The Essentials of

Speechwriting
Some notes for speechwriters

Alan Barker

European Speechwriter Network Ltd

159 Windham Road

Bournemouth
BH1 4RG
United Kingdom

To book or ask for a speechwriter call: + 44 7545 232980

Email: [email protected]

This document © Alan Barker 2017

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The Essentials of Speechwriting

This book accompanies The Essentials of Speechwriting, a training course run for the
European Speechwriter Network.

For details of the course and how we can tailor it to the needs of your organisation,
please contact:

[email protected]
My thanks to Brian Jenner for contributing to the ideas and material in this book.

This document © Alan Barker 2017

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Introduction

What makes for a successful speech? The simple answer is: a satisfied audience. An
ordinary speech addresses a subject. A good speech explores a topic. An
outstanding speech talks to an audience and changes them. How? To start with, here
are some core principles.

A successful speech takes its audience on a journey. We should feel, at every

moment, that we are going somewhere. The journey may take unexpected twists
and turns, but we should feel, at the end, that we have arrived somewhere – and
that the destination is a better place than where we started out from.

A successful speech persuades. The audience is being asked to believe the

speaker (and to believe in them). More than that, at the heart of every successful
speech is an argument.. Audiences don’t want complex explanations; they want to
exchange confusion for certainty. Forget detailed information; focus on clear
messages. Persuasion always involves feeling: emotions move us to act, so successful
speeches always touch our hearts.

A successful speech speaks simply. It conveys a simple message, expressed in

simple language. The message is not just simple; it is memorably simple.

A successful speech brings out the best in its audience. It appeals to the
audience’s better instincts and their intelligence. At its best, a successful speech can
ennoble and enrich its audience.

A successful speech tells us something authentic about its speaker. We

should learn something about their view of the world, their values, hopes and
dreams. If we have a glimpse of the speaker’s heart and mind, we are readier to
follow where they want to take us.

A successful speech is bold. It’s easy for high level speeches to qualify: to wrap
up an idea in equivocation and meaningless platitudes. A successful speech neither
overstates no provokes; it states its case with respect and conviction.

A successful speech is well written. Not enough attention is given to the craft
of speechwriting. Only one Nobel Literature Prize winner has ever had his
speeches mentioned as part of their winning body of work: Winston Churchill
famously spent huge amounts of time perfecting his speeches. A successful speech
has subtle poetry under its surface. The techniques of expressive speechwriting can
be learned, but they must be practised.

A successful speech binds its audience into a community. It uses inclusive

and unifying language to establish common values and aspirations in its audience.
Great speeches help us to know ourselves a little better, and to know how we
belong to our communities: local, political, economic, spiritual, and human.

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Delivering a memorable speech is saying the right thing, at just the right time,
and in the right place.

[Max Atkinson]

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Rhetoric: what it is and why it matters
Rhetoric is the study of effective speaking. And the art of persuasion. And
many other things.

Rhetoric – in the European tradition – has its roots in Ancient Greece. The heroes
of Homer‘s epics – The Iliad, which tells the story of Troy, and The Odyssey, which
tells the story of Odysseus‘ long journey home after the Trojan War – all use the
skills of rhetoric. Later, Aristotle and Isocrates began the long process of creating a
system by which to understand and teach rhetoric.

In the Roman period, Cicero was perhaps the most famous of all orators and
studied rhetoric in great depth. Quintilian, a Spanish Roman, wrote a massive
manual called The Institutes of Oratory, that became hugely influential in the
Renaissance.

Rhetoric as a taught system survived into the nineteenth century. Today, few
students know much, if anything, of rhetoric, although it has begun to re-emerge as
a subject in a number of universities – principally in the United States.

Although rhetoric is all around us, we don’t see it. Indeed, it’s precisely because it’s
all around us that we don’t notice it. Explaining rhetoric to a human being should be
like explaining water to a fish.

Unfortunately, rhetoric has always had a rather poor reputation. It looks at the how
of language - the methods and means of speaking well. As a result, rhetoric
continues to be criticized as superficial or even deceitful. The phrase ‘mere
rhetoric’ is common.

The truth is that rhetoric is unavoidable. We never use language just to pass on
information. We use it to manipulate the thoughts and feelings of others: to cajole
and seduce, to impress and to inspire, to comfort and to persuade.

And that’s why rhetoric matters. Kenneth Burke, a great 20th century rhetorician,
defined rhetoric as:

the use of language as a symbolic means of inducing cooperation in beings that by

nature respond to symbols.

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The five canons of rhetoric

The five canons of rhetoric constitute a system for crafting a powerful speech.

They were assembled and organized principally by the Roman orator Cicero in his
treatise, De Inventione, written around 50 BC. 150 years later, in 95 AD, the Roman
rhetorician Quintilian explored the Five Canons in more depth in his landmark 12-
volume textbook on rhetoric, Institutio Oratoria. His textbook, and consequently the
Five Canons of Rhetoric, went on to become the backbone of rhetorical education
well into the medieval period.

Invention (Latin, inventio; Greek, heuresis)

Invention is the art of finding what to say. Cicero defined invention as the
"discovery of valid or seemingly valid arguments to render one's cause probable."
Note the phrase ‘seemingly valid’. Rhetorical arguments are not as rigorous or
thoroughly logical as academic or philosophical arguments. But they must convince
an audience.

What do you want to say?

Arrangement (Latin, dispositio; Greek, taxis)

Arrangement refers to the parts or structure of a speech. That structure must
proceed from start to finish as a satisfying performance. The structure of an
effective speech is quite different from the structure of a written document like a
report or briefing paper.

What order do you want to say it in?

Style (Latin, elocutio; Greek, lexis)

Style is the way the speaker uses language to express the ideas in the speech.
Rhetoric in the Renaissance became obsessed with figures of speech, artful ways of
using language to attract attention and dazzle the audience.

What language do you want to use?

Memory (Latin, memoria; Greek, mneme)

Memory includes the methods and devices (including figures of speech) used to aid
and improve the memory. Modern speakers use technology to help them remember
(most notoriously, computer-generated slides); but some speakers still try to
memorize their speech completely.

How are you going to help the speaker remember what to say?

Delivery (Latin, pronuntiato and actio; Greek, hypocrisis)

Delivery refers to the management of voice and gestures. Speechwriters can write
text to help speakers deliver more effectively.

How do we help the speaker deliver the speech?

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Kairos
Kairos (καιρός) [pronounced ‘kerros‘] is an ancient
Greek word meaning the "right or opportune moment,"
or "God's time."

The Greek teachers of rhetoric stressed the need for a

speaker to adapt to and take advantage of changing,
contingent circumstances.
For Aristotle, kairos is the context, in space and time, in
which a speaker delivers a proof. Isocrates, one of the
greatest teachers of rhetoric, writes that educated
people are those “who manage well the circumstances
which they encounter day by day, and who possess a
judgment which is accurate in meeting occasions as they arise and rarely misses the
expedient course of action”.

An effective speaker is always sensitive to kairos. They will take into account the
specific circumstances in which they are speaking, and exploit the opportunities of
the moment to be effective and appropriate in what they say. They will think about
where they are speaking, who their audience is, what cultural or political forces may
influence them - and so on.
Epigram of Posidippos, on the statue
of Kairos by Lysippos

Who was the sculptor? Lysippos. From Skion.

And who are you? Time who subdues all things.

Why do you stand on tip-toe? I am ever running.

And why you have a pair of wings on your feet? I

fly with the wind.

And why do you hold a razor in your right hand?

As a sign to men that I am sharper than any
sharp edge.

And why does your hair hang over your face? For
him who meets me to take me by the forelock.

And why, in Heaven's name, is the back of your

head bald? Because none whom I have once
raced by on my winged feet will now, though he
wishes it sore, take hold of me from behind.

Why did the artist fashion you? For your sake,

stranger, and he set me up in the porch as a
lesson.

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Responding to the kairos: ethos, logos, pathos

Aristotle suggested that the material you put into a speech is either artistic (you have
to invent it or think it up), or inartistic (the material already exists). Inartistic proofs
include evidence, statistics and testimony. Artistic proofs come in three kinds: we
often call them the modes of appeal. Each kind of artistic proof relates to the three
key elements of any speech: the speech itself, the audience, and the speaker.

Logos is the appeal based on the content of the speech. This appeal seeks to
convince by using logic or rationality.

Pathos appeals to the audience’s emotions. Or, more precisely, to their non-
rational mental faculties: imagination, feelings, sense of community or fellowship, and
so on. Pathos does more than whip up emotions; it can use stories, images,
metaphors or stirring language to touch those parts of the mind untouched by logos.

Ethos is based on the speaker’s reputation with the audience. Does the audience
trust the speaker? Does the speaker share the audience’s values? Do they command
the audience’s respect? Ethos is often translated as ‘authority’, or ‘credibility’.

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Ethos: key features

Ethos consists of three qualities.

 virtue [arête]
 practical wisdom [phronesis]
 selflessness [eunoia]

Virtue. Show that you share the audience’s values.

You could do this by means of:

 display (showing explicitly how you share those values);
 character references (get someone else to brag for you);
 the tactical flaw (reveal some defect that shows how much you
share their values);
 changing your position (to one that they hold).

Practical wisdom. Demonstrate that you are sensible and knowledgeable.

 Show off your experience. And relate it to the audience’s.

 Bend the rules. You’ll gain a lot of ethos from showing your
willingness to be flexible.
 Seem to take the middle course. Point out the extreme options
first, then support the sensible middle option.

Selflessness. This is ‘disinterested goodwill’: demonstrating objectivity, benevolence

and self-sacrifice.

 The reluctant conclusion. Seem to deal reluctantly with what you

are actually eager to prove.
 The personal sacrifice. Act as if the choice you are making hurts
you personally.
 Seem to doubt your own abilities. Act as if hesitant to speak well
or think clearly. Play up plain speaking and guilelessness.

