newsletter february 2015

February 2015 | Volume 16

The Speechwriter

WelcomeWelcome to the sixteenth

edition of The Speechwriter newsletter. The purpose of this publication is to circulate examples of excellent speeches to members of the UK Speechwriters’ Guild. We do this by picking out openings, closings, one-liners and quotations and other topical extracts from newspapers and the internet to identify techniques, stimulate your imagination and provide models which you can emulate.

This newsletter appears quarterly and is available to anyone who is a Standard Member of the UK Speechwriters’ Guild or the European Speechwriter Network.

ContributeWe welcome book reviews,

speeches and articles for the magazine. Every contribution published gets a £10 Amazon token. Please send your submissions to:

[email protected]

W W W. U K S P E E C H W R I T E R S G U I L D . C O . U K • I N F O @ U K S P E E C H W R I T E R S G U I L D . C O . U K

…that person to whom laconic brevity in speech is pleasing…will not make use of every argument, but only the chief ones.

Everywhere tedium should be lightened by variety, cheerfulness and humour.

We keep our audience in a receptive mood most effectively by suitable transitions.

The first way to embellish thought is to relate at length and treat in detail something that could be expressed summarily and in general. And this, in fact, is the same as if one should displace merchandise…rolled up in carpets, then should unroll the carpets and disclose the merchandise, exposing it completely to sight.

Speech is enriched by descriptions of places.

It will serve to suggest that whoever wishes to be more fluent in speech should observe and collect from the best authors a great number of striking metaphors.

Collect as many topics as possible. Take them partly from classes of virtues and vices, partly from those things that are important in human affairs,

and that are accustomed to come up often in persuasion; and it will be best to arrange these according to affinity and opposition. Then whatever you come across in any author, especially if it is very noteworthy, you will immediately mark down in its proper place. This method will have the effect of imprinting what you read more deeply on your mind, as well as accustoming you to utilising the riches of your reading.

MASTERCLASS by Erasmus

EUROPEANSPEECHWRITERNETWORK

UK Speechwriters' GuildNewsletter of the incorporating

The Dutch philosopher, Desiderius Erasmus, wrote a very popular C16th school textbook on how to enhance speechwriting skills. He encouraged students to cultivate rich, poetic and colourful language. But he advised this was often the fruit of laborious exercises - like rewriting the sentence, ‘Your letter has delighted me very much’, in over 150 different ways. Here is a selection of soundbites from his textbook, De Copia.


Reviewed by Alan Barker

Davies – a professor at Carleton University’s Institute of Cognitive Science – offers six foundations for compellingness. I’ll buy four of them.

First, social compellingness theory. We tend to think that all patterns involve social meaning, intention and agency; and we tend to believe social explanations that we hear from others. We look for reasons, not causes. We’re obsessed by status and gossip. We’ve an insatiable appetite for stories. (Davies is good on stories, though not perhaps quite so good at telling them.)

Secondly, we tend to believe the things we fear or hope are true. Fear has evolutionary advantages: safer to believe that the shape in the corner is a man-eater than a heap of old clothes. Hope is more curious: ‘one of the ultimate reasons we do anything is so that we will have beliefs that make us happy.’

Thus, we prefer landscapes to abstract art (we like to look at pictures of what’s good for us, including food, or sources of food, like trees and animals); and we’re drawn to gambling (‘intermittent reward reinforces behaviour even more strongly than reliable reward’).

Third, ‘we love patterns and repetition.’ In fact, we’re more likely to believe information we understand easily. It’s all down to dopamine, ‘the neurotransmitter that tags perceptions as meaningful’. Cue some interesting thoughts on music and language. Note to speechwriters: quotations and idioms will stick if they are patterned simply.

And fourth, we are compelled by incongruity. It triggers the desire to understand, and understanding gives us pleasure.

There’s plenty of useful ideas here. Tell stories. Address your audience’s fears and hopes. Create simple, repetitive patterns with added – not too many – incongruities.

Why should speechwriters look at compellingness

foundation theory? Well: we want our speeches to compel. What do humans find compelling? ‘Strange as it may seem,’ answers Davies, ‘compelling things share many similarities.’ Indeed, ‘the qualities that are common to all these things fit like a key in a lock with our psychological proclivities.’ Hey presto – a theory.

