February 2015 | Volume 16

The Speechwriter
EUROPEAN
Newsletter of the UK Speechwriters' Guild incorporating
SPEECHWRITER
NETWORK

MASTERCLASS by Erasmus
Welcome
Welcome to the sixteenth The Dutch philosopher, Desiderius Erasmus, wrote a
edition of The Speechwriter very popular C16th school textbook on how to enhance
newsletter. The purpose of speechwriting skills. He encouraged students to cultivate rich,
this publication is to circulate poetic and colourful language. But he advised this was often
examples of excellent speeches to the fruit of laborious exercises - like rewriting the sentence,
members of the UK Speechwriters’
‘Your letter has delighted me very much’, in over 150 different
Guild. We do this by picking out
ways. Here is a selection of soundbites from his textbook,
openings, closings, one-liners
and quotations and other topical
De Copia.
extracts from newspapers and the
internet to identify techniques,
…that person It will serve
to whom laconic to suggest that
stimulate your imagination and
brevity in speech is whoever wishes
provide models which you can pleasing…will not to be more fluent
emulate. make use of every in speech should
argument, but only observe and collect
This newsletter appears the chief ones. from the best
quarterly and is available to authors a great
anyone who is a Standard
Everywhere number of striking
tedium should metaphors.
Member of the UK Speechwriters’
be lightened
Guild or the European by variety, Collect as
Speechwriter Network. cheerfulness and many topics as
humour. possible. Take
them partly from
We keep our classes of virtues
audience in a and vices, partly
receptive mood from those things
Contribute most effectively by that are important
suitable transitions. in human affairs,
We welcome book reviews, and that are accustomed to come
speeches and articles for the The first way to embellish up often in persuasion; and it will
magazine. Every contribution thought is to relate at length and be best to arrange these according
published gets a £10 Amazon treat in detail something that to affinity and opposition. Then
could be expressed summarily whatever you come across in
token. Please send your
and in general. And this, in fact, is any author, especially if it is very
submissions to: the same as if one should displace noteworthy, you will immediately
merchandise…rolled up in carpets, mark down in its proper place.
8 info@ukspeechwritersguild.co.uk then should unroll the carpets and This method will have the effect
disclose the merchandise, exposing it of imprinting what you read more
completely to sight. deeply on your mind, as well as
accustoming you to utilising the
Speech is enriched by riches of your reading.
descriptions of places.

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The Speechwriter February 2015 | Volume 16
Newsletter of The UK Speechwriters’ Guild
BOOK REVIEWS
Reviewed by
Alan Barker
Riveted: The Science
of Why Jokes Make Us
Laugh, Movies Make Us
Cry, and Religion Makes
Us Feel One With the
Universe
by Jim Davies
Palgrave Macmillan, 2014, £12.99
£14.44 (Amazon)
Kindle edition £9.94 (Amazon)
W hy 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.
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
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.
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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 February 2015 | Volume 16
Newsletter of The UK Speechwriters’ Guild
Insider Secrets of Public
Speaking:
Answers to the 50
biggest questions
on how to deliver
brilliant speeches and
presentations
Nadine Dereza and Ian Hawkins
Rethink Press £14.99
‘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
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(‘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
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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.’
IN PRAISE OF
COURIER
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.
The Speechwriter February 2015 | Volume 16 4

Newsletter of The UK Speechwriters’ Guild

But Stephen Merchant, writer

Reviewed by Imogen Barker on The Office and one of only two
non-American writers interviewed,
strikes a chord when he speaks
about understanding the different
Poking a Dead Frog grammars of different situations. Kay
by Mike Sacks Cannon, writer and producer on 30
Penguin Books, 2014, £9.50 Rock, speaks about ‘the importance
of self-awareness’ for a writer,

M ike Sacks asserts that, as a learning ‘what role you play every
comedy writer, you ‘make a single day’ and how that changes.
career out of attempting to induce
laughter from complete strangers For my money, Amy Poehler,
with only the words or images that writer and actor on Parks and
you create’. Recreation and Saturday Night Live,
has the best advice in the book for
For ‘induce laughter’, substitute any writer who works with others
‘persuade’ or ‘influence’, and you have and whose work is going to be
the task of a speechwriter. Sacks and spoken. (She also delivered the Class
his interviewees emphasise that the Day address to Harvard University
key to comedy writing is finding your in 2011, so she evidently knows
writers of anything’. Anybody can something about speechwriting.)
own voice – arguably far easier in
tweet a joke, or post a video on
comedy than speechwriting, which
YouTube: ‘there’s no one to stop you’. ‘Read your stuff out loud’, she
has to deal in facts, usually spoken by
Are the old rules of comedy dead? says. ‘Sometimes the way it reads in
someone else.
An increase in output does not your head sounds different when
necessarily equate to an increase in someone says it.’ When working with
The comedy writer/performer
quality. others, ‘be open to changing all the
relationship has definite parallels
with the speechwriter/speaker material you think is really brilliant…
Speechwriters are in a slightly and don’t be precious’.
relationship. A comedy writer
different situation. They’re not
relies on somebody else to deliver
competing against their peers on the
their lines effectively; so does a
internet as comedy writers are. True,
speechwriter. A good performance

