Tis Far Better to Agitate Than to Irritate

Keep this mind when giving a presentation or speech: tis far better to agitate than to irritate.

Per Google, agitate is defined as:

verb: to campaign to arouse public concern about an issue in the hope of prompting action.

and irritate is defined as:

verb: to make (someone) annoyed, impatient, or angry.

We often conflate the two words; indeed one possible definition of agitation is "to make nervous" — but being nervous is far different from being made angry.

So when you prepare your next passionate, inspiring, speech make your intentions are clear. Do you want to agitate your audience to action? Or irritate them to annoyance?

The results can be quite different.