Nothing as useful as a good theory, I say.


BOOK REVIEWS

The Speechwriter

Newsletter of The UK Speechwriters’ Guild

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Riveted: The Science of Why Jokes Make Us Laugh, Movies Make Us Cry, and Religion Makes Us Feel One With the Universeby Jim DaviesPalgrave Macmillan, 2014, £12.99 £14.44 (Amazon)Kindle edition £9.94 (Amazon)

Give your audience something to do: ‘sometimes people like things because they are confusing and hard to understand. To explain this I created the concept of idea effort justification.’

Those last two sentences typify Davies’ method. Each chapter reads like the contents of a large box file: lists of examples and explanatory nominalisations: threat simulation theory, the perceptual fluency hypothesis, the impossibility critique and so on. The style is part of the performance: the whacky professor, tumbling ideas onto the page, disconcertingly switching back and forth between subjects (‘let’s bring this discussion back to...’; ‘returning to computer game addictions...’; ‘let’s get back to miracles...’).

At last, it all starts to unravel. In the last three chapters, Davies begins to generalise dangerously, drifting around the human body and clocking up the inevitable psychological biases without which no cognitive science book can be complete. What, after all, is the compellingness he’s discussing? Is there really no difference in kind between, say, our momentary compulsion to glance at an attractive person, and the deep commitment towards a belief system? (Davies has a problem with belief systems. Well: he has a problem with religion.)

This lack of a narrative arc provides another useful lesson for speechwriters, especially in science or research. As we rush to keep up, the cabinet-of-commonalities approach ironically generates a kind of attention deficit disorder. ‘Meditation sounds relaxing,’ pants Davies as we swerve into Buddhism, ‘but some, this author included, find it more like taking your brain to the gym. It’s hard work.’

Maybe he should try less hard.



The Speechwriter


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‘The Q&A format is a very strong one,’ claim Nadine Dereza and Ian Hawkins; ‘there is no coincidence that we chose it for the format of this book.’ ‘Real-world problems,’ they say, ‘demand practical solutions,’ and a Q&A structure allows you to ‘quickly find an answer to the question that most closely fits your own dilemma.’

The format also neatly solves the perennial challenge of how to maintain the reader’s attention in a book like this. Keep the chapters brief (none here, by my reckoning, longer than about 2500 words, and many much shorter); change the subject unexpectedly (from ‘How do you handle obnoxious audience members?’, we turn swiftly to ‘How can I remember my words?’); employ the bon mot (there’s hardly a page in my review copy where I haven’t marked something useful).

It all makes for a lively read, especially when the text has such flair. The book feels bang up to date: the authors even reference Mary Beard’s LRB lecture in February 2014. Alongside the stuff you’d expect – breathing, moving, the perils of jokes – they discuss the logistics of presenting: dress, hosting arrangements, technology. They include, unusually, material on developing a career as a public speaker: getting bookings, participating in panel discussions, chairing debates. There’s even a rather long piece on playing the Edinburgh Festival. I enjoyed the advice on cultivating conference etiquette and professionalism

(‘being flexible, easy to reach and straightforward to work with, will stand you in good stead’).

The inevitable trade-off for all this variety is a risk of superficiality. You’ll find ideas in abundance, but you’ll need to join quite a lot of dots. (More cross-referencing between chapters would help, and would increase the fun.) The chapter on storytelling stands out because the authors give themselves space to develop their material.

Interestingly, they devote their longest chapter to the art of memory. ‘Put the needs of the audience first,’ we’re told, ‘and make your performance all about serving their needs.’ Scripts, it seems, get in the way. The speaker should aim to become a ‘good conversationalist.’ Maybe; sometimes. But then the authors also say, quite rightly: ‘speak as if what you say makes a difference.’ They even include a collection of great speeches in their reading list. How many of those were unscripted? How many were conversational?

The audience, for their part, ‘doesn’t want to watch a speaker who doesn’t want to be watched.’ Dereza and Hawkins raise the burning issue of authenticity and tackle it wisely, if

a bit obliquely. How to become the best possible version of yourself? ‘It isn’t you,’ they say insightfully, ‘so much as what you are doing.’ Practical tips on how to deliver ‘an authentic, heartfelt message’ do appear, in the all-too-brief chapter on weddings and funerals. Focus on the task; do the research; take charge; and say something personal.