P
their speech will probably be filmed eople talk plainly as long as
can lift a bad premise, just as bad
and put online. Soundbites will be they don’t think about it. In
delivery can sink good writing.
tweeted across the world. What conversation without rehearsal or
literary theorists call ‘destabilising the preparation, they somehow manage
What does Poking a Dead Frog
text’ is now happening on a global to express themselves so clearly that
have to offer speechwriters? Comedy
scale. And indeed, speechwriters nobody asks for an explanation. How
gets an audience on your side and
surely benefit from the ability to do they do it?
can draw people together, just like a
‘reach out to others almost instantly’.
good speech. Seth Meyers, writer on
Saturday Night Live, has coined the The solution to the puzzle is easy:
But their primary audience is the they use big words, and a fast pace,
term ‘clapter’ for when a comedian is
one in the room. Their initial focus and the ordinary rules of grammar,
looking for easy laughter and ‘earnest
must be on the material and its but they give the other fellow time to
applause’ to get an audience onside
delivery, rather than the wider social understand. They pause between
and make them feel good about their
impact. The old craft is as relevant as sentences; they repeat themselves;
opinions.
ever. they use filler words between the
The ‘Pure, Hard-core Advice’ big important ones; they space their
Speechwriters will recognise a
sections are probably the most useful ideas. The secret of plain talk is in-
similar temptation.
parts of this book for speechwriters, between space.
though the relentless doom and
Mike Sacks argues comedy
gloom about ‘never making it’ and The Art of Plain Talk by Rudolph
writing is now a more level playing
‘working hard for nothing’ seems Flesch
field than it’s ever been: ‘there has
more like jaded posturing than
never been a better time for writers
helpful advice from these remarkably
of comedy – or, for that matter,
successful writers.

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The Speechwriter February 2015 | Volume 16
Newsletter of The UK Speechwriters’ Guild
SEVEN VIRTUES OF ACADEMY AWARD SPEECHES
T his 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?
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
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 Benigni 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.
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5
B illy 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.
The Speechwriter February 2015 | Volume 16
Newsletter of The UK Speechwriters’ Guild
THE SPEAKING SKILLS OF RABBIS
by William Cohen
C raig 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
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
Rabbi Shais Taub and Rabbi Abraham Twerski. Photo by Latkelarry
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
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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.
The Speechwriter February 2015 | Volume 16
Newsletter of The UK Speechwriters’ Guild
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
CONFESSIONS OF A SPEECHWRITER
D r 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
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
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.
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.
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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.
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.
The Speechwriter February 2015 | Volume 16 8

Newsletter of The UK Speechwriters’ Guild

HOW TO END A SPEECH

by Hal Gordon

A sa

speechwriter, when
I’m going to reprint the
conclusion of the speech in its
entirety so it can be studied as a
‘Always there echoes and re-echoes:
Duty, Honor, Country.

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.
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.
‘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

SUBJECTS PEOPLE READ

by Alastair Crompton, The Craft of Copywriting

…there are about 17 subjects that make people read. These 17 subjects get attention:
And you will probably find ten of them every day in any
Animals, Babies, Cars, Disasters, Entertainment,
popular newspaper. I hold the view that if you take any
Famous Personalities, Fashion, Food, Fortune-telling,
popular paper for one year, you will have read everything
Jokes (cartoons) Money (how to make it), Royalty, Scandal
it’s ever going to print. From year two, only the people, the
(gossip columns), Sex, Sports, Wars, Weddings.
places, the numbers of the dead and wounded change.
Certainly, I believe if all the world’s news dried up, most of The copywriter can use most of these subjects to help
our press wouldn’t notice the difference. get over his message.

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 • INFO@UKSPEECHWRITERSGUILD.CO.UK
The Speechwriter February 2015 | Volume 16
Newsletter of The UK Speechwriters’ Guild
INTERVIEW WITH FRANK VOGELGESANG
From Resonanz Agentur, a German presentation consultancy
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
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
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.
• INFO@UKSPEECHWRITERSGUILD.CO.UK
9
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.
The Speechwriter February 2015 | Volume 16 10

Newsletter of The UK Speechwriters’ Guild

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
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.
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
europa|studio
TM

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SPRING SPEECHWRITERS AND BUSINESS COMMUNICATORS

CONFERENCE 15-17 April 2015 - Westminster College, Cambridge
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.

T he 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.
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

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 • INFO@UKSPEECHWRITERSGUILD.CO.UK