different, and had different goals, but they did share some important attributes.

I was sitting next to my classmate, Chris, on Saturday morning. It was the last day of our fabulous 8-week FastTrac* Growth Venture course that is sponsored by a local non-profit, the Women’s Business Development Center. Just to be clear, Chris is a guy.

Boy, it’s a great time to be a speech expert as well as a leading authority on political communication. And both political parties provided a great show, particularly the speeches of Hillary Clinton and Sarah Palin. They each had a job to do and enormous hurdles to overcome.