A speaker should be ‘passionate, knowledgeable and confident’, and ‘only you can be responsible for your knowledge and passion.’ Will aspiring speakers gain the necessary confidence from this book? Its racy style and nuanced advice will undoubtedly help. But, as Dereza and Hawkins point out, nothing beats practice, guidance and feedback. (Details of their training consultancy are on the final page.) ‘The best way of learning how to speak in public,’ they say, ‘ is to go out and just do it.’

It’s important to lay out your scripts immaculately, to intimidate speakers from meddling with them. What font should we use for our speech manuscripts? Courier is apparently the most profitable typeface for direct mail. 20% more profitable in tests! Why should that be? Probably because it’s easiest to read. Screenplays are written in 12-point Courier. This is because Courier is a fixed-pitch font, meaning each character or space is exactly the same width. Standard screenplay format is designed so that one page approximately equals one minute of screen time.

This is a useful insight for speechwriters, who also have to be sensitive to time. Since some of us see ourselves as screenwriters manqués, we can get in the habit of using the font in preparation for the day we finally get round to penning that Hollywood script.

Insider Secrets of Public Speaking: Answers to the 50 biggest questions on how to deliver brilliant speeches and presentationsNadine Dereza and Ian HawkinsRethink Press £14.99

IN PRAISE OF COURIER

Reviewed by Imogen Barker

February 2015 | Volume 16The Speechwriter


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Mike Sachs asserts that, as a comedy writer, you ‘make a

career out of attempting to induce laughter from complete strangers with only the words or images that you create’.

For ‘induce laughter’, substitute ‘persuade’ or ‘influence’, and you have the task of a speechwriter. Sachs and his interviewees emphasise that the key to comedy writing is finding your own voice – arguably far easier in comedy than speechwriting, which has to deal in facts, usually spoken by someone else.

The comedy writer/performer relationship has definite parallels with the speechwriter/speaker relationship. A comedy writer relies on somebody else to deliver their lines effectively; so does a speechwriter. A good performance can lift a bad premise, just as bad delivery can sink good writing.

What does Poking a Dead Frog have to offer speechwriters? Comedy gets an audience on your side and can draw people together, just like a good speech. Seth Meyers, writer on Saturday Night Live, has coined the term ‘clapter’ for when a comedian is looking for easy laughter and ‘earnest applause’ to get an audience onside and make them feel good about their opinions.

Speechwriters will recognise a similar temptation.

Mike Sachs argues comedy writing is now a more level playing field than it’s ever been: ‘there has never been a better time for writers of comedy – or, for that matter,

writers of anything’. Anybody can tweet a joke, or post a video on YouTube: ‘there’s no one to stop you’. Are the old rules of comedy dead? An increase in output does not necessarily equate to an increase in quality.

Speechwriters are in a slightly different situation. They’re not competing against their peers on the internet as comedy writers are. True, their speech will probably be filmed and put online. Soundbites will be tweeted across the world. What literary theorists call ‘destabilising the text’ is now happening on a global scale. And indeed, speechwriters surely benefit from the ability to ‘reach out to others almost instantly’.

But their primary audience is the one in the room. Their initial focus must be on the material and its delivery, rather than the wider social impact. The old craft is as relevant as ever.

The ‘Pure, Hard-core Advice’ sections are probably the most useful parts of this book for speechwriters, though the relentless doom and gloom about ‘never making it’ and ‘working hard for nothing’ seems more like jaded posturing than helpful advice from these remarkably successful writers.

But Stephen Merchant, writer on The Office and one of only two non-American writers interviewed, strikes a chord when he speaks about understanding the different grammars of different situations. Kay Cannon, writer and producer on 30 Rock, speaks about ‘the importance of self-awareness’ for a writer, learning ‘what role you play every single day’ and how that changes.

For my money, Amy Poehler, writer and actor on Parks and Recreation and Saturday Night Live, has the best advice in the book for any writer who works with others and whose work is going to be spoken. (She also delivered the Class Day address to Harvard University in 2011, so she evidently knows something about speechwriting.)