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Logos: key features
At the heart of logos is argument.

All arguments address an issue. We can best express the

issue by asking a question.

Should we open a new sports centre?

Is the manager of Sunderland Football Club a fascist?
Is Bob Smith guilty of murder or manslaughter?

An argument addresses the issue by:

 making a case;
 supporting the case with reasons; and
 binding the reasons to the case with logic.

At its simplest:

[Case] because [Reason].

Four simple argument structures

[X] should happen/is true. [Case]

because

[X] is a [Y]. {Definition}

[X] will cause [Y]. {Cause and effect}
[X] has desirable consequence [Y]. {Antecedent and consequence}
[X] is like [Y]. {Resemblance}

[Reasons]

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Pathos: key features

The Greek concept of pathos, although

defined as ‘the appeal to emotion for
rhetorical effect’, tends to include within
its remit imagination, identification and a
sense of fellow-suffering (‘pathos’ means
both ‘suffering’ and ‘experience’): all
defining components of a gripping story.

[Biljana Scott]

We act on our emotions. (E-motions provoke motion: they move us.)

To influence your audience to act, you need to engage their emotions appropriately.

Arouse or relax? Do you want to stimulate an emotional response or lower the

emotional arousal? We can’t think clearly if our feelings are too intense. We
probably won’t take action if we have not aroused the appropriate feeling.

Create rapport. Slow or fast pace? Dynamic voice or level voice? Lots of
gestures and lively expressions, or calm posture and calm expressions?

Task or relationship? Where does the audience prefer to invest their feelings?
How can you adapt your own emotional response to make them feel at ease?

To stimulate emotion:
 Look for beliefs.
 Tell stories.
 Speak simply.
 Think about your voice.

To calm emotion:
 Go passive.
 Overplay your own emotion.
 Level the three key vocal features: volume, pitch, pace.
 Use humour.

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Thinking about the audience

All good speechwriting starts with the audience.

In a way, the most important task of any speech is to weld the audience into a single
community of thought and feeling.

What’s the title of your speech?

Is it provocative and intriguing?

How do I want to influence the audience?

Inform, entertain, inspire, motivate, advocate, persuade?

What’s the likely size of the audience?

Room, hall, auditorium? How intimate will the speech be? How conversational? How
oratorical?

What’s the occasion?

Can you use some background information about the location, the historical moment,
a famous person connected with the occasion? What’s your speaker’s place in the
event? What’s the context? What will give your speech resonance on this occasion?

What do the audience know?

Experts or novices? Voluntary or compelled? Favourable or hostile?

 What are their attitudes and beliefs – in general?

 What motivates this audience on this topic?
 How much are their beliefs based on fact? How much on experience?
 What arguments will convince and which will irritate?
 What are their biggest concerns and unanswered questions?
 Have they already made up their minds?

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Audience profiling

For every speech, consider the audience’s demographic and psychographic

characteristics.

Demographics

Age
Integrating the audience into the
Gender mix
speech
Ethnic and cultural backgrounds
Socioeconomics You can use your knowledge of the audience in
Educational backgrounds three ways in order to appeal more successfully to
Religious and spiritual affiliations them.
Memberships of groups or
 Use the information you gather to help
organizations
you identify with the audience in your
speech. (Or to make it seem as if you are
General beliefs and attitudes identifying with them.)
 Include information about the audience
Many audiences will have an into the content of your speech.
identifiable set of common beliefs  Quote statements, examples or statistics
and values. They may be sitting generated by the audience in the speech.
together precisely because they
share a belief system.

In many situations, of course, there will be deep divisions between members of the
same audience. Your task as speaker may be to create a sense of shared values.

Attitudes and beliefs towards the subject

It’s unlikely that every member of your audience will have the same view of the subject
or topic you are speaking about. Some topics are divisive by their very nature. Find
out:
 What interests this audience most or least about the subject?
 How familiar are they with the topic?
 When was the last time someone spoke to them about this topic? What was
their response?

Attitudes towards the speaker

Do you or your speaker come to this audience with a reputation? Are they able to
command instant credibility with the audience? Does the audience even know who the
speaker is? How will you or your speaker be introduced – not only by the person
introducing them, but in conference literature, advertising, press coverage and so on?

Where’s the hidden audience?

Are you speaking as much to the press as to the audience? Are you being recorded?
Are you hoping for media soundbites?

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Establishing the speech’s objective

According to Aristotle (him again!), there are three types of speech. Each generates
its own rhetoric.

 Judicial rhetoric is the rhetoric of the law court. It deals with questions of
justice.

 Deliberative rhetoric is the rhetoric of the political forum. It argues about

what to do: how to set and meet our goals, whether we should invest in new
equipment or go to war, how we should make laws and what’s to our best
advantage.

 Ceremonial rhetoric is the rhetoric of the celebratory event. It deals in

praise and condemnation, sifting the good from the bad, and identifying us
against them. The three most common forms of ceremonial speech are the
eulogy, the thanksgiving speech for an award, and the toast.

Type of
Place Time and Objective Typical topics
speech
tense

accuse or
judicial past justice / injustice
law court defend

good / unworthy
exhort or
deliberative political future advantageous /
dissuade
assembly disadvantageous
wedding,
praise or
ceremonial funeral, present virtue / vice
blame
ceremony

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Judicial speeches

In judicial rhetoric, prosecutors often try to evoke assent to the truth of a

statement such as: 'John killed Mary.' That is, prosecutors try to 'persuade'
their audiences to agree with their representations of reality. Some form of
resistance to their arguments is implicit in their situations because opposing
arguments are expected from the defense.

(Merrill Whitburn, Rhetorical Scope and Performance. Ablex, 2000)

While contemporary students of practical reasoning rarely think about

rhetoric, judicial reasoning is the model for modern practical reason. We
typically assume that practical reasoning has to proceed from rule to case and
that the point of practical reasoning is to justify our actions.

(Eugene Carver, "Aristotle's Practical Reason." Rereading Aristotle's

Rhetoric, ed. by Alan G. Gross and Arthur E. Walzer. Southern Illinois
Univ. Press, 2000)

Deliberative speeches

All deliberative discourses are concerned with what we should choose or what
we should avoid. [...]

When we are trying to persuade people to do something, we try to show them

that what we want them to do is either good or advantageous. All of our
appeals in this kind of discourse can be reduced to these two heads: (1) the
worthy (dignitas) or the good (bonum) and (2) the advantageous or expedient
or useful (utilitas).

(Edward P.J. Corbett and Robert J. Connors, Classical Rhetoric for the
Modern Student, 4th ed. Oxford Univ. Press, 1999)

Deliberative rhetoric is especially concerned with the possible and the

impossible , and so necessity becomes its special plea. The characteristic
method of deliberation is reasoning from example, and so a concern with
consequences and success dominates.

(Eugene Garver, Aristotle's Rhetoric: An Art of Character. Univ. of Chicago

Press, 1994)

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Ceremonial speeches
Rhetorical theory, the study of the art of persuasion, has long had to recognize
that there are many literary and rhetorical texts where rhetoric does not aim
directly at persuasion, and their analysis has long been problematical. To
categorize speeches aimed at praise and blame rather than at decision-making,
speeches such as funeral orations and encomia or panegyrics, Aristotle devised
the technical term 'epideictic.'

(Richard Lockwood, The Reader's Figure: Epideictic Rhetoric in Plato,

Aristotle, Bossuet, Racine and Pascal. Libraire Droz, 1996)

Kathleen Hall Jamieson, the director of the Annenberg Public Policy Center at
the University of Pennsylvania, noted that there were many forms of political
discourse. . . . She said Mr. [Barack] Obama excels at speeches read from a
teleprompter to a mass audience, not necessarily at the other forms. And his
best speeches, she said, were examples of epideictic or ceremonial rhetoric, the
kind we associate with conventions or funerals or important occasions, as
opposed to the deliberative language of policymaking or the forensic language
of argument and debate.

(Peter Applebome, "Is Eloquence Overrated?" The New York Times, Jan.
13, 2008)

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Ceremonial speeches: purpose
Ceremonial speeches honour someone or something. In these notes, we call the
person or thing being celebrated the honouree. The three most common
ceremonial speeches are:

 the eulogy (spoken at a funeral or memorial event);

 the award ceremony (a graduation, an acceptance speech for a prize or
award); and
 the toast (a celebration of a person, often at a dinner; perhaps the naming of a
building, ship or other construct).

The purpose of a ceremonial speech is always tied to the occasion on which it is

given. It also needs to articulate the idea or value the occasion represents. The
honouree itself is actually less important in the speech than what the honouree
signifies for the audience. The speech explores the larger meaning inherent in this
event.

Ceremonial speeches employ three broad techniques.

Amplification (auxesis)
Accentuate the positive. Distinguish the honouree from others of its kind
and emphasize outstanding features. Compare it to similar honourees in
the past, in fact or fiction. Avoid negative comparisons. Go for pathos:
arouse feelings and create a sense of identification between honouree,
speaker and audience.

Decontextualization
Don’t explain or describe the full circumstances in which the honouree
has operated. This is not the time for critical analysis, detailed statistical
comparisons or exhaustive causal explanations.

Instead, focus on one context: the event itself. Argument in ceremonial

speeches will always connect the honouree, the speaker and the audience.
Argument in ceremonial speech will tend therefore to be:

 less rigid than in deliberative or judicial speeches;

 more emotional; and
 more related to the significance of the event for the audience.

Intensification
Reduce the number of words. Deliver your messages briefly and quickly.
Don’t dawdle, or wander, or ramble.

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Ceremonial speeches: goals
Ceremonial speeches tend to have four main goals.

1. They commemorate an honouree: an occasion, a person, an idea, an

institution or a project.
2. They establish a connection between the honouree, the event and the
audience.
3. They construct a story about the honouree, presenting it positively.
4. They convey the importance of commemorating the honouree.

