The Power Presenter: Techniques, Style, and Strategy to Be Suasive, 2nd Edition

Chapter Eight

Control Your Cadence: The Phrase

Case Studies: Elmore Leonard • Ludwig van Beethoven • Leonard Bernstein/Stephen Sondheim • Dr. Krzysztof Izdebski • Garrison Frost • Stephen Fry • George W. Bush • Jill Abramson • Mark Carney, Bank of England • Mary Barra, GM • Indra Nooyi, PepsiCo

I’m very much aware in the writing of the dialogue, or even in the narrative too, of a rhythm. There has to be a rhythm with it...a beat.¹

Elmore Leonard

■ Cadence ■

Although Elmore Leonard wrote countless novels and short stories that have sold tens of millions of copies, he is best known for the films that have been made from his published writing, and particularly for the pungent dialogue his characters speak.

Cadence in speech is the equivalent ...