‘Read your stuff out loud’, she says. ‘Sometimes the way it reads in your head sounds different when someone says it.’ When working with others, ‘be open to changing all the material you think is really brilliant…and don’t be precious’.

People talk plainly as long as they don’t think about it. In

conversation without rehearsal or preparation, they somehow manage to express themselves so clearly that nobody asks for an explanation. How do they do it?

The solution to the puzzle is easy: they use big words, and a fast pace, and the ordinary rules of grammar, but they give the other fellow time to understand. They pause between sentences; they repeat themselves; they use filler words between the big important ones; they space their ideas. The secret of plain talk is in-between space.

The Art of Plain Talk by Rudolph Flesch

Poking a Dead Frogby Mike SachsPenguin Books, 2014, £9.50



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This month the 87th Academy Awards take place in Los

Angeles. The star of Crocodile Dundee, Paul Hogan, summed up the purpose of an Oscar speech in a succinct three part list: ‘Be gracious, be grateful, get off.’

The ceremony offers examples of grotesque over-acting, but also some classy insights into what makes a great speech.

1) Gratitude

The most reliable source of inspiration for a speech is the impulse to express gratitude. If a best man realises it’s his duty to appreciate, rather than scorn the groom in his speech, he’ll be fine. The challenge of the Oscars is: how do I express thanks for this award and to the people who’ve helped me win in under 45 seconds?

2) Emotion

The quivering voice, the sighs and the tears may be contrived, but if you want to be memorable (the Oscars is about business, let’s not forget) a convincing wobble can be a great way to communicate with one billion people of different ages and different cultural backgrounds across the world.

3) Brevity

If you have the courage to be short, it cam be a great way to get attention. Joe Pesci used five words ‘It’s my privilege. Thank you.’

4) Opening Lines

A good first line is crucial even in this kind of speech. In 2012 Meryl Streep charmed the audience with a few words: ‘Oh. C’mon. Alright. Thank you so much… Whey they called my name I had this feeling I could hear half of America going: Oh no. Why?

Her. Again?’ You know. But whatever.’ She milked every word for emphasis and texture.

5) Storytelling

In 1987 Billy Wilder told a wonderful story which falls into the ‘This nearly didn’t happen category’ (see side panel).

6) Humour

Roberto Begnini managed to express joie de vivre in his acceptance of best Foreign Language Film in 1998.

He fulfilled every over-the-top Italian stereotype by flailing his arms about. He also had a good gag: I would like to thank my parents. They gave me the biggest gift: poverty.

He also used a very elegant quotation from Dante: L’amore che muove il sole e le altre stelle - Love will move the sun and the other stars. Love is a divinity, and sometimes if you have faith, like all the divinities, it can appear.

7) Spontanaiety

The Italians call it sprezzatura: the art of making difficult things look simple, by concealing the effort that went into them. The hosts of the Academy Awards are expected to be witty. Their gag writers spend months before the event crafting hundreds of jokes which can be used on the night.

Billy Wilder’s speech

accepting the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award at the 1987 Academy Awards is very

moving. It’s worth looking up on YouTube. He explained how he had to leave America to extend his visa, having been a refugee from Nazi Germany. He met the American consul in Mexicali, Mexico.

The consul—he looked a little bit like Will Rogers—examined my meagre documentation. ‘Is that all you have?’ he asked. And I said, ‘Yes.’ I have to explain that, you know, I had to get out of Berlin on very short notice, like 20 minutes.

A neighbour had tipped me off that two men in uniform had been looking for me. I had just enough time to throw in a few things in the suitcase and get on a night train to Paris. The consul just stared at me and said, ‘I mean, how do you expect me to, with just those papers?’ And I told him, I tried to get them from Nazi Germany but they just would not respond. Of course I could get them if I went back to Germany, then they would put me naturally on the train and ship me off to Dachau. So, he just kept staring and staring at me and I was not sure whether I was getting through to him.

So we just sat there and stared at each other, the consul and I, in total silence. Finally he asked me, ‘What do you do? I mean professionally?’ And I said, ‘I write movies.’ And he said, ‘That so?’ He got up and started pacing, kind of behind me, but I felt that he was measuring me. Then he came back to the desk, picked up my passport, opened it, and took a rubber stamp and went [thumps twice on the podium], handed me back the passport and he said, ‘Write some good ones.’

