Using rhetorical questions gets your audience more interested in what you are going to say and emphasises your point.
Instead of just making a statement, excellent presenters often create more interest and keep the attention of the audience by asking rhetorical questions.
A rhetorical question is a question that doesn't need to be answered because the speaker provides the answer. [ask a Question + provide an Answer = rhetorical question]
Let's look at a few rhetorical question techniques used by public speakers, by political leaders, by business leaders and by excellent presenters.
Rhetorical Questions Technique 1:
Ask a question and provide the answer by only making a little change to the sentence structure
Instead of just saying, “Our top priority next quarter is sales", your could use a rhetorical question to emphasis the point.
“What is our top priority for the next quarter? [question]
Our top priority for the next quarter is sales.” [answer]
By doing this, you create more interest and make your point more dramatically, so your audience will pay close attention to what you are going to say.
Rhetorical Questions Technique 2:
Ask a question and provide a shorter answer
Instead of just saying that sales is our top priority, you could use a rhetorical question to emphasize your point.
“What is our top priority the next quarter?
Sales is our top priority.”
This is a much better way to get the audience interested and to focus on this point. You can often see excellent presenters and public speakers using this technique.
Rhetorical Questions Technique 3:
Ask a question and change the sentence structure to provide a shorter answer
“What is our top priority for the next quarter?
Sales is our top priority for the next quarter.”
In this technique, you answer by changing the sentence structure. This sentence structure emphasises the word 'sales', making it stronger with more focus.
Here are three techniques you can use with rhetorical questions to create more interest and focus attention on your key points. Actually, there are three other techniques you can use with rhetorical questions. Look out for these techniques in a later blog.
Thanks for reading!
