The AABA pattern also known as a diacope, is a very common rhetorical device you are probably very familiar with.
“Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo”; “my horse, my horse, my kingdom for a horse”; “alone, alone, all alone”; “You villain, villain, you damned, smiling villain.” And my personal favourite from Carry On Cleo, “Infamy, Infamy, they’ve all got it Infamy”.
Another tool is Chiasmus, a rhetorical device that originates from the Greek chiazo, meaning “to shape like a letter X.” It is a figure of speech in which the second half of an expression is reversed to mirror the first half, i.e. A/B, B/A (where the letters represent words, phrases or parts of speech).
Perhaps the best known example of chiasmus is JFK’s “ask not what your country can do for you — ask what you can do for your country.” Another is, “We don’t get stop playing when we get old, we get old when we stop playing.”
These tools are great to use in your new business pitches and can really make you stand out; you should use the AABA pattern, also known as a diacope, in your new business communication.
There’s a really interesting interview with Mark Forsyth (@InkyFool) on Radio 4 that was broadcast in November 2013 that you can listen to HERE.
And you can buy his book HERE.