First, a ceremonial speech will commemorate an honouree. In doing so, the speaker
must immediately establish the emotional nature of that commemoration. Is it sad,
happy, ambitious, exciting, frightening, consoling, unifying? What is the special nature
of this event?

Second, the speech connects the honouree to the audience and to the event. The
aim is to create an intimacy between all three elements, to make the audience feel
that they belong to this occasion.

Third, the speech creates a story or narrative about the honouree. The story should
display characteristics of the honouree and events relating to it; the story should also
demonstrate why the honouree is worthy of being celebrated. The goal is to tie the
event to the past and to the future.

Finally, the speech conveys the significance of the event. How does the honouree
affect the lives of the audience? How will it continue to do so in the future? How
will the audience act differently as a result of paying tribute to the honouree?

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Ceremonial speeches: strategies
Ceremonial speeches use a variety of strategies to make their effect.

The speech will make careful use of emotional language. The speaker should
choose specific terms and phrases that evoke the emotion they want to arouse in the
audience.

The speech will always focus away from the speaker. The speaker’s ethical
appeal in such a speech will not be on their own experience or expertise, but on the
three features of ethos that relate the speaker to the honouree:

 the values demonstrated by the honouree

 the reasonable, practical wisdom demonstrated by the honouree
 the honouree’s dedication, benevolence, self-sacrifice or significance for
society

The speech will make connections between the event and the honouree as
quickly as possible. Doing so helps the speaker focus on the honouree rather than
themselves; it demonstrates the importance of the vent for the audience. The
speech will include descriptions of the event and about the honouree, and they will
repeatedly stress the connections between the two.

Ceremonial speeches benefit from being short. Nobody ever wished a

ceremonial speech to be longer!

In summary:
A ceremonial speech tends to have four main goals.

1. It commemorates an honouree: an occasion, a person, an idea, an

institution or a project.
2. It establishes a connection between the honouree, the event and the
audience.
3. It constructs a story about the honouree, presenting it positively.
4. It conveys the importance of commemorating the honouree.

The speech will make careful use of emotional language.

The speech will always focus away from the speaker.

The speech will make connections between the event and the honouree as
quickly as possible.

It will benefit from being short.

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Invention
Invention is the skill of finding something to say.

Subject Audience
What you are Who you are
speaking about; a speaking to; their
title in the broadest interest in the
terms subject

Topic Objective

Where you stand in Why you are speaking:

relation to the subject: the function of the
the ‘angle’ you are speech
taking on it
See ‘The functions of
Probably: rhetoric’ on the next
 “Why….” or page
 “How…”

Message

‘The take-home’ message: the one point you want your audience
to remember. The message should:

 express your topic

 be a sentence
 express only one idea
 contain no more than 15 words
 be self-explanatory to the audience
 be interesting: an idea new to the audience, stated in
their terms

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Invention: a worked example

Subject Audience
EC development Slovakian ministers
grants to the and civil servants
Slovakian
government

Topic Objective

“Why you should Deliberative:

implement grant funding to persuade ministers
more rapidly” that they should speed
up the process of
translating grants into
contracts for work

Message

Spend more to get more.

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Arrangement: the classical model

The classical model of a speech was developed by Cicero.

Arrangement of a Classical Speech

1. Introduction exordium prooimion
2. Statement of Facts narratio diegesis
3. Division partitio
4. Proof confirmatio pistis
5. Refutation refutatio
6. Conclusion peroratio epilogos

Cicero aligned certain rhetorical appeals with specific parts of the speech.

 In the exordium or introduction, the speaker must establish their credibility

with the audience. [ ethos ]

 In the next four parts, the speaker uses mostly logical argument. [ logos ]

 And in the conclusion, emotional appeals come

to the fore. [ pathos ]

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Arrangement: the classical model explained
Introduction [exordium]
Introduce yourself.
Establish your credibility with the audience. (Experience? Expertise? How long
you’ve been working at this?)
Announce your subject and purpose.
 Gain the audience’s attention and willingness to listen.
 Demonstrate that you are reasonable.
 Show that the issue matters to the audience.

Situation-problem-question [narratio]
Give a narrative account of what has happened: the background, the issues, the
problems to be addressed. End by explaining the nature of the case, or the take-
home message. SPQR may be useful here.

What’s the answer? [partitio]

Now outline the structure (the parts or divisions) of the rest of your speech.

Give us the logic [confirmatio]

Now give us the reasons why your case is sound. Appeal to logic.
You can assemble your proofs in two possible ways: as a pyramid of ideas, all
supporting the argument; or as a sequence leading inexorably to the argument as a
conclusion.

Pick carefully chosen real images and examples to support your proofs. Relate the
images and examples closely to the audience’s experience.

Demolish the opposition [refutio]

Acknowledge the known objections. Demolish them, one by one.

Sum up [peroratio]
Return to your key argument. Restate it and put it in the context of your
audience’s feelings. Appeal to our emotions. Know exactly what you are going to
say at the very end of your speech. Make it rousing and exciting. And then stop.
Don’t be tempted to go on after you’ve finished!

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Building pyramids

Controlling the sequence in which you present your ideas is the single
most important act necessary to clear writing. The clearest sequence
is always to give the summarizing idea before you give the individual
ideas being summarized. I cannot emphasize this point too much.

[Barbara Minto, The Pyramid Principle]

At the core of the speech, you may wish to outline a small number of key points. How to find
them?

Imagine speaking your message to the audience. What question will it provoke in their mind?

The question could be one of three:

 “Why?”
 “How?”
 “Which ones?”

If you can, find three answers to the question. All your key points must be
sentences.

Creating key points

Your key points should all be of the same kind.

 “Why?” Reasons, benefits, causes

 “How?” Procedures, process steps
 “Which ones?” Items, categories, factors

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Arrangement: Monroe's Motivated Sequence

Step One: Get Attention

Step Two: Establish the Need
Step Three: Satisfy the Need
Step Four: Visualize the Future
Step Five: Inspire Action

Alan H. Monroe, a Purdue University professor, developed this sequence in the

1930s.

Although individuals may vary to some extent,

research has shown that most people seek
consistency or balance among their cognitions.

When confronted with a problem that disturbs

their normal orientation, they look for a solution;
when they feel a want or need, they search for a
way to satisfy it.

In short, when anything throws them into a

condition of disorganization or dissonance, they
are motivated to adjust their cognitions or values,
or to alter their behavior so as to achieve a new
state of balance.

Alan H Monroe

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25
Step One: Get Attention

You could attract attention by:

 telling a humorous or dramatic story;

 demonstrating the importance of your point;
 posing a question;
 arousing curiosity or suspense; or
 using a quotation.

This step doesn't replace your introduction – it's part of your introduction. In your
opening, you should also:

 establish your credibility;

 state your purpose; and
 let the audience know what to expect.

Here’s an example: a half-day seminar on safety in the workplace. Your attention

step might be as follows.

Attention Workplace safety is being

ignored!

Shocking Despite detailed safety

statistic standards and regulations,
surveys show that 7 out of
10 workers regularly ignore
safe practices because of
ease, comfort, and
efficiency. Some of these
people get hurt as a result. I
wonder how comfortable
they are in their hospital
beds... or coffins?

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26
Step Two: Establish the Need

Convince your audience that there's a problem. The audience must realise that
what's happening right now isn't good enough, and that it needs to change.

 Use statistics to back up your statements.

 Talk about the consequences of maintaining the status quo and not making
changes.
 Show your audience how the problem directly affects them.

This isn’t the "I have a solution" stage.

Create imbalance, dissatisfaction, discomfort. Create the need for resolution.

Need The problem – to put it

bluntly – is apathy.
Workers just aren’t
interested.

Examples and Safety harnesses sit on the

illustrations floor when the worker is 25
feet above ground.
Ventilation masks are used
more to hold spare change
than to keep people safe
from dangerous fumes.

Consequences Ignoring safety rules

caused 162 worker deaths
in our country last year. I'm
here to make sure that you
aren't part of next year's
statistic.

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Step Three: Satisfy the Need

Introduce your solution. How will you solve the problem that your audience is
now ready to address? This is the main part of your speech. This is what you are
lobbying for!

 Discuss the facts.

 Elaborate and give details to make sure the audience understands your
position and solution.
 Clearly state what you want the audience to do or believe.
 Summarise your information from time to time as you speak.
 Use examples, testimonials, and statistics to prove the effectiveness of your
solution.
 Prepare counterarguments to anticipated objections.

Make sure that you give your audience enough details of your proposal to
understand it. You want your audience to leave the satisfaction step with a clear
understanding of your plan.

Diagrams and charts are often useful here.

Your audience should now be wondering how this will work for them and what it
can do for them.

They should be asking, mentally:

“This seems to be a practical solution for me. But I would like to see it in
action. How can I benefit?”

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This document © Alan Barker 2017
29
Step Four: Visualize the Future

Describe what the situation will look like if the audience does nothing. The more
realistic and detailed the vision, the more effectively it will arouse the desire to do
something.

Help them see what the results could be if they act as you want them to. Make
sure your vision is believable and realistic.

You can use three methods to help the audience share your vision.

1. Positive method

Describe what the situation will look like if your ideas are adopted.
Emphasize the positive aspects.

Provide vivid, concrete descriptions. Select some situation that you are
quite sure will arise in the future, and picture your audience actually
enjoying the conditions which acceptance of your plan will create.

2. Negative method

Describe what the situation will look like if your ideas are rejected. Focus
on the dangers and difficulties caused by not acting.

Picture for your audience the danger or the unpleasantness that will result
from failure to follow your advice. Select from the Need Step the most
undesirable aspects of the present situation, and show how these
conditions will continue if your proposal is rejected.

3. Contrast method

Develop the negative picture first, and then reveal what could happen if
your ideas are accepted.

Use the negative method first, visualising the bad effects if the audience fails
to follow your advice; then the positive method, visualising the good effects
of believing or doing as you recommend.

