WRITING ENHANCEMENTS · THE ESSENTIALS: ANTICIPATE + PERSUADE
This article is part of Language Forging™.
Language Forging™ is the deliberate shaping of words and their delivery to optimally engage, influence, and inspire.
Drawing from fields like rhetoric, communications, advertising, and storytelling, Language Forging™ requires continuous development of two core competencies: Writing Enhancements for crafting magnetic language and Speaking Enhancements for presenting those words with impact. Through dedicated practice, a Language Forger™ perpetually hones these skills and applies them strategically to invite people in, spark curiosity, and inspire action.
Specifically, this article on using Question is part of Writing Enhancements: The Essentials, which includes 25+ proven rhetorical devices that make your writing easier to read, easier to remember, and harder to ignore. Deliberate language is a learnable skill.
This article includes:
- Question, with a plain-English definition, pronunciation, and a practical how-to
- Examples – notated so you can watch the device work
- Quick Exercises – On-the-spot exercises, with suggested answers at the bottom
- Your Turn – specific suggestions to use Question to your advantage, today
Write Deliberately. Be Remembered.
Persuasion in this category works by handing your audience part of the job. There is a reason that works: people remember what they work out for themselves better than the same words handed to them (N. Slamecka et al., 1978).
Writing Enhancement Category: Anticipate + Persuade. “You ask, what is our policy? I can say: it is to wage war, by sea, land, and air.” Churchill asked the question his listeners were thinking, then answered it. That is this category: pose the question, answer the objection, borrow trusted wisdom, and guide their thinking before resistance forms. Your reader is already asking. Answer first, and the yes comes easier.
“Are you better off than you were four years ago?” In his October 28, 1980, debate with President Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan could have declared, “You are worse off than you were four years ago.” Instead, he asked. That is Question: you pose a question to yourself or your audience to prompt reflection, with or without answering it.
When you make a statement, you ask your audience to accept your idea, potentially inviting argument. Rather, by asking a question, you are asking your audience to reach their own conclusion. Ask the right question of your audience, and they’ll likely reach YOUR conclusion believing they got there on their own.
Below you will find the definition, examples, and ways to use Question today.
About Question
| Definition | Pose questions to yourself or your audience to prompt reflection, with or without providing answers. |
| Explanation | It is a deliberate pause you build into your message, a moment where your audience stops receiving and starts thinking. Sometimes you answer it. Sometimes the silence after it does more work than any answer you could supply. |
| Pronunciation | kwest-chun |
| Related to | Dialogismus, Erotema, Procatalepsis, Hypophora |
| Etymology | From the Latin quaestio (accusative quaestionem), meaning “a seeking, an inquiry, a judicial investigation,” from the verb quaerere, “to ask, to seek.” The same verb gives English query. The word reached English in the early 1200s through Anglo-French questiun and Old French question. It first meant “a philosophical or theological problem.” English speakers called the question mark the “interrogation point” as early as the 1590s. The phrase “question mark” dates only from 1849. |
| An Original from The Chief Storyteller® | You will not find Question in the classical handbooks on rhetoric. Ira Koretsky, CEO, The Chief Storyteller®, added it to the Writing Enhancements after 25+ years of coaching communicators. Why? Because classical rhetorical devices shape sentences and focus on exact structure. In executive communication, you need practical techniques that work time and time again. |
| How to Use | Place your question at the point where you want the thinking to happen. Place the question at the open, to set the frame before you have said anything they can push against, or right before your recommendation, so they arrive at it a half second ahead of you. Aim the question at something your audience has personally experienced, because a question about their own life gets answered instantly. Decide in advance whether you will answer it. An answered question moves your argument forward; an unanswered one leaves a door open your audience keeps thinking about well after they finish reading or listening to you. |
| Best for | – Keynotes + Conference Talks: An opening question turns a room of spectators into participants from the start. – Sales Conversations + Discovery Calls: The question your buyer answers out loud tells you more than the deck you prepared. And, it makes the next 20 minutes about them. – Coaching, Training, + Workshops: Learners keep what they reason through. – Executive Updates + Board Meetings: A question you pose about your own numbers signals you have already looked where they were about to look. – Marketing Emails, Landing Pages, Social Posts: A subject line or first line asking something the reader has lived earns the second line, which is all any first line has to do. |
EXAMPLES OF QUESTION
Every other Writing Enhancement in the series comes from the Greek or Latin languages. Question earns its place for the opposite reason: it is a technique that works in every communication format and every room.
Look at the examples below. See how Question is used to increase the effectiveness and impact of your words. Then experiment, mixing and combining other Writing Enhancements in your written, spoken, and social media communications.