That was fifty-four years ago. I’ve tried ever since.

SEVEN VIRTUES OF ACADEMY AWARD SPEECHES



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THE SPEAKING SKILLS OF RABBIS by William Cohen

Craig R Smith, an American speechwriter, who wrote for

Gerald Ford, George Bush snr and business executive, Lee Iacocca, penned a book Confessions of a Speechwriter.

It’s a very honest memoir, detailing his speechwriting triumphs and disasters, but also his problems as a closeted gay man in the Republican Party in the late 20th Century.

Another ‘confession’ he makes is that he sees a close connection between his spirituality and his work. He mentions how it’s difficult to talk about in respectable circles. I found this intriguing because I have an unusual hobby. I love watching rabbis on YouTube. The reason is you can see some of the world’s best communicators at work.

I was watching a British-born rabbi called Chaim Miller on a video called Torah in Ten. His subject is Jewish mysticism, but he told a story which described to me perfectly what a speechwriter does.

He mentioned in passing that some rabbis say it’s a sin to call Abraham, Abram. For those of you not so familiar with their Bible, Abraham was the first patriarch.

God made a covenant with him to make his descendants a great people. The problem was that he didn’t have any children with his wife Sarai. Years later, God speaks to Abram and tells him that he he will change his name.

In Genesis Chapter 17, verse 5, it says, ‘No longer shall your name be Abram, but your name shall be Abraham.’ God adds the Hebrew letter ‘Hey’, which for us is an ‘H’ to Abram’s name.

Why is that? Chaim Miller has

an intriguing theory which has implications for political leaders, think tanks and academics. Abram’s name means ‘exalted father’ or ‘exalted wisdom’.

Rabbi Miller says you may have some inspired, exalted or fascinating ideas, but the challenge is to communicate those ideas outwards. Communication is represented by the letter ‘H’, because when H is written down in Hebrew, (and in English), the character symbol stretches the full height and width of the interstice.

It’s the widest, highest letter and it represents the fleshing out, the expanding, the clarifying, the detailing, the expounding of an idea until it becomes understandable to the audience.

Abram, the man of ‘lofty wisdom’, gained an ‘H’. When his name changed, Abraham acquired the gift of communication, so he could spread his ideas of monotheism and spirituality to the world.

If you keep calling him Abram, you commit a sin. And in the same

way, according to Chaim Milller, it’s a sin to retain lofty wisdom for yourself.

I’m not sure how mainstream Rabbi Miller’s ideas are, but there are plenty of educated people in the world, but not many people who can explain complex ideas in a language everyone understands.

For me the speechwriter is the ‘H’: the intermediary who translates lofty wisdom into accessible ideas.

Another skill of the rabbis is to lift the spirit and tell stories that help to build mental resilience.

A week before my first child was about to be born, I was watching a talk by Rabbi Abraham Twerski on the meaning of suffering. He’s also a psychiatrist. He’s very keen on the 12-step programme which is part of the Alcoholics Anonymous philosophy.

Twerski described a time he felt miserable. Two people, who were a part of his 12-step group, came round to see him. They asked how he was. He’d made a pledge not to lie to anyone on the programme, so he told them he was miserable.

Rabbi Shais Taub and Rabbi Abraham Twerski. Photo by Latkelarry



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They said he had to go to an AA meeting. They took him to a meeting. He listened to a man who said he’d been sober for four years. But he’d lost his job, he’d fallen behind on his mortgage payments, his wife had divorced him and took custody of the kids, and then the finance company took his car.

The man insisted: ‘God hasn’t brought me all this way only to let me down now.’ Twerski was impressed by the man’s resilience.

He used this story to set up a second story. He was miserable in Manhattan, so he decided to go to an AA meeting there. A woman spoke of how she’d got into drugs, her life had gone awry and she’d got into debt, but she’d turned herself around. Twerski said that he’d heard that story hundreds of times before.

But then she said mentioned she was a passionate fan of the New York Jets: an American football team. She was out of town and she couldn’t watch the match. She never missed a match. She asked a friend to record it on her VCR. And when she went round to pick it up, the friend said: ‘By the way the Jets won’.

