WRITING ENHANCEMENTS · THE ESSENTIALS: ORDER + ARRANGE
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 auxesis 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:
- Auxesis, with a plain-English definition, pronunciation, and a practical how-to
- Examples – notated so you can watch the device work
- Quick Exercises – quick on-the-spot exercises, with suggested answers at the bottom
- Your Turn – specific suggestions to use auxesis to your advantage, today
Write Deliberately. Be Remembered.
Sequence decides what survives the meeting. People are typically 2 to 3 times more likely to remember information presented at the beginning or end of a sequence than information presented in the middle (Castel, 2008). Auxesis is how you earn that ending. Your strongest point arrives last, in the position your audience is most likely to keep.
Writing Enhancement Category: Order + Arrange. Word sequence helps decide what sticks. Rhetorical devices in this category arrange your ideas so they build: group in threes, balance opposites, escalate to your strongest point. Structure is invisible and its impact is unmistakable.
Say it plainly and they hear you. Say it in the right order and they remember you. Say it in rising order, smallest point first and strongest point last, and they repeat you. This is auxesis. You rank your ideas so each one outweighs the one before it, and the sentence gains altitude as it goes. Your reader feels the climb long before they could name it. Put your best material last, because the last thing you say is the thing they carry out the door.
Most business writing does the opposite. We lead with our biggest number to prove we deserve the meeting, then spend the rest of the paragraph coasting downhill. The audience hears the peak in sentence one and listens to the rest as paperwork. Auxesis holds the peak in reserve.
Below you will find the definition, examples, and a way to use auxesis today.
About Auxesis
| Definition | Arrange words or phrases in increasing order of importance or intensity, building to the strongest point |
| Explanation | The increasing order of importance can rise in size, cost, stakes, scope, or emotion. What matters is the reader must feel each step outrank the one before it. |
| Pronunciation | ok – SEE – sis |
| Also Known as | Climax, Incrementum, Crescendo |
| Related to | Antithesis, Catacosmesis, Hyperbole, Synonymia, Tricolon |
| Etymology | From the Greek αὔξησις (auxēsis), meaning “growth” or “increase,” from auxanein (“to grow”) |
| How to Use | Rank your points before you write them. Rank them from smallest to largest. Three steps is the reliable minimum. The reader needs one step to notice a pattern, a second to confirm it, and a third to really feel it. Make every step outrank the last in something measurable. And keep the grammar of each step parallel so the ear hears the sound ladder. |
| Best for | – Closing Paragraphs + Final Slides: The last position is the one your audience remembers, so give it your best point instead of your leftovers. – Proposals + Business Cases: Rising stakes turn a list of benefits into an argument that arrives somewhere. – Keynotes + Speeches: A build gives your voice somewhere to go and gives the room a natural place to respond. – Taglines: Three rising beats fit on a billboard and still feel like a promise. – Toasts, Tributes, + Introductions: Escalating praise honors someone without inflating every sentence to the same pitch. |
EXAMPLES OF AUXESIS
See how auxesis is used to increase your words’ effectiveness and impact. Then experiment, mixing and combining other Writing Enhancements in your written, spoken, and social media communications.
Example 1: Earth Force – Relict Legacy Book 1, Shemer Kuznits
| Without Notation | On the first day, a mist descended from the heavens blanketing earth. On the second day, a cryptic message, “Infusion commencing,” appeared in the corner of everyone’s eyes. On the third day, the sick were healed and the crippled walked again. On the fourth day, celebration and joy spread across the globe. And on the fifth day, the warping began… |
| With Notation |
On the first day, a mist descended from the heavens blanketing earth. On the second day, a cryptic message, “Infusion commencing,” appeared in the corner of everyone’s eyes. On the third day, the sick were healed and the crippled walked again. On the fourth day, celebration and joy spread across the globe. And on the fifth day, the warping began… |
| Note 1: { On the } starts each sentence. This is an example of Anaphora. Note 2: { day } is an example of Epiphora. |
Example 2: Chick-fil-A Soda Drink Cup
| Without Notation | Sip. Sip. Joy. |
| With Notation |
Sip. Sip. Joy.
Joy is the exaggerated word in the phrasing. |
| Note 1: { Sip. Sip. Joy. } is an example of Asyndeton. Note 2: { Sip } is an example of Onomatopoeia. Note 3: { Sip. Sip. } is an example of Alliteration. Note 4: { Joy } is an example of Hyperbole. (or perhaps it really is joy to drink the soda?) Note 5: { Joy } is an example of Personification. |
Example 3: Article About The Rings of Power TV Show
| Without Notation | After five years of development, The Rings of Power will finally premiere Sept. 2 on Amazon Prime Video. With a record-setting price tag of $1 billion, it will be the most expensive show ever made. No other series in the history of television has been this sprawling, this cinematic, this massive—or launched with such secrecy under such external pressure.