Use sensory information: what will these situations look, sound, taste, smell, or
feel like?

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Visualisation Picture a safe and
healthy workplace for
everyone.

Contrast If we continue with the

method status quo – if we carry
on as we’re doing –
Negative someone will be seriously
method injured. Picture yourself
at a colleague's funeral.
You were right beside
him when he decided not
to wear his safety
harness. How do you face
his wife when you know
you were right there and
didn't say anything?

Positive Consider the opposite.

method Imagine seeing your co-
worker receive an award
for 25 years of service.
Feel the pride when you
teach safety standards to
new workers. Share the
joy of your team's
rewards for an
outstanding safety
record.

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Step Five: Inspire Action

Your final job is to leave your audience with specific things they can do to solve the
problem.

Make a call for action. Tell your audience exactly what you want them to do now
and exactly how to do it.

For example, if you are encouraging people to give blood, tell them where to go
today to donate blood. If you want the audience to lobby their parliamentary
representative, tell them where they can find the representative’s address; better
still, hand out stamped envelopes, or a letter they can sign.

Show that you’ve done the hard work and making it easy for your audience to take
immediate action.

The call to action could be:

 a challenge or appeal;
 a summary is always expected by your audience;
 a quotation;
 an illustration; or
 a statement of personal intentions.

You must conclude with a final stirring appeal that reinforces your audience’s
commitment act now.

Don’t make the action too difficult or complicated. Don't overwhelm the audience
with too much information or too many expectations, and be sure to give them
options to increase their sense of ownership of the solution. This can be as simple
as inviting them to have some refreshments as you walk around and answer
questions.

For very complex problems, the action step might be getting together again to
review plans.

Calls to action should contain a strong appeal to the feelings.

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Action Review your safety
procedures immediately.

I've arranged a factory tour

after lunch. Please join us.
Your insights will really help
us identify areas that need
immediate attention. If
you're unable to attend this
afternoon, I've left some
pamphlets and business
cards. Feel free to call me
with questions, concerns,
and ideas.

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Starting the speech [with thanks to John Shosky]
How long does it take the audience to decide whether they like you?

About 30 seconds.

Here’s what your speaker should be doing in the first minute.

Build a relationship with the audience. It is the moment when the speaker
tells the audience that they are one with the audience, that they share the
audience’s concerns and aspirations.

Acknowledge the occasion. Your speaker is not speaking in a vacuum. They

are there for a reason. Reflect the importance of the event.

Channel the audience’s thinking. With each sentence, a speech directs the
audience to see a problem in a particular way. A good introduction narrows that
channel of thinking, bringing an audience very quickly to a point where they agree
on the topic. The speaker’s voice should become the ‘voice of collective assent’,
and it should start at the start.

Establish a pattern of listening. Set up the signposts that will help the
audience follow your argument. Use the phrases that will anchor your ideas.

Show the speaker’s human side. Give the audience the opportunity to
develop trust and faith in the speaker.

Set the tone. It’s hard to segue from a self-deprecating humorous anecdote to a
serious theme. You may soften up the audience, but then you surprise them by
the sudden gear change.

Start at the heart of the matter. How many speeches begin with a long
preamble that sidles slowly towards a staid subject? How many times have you
heard a speaker announce that they are going to talk about something? The
speaker’s task is not to talk about anything. The speaker’s task is to say something
compelling to the audience. The audience is waiting to hear what your speaker has
to say. The longer they don’t say it, the more impatient and bored the audience
will become.

Don’t thank everyone. Instead, mention people in the room as part of the
speech’s argument. It’s a double whammy: your speaker demonstrates that they
know something about the people in the audience, and keeps to the straight-and-
narrow of the argument. Make the point and show the love.

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Seven ways to start a speech [with thanks to John Shosky]
Set the stage
Why is this event important? Tony Blair, Brighton, after winning power in 1997:

It has been a very long time waiting for this moment and all I can tell you is
that after eighteen long years of opposition, I am deeply proud — privileged
— to stand before you as the new Labour Prime Minister of our country.

Make history
Show how your speech is an historical benchmark. Tony Blair (again), arriving at
Hillsborough Castle for talks in Northern Ireland, 1998:

A day like today is not a day for, sort of, soundbites, really. We can leave
those at home. But I feel the hand of history upon our shoulders, I really do.

Reach out to history

Set the scene, establish the context, make the audience feel the hand of history on their
shoulders (that’s Blair, again...) Ronald Reagan, speaking on a Normandy beach in 1984:

We’re here to mark that day in history when the Allied people joined in
battle to reclaim this continent to liberty.

State a principle
Align your speaker with the principle and use it to structure the speech. Mahatma Gandhi,
on trial for sedition in Ahmadabad in 1922:

Non-violence is the first article of my faith. It is the last article of my faith.

State a problem
A problem instantly grabs the audience’s attention because it creates suspense. How to
solve it? Alexander Solzhenitsyn, Harvard, 1978:

A decline in courage may be the most striking feature which an outside

observer notices in the West today.

State your qualifications

Why is your speaker the one and only person who can say what they have to say? What
gives them the right to speak – particularly to this audience? Elie Wiesel, Auschwitz, 1995:

I speak to you as a man, who 50 years and nine days ago had no name, no
hope, no future and was known only by his number, A7713.

Present a vision
Where does your speaker want to take the audience? Prince Charles, 1984:

At last people are beginning to see that it is possible, and important in

human terms, to respect old buildings, street plans and traditional scales
and at the same time not feel guilty about a preference for facades,
ornaments and soft materials.

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Style?

I would like to talk to you about economic modelling and policy analysis

with a particular reference to limitations of analysis

based round the concept of a representative agent.

I will do this

by focusing on models

which represent the economy

as a collection of individual households

in different circumstances

and their use to address important policy

questions.

Even if they do not provide all the answers to the questions we might wish to
ask,

they have the prospect of being able to help policy-makers come to

informed decisions

and understand the pressures that they face.

I would like to describe the way in which such models can be used

to address a heterogeneous range of topics:

the effects of credit constraints and fears about credit

availability,

tax structure,

social security and pension arrangements,

and influences on the take-up of education by

mature students.

Martin Weale, External Member of the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC),

Bank of England

From Household behaviour and policy analysis, delivered at the New Zealand
Economists’ Network 2nd Annual Conference, 2012

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PRAISE: six elements of style

Proverbial expression
Memorable construction
Concrete language
Display of wisdom

Resonators
Invoking action
Stimulating the senses
Memorable information structures

Attention grabbers
Gaining attention: surprise
Keeping attention: gestures, transitions
Stimulating curiosity
Generating suspense

Influence
Persona, stance
Behaviour: visual, vocal, verbal
Sources of credibility in the material

Stories

Emotions
Methods of stimulating emotion
Call to action

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Proverbs: making your message memorable
Proverbs express abstract ideas in concrete terms.

Why use proverbs? Principally to help a community remember useful information

when no information storage technology is available.

Proverbs pack as much information as possible into a small space. They also
deliver information that is adaptable to a wide range of situations.

A proverb is a short, generally known sentence of the folk which

contains wisdom, truth, morals, and traditional views in a
metaphorical, fixed, and memorizable form and which is handed
down from generation to generation.[

[Wolfgang Mieder]

Why use proverbs (or proverbial expressions) in speeches?

 They can help us express our ideas in a more lively way.

 They can help us make a point indirectly or subtly.
 They can give our thoughts added weight.
 They can suggest wisdom (rather than cleverness).
 They can put an idea into the context of a wider tradition.
 They can bind an audience together through cultural resonance.

Proverbs are, of course, notoriously resistant to travel across cultural boundaries.

But even this difficulty can be put to good use: hearing proverbs from a different
culture can promote good humour and friendship.

Successful advertising and political slogans usually have proverbial characteristics.

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Proverbs: rhetorical characteristics

Most proverbs have similar linguistic characteristics, all of which serve to make
them more memorable.

Many proverbs are constructed in similar ways.

Imperative, negative If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.

Imperative, positive Look before you leap.

Parallel phrases Garbage in, garbage out.

Rhetorical question Is the Pope Catholic?

Declarative sentence Birds of a feather flock

together.

They often share similar stylistic features.

Alliteration Forgive and forget.

Parallelism Nothing ventured, nothing

gained.

Rhyme When the cat is away, the

mice will play.

Ellipsis Once bitten, twice shy.

Hyperbole All is fair in love and war.

Paradox For there to be peace, there

must first be war.

Personification Hunger is the best cook.

A variation on the proverb is the quotation. Both proverbs and quotations

indicate the wider, deeper meaning of the speech’s message.

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Resonators: making your material concrete
Resonators are elements that create an imaginative response to an idea. We can
create resonators in two ways:

 by presenting action, especially human action

 by stimulating the five senses: sight, hearing, smell, taste, feeling

If concreteness is so imaginatively powerful, why do we slip so easily into

abstraction?

Because the ability to think in abstract terms marks out the expert from the
novice. You may want to demonstrate your ability to think in abstract terms, or
flatter your audience that they can do so.

The problem is that abstract thinking requires a level of commitment and a degree
of cognitive ‘bandwidth' that your audience may not be willing to offer.

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Resonators
Invoking action

If I have seen further, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants.

(Isaac Newton)

Art is a form of lying in order to tell the truth.

(Pablo Picasso)

Now the trumpet summons us again.

(J F Kennedy)

It is more blessed to give than to receive.