The woman went home and started watching the video. The Jets were playing really badly. They were getting mauled. They were 20 points down at half time. She said normally

she’d be a nervous wreck. She’d be cursing, but she was perfectly calm, because she knew the Jets were going to win.

And she said that ever since she’s been a member of AA, she knows that sometimes she’s 20 points behind at half time, but she always knows she’s going to win.

I showed this sermon to my wife a few days before our child was due.

Sure enough, when my wife had been in home labour for about nine hours, the midwife called for an ambulance. I had a sense that, like the Jets, we were in a difficult situation. Thinking about that story helped me feel calmer. I could manage my anxiety.

The third rabbi who I watch is Shais Taub. He’s also an expert in addiction.

He has a repertoire of Borscht Belt routines, literary references (he quotes Hamlet) and one liners.

His father was a psychologist, and one day he sat him down and told him a joke.

What is the difference between psychosis and neurosis?Psychosis is when you think 2 + 2 = 5 Neurosis is when you think 2 + 2 = 4 and you can’t stand it.

It’s a humorous way to define neurosis as an attempt to change things that you can’t change. Instead of using energy on the things you really do need to be spending energy on, you waste time complaining that 2 + 2 = 4. He goes on to quote a Jewish text which reveals how much of life you have influence over.

Everything’s in the hands of heaven, except for one’s awe of heaven.

That suggests that quite a lot of things that happen to us are beyond our control. What is in our control? Our reaction to reality. I’m in control of how I feel about my life. Having a fight with the facts of life. That’s where the suffering of the world comes from - fighting with reality.

The insight is a useful one for leaders. There is such a thing as reality, and it’s worth defining. How many policies, programmes and speeches are made in defiance of the fact that 2+2 = 4?

Like Craig R Smith, you might be wary of mentioning where you get your ideas from in respectable company, but speechwriters can learn a lot from rabbis. You can enjoy Shais Taub’s laconic delivery on YouTube.

CONFESSIONS OF A SPEECHWRITER

Dr Craig R Smith’s memoir Confessions of a Speechwriter

is an inspiring account of how a speechwriting career can lead in several directions. Craig Smith had a peripatetic working life as a speechwriter, academic and administrator.

The ‘confession’ element refers to how he lived as a closet gay man for many years working for the

Republican party. He gives the inside track on what it was like to work for characters like Lee Iacocca, Gerald Ford, George Bush (snr) and Senator Bob Packwood. He has some good yarns about the murky world of Washington politics, and he rubbed shoulders with some famous people like Michael Douglas.

The book is a mixture of American history, speechwriting tips and political insight. It also analyses the frustrations of working in academia. It’s dry in places, but it

offers hope and ideas to anyone who wants to specialise in speechwriting, and live a prosperous and interesting life.



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As a

speechwriter, when you bring a speech to a close, you want to do two things. First, you want to signal your audience that the speaker is coming to the end, so that they will be primed and ready to applaud. But you don’t want to do that by having the speaker say something as trite as ‘In conclusion...’

Second, you don’t want the audience to applaud because they feel they have to—or worse, because they feel sorry for the speaker. You want them to applaud because they mean it. To do that, you have to give them a reason to applaud.

One of the best examples I know of how to end a speech is Gen. Douglas MacArthur’s ‘Duty, Honor, Country’ address that he gave at West Point in 1962.

Gen. MacArthur was then 82 years old. He knew, and his audience knew, that this would probably be his last address to the West Point cadet corps. So, at the end of his speech, he milked the drama of the occasion for all it was worth.

I’m going to reprint the conclusion of the speech in its entirety so it can be studied as a model. First, note the subtle way in which Gen. MacArthur lets the audience know he is drawing to a close.

Second, once he signals that he’s coming to the end, note how with each successive line he ratchets up the emotional level another notch, until the tension is wound so tight that when he concludes the audience virtually has to applaud to relieve their pent-up feelings.

Here is Gen MacArthur:

‘The shadows are lengthening for me. The twilight is here. My days of old have vanished, tone and tint. They have gone glimmering through the dreams of things that were. Their memory is one of wondrous beauty, watered by tears, and coaxed and caressed by the smiles of yesterday. I listen vainly, but with thirsty ears, for the witching melody of faint bugles blowing reveille, of far drums beating the long roll. In my dreams I hear again the crash of guns, the rattle of musketry, the strange, mournful mutter of the battlefield.