Example 1: Regina Dugan, then Director of DARPA, 2012
| Without Notation | You should be nice to nerds. In fact, I’d go so far as to say, if you don’t already have a nerd in your life, you should get one. I’m just saying. Scientists and engineers change the world. I’d like to tell you about a magical place called DARPA where scientists and engineers defy the impossible and refuse to fear failure. Now these two ideas are connected more than you may realize, because when you remove the fear of failure, impossible things suddenly become possible.
If you want to know how, ask yourself this question: What would you attempt to do if you knew you could not fail? If you really ask yourself this question, you can’t help but feel uncomfortable. I feel a little uncomfortable. Because when you ask it, you begin to understand how the fear of failure constrains you, how it keeps us from attempting great things, and life gets dull, amazing things stop happening. Sure, good things happen, but amazing things stop happening. |
| With Notation |
You should be nice to nerds. In fact, I’d go so far as to say, if you don’t already have a nerd in your life, you should get one. I’m just saying. Scientists and engineers change the world. I’d like to tell you about a magical place called DARPA where scientists and engineers defy the impossible and refuse to fear failure. Now these two ideas are connected more than you may realize, because when you remove the fear of failure, impossible things suddenly become possible.
If you want to know how, ask yourself this question: { What would you attempt to do if you knew you could not fail? } If you really ask yourself this question, you can’t help but feel uncomfortable. I feel a little uncomfortable. Because when you ask it, you begin to understand how the fear of failure constrains you, how it keeps us from attempting great things, and life gets dull, amazing things stop happening. Sure, good things happen, but amazing things stop happening. |
| Note: There are other writing enhancements found in this example: Note 1: { fear of failure/fear failure } repeated three times – diacope. Note 2: { ask yourself this question } repeated twice – mesodiplosis. Note 3: { impossible things suddenly become possible // nice to nerds // fear of failure // refuse to fear failure // good things happen, but amazing things stop happening } – sound repetition. Note 4: { impossible things suddenly become possible } – paradox. Note 5: { good things happen, but amazing things stop happening } – antithesis. Note 6: { defy the impossible and refuse to fear failure } – hyperbole. Note 7: { Sure, good things happen, but amazing things stop happening } – paromologia. Note 8: { amazing things stop happening. Sure, good things happen, but amazing things stop happening } – epiphora. Note 9: { happen / happening } – polyptoton. Note 10: { good things happen, but amazing things stop happening } – isocolon. |
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| YouTube | http://www.ted.com/talks/regina_dugan_from_mach_20_glider_to_humming_bird_drone.html |
Example 2: Susan Schauer John, CEO, SpiderWeb Connections, story told during a workshop by The Chief Storyteller®
| Without Notation | From that moment, I realized I need to think about this every day, in everything I do. Am I running my business with blinders on? With this client? With this employee? With this project? Am I open to new ideas? Am I open to new experiences? Am I open to the people standing right in front of me? |
| With Notation |
From that moment, I realized I need to think about this every day, in everything I do. { Am I running my business with blinders on? } { With this client? } { With this employee? } { With this project? } { Am I open to new ideas? } { Am I open to new experiences? } { Am I open to the people standing right in front of me? } |
| Note: There are other writing enhancements found in this example: Note 1: { With this } repeated three times – anaphora. Note 2: { Am I } repeated three times – anaphora. Note 3: Entire passage builds to a climax – auxesis. Note 4: { With this client? With this employee? With this project? } – tricolon. Note 5: { With this client? With this employee? With this project? } – asyndeton. Note 6: { every day / everything } – polyptoton. Note 7: { With this client? With this employee? With this project? } – isocolon. Note 8: { Am I open to new ideas? Am I open to new experiences? Am I open to the people standing right in front of me? } – isocolon. |
Example 3: Ross Dellenger, Yahoo Sports, 2026
| Without Notation | Have you ever attempted to put toothpaste back into its tube? |
| With Notation |
{ Have you ever attempted to put toothpaste back into its tube? } |
Example 4: Wells Fargo Advertisement
| Without Notation | On a poster advertisement on the wall of a Wells Fargo bank, in big and bold letters, “Could your banking be more rewarding?” Underneath, in text about 10% of the size, “Ask us about checking, savings and credit cards with perks.” |
| With Notation |
{ Could your banking be more rewarding? }
Ask us about checking, savings and credit cards with perks. |
ON-THE-SPOT EXERCISES
Below are three “Before” passages that do not yet use Question. Rewrite each one before reading further (no peeking!). Our suggested “After” versions are listed at the bottom.
On-the-Spot Exercise 1
Before: Our onboarding takes 30 days because we map your existing data before we migrate it. Most vendors skip that step. Skipping it is why migrations fall apart in month six, long after the invoice is paid.