(Acts 20:35)

That‘s one small step for a man;

one giant leap for mankind.
(Neil Armstrong)

You turn if you want to;

the lady‘s not for turning.
(Margaret Thatcher)

The evil that men do lives after them;

The good is oft interred with their bones.
(Shakespeare)

Stimulating the senses

Fish, to taste right, must swim 3 times - in water, in butter and in

wine.
(Polish proverb)

We need to find God, and he cannot be found in noise and restlessness. God
is the friend of silence. See how nature - trees, flowers, grass- grows in
silence; see the stars, the moon and the sun, how they move in silence... We
need silence to be able to touch souls.
(Mother Theresa)

The best smell in the world is that man that you love.
(Jennifer Aniston)

I found this national debt, doubled, wrapped in a big bow waiting for me as I
stepped into the Oval Office.
(Barack Obama)

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Attention: grabbing it and holding it #1
When you begin your presentation, your major priority is to gain the audience's
attention.

The audience in a formal speeches knows exactly how it will start. Those formal
salutations and expressions of thanks are essential. How then do we capture the
audience’s attention after that point?

By saying something slightly surprising.

Distinguished Delegates,

In a non-democratic society, what we often witness is that a certain

group or institution monopolises power and influence in the political,
economic, social and cultural spheres. Democracy, on the other hand,
enables various stakeholders with different interests, values, beliefs and
ways of life to participate in a process of collective decision-making,
leading to a more pluralistic society. During this process, it is only
natural that frictions or conflicts arise.

Notice how the word ‘conflicts’ near the end of the sentence arouses new
expectations. We expect a diplomatic speech of this kind to talk about
cooperation, not conflict. Where is the speaker going?

Our attention is hooked.

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Attention: grabbing it and holding it #2

Surprise doesn‘t last. For our audience to continue to pay attention, we must
continually generate new interest and new curiosity.

The simplest way to attract attention is by making a gesture. An effective speech

builds regular ‘gestures’ into the text.

Structurally, this might mean building transitions into the speech.

This leads to the third element I mentioned earlier, that is, the
importance of an effective conflicts-resolving mechanism.

Imagine that your speech is a piece of music.

Vary the rhythm between sections. Just a piece of music varies fast and slow
movements, vary the pace from section to section. Follow a section dense in
information with another that is ‘information-light’.

Vary the “orchestration”. Use different colours: different types of discourse.

Explain in one section; then switch to a story.

Use the element of surprise. Take an unexpected turn. This is the

equivalent of changing key in music, or of modulating from major to minor.

Integrate your themes. If you have a key theme that you want the
audience to remember, return to it frequently – sometimes in different ‘keys’
or ‘registers’. Musicians call this ‘recapitulation’.

End with a rousing ‘coda’. Make sure the audience is in no doubt when to
applaud!

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Attention: the curiosity factor
We pay attention to whatever makes us curious. Stimulate your audience‘s
curiosity and you will engage their attention.

We can engage curiosity by systematically opening up gaps in their knowledge,

and then filling those gaps.

For example, you could refer to something without naming it. You could
indicate that you are about to talk about something but leave us in suspense.
We are curious when we feel a gap in our knowledge which causes discomfort.
When we want to know something but don‘t, it‘s like having an itch we need to
scratch.

Stories rely on suspense to generate curiosity. (More on stories shortly.)

Posing a mystery to be solved creates interest and holds attention. Mysteries

are powerful because they create a need for closure. The ‘Aha!’ experience is
much more satisfying when it is preceded by the ‘Huh?’ experience.

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Influence: making yourself credible
We believe people we find credible. Your speaker can build credibility with the
audience by projecting a persona that the audience finds attractive, and a stance
that they consider acceptable. (This is all part of ethos.)

Many speakers cultivate a persona in which to deliver their speeches. For example:

Devil’s Advocate
Mediator
Gadfly
Licensed Fool
Expert
Leader
Team Player
Mad Scientist
Wise Relative
Investigator
Friend
Dreamer
Grumpy Old Man

Think of these speakers and consider the different personas that they project.

Hugo Chavez

Christine Lagarde

Malala Yousafzai

Richard Feynmann

Aung San Suu Kyi

Pope Francis

Vladimir Putin

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Influence: finding your stance

Stance is the attitude you project in your speech.

Stance relates closely to topic. Your topic is where you stand in relation to your
subject; your stance is the way you stand.

Stance also relates closely to the audience. It displays your orientation towards
the audience and your assumptions about them. Your audience decides what your
stance is. Your task is to make sure that the audience reads the stance you want
them to read. So you need to know something about how your audience is
reading you, and adapt accordingly.

You can shift your stance during a presentation. Indeed, you may need to, if you
want to avoid alienating your audience. You may need to respond to the kairos.
But shifting your stance too strongly, or too often, will create the image of an
inconsistent persona: very troubling to an audience because unpredictable and
therefore dangerous.

We can think of stance in terms of complementary opposites. For example:

Open Closed
Structured Spontaneous
Solid Flexible
Authoritative Interactive
Serious Humorous
Straightforward Ironic
Objective Involved
Reasoned Intuitive
Oppositional Identifying

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Influence: making your material credible

You can include information that makes your ideas more credible. But you must
be careful to present that information in ways that your audience can immediately
understand.

Sources of credibility include:

 authoritative information
 detail
 statistics
 exceptional examples

Do not give your audience too much information. The more you give them, the
less they will pay attention to it. Find the outstanding statistic, the dramatic
evidence, the telling detail.

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Stories: involving your audience in the action
Stories are among the most powerful ways to influence your audience.
Why?

Stories are more believable than facts. Facts can be twisted. Data
can be manipulated. But stories are inherently believable – even when
they’re incredible. (Think about Star Wars or Harry Potter.) There is an old
Italian proverb:

Tell me a fact and I’ll learn.

Tell me a truth and I’ll believe.
Tell me a story and it will live in my heart for ever.

Stories bring your material alive. When we listen to a story, we put

ourselves in the narrative. We relate the story to our own experience and
compare the reactions of the characters to our own reactions.

Stories hold the audience’s attention. A good story by definition will

have suspense and stimulate your audience’s curiosity. Tell them a story
and they will listen longer. The formula is:

State a fact.
Tell a story about the fact.
State another fact.
Tell another story.
And so on.

Stories live longer. They get passed around, embellished, distributed.

Your audience will tell others the stories you tell them.

Stories cross barriers. A good story is universal. Most audiences can

relate to a good story, wherever it comes from. Stories help you bridge
cultural, political and ethnic divisions and bind your audience into one
community.

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Stories: creating a plot

Situation
“Once upon a time…” What is the first thing you can say about the matter
that you and your audience will agree is true? The starting point is
completely uncontroversial.

Problem
What happened to alter the situation? Perhaps something went wrong. Maybe
improvements are necessary. Often the problem is that the audience is ignorant of
something.

Question
What question does the problem trigger in the audience’s mind?

Response
The answer to that question should be the same as the point you are making.

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Emotions: stimulating action in your audience

How do we get people to act on our ideas? By stimulating their emotions.

Emotions make us act. (They ‘move’ us – sometimes literally.)

We are wired to feel emotions for people, not for abstractions. Emotional
connection to other people spurs action; thinking analytically reduces feelings.

Sometimes the difficulty is finding the right emotional trigger.

Self-interest is the simplest source of emotional interest; we make people care by
appealing to things that matter to them. People matter to themselves.

But self-interest isn‘t the whole story. Emotions also help us to fulfil fundamental
needs.

We all have a need for:

Security
Attention
A sense of autonomy and control
Emotional connections to others
Membership of a community
Friendship, fun, love, intimacy
Sense of status in social situations
Sense of competence and achievement
Meaning and purpose:
people who need us
activities that stretch us (flow; peak experiences that focus our
attention; being ‘in the zone‘ )
connection to a bigger picture

If you can identify the need that your audience is feeling, you may be able to
stimulate the emotion that will help them meet that need.

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Style: creating a text for speaking
If you are writing a speech, you need to create sentences that are speakable.
Typical features of a speakable sentence include:

 simple clause structure;

 a subject at or near the beginning of the sentence;
 an active main verb with a specific, concrete meaning;
 the verb placed close to the subject;
 the subject either announcing a new idea or picking up an idea from the
previous sentence by repeating it; and
 a strong noun or other element at the very end of the sentence that
triggers the need to utter the next sentence.

Many documents intended for reading do not contain these elements, making them
hard to speak and even harder to listen to.

Speakable sentences: some ideas

 Simplify sentence construction. Use as few subordinate clauses as possible.

 A sentence should take an idea on a journey. Start with a strong subject

and end with a strong idea.

 Prefer repetition to subordination.

 Vary sentence length.

 Use active verbs wherever possible. Use passive verbs to deflect the
audience’s attention from statements of responsibility that might be
offensive or undiplomatic.

 Signal the progress of your ideas to the audience. Tell the audience what
you are about to do.
My most important message to you today is...
At this point, I want to tell you a story.
Let me turn now to the second reason why...
What is the moral of this story? I think the moral is...

Use transitional devices to connect sentences and ideas.

 Make the subjects of your sentences act like characters in a story. Make
the verbs of your sentences express what the characters are doing in the
story.

 Address the audience directly.

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Transitional devices
To add:
and, again, and then, besides, equally important, finally, further, furthermore, nor,
too, next, lastly, what's more, moreover, in addition, first (second, etc.)
To compare:
whereas, but, yet, on the other hand, however, nevertheless, on the other hand,
on the contrary, by comparison, where, compared to, up against, balanced against,
vis à vis, but, although, conversely, meanwhile, after all, in contrast, although this
may be true
To prove:
because, for, since, for the same reason, obviously, evidently, furthermore,
moreover, besides, indeed, in fact, in addition, in any case, that is
To show exception:
yet, still, however, nevertheless, in spite of, despite, of course, once in a while,
sometimes
To show time:
immediately, thereafter, soon, after a few hours, finally, then, later, previously,
formerly, first (second, etc.), next, and then
To repeat:
in brief, as I have said, as I have noted, as has been noted
To emphasize:
definitely, extremely, obviously, in fact, indeed, in any case, absolutely, positively,
naturally, surprisingly, always, forever, perennially, eternally, never, emphatically,
unquestionably, without a doubt, certainly, undeniably, without reservation
To show sequence:
first, second, third, and so forth, A, B, C, next, then, following this, at this time,
now, at this point, after, afterward, subsequently, finally, consequently, previously,
before this, simultaneously, concurrently, thus, therefore, hence, next, and then,
soon
To give an example:
for example, for instance, in this case, in another case, on this occasion, in this
situation, to take the case of…, to demonstrate, to illustrate, as an illustration
To summarize or conclude:
in brief, on the whole, summing up, to conclude, in conclusion, as I have shown, as
I have said, hence, therefore, accordingly, thus, as a result, consequently

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Varying sentence construction

 One element for power.

