famous speech writers

famous speech writers

Exploring the Art of Speechwriting: Insights from Famous Speechwriters

1. Introduction to the World of Speechwriting

The first speechwriters who were not also thought of as legislators or religious authorities did not write for the masses, after all, but for the Roman Senate, which was viewed as a select and elite body. Talk of the speechwriter remained on the periphery for so many years, then, for two reasons: one, because the focus of classic oratory was on the deliverer (orator), and two, because for the first 2,500 to 3,000 years of recorded speaking, the writer was someone else, not oneself. It was not until the time of St. Thomas Aquinas that orators/writers began to speak in their own voice to an audience, asserts Edward M. C. Komp, and thus they became themselves their own statesmen of the pen.

Speechwriting is the cornerstone of political speech. Often unseen by the masses, it is a central part of political communication and strategy that has influenced history. Speechwriting as a craft and an art is understudied, but analyzing speechwriting provides insights into political thought, communication, and rhetoric. Speech is perhaps different from the other forms of political communication. It is the direct voice of the politician, it is a communicative speech act, and it is the speech of the leader. As the key political and rhetorical element, the study of political speech is generally limited to its role in election campaigns or its function in processes of negotiating diplomacy and peace. More recently, scholars began to study the content of political speeches, focusing on the strategic employment of patriotism or the linguistic aspects of political speeches. Voices have argued that the emphasis on content over form is unfortunate.

2. Key Elements of a Powerful Speech

A speech is structured to deliver an argument to suit the speaker’s purpose, the audience’s expectations, and the constraints imposed by the event at which the speech is delivered. The formal occasion for a speech provides a framework for gracing the occasion with different styles of delivery. The language of a speech can serve social, psychological, and even physiological purposes, and one must match one’s intended impact on their audience with the language one uses. We still use the trivium, c.f. the stylistic elements of invention, organization, and delivery, to describe the skills needed to craft a successful speech. Of course, much has changed since the 1950s. Our nonverbal language conveys more in common across different technical settings. In addition, speeches are delivered through media such as television and the internet.

Powerful speeches can shape the world. But turning an idea or policy into a widely disseminated message requires more than a talented speaker. It demands careful composition, an understanding of audiences, and a fine ear for both oration and argumentation. With a nod to Lisa Lincoln’s first post in our series on speechwriting, parts one and two of a six-part series, published in 1952, canvass seven key elements necessary for writing a consequential speech. Many of the skills required to write an illuminating speech have not changed since their publication. Writing an effective speech still requires a grasp of structure, the appropriate language choice for both the speaker and their audience, and a delivery that matches the occasion.

3. Case Studies of Iconic Speeches and Their Writers

Case studies to consider include: Gettysburg Address by Abraham Lincoln, the “I Have a Dream” speech by Martin Luther King Jr., “After Apple-Picking” by Robert Frost, a commencement address by Toni Morrison, and the first Presidential debate between Richard Nixon and John F. Kennedy, scripted by Ted Sorensen, and the aftermath Presidential address to the nation. Each case features questions that might add to students that have not only studied the historical content but also the methods in rhetorical construction. Even for those familiar with a text, these questions reveal meanings and methods in order to permit more sophisticated levels of analysis. All of the speeches feature momentary examples of metaphor, and inclusion of other tropes and figures is indicated with an asterisk in the left column.

In this section, famous speeches and their writers are analyzed. The section employs numerous case studies to provide insight into the strategies employed by some of the most well-known speechwriters and to give students a sense of the speaker, the context, and the lasting impact of the speeches in historical and contemporary contexts. Famous speeches take many forms, and they can be remembered as oral performances, written texts, or even both, each carrying intellectual, artistic, and emotional power. This section helps students understand some of the principles of “speaking well” via case studies and questions. In studying these cases, students might gain insight into rhetoric and ages beyond their own. They may be prompted and enabled to think about some of the speakers’ choices, they can get a sense of what effect those choices have and whether that is a good one, and they can develop their own ideas of the core values of “rhetoric.”

4. Ethical Considerations in Speechwriting

Speechwriting is not as formulaic as advertising and marketing writing, but the immediate impulse to consider speechwriting in the context of ethics echoes those who categorize speechwriting and messaging services as “variable to one degree or another”. According to J.A.C. Brown, “the escalator goes up, and there are no more stairs to climb.” Beginning from the general and growing more specific, speakers must seek to inspire or edify many people at once. Persuasion occurs when you have interfacing with an individual one-on-one. Mastery of this stage is often measured by humility and exercises in audience education. There may be a participant’s eye for what is to come. It may or may not acknowledge our fear of missing what should have been satisfied here. The difference is philosophical in part, and in part both practical and ethical in nature. Issues related to relatability and audience adaptation are discussed in a later section.

Another commonly debated issue is the act of writing strategically to different audiences from the moral perspective. A few writers discuss this under the dominion of a sort of “umbrella ethical” – for example, Barton Swaim’s The Speechwriter articulates the subtleties of tone when working for a deeply partisan boss. Carl Cannon, the co-author of Reagan’s Disciple, goes one step further. He addresses the speechwriter’s “moral obligations” when confronted with an audience’s interest in misleading. Are persuading and moralizing directly linked, such that the power to persuade demands that we must also opine on the capacities of those in a position to listen? More exactly, it is not clear that it is possible to guide audience education in a way that does not also accidentally direct audience opinion.

5. The Future of Speechwriting: Trends and Innovations

The future of speechwriting is uncertain. The circumstances and forces that will drive the concrete conditions of speaking, its practices, and its contexts tomorrow are not yet present today, and any courses for a predictive method to any balanced forecasting included in this area of study. Firstly, some trends: The influences on the speechwriting of the past decades can be summed up in three general themes. The move from speeches as delivered monologues which demand “decoding” by political audiences to interactive communication which not only requires listening but also two-way strategic efforts on the part of political elites and audiences to make oneself heard as speakers and heard with particular meanings as listeners. This validation of speaker/audience “intersubjectivity” as essential to the persuasive act has suggested to many departures in previous (and perhaps future) discussion of persuasive speaking.

The art of speechwriting has now evolved into something completely different from what it used to be in the early 19th century. Technology and the rise of the digital age have transformed that Socratic method into more conversational and appealing content. With the rise of Artificial Intelligence in Adtech, Saatchi & Saatchi AI has launched its own AI speechwriting tool – Speechwriter. Bringing out this from the closet and lobbying points to R&D running for even speechwriters’ work to be automated sometime soon in the future. The exact future is then, if the latter be true, still unpredictable at best and fluid at worst. In the long run, the biggest challenge faced by the traditional roles of writing persuasive speeches is presented, though in a complex form, by the internet’s shift from “communication.” Be not the future soothsayers that promise only certain and speculative results.