Straightforward, Passionate

Churchill's style changes from the first half of the speech to the second.

During the first half, he's conveying information to his colleagues and keeps his style very straightforward, without a lot of descriptive embellishment. He just explains what's happened. Later, he shifts to a style that is more engaging and passionate, but less, uh, grammatically precise.

At first, Churchill refrains from a lot of adjectives or creative syntax. Take these lines: "A War Cabinet has been formed of five Members, representing, with the Opposition Liberals, the unity of the nation […] The three Fighting Services have been filled. It was necessary that this should be done in one single day, on account of the extreme urgency and rigor of events." (5, 7-8) He's conveying a lot of information about a big change in government, but he pretty much just lays it out. Nothing fancy.

Later, though, once he's gotten through all his parliamentary announcements, he lets loose. Of course, he famously offers up his "blood, toil, tears, and sweat" line (20), which isn't something you generally do unless you're passionate about the outcome. Let's put it this way: you wouldn't say something like that to the guy at the DMV—unless you're having a really tough time renewing your registration.

Another example: "You ask, what is our aim? I can answer in one word: victory, victory at all costs, victory in spite of all terror, victory, however long and hard the road may be; for without victory, there is no survival" (26-27). His sentences become short, choppy, and repetitive, and his language gets more dramatic.

Why? Because now he's appealing to his audience's emotions. Words like "terror" and "survival" contain a lot more passion than "urgency." Unless…no, there's pretty much no situation where that's not the case.