We all know the style. Invent your own enemy. Spin your campaign to
a newspaper editor short on facts – or high on prejudice. “Frame” the
debate.

[Ed Miliband]

 Two for contrast.

To enable the Internet of Things to develop further, we must focus not

just on the market and technology; we must gain consumer trust.

[Neelie Kroes; Garald Santucci]

 Three for completeness or dynamic movement.

With all the law’s success, there are still too many women in this
country who live in fear of violence, who are still prisoners in their
own home; too many victims that we have to mourn.

[Barack Obama]

 Four and above for lists.

The enduring spirit of the great women whose work transcended

gender and geographical boundaries is in this room with us. From
Baroness Bertha Felicie Sophie von Suttner of Austria, honored for
promoting the Hague Peace Conference of 1899, to Jane Addams of
Hull House fame; from the American activist Emily Greene Balch to
Betty Williams and Mairead Corrigan of Northern Ireland; from
Mother Teresa to the heroic Aung San Suu Kyi , as well as Rigoberta
Menchu, Jody Williams, Shirin Ebadi, and Wangari Maathai: these
our forebears, these women who are Nobel Peace Laureates, challenge
us to redouble our efforts in the relentless pursuit of peace.

[Ellen Johnson Sirleaf]

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Verbs: active and passive

Active verbs express what their subject does.

Thieves have stolen the documents from the office.

Officials have made an error in copying the plans.

Passive verbs express what their subject suffers.

The documents were stolen from the office.

An error has been made in copying the plans.

Passive verbs (which express what their subject suffers rather than what it does)
tend to create more words and disrupt the flow of meaning.

In the following example, passive verbs are in italics.

The London Filming Partnership has been established by Film

London and many other partners, so that location filming in London
can be supported and enabled. A widely welcomed code of practice
on location filming and guide for the London authorities has been
produced by the partnership.

Activating the passive verbs makes for greater flow and fewer words.

Film London has established the London Filming Partnership, with

many other partners, to support and enable location filming in
London. The partnership has produced a widely-welcomed code of
practice on location filming and a guide for London authorities.

Passive verbs are sometimes useful. If you want to avoid pointing the finger of
blame, or lessen the effect of a personal remark, try using a passive verb.
Otherwise, use as many active verbs as possible.

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Nouns: concrete and abstract
Nouns name things.

Concrete nouns name things that exist physically in the world.

Ice cream, for example, is a concrete noun. You can see the pink. You can taste
the berry flavour. You can feel your tongue growing numb from the cold. Any noun
that you can experience with at least one of your five senses is a concrete noun.

Abstract nouns name things that we can’t experience with our senses.

Disapproval is an abstract noun. What colour is disapproval? You don't know

because you can’t see it. What texture is disapproval? Who knows? You cannot
touch it. What flavour is disapproval? No clue: you can’t taste it. And so on.

Concrete nouns are useful in speeches because they stimulate the audience’s
imagination.

Abstract nouns are useful in speeches because they express ideas and values that
give facts wider, deeper meaning.

We need to balance these two types of nouns in our speeches. Generally, our
speeches will benefit from fewer abstract nouns and more concrete nouns.

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Nominalization
Nominalization means ‘making a noun’. It usually refers to the practice of turning
adjectives (describing things) or verbs (expressing actions) into abstract nouns.

Sometimes writers use longer, more abstract nouns for shorter, more concrete
nouns.

Many people move to the cities because they want to find work.

The desire for employment is a key reason for internal

migration.

Nominalization tends to make a text less like speech. It tends to take the life out
of your speech and make it more impersonal.

Nominalization can be useful but we should use it with great care. By removing
verbs and adjectives, you will make your speech less dynamic and colourful.
Abstract nouns themselves create a sense of ‘fog’ in the reader’s mind because
they do not stimulate a mental image.

Many nominalizations have standard endings.

management arrangement employment investment

variation decision application derivation
guidance maintenance inheritance governance
responsibility authority functionality sanctity
dispersal removal referral perusal

Wherever you can, replace such abstract nouns with verbs or adjectives.

This plan expresses the acceptance of the inevitability of the growth

of Moscow’s population, but also promotes the argument for the
management of such growth in line with sustainability.

We accept that Moscow’s population will inevitably grow, but argue

that we should manage such growth to make it sustainable.

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Writing for non-native English speakers
Writing speeches for non-native English speakers presents particular challenges.

Treat metaphors and humour with care. Humour – particularly self-

deprecating humour – can misfire in some cultures. As for metaphors,
visuals can be extremely helpful substitutes. A picture or series of pictures
can help a speaker explain the sense of a complex abstract idea better than
a verbal metaphor.

Take care with words that are hard to pronounce. Some words are
simply more difficult to speak or understand: it’s important to know which
sounds and combinations of sounds are likely to prove difficult. (‘L’ and ‘R’,
for example, may be difficult for Asian speakers to distinguish.)

Contractions and idioms can go wrong. Contractions can be difficult

for non-native speakers to understand. Some idiomatic words may not
travel well to a diverse audience, even if the speaker knows the idiom.
Some constructions present particular difficulties. Writers should avoid
double negatives, for example. Active verbs are particularly important for
non-native speakers: the meanings of passive verbs can be hard to decode.

Use plain language. Abstract nouns do not usually work well. Writers
and speakers need to find concrete nouns that express concepts vividly.

The writer often needs to act as a coach for their speaker. Attend the event, take
notes and give feedback. Establish a good working relationship with your speaker.

And if you are publishing a version of the speech for the press, don’t add “Check
against delivery”! Instead, label the text “as prepared for delivery”. Journalists can
then use the printed version and not worry about any errors or divergences from
the text that the speaker might make.

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Figures of Speech
Contrasts [antithesis; chiasmus]

It is more blessed to give than to receive. (Acts 20:35)

That’s one small step for a man;

one giant leap for mankind. (Neil Armstrong)

Contradictions (not this, but that)

You turn if you want to;

the lady’s not for turning. (Margaret Thatcher)

The ultimate measure of a man is

not where he stands in moments of comfort,
but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy. (Martin Luther
King)

September 11th was not an isolated event,

but a tragic prologue. (Tony Blair)

Comparisons (more this than that; less this than that)

For better, for worse;

For richer, for poorer… (Marriage vows: Book of Common Prayer)

I’ve taken more out of alcohol

Than alcohol has taken out of me. (Winston Churchill)

Opposites (this or that)

The evil that men do lives after them;

The good is oft interred with their bones. (Shakespeare)

There is nothing wrong with America

That cannot be solved by what’s right with America. (Bill Clinton)

Phrase reversals

Management is doing things right;

Leadership is doing the right things. (Peter Drucker)

You should eat to live;

Not live to eat. (Socrates)

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Questions and answers [erotema]

You ask, ‘What is our aim?’

I can answer in one word.
Victory. (Winston Churchill)

Shall we put an end to the human race?

Or shall mankind renounce war? (Bertrand Russell)

Rules of three [tricolon]

No, no, no. (Margaret Thatcher)

I stand before you today the representative of a family in grief

in a country in mourning
before a world in shock. (Earl Spencer)

The time for the healing of wounds has come.

The moment to bridge the chasms that divide us has come.
The time to build is upon us. (Nelson Mandela)

For more:
http://rhetoric.byu.edu/

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Working with your speaker
Speechwriting means more than writing a speech. To do your job well – to help
your principal speak more effectively – you need to do more than write a script.

Your task is to present the best possible version of your speaker to the audience.
And not just on the podium. Speeches now have a function, and a life, beyond the
moment of speaking. A speech speaks, not just to the audience in the hall, but to
people in their living rooms. They often act as summaries of larger reports; they’re
the raw material of a hundred news stories; they’re quoted on Twitter, broadcast
on YouTube, and satirized on comedy shows.

The speaker – how they look, how they behave, how they respond to the audience
– is as important – often, more important – than the words of the speech itself.

As a result, you, the speechwriter, need to act as communications expert, a PR

expert, a style guru, a social media geek – and, perhaps, on occasions, simply a
shoulder to cry on.

Who else will do this job? Who else in your organization has as much access to the
speaker as you do? Who has more influence over their success in delivering the
speech?

These notes will help. We’ll guide you through the key tasks of the speechwriter as:

 consultant
 coach
 style consultant
 event manager

We’ll also include some thoughts on writing for non-native speakers of English.

How to take the first step into this new territory? You need to establish, or
develop, a conversation with your speaker. Our first section, ‘talking with your
speaker’, gives you some ideas. If you possibly can, attend a speech and give
feedback. From there, offer help – a little at a time. Before you know it, a positive
and productive relationship will be developing between you and your speaker.

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Talking to your speaker
Everything in these notes depends on your ability to hold productive conversations
with your speaker.

A conversation is like a dance. If we feel that we’re comfortable dancing with each
other – if we know the moves – the conversation will go well. At the foundation of
any effective conversation is rapport: the sense that we are ‘in tune’ with each other,
‘singing from the same song book’.

Here’s a good conversational ploy to develop instant rapport.

1. Copy the other person’s body language.

2. Make no more than two statements before you ask a question.
3. Ask three questions – but no more till you have done the next two things.
4. Find something from what you have just learnt to pay a subtle and relevant
compliment about.
5. Find something in what you have found out to agree with.
6. Repeat steps 1-5 until the conversation takes on a life of its own.

