Could a simple sentence structure really improve memory?

“Ask not what your country can do for you—ask what you can do for your country."

That sentence changed history. JFK spoke it once, and 60+ years later, people still quote it and bumpers of cars still flaunt it.

I’ve spent some time studying what makes sentences like this one stick in the human noggin and if it could be recreated over and over and over again.

Here’s what’s fascinating, it's not just what JFK said that made it so memorable. It's how he structured what he said.

Today we are going to have a quick chat about chiasmus: a sentence pattern where the second half mirrors and reverses the first.

It's so powerful, it can rewrite your audience's memory.

WHY IT MATTERS

Chiasmus is a brain hack. Our minds crave symmetry and rhythm, which is why we remember balanced patterns more easily than scattered thoughts. When you flip and mirror ideas, you create sentences that stick, even when your audience forgets everything else you wrote.

GO DEEPER

Let’s look closer at how chiasmus works and why every Christian creator and marketer should steal it:

The structure: Chiasmus reverses the structure of a sentence to create balance. Think: A-B → B-A. Example: "When the going gets tough, the tough get going."

Biblical precedent: Scripture is full of chiasmus. Matthew 19:30 says, "But many that are first shall be last; and the last shall be first." 

Other famous examples in culture:

• Neil Armstrong: "One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind."

• Mae West: "It's not the men in your life that count—it's the life in your men."

• Shakespeare: "Fair is foul, and foul is fair." (Macbeth)

The memory effect: Chiasmus doesn't just sound good, but lodges in your brain. Researchers call this the "symmetry bias." When information is balanced, we process it faster and recall it longer. That's why people often misremember movie lines as chiasmus even when they're not. 

• (Example: Most people swear the Wicked Witch said, "Fly, my pretties, fly!" She didn't. She said, "Fly, fly, fly!" But chiasmus feels right, so that's what we remember.) See for yourself.

The persuasion advantage: Chiasmus makes your argument feel unavoidable. The mirrored structure creates a sense of completeness, like the idea was always true. That's why politicians, preachers, and poets reach for it when they need a line to land.

Practical Takeaways

The best part is you're already swimming in chiasmus, you just don't know it yet.

Dickens opened A Tale of Two Cities with "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times." That book is 160+ years old, and people still quote that line. nobody write a Chiasmus on accident.

Here's where chiasmus makes the biggest impact in digital writing:

Headlines and subject lines. This is where chiasmus earns its keep. "Build your business to serve your life, not your life to serve your business." Or: "Don't chase the platform, build the platform that chases you."

Social media hooks. Your first line determines if they scroll or stop. Try: "Most people consume content to kill time. Create content that makes time come alive." Or: "Stop growing an audience. Start serving one."

Landing pages and sales copy. When you need conversion, chiasmus creates inevitability. "Don't wait for the strategy to find you—find the strategy that works for you." Or: "We don't build software for your business. We build your business with software."

The Flip Test (works anywhere): Write your main point. Find the verb-object pair. Reverse it. "We help you work smarter and live better" becomes "Don't live to work smarter, work smarter to live better." Takes 30 seconds. Works on headlines, CTAs, bios, taglines, sermon titles—anywhere you need a sentence to land hard.

Chiasmus isn't a party trick.

Use it in subject lines for higher open rates, social hooks for higher engagement, CTAs for higher conversions, and body copy.

Just don’t overuse it….like this email is at risk of doing.

Bottom Line

People won't remember everything you write.

But they'll remember the sentence that sounds like it it didn’t just get spilled out with CrapGPT.

Chiasmus does that. It turns ordinary ideas into lines that stick, if you can stick the landing.

Your move: Find one sentence in your next piece of content and rewrite it as chiasmus.

BEFORE YOU GO

If someone in your network needs this, share it ♻️

And if you're a Christian founder or marketer who wants to write content that sticks (without spending hours staring at a blank screen), Very Good Ghost will handle the writing while you focus on building. Let's talk.

Keep writing what matter,
—Payton

P.S. Kindness wins the day again