– Eliana Dockterman, Time, 15 August 2022 |
| With Notation |
After five years of development, The Rings of Power will finally premiere Sept. 2 on Amazon Prime Video. With a record-setting price tag of $1 billion, it will be the most expensive show ever made. No other series in the history of television has been this sprawling, this cinematic, this massive—or launched with such secrecy under such external pressure. |
| Note 1: { such … such } is an example of Diacope and Alliteration. Note 2: { this sprawling, this cinematic, this massive } is an example of Asyndeton. Note 3: { this … this … this } starting each clause is an example of Anaphora. |
Example 4: Insight from Xunzi (One of the Three Greatest Confucian Scholars)
| Without Notation | What I hear I forget, what I see I remember, what I do I understand.
不闻不若闻之，闻之不若见之，见之不若知之，知之不若行之；学至于行之而止矣。 – Xunzi (One of the Three Greatest Confucian Scholars), Ru2 Xiao4 Pian1, 340 – 245 BCE |
| With Notation |
What I hear I forget, what I see I remember, what I do I understand.
不闻不若闻之，闻之不若见之，见之不若知之，知之不若行之；学至于行之而止矣。 |
| Note 1: { I repeated six times } is an example of Diacope. Note 2: { the three clauses together } is an example of Asyndeton. Note 3: { what I … what I … what I } starting each clause is an example of Anaphora. |
Example 5: Pirates of the Caribbean Dialogue
| Without Notation | She’s safe, just like I promised. She’s all set to marry Norrington, just like she promised. And you get to die for her, just like you promised. – Captain Jack Sparrow, Pirates of the Caribbean, Dialogue with Will Turner about his beloved Elizabeth |
| With Notation |
She’s safe, just like I promised. She’s all set to marry Norrington, just like she promised. And you get to die for her, just like you promised. |
| Note 1: { promised … promised … promised … } is an example of Epiphora. Note 2: { she’s … she’s … } and { just like … just like … } are examples of Anaphora. |
ON-THE-SPOT EXERCISES
Below are three “Before” passages without auxesis applied. Rewrite each one before reading further (no peeking!). Our suggested “After” versions are listed at the bottom.
On-the-Spot Exercise 1
Before: Switching vendors would end the duplicate invoicing that costs us about $40,000 a year, save the accounting team a few hours every month, and remove one more login from the finance stack.
On-the-Spot Exercise 2
Before: If we miss this deadline, we lose the renewal, the team has to rebuild the migration plan, and somebody has to reschedule next week’s demo.
On-the-Spot Exercise 3
Before: Our workshop changes how your leaders think about their message for good, and it gives them a few new phrases to try, and everyone leaves with a template.
Your Turn — Next Steps
This Week: Open your last proposal or update and find one sentence with three items in it. Rank the items smallest to largest. Rewrite the sentence in that order. Then, read both versions aloud. Keep the one that ends on the bigger impact (word).
This Month: Rebuild the closing paragraph of a recurring report or client update as a deliberate increase in importance. Start with the operational detail, move to the business result, and end on what it means for the person reading. Track whether anyone repeats back to your impact narrative.
Next Six Months: Build one signature build you can use in any room: a three-step escalation of what your work does, rising from the task you perform, to the outcome you produce, to the change you make. Practice. Then, use it in a keynote, a proposal, and an introduction. That single increasing ladder of importance becomes the phrase people repeat when they describe you to someone else.
Your proposals, pitches, stories, keynotes… deserve this kind of deliberate language.
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.
Techniques, practiced until they are habit: inviting your audiences in, making them eager to learn more, and inspiring them to act.
New to Writing Enhancements? Start with the series overview: Writing Enhancements
How The Chief Storyteller® Uses Auxesis with Clients
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.”
Auxesis reinforces your message. Aloud, in the meeting, behind the podium, in the pitch, your voice and body language give your words “oomph,” force, impact. Small, deliberate choices, practiced until they become instinct. This is how great communicators are forged.
Sources
My 35+ years of coaching, speaking, training, and teaching; my 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. 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.
Every success story, data story, and sales story we help build uses Writing Enhancements such as auxesis. Yours can too. Contact us.
On-the-Spot Exercises: Suggested Answers
Suggested rewrites only. If yours reads better, use yours.
On-the-Spot Exercise 1
Before: Switching vendors would end the duplicate invoicing that costs us about $40,000 a year, save the accounting team a few hours every month, and remove one more login from the finance stack.
After: Switching vendors { removes one more login from the finance stack }, { gives the accounting team back a few hours every month }, and { ends the duplicate invoicing that costs us about $40,000 a year }.
On-the-Spot Exercise 2
Before: If we miss this deadline, we lose the renewal, the team has to rebuild the migration plan, and somebody has to reschedule next week’s demo.
After: If we miss this deadline, { somebody reschedules next week’s demo }. { The team rebuilds the migration plan }. { And we lose the renewal }.
On-the-Spot Exercise 3
Before: Our workshop changes how your leaders think about their message for good, and it gives them a few new phrases to try, and everyone leaves with a template.
After: Your leaders leave our workshop { with a template }. { They leave with phrases they will actually use on Monday}. { And they leave thinking about their message differently for the rest of their careers }.
Updated: 2026
Photography Source: Message Cloud/Word Cloud © Copyright, The Chief Storyteller®, LLC. All Rights Reserved.