‘But in the evening of my memory, always I come back to West Point.

‘Always there echoes and re-echoes: Duty, Honor, Country.

‘Today marks my final roll call with you, but I want you to know that when I cross the river my last conscious thoughts will be of The Corps, and The Corps, and The Corps.

‘I bid you farewell.’

Granted that this was a unique, and even historic occasion, and that Gen. MacArthur was a brilliant orator. But there are lessons here that can be applied to other occasions and less illustrious speakers.

First, we can be subtle in the way we signal the audience that the speaker is coming to an end. Second, we can build suspense as the speaker works to his conclusion. And third and most important, we can give the audience a reason to applaud at the end.

Hal Gordon wrote speeches for the Reagan White House, Gen. Colin Powell, and a raft of corporate CEOS. He currently freelances in Houston, Texas. He blogs for www.punditwire.com and can be reached through his web site: www.ringingwords.com

HOW TO END A SPEECH by Hal Gordon

…there are about 17 subjects that make people read. And you will probably find ten of them every day in any popular newspaper. I hold the view that if you take any popular paper for one year, you will have read everything it’s ever going to print. From year two, only the people, the places, the numbers of the dead and wounded change. Certainly, I believe if all the world’s news dried up, most of our press wouldn’t notice the difference.

These 17 subjects get attention:

Animals, Babies, Cars, Disasters, Entertainment, Famous Personalities, Fashion, Food, Fortune-telling, Jokes (cartoons) Money (how to make it), Royalty, Scandal (gossip columns), Sex, Sports, Wars, Weddings.

The copywriter can use most of these subjects to help get over his message.

SUBJECTS PEOPLE READ by Alastair Crompton, The Craft of Copywriting



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protocol. The speaker frequently is determined by hierarchy, instead of focusing on bringing ‘the big idea’ to life. This then leads to situations where most attention is given to making the speaker look good, instead of focusing on the audience.

The second thing I noticed is that speechwriters tend to be journalists. I never really understood that. While journalists are trained to relay facts in an impartial and objective manner, speechwriting to me is the art of weaving an emotional story that touches the hearts of those who listen.

When I attended the conference of the German Speechwriters’ Guild, I got the sense that the Germans aren’t as much in awe of the Americans speaking style as the British, Dutch and Danish. Is that a fair comment?

Short answer: yes (one caveat: I have no experience with Danish speakers).

Longer answer, and somewhat related to my previous answer: I feel that generally the two speaking styles are rather different. I have spent more than ten years living and working in the Americas. So my personal view is that there is a strong cultural element at work here.

Humour, especially of the slightly self-depreciating, ironic kind is rarely found in German speeches. Evoking emotions through story likewise often is considered somewhat frivolous, especially regarding business or other ‘serious’ matters. Thus, the claim ‘to make a difference’, or even to ‘change the world’ - almost routinely voiced in American speeches - often gets ridiculed in Germany as ‘hollywoodesque’ drama.

Can you tell us about the culture of speechwriting in Germany?

Whoa, tricky one! I’ll offer an opinion. First off, let me try to illustrate my views by means of two conversations I had in the past. The first was with a CEO-friend of mine. When I told him I wanted to become a speechwriter, he said: ‘How can your clients be sure you’ll make them look good?’.

Second example: someone asked me what I was doing for work. When I said ‘speechwriting’ she was pleased: ‘Oh, I work in journalism myself!’

What did I learn from these conversations? First of all there is no public speaking tradition in Germany comparable to that in the Anglo-Saxon world. People of my generation who went through University had no Toastmaster Clubs or the such. Speaking in front of groups was not on the curriculum or practised otherwise. Public speaking is just less ubiquitous, I guess. Still many weddings see no more than the father of the bride stepping up, sometimes not even that.

Perhaps as a consequence of this ‘remoteness’ of public speaking, it is to this day often a stiff affair. Too much room is given to ceremony and

This again has to do with the stiff ceremonial approach noted in the previous answer. However my feeling is that this is changing slowly but surely with the informality the Internet brings and a more relaxed attitude of the younger generation. At least, I hope so.