The key to success with this ploy is that the other person should not notice what
you’re doing. Subtlety is all.

Here are some further words of advice from Dick Mullender, former Lead Trainer
of the National Crisis and Hostage Negotiation Unit at Scotland Yard.

 I don’t persuade a person because I use my words. I persuade a person

because I use theirs.
 Everyone is different. You have to get inside their head and work them out.
 The moment I understand your values, I can impose my values on you.
 The words that come out of your mouth are more revealing. You reveal
secrets every time you open your mouth.
 I don’t believe in empathy. You can’t know what it’s like to be someone else.
Use the words they use.
 By not interrupting, comparing or finishing sentences, we are sending a
subconscious signal to the speaker that what they are saying is important.
 The tone of voice a person uses to tell a story, recount a grievance or tell
another that they love them, reveals the true meaning behind the words.

[adapted from Eloquence: a treasury of speechwriting advice, edited by Brian Jenner]

And finally:

A good conversation depends on the questions you ask. Think about opening every
conversation with a question.

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Speechwriter as Consultant
Nothing, as King Lear said, will come of nothing. If you want to write an interesting
speech, you need material to work with. You can supply much of that material
yourself; your speaker can also supply valuable material. To find it, you will need to
work with them as a consultant.

Consultancy depends on three simple assumptions.

 Solving problems requires valid information.

You must have access to valid information if you are to write a good speech.
That information comes in two forms:
 explicit information, contained in mechanical storage systems of some kind;
and
 tacit information, that is contained in people's heads.

Tacit information includes your speaker’s feelings about the speech and the event.
Those feelings will affect the success of your consultancy conversation as much as
any spreadsheet or policy paper.

 Good decisions demand free and open choice.

Deciding what to say is easy. Gaining your speaker’s commitment to those
words may not be so easy. If the speaker feels that they’re participating in the
choice of text, they will deliver with more conviction.

 Effective implementation requires client commitment.

Your speaker will commit to saying what will benefit them. Obviously, to gain
that benefit, they will need to win over their audience. Focussing on both sets of
benefits will increase your speaker’s sense of commitment to the task of
producing a fine speech.

At some point, you will probably meet resistance.

Resistance is the disguised rejection of our ideas. The essence of resistance is that it
is coded. If your speaker says, "I don't like the sound of this idea", that's not
resistance. Resistance is hidden; that's what makes it hard to manage.

Resistance is an emotional response. It is not a reflection of the quality of our ideas

or arguments. No amount of further persuasion or cast-iron evidence will work
against it. Arguing against resistance merely strengthens it.

If you think that your speaker is resisting an idea – and you think it’s worth fighting
for – don’t take the resistance personally. Ask what difficult reality the speaker is
facing. Their concerns are probably about control and vulnerability.

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Control

Your speaker wants to maintain control of the situation. Asking them to say
something that threatens that sense of control will almost inevitably create
resistance. How can you spin the material so that the speaker stays in control?
Giving away some control – conceding a point or explaining that the speaker has
been mistaken about something – can actually increase their authority. (More on
ethos below.)

Vulnerability

Your speaker almost certainly does not want to make themselves vulnerable on the
podium. Yet a display of vulnerability can be hugely effective in gaining sympathy and
trust from the audience. (This is an aspect of pathos, which we discuss below.)

Resistance is usually two-headed. It arises from a fear and a wish co-existing in the
mind. Surface the fear and you will find the wish. Pick up the cues. Name the
resistance. Let the client respond.

1. Pick up the cues

Pay attention to what your speaker is not saying. Examine their body
language. Listen to your own feelings, and what your own body is saying.
Listen for repetition and telltale phrases.

2. Name the resistance

Put the resistance into words. Use neutral, everyday language. Talk about
behaviour rather than guessing at feelings. It's for the speaker to express
feelings. Talk about your own feelings, especially if your other comments
aren't having an impact. One way to do this is to use phrases like: “the
story I’m telling myself at the moment is that you’re feeling…”

3. Let the speaker respond

Listen. Don’t talk. You’ll be tempted to say something, to reduce the

tension that you have surfaced. Don't. Keep silent and let the speaker do
the talking. Their words can be gold dust: essential language that you can use
in the speech itself. Your task is not to take responsibility for the speaker's
feelings, but to help them become more responsible for their own.

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The three modes of appeal revisited
In your consultancy conversation, you could focus on the three modes of appeal that
any good speech employs:

 logos – the material itself, the speaker’s arguments and explanations;

 ethos – the credibility and authority that you want to develop between
speaker and audience; and
 pathos – the emotional and imaginative responses that will reinforce the
speaker’s ideas, bring the material to life, and inspire the audience to act.

Thinking about logos

Help your speaker understand the context of the speech.

 Who is the audience?

 What topics are other speakers covering?
 How does this speech contribute to the wider context of the occasion?

Liaise with others in your organization: the media team, the PR professionals, the
community outreach team. Demonstrating that you have worked with these
professionals joins everything up in your speaker’s mind and builds both consensus
and confidence.

Present your speaker with a briefing document. Include hot topics and potential
questions that may arise from their speech. The briefing document could include a
proposal for the speech itself: potential core messages, opportunities to develop the
speaker’s ethos, emotional or feeling dimensions and so on.

Charles Crawford writes:

A good way of getting a speaker to focus on these things is to ask what newspaper
headline the speaker might ideally want to result from the speech. The words in
that ideal newspaper headline might not even feature in the speech itself, but they
will sum up the core theme or message in a few words.

Or you get the speaker to say in one word the existential theme of the speech.
Hope. Change. Defiance. Reform. Continuity. Attack! Impatience. Resolve. Any
speech will boil down to one or two words, whether the speaker likes it or not.
Much better for the speaker to choose that word and build the speech accordingly,
rather than let the audience decide what the speech was really saying.

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Thinking about ethos

A successful speech tells us something authentic about its speaker. The audience
should gain some insight into the speaker from their speech. We should learn
something about their view of the world, the values, hopes and dreams, their mode
of decision-making, their commitments and their passions. Every speech should give
the audience a piece of the speaker – however small.

You’re looking for stories.

Personal stories have an instant effect on audiences. People look up expectantly;

they listen more deeply. A personal story will feed passion into the speaker’s ideas;
it will help weld the audience into a single community of feeling.

But first, of course, you need to find those stories.

Simon Lancaster suggests that you delve into your speaker’s personal history to find
the stories and examples that reveal something about them. Concentrate on the
period between the ages of 18 and 21: the time when so many of our values are
forged, when we have some of the most formative and memorable experiences in
our lives. If you feel you could go further to uncover this material about your
speaker, try this idea from Simon Lancaster.

First, get a piece of paper and draw a graph of your life. Chart out the ups and
downs as if your life were a share price. […] Now put brief notes alongside the
peaks and trough to show what happened…

Then, step two, separately, scribble down on Post-It notes your ten big philosophies
for life, the things that matter most to you in the world…

Now, step three, join together steps one and two. Match your personal big-life
events to your top-ten philosophies.

[From Winning Minds, by Simon Lancaster]

If you are able to hold this conversation with your speaker, you can ask questions
like:

 Did this experience draw out a particular value or belief for you?
 Why?
 What happened? Take me there. What did you see? What happened in the
end?

You’re looking for stories that only your speaker can tell. Your task as
speechwriter is to relate a story to the topic of the speech. A single conversation
could provide you with raw material for a number of speeches.

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Thinking about pathos

Pathos is the feeling element that brings ideas to life in your audience’s imaginations.
Those personal stories will all deliver a good dose of pathos. And you can also
increase the pathetic appeal by making the material relevant to the immediate
circumstances of the speech – what the Greeks called kairos.

The work of Irvin Yalom, a remarkable psychotherapist, has much to offer

speechwriters. One of Yalom’s principles is to be in the here and now. Make the
focus of your conversation with the speaker what is happening in the world at the
moment of the speech. A dry recitation of facts is boring. How can you and your
speaker relate their key messages to what’s going on at that moment, in the room,
and outside the room, at the moment of delivery?

[From Eloquence, edited by Brian Jenner]

Producing a good script

Speeches are delivered sentence by sentence. Your script should present those
sentences to the speaker as clearly as possible. Here’s how.

 Use Georgia as your typeface.

 14 point: no smaller.
 Double spacing – always.
 Start each sentence on a new line.
 Mark pauses.
 Underline one or two words per sentence (no more!) that you want to
emphasize. Strong sentence often end with an underlined word.
 Don’t allow a sentence to straggle two pages. Always end a page with a
complete sentence.
 Use a good quality paper: thicker and coarser than ordinary copy paper. It
will survive being handled frequently and will be easier for your speaker to
pick up and turn over. Quality paper gives an impression of a quality text,
too.

If your speaker wants bullet points or notes, rather than a full script, start by
producing a full script and then reduce it. Encourage your speaker to practice with
the full text and, if there is time, then reduce it down to phrases and bullets, keeping
intact those lines you know must be delivered well.

Write out in full at least:

 the opening line;
 the opening and closing lines of key sections;
 the core message sentences – which your speaker might repeat; and
 the very last line (the most important line of all).

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Speechwriter as Coach
Consultancy is about developing the speech. Coaching is about helping the speaker
deliver it.

Myles Downey in his book Effective Coaching defines it as “the art of facilitating the
performance, learning and development of another.”

The best coaching, generally, is non-directive. Start by asking questions so that the
speaker can find their own solutions. This non-directive approach builds the
speaker’s ownership of the speech and develops their commitment to further
develop their skills.

The suggestions you make will depend on your speaker’s experience and confidence.
If the speaker is struggling to find a way forward, increase the level of direction a
little: “One thing you might want to consider is…. How do you think that might
work in this situation?”