On-the-Spot Exercise 2
Before: I want to talk about our meeting culture. We hold 14 recurring meetings on this team. I think several of them exist because nobody has ever cancelled them, and I would like us to look at that together this quarter.
On-the-Spot Exercise 3
Before: Most leadership teams have a strategy document that nobody outside the executive floor can repeat. Our workshop turns that document into one message your whole company can say out loud.
Your Turn — Next Steps
This Week: Before sending that email, rewrite the first line as a Question.
This Month: Open your next presentation with a Question instead of an agenda. Ask it. Pause. Look around. Watch how the audience reflects on your Question.
Next Six Months: Identify five to seven Questions consistently working for you. Record them in a note. Add to the list and try the Questions in different communications.
Put questions to work in presentations, proposals, and stories. If you’d like help crafting thought-provoking questions, contact us.
References and the Series
This article series goes beyond choosing better words. Drawing from rhetoric, communications, advertising, and storytelling, Language Forging™ builds two core competencies you develop continuously throughout your career.
Writing Enhancements craft magnetic language that draws readers and listeners into your message. The right word choices create impact. The perfect sentence rhythm maintains engagement. The strategic use of rhetorical devices captivates audiences. These elements combine to create prose that commands attention from the first word to the last.
Speaking Enhancements present those words with maximum impact. As Ira says, “great communicators create memorable experiences WITH YOU by blending together their voice, their body, and their words.” Vocal variety keeps audiences engaged. Strategic pauses create emphasis. Volume modulation signals importance. These techniques transform written words into memorable experiences.
Practice these techniques until they become habits: invite your audiences in, make them eager to learn more, and inspire them to act.
New to Writing Enhancements? Start with the series overview: Writing Enhancements
How The Chief Storyteller® Uses Question with Clients + Students
Writing Enhancements run through everything: coaching, consulting, training, workshops, and keynotes. Ira Koretsky, CEO, has been teaching them in his class for more than a decade. He teaches public speaking, data storytelling, storytelling, and presentations as an adjunct professor at The Robert H. Smith School of Business at the University of Maryland. The student final is a five-minute TED-style talk.
And Ira tells everyone the same thing:
“You never have to remember the actual Greek word or how to pronounce it. What I want you to remember is why use it and how to use it.”
Every Writing Enhancement is written first and spoken aloud second. On the page, a Question interrupts passive reading and prompts reflection. Aloud, in the meeting, on the stage, or in the pitch, your pause, vocal emphasis, and body language give your audience time to consider its answer. Small, deliberate choices, practiced until they become instinct. That is how great communicators are forged.
Sources
Ira’s 35+ years of coaching, speaking, training, and teaching; Ira’s 1,000+ page Writing Enhancements Resource Guide; Fellow communications professors; American Rhetoric; Encyclopedia Britannica; LitCharts; Literary Devices; Merriam-Webster Dictionary; Oxford English Dictionary; Silva Rhetoricae; ThoughtCo; and Wikipedia. Ira’s favorite books: A Handbook of Rhetorical Devices by Robert A. Harris; The Elements of Eloquence by Mark Forsyth; and A Handlist of Rhetorical Terms by Richard A. Lanham.
Try spotting questions in the communication around you. Then try shaping one of your own. If you’d like feedback, contact us.
On-the-Spot Exercises: Suggested Answers
Suggested rewrites only. If yours reads better, use yours.
On-the-Spot Exercise 1
Before: Our onboarding takes 30 days because we map your existing data before we migrate it. Most vendors skip that step. Skipping it is why migrations fall apart in month six, long after the invoice is paid.
After: { What does a fast migration cost you in month six? } Our onboarding takes 30 days because we map your existing data before we migrate it. Most vendors skip that step, and their clients find out in month six, long after the invoice is paid.
On-the-Spot Exercise 2
Before: I want to talk about our meeting culture. We hold 14 recurring meetings on this team. I think several of them exist because nobody has ever cancelled them, and I would like us to look at that together this quarter.
After: We hold 14 recurring meetings on this team. { How many of them would you re-create if they disappeared tomorrow? } Sit with that one, because that is the list I want us to build together this quarter.
On-the-Spot Exercise 3
Before: Most leadership teams have a strategy document that nobody outside the executive floor can repeat. Our workshop turns that document into one message your whole company can say aloud.
After: { Can anyone on your team repeat your strategy without opening the document? } Most cannot, and it is not their fault. Our workshop turns that document into one message your whole company can say out loud.
Updated 2026
Photography Source: Message Cloud/Word Cloud © Copyright, The Chief Storyteller®, LLC. All Rights Reserved.