I see from your website you have a CIC certificate in professional speechwriting – what’s that?

In Germany, in order to paint walls inside a house or run a barbershop, you need a professional certificate. Not so with speechwriting. As is the case in most countries there is no formal education for speechwriters in Germany. The one universally accepted certificate you can get is the one from the CIC, ie the Chamber of Industry and Commerce.

You write in English and in German – for what is there the most demand in your agency?

Funnily enough, for English. And not only from German clients who need help with their English, but from English native speakers as well.

Is it fair to say that giving speeches is different from giving presentations?

Actually, I do not think there is all that much difference. A presentation and a speech should have the same purpose if they are worth being given: to convey an important idea to the audience and to move them with the message. While one apparent difference between presentation and speech is that the former typically uses images on slides, a great speech equally uses images, although evoked mentally. Just think of Peggy Noonan’s ‘touching the face of God’ in Reagan’s address to the nation after the Challenger disaster.

INTERVIEW WITH FRANK VOGELGESANGFrom Resonanz Agentur, a German presentation consultancy



10


Guild, ‘… and that way down deep in the heart of life’s extraordinary complexity is ... extraordinary simplicity.’ (Peggy Noonan, On Speaking Well).

What font do you use for your scripts?

That’s a trade secret. No, seriously, I have no clear answer for this. I guess it kind of depends on what mood I am in or on the topic I write about.

What’s your favourite reference book?

The internet.

Regardless of whether you give a speech or a presentation, you should try to make sure that your delivery follows a fil rouge and has a story arc to bind it all together. With or without the visualisation on slides, whiteboards, or whatever: take your audience on a journey they will remember.

Incidentally, I believe that Peggy Noonan would sympathise when it comes to crafting scripts with the Zen-style simplicity advocated by Garr Reynolds for slide design. If I may quote from the ‘Rhetorical Toolkit’ from the UK Speechwriter’s

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Can you give us any tips on how to flatter a German audience?

‘Don’t mention the war!’ I’m just kidding. I cannot answer that because I do not know what the stereotypical ‘German audience’ is. Sorry.

The European Speechwriter Network Autumn conference will take place in Berlin, Germany in October 2015

The Speechwriter is edited by Brian Jenner

The tenth European Speechwriter Network conference in conjunction with the UK

Speechwriters’ Guild will be taking place at Westminster College, Cambridge from April 15-17 2015 - in the middle of the UK General Election campaign.

Our conferences offer a unique way to understand the challenges of writing speeches by spending three days in the company of some of the top speechwriters in the world.

Pre-conference training will take place on the Wednesday.

Erich Schnure, who wrote for Al Gore, will be delivering a workshop on ‘Wisdom from the White House’. Washington-based communications consultant, Denise Graveline, will be delivering a workshop on how to write ‘TED-quality talk’. Martin Shovel and Martha Leyton from CreativityWorks in Brighton will be coaching delegates in persuasion.

At the main conference the speakers will include:

The chief speechwriter at Disney in Florida, Tom Morrisey, who will be talking about The Staying Power of Story.

Hal Gordon, former speechwriter to US Secretary of State, Colin Powell, will be speaking about the man who taught Churchill to speak.

Alexander von Reumont from the German Speechwriters’ Guild will be speaking about charisma.

Jesper Langergaard from the Danish Ministry of Science will be speaking about humour.

Lucia Hodgson from the UK Department of Education will tell us about how Whitehall speechwriters work.

Hanneke Kulik from the Dutch Ministry of Finance will be speaking about speechwriters’ ethics.

UK Business Communicator of the Year and pensions guru, Steve Bee, will be speaking on visual communication.

Kate Bruce from St John’s College, Durham, will be giving some insights on the skill of preaching.

The breakout sessions will include:

Roger Lakin from BP on corporate speechwriting.

Writing for non-native speakers and multilingual audiences with Sarah Lynch from the European Union.

Roger Evans from the Scottish Parliament will speak on How do we promote a positive culture for speechwriting.

Purchase a ticket by going to: http://cambridgespeechwriters.eventbrite.com

SPRING SPEECHWRITERS AND BUSINESS COMMUNICATORS CONFERENCE 15-17 April 2015 - Westminster College, Cambridge

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