Non-verbal communication

We cannot not communicate. (Paul Watzlawick said that.) Your speaker’s non-
verbal communication should support and enhance the words. Helping your
speaker deliver the best non-verbal behaviour certainly will help you deliver the best
version of your speaker to their audience.

Your speaker may find your interest in non-verbal behaviour surprising at first. You
may need to negotiate and cajole. Step by step is a good way forward. Begin with
observation and then ask permission to offer advice. Don’t try to do everything at
once.

The key elements are eyes, gestures and posture.

Watch your speaker perform both onstage and in a more neutral setting: a
conference room, perhaps, or in their office. Learn how they naturally use their
hands and eyes.

Then: work with your speaker to transfer those natural habits to the podium. What
are they doing that they never do anywhere else? Encourage them to notice those
behaviours so that they can minimize them.

Encourage your speaker to practise. In real time. This is not just a matter of
reading the script and making notes; it means speaking it, aloud. Practise helps a
speaker identify words and phrases that might be tricky to deliver. It helps them
hone their emphasis and timing. The more they can internalize the text, the more
able they will be to look spontaneous or improvise away from the script.

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Eyes

Eye contact is crucial. What can you do to lift the speaker’s eyes from the text and
onto the audience? If you have no autocue available, you may need to include
instructions in the script to look up. Here are three ideas.
 At the very beginning of the speech, write a three-part “thank you” opening.
Thank the introducer, thank the organization and thank the audience. Coach
your speaker to look up and to the audience after each portion. (Avoid
interminable lists of thank yous. If necessary, sprinkle the thanks through the
speech.)
 Insert rhetorical questions that are natural times for the speaker to address
the audience.
 Insert the word “you” and coach your speaker to look at the audience every
time they use that word.

Suggest to the speaker that they imagine a lighthouse beam emerging from their
eyes. The beam should scan the audience, so that, regularly and frequently, that
beam is hitting every pair of eyes in the audience. This is a technique that every
public speaker can practise consciously. It may improve their ethos more than any
other non-verbal behaviour.

Gestures

Develop a few key gestures that your speaker finds comfortable. Good speakers
often present ideas to the audience with an open hand. That gesture – the arm
stretched out and the palm up – generates trust in the audience. And it’s easy to
practise.

Posture

Many speakers lean over the podium and grip both sides, as if to stop it taking off.
Audiences often read this behaviour as fear or insecurity. Coach your speaker to
keep hands down and shoulders loose. If away from a podium, a speaker may cross
their arms or lock their hands in front of their abdomen, which can suggest that the
speaker is hiding something (check out Hitler’s habits with his arms on the podium,
all of them – apparently – very carefully rehearsed).

Encourage your speaker to open their body. (Not that easy behind a podium,
admittedly.)

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Speechwriter as Style Consultant
Here, we enter a sensitive area. Your speaker must look good. An audience will
make an immediate decision about a speaker as soon as they step up to the podium.
Dress and other aspects of appearance are, like it or not, an essential aspect of
ethos.

Who else is going to help your speaker look their best?

But how to address these aspects of public speaking? Once again, one step at a time
is probably the best way. Ask permission to tidy one tie, to adjust one scarf or
accessory. Then, next time, the speaker may ask you to help. And, at that point,
your help is accepted.

Pay attention to details. Remove shiny name tags for the podium. Shiny badges and
lapel pins, similarly, can be distracting: remove them. Offer to hold mobiles and
other objects so that your speaker’s pockets don’t bulge.

Know where the restroom or grooming area is.

Can you go as far as offering more general style advice? Maybe. Again, the subtle
approach will probably work best. Briefing your speaker on the likely dress code of
the audience or event will be a good first step in helping them make their clothing
decisions.

Most speakers will appreciate help in making them look good. A few small
interventions on one or two occasions can open the gates to a relaxed conversation
about dress and appearance.

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Speechwriter as Event Manager
Want to make your speaker look bad? Forget to mention that the room holds 750
people and that there’s no microphone. Forget to point out that the mike is a radio
mike that needs a few moments to put on. Forget to tell your speaker how to turn
the mike on and – crucially – off.

Nobody else will be looking out for these things. It might as well be you.

If you can, check the position of the podium or lectern. If the speaker is using slides,
try to ensure that the lectern is stage right: in other words, to the left of the screen
from the audience’s viewpoint. Fletcher Dean points out that most Western
audiences read from left to right, and you want the audience looking at the speaker
before reading a slide.

(Of course, the best slides have no words on them. And the very best speakers
don’t use slides. But that’s another story.)

Make sure your speaker has a good supply of drinking water, and a drinking glass
that will not fall over easily (no stems). If you can, avoid chilled water. And tell your
speaker that it’s there.

Is the lectern well lit? Does the speaker know how to switch on the lectern light, if
there is one? Will your speaker be able to read the script easily if the auditorium
lights suddenly dim?

The more you know about the event, the venue and the audience, the more fully
you can brief your speaker.

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Writing for non-native English speakers
Writing speeches for non-native speakers presents particular challenges – especially
for non-native writers. These notes,

 Treat metaphors and humour with care. Humour – particularly self-

deprecating humour – can misfire in some cultures. As for metaphors,
visuals can be extremely helpful substitutes. A picture or series of pictures
can help a speaker explain the sense of a complex abstract idea better than a
verbal metaphor.

 Take care with words that are hard to pronounce. Some words are
simply more difficult to speak or understand: it’s important to know which
sounds and combinations of sounds are likely to prove difficult. (‘L’ and ‘R’,
for example, may be difficult for Asian speakers to distinguish.)

 Contractions and idioms can go wrong. Contractions can be difficult

for non-native speakers to understand. Some idiomatic words may not
travel well to a diverse audience, even if the speaker knows the idiom. Some
constructions present particular difficulties. Writers should avoid double
negatives, for example. Active verbs are particularly important for non-
native speakers: the meanings of passive verbs can be hard to decode.

 Use plain language. Abstract nouns do not usually work well. Writers
and speakers need to find concrete nouns that express concepts vividly.

Amélie Crosson-Gooderham, Senior Analyst and Writer at the Bank of Canada,

feels noticeably at ease working in a multi-lingual environment. “For me,” she says,
“Babel is a very comfortable place.” Her advice on how to write for non-native
speakers was wise.

As with any audience, she says, your intention and language should be clear. The
narrative arc and the signposts matter just as much, if not more.

Preparation also matters more. Speakers will need to rehearse the difficult words
and phrases, when to 'breathe, stop and sip'. The text may benefit from more
visuals, especially on slides. But those visuals should be – well, visual. Use paintings
to make your point metaphorically. (Linguistic metaphors embedded in the speech
itself might be more problematic).

Coaching is vital to apply these principles successfully. Practise with your speaker if
you can; attend the event; take notes and give feedback.

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Useful resources: books

Books

The Art of Rhetoric Aristotle Penguin, various

dates
On the Ideal Orator Cicero, ed. James
M. May and Jakob OUP, 2001
Wisse

Enough Said: what’s Mark Thompson Bodley Head, 2016

gone wrong with the
language of politics?

Improve Your Alan Barker Kogan Page, 2000

Communication Skills

Lend Me Your Ears Max Atkinson Vermilion, 2004

Classical Rhetoric Edward P J Corbett, OUP, New York

for the Modern Student Robert J Connors 4th edition 1999

Winning Minds Simon Lancaster Palgrave Macmillan,

2015
Winning Arguments Jay Heinrichs
Penguin, 2010
The Penguin Book Ed Brian MacArthur
of Twentieth-Century Penguin, 1993
Speeches

Made to Stick Dan Heath, Chip Heath Arrow, 2008

The Words of Our John Shosky Biteback, 2012

Time

You Talkin’ To Me? Sam Leith Profile, 2011

10 Steps to Writing a Fletcher Dean McMurry, 2011

Vital Speech

The Art of Speeches and Philip Collins Wiley, 2012

Presentations

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Useful resources: websites

Distributed Intelligence: Alan Barker’s blog

http://bit.ly/1BrnWyo

UK Speechwriters’ Guild
http://www.ukspeechwritersguild.co.uk/

European Speechwriter Network

http://www.europeanspeechwriters.org/

The Speechwriter: the magazine for the European Speechwriter Network

http://issuu.com/thespeechwriter

Speechwriting in Perspective
http://www.au.af.mil/au/awc/awcgate/crs/98-170.pdf

Ad Herrenium [anon, attributed to Cicero]

http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Rhetorica_ad_Herennium/h
ome.html

The Forest of Rhetoric

http://rhetoric.byu.edu

The Eloquent Woman

http://eloquentwoman.blogspot.co.uk/

The Daily Speechwriter

http://paper.li/AaronDRosenberg/1362789613

Vital Speeches of the Day

http://vsotd.com/

American Rhetoric
http://www.americanrhetoric.com/index.htm

Churchill Speeches Interactive

http://www.churchillspeeches.com/

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Alan Barker

Alan is an associate of the European Speechwriter Network and Managing Director of

Kairos Training Limited. He has been training and coaching speechwriting and other
communication skills for over 20 years, and is the author of more than 20 books.

Alan’s blog includes a number of articles on speechwriting. Find it at:

http://bit.ly/1zgJBvo

Alan’s client list for 2015-16 includes:

Briitish Science Association Korea National

British Museum Diplomatic Academy (Seoul)
Chartered Institute of Marketing Leoron Professional Development
Chartered Insurance Institute Institute (Dubai)
Clifford Chance LKS Training (Khartoum)
Council of Mortgage Lenders Middlesex University
Deutsche Bank (Hong Kong, The Natural History Museum
Singapore) North Somerset District Council
Directory of Social Change Siemens (Saudi Arabia)
East Sussex County Council South Downs National Park
Gloucester City Council SW Councils
Gloucester County Council Victoria and Albert Museum
Greater London Authority Westminster City Council
ICAEW (London, Milton Keynes) World Wildlife Fund UK
Imperial War Museums
Indigo Pearl
ING

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