Category: A Rhetorical Perspective

Like many Americans I was saddened to learn of the passing of Gen. Colin Powell on Monday. In my case, the sadness was personal because I was the General’s speechwriter …

Last week here, I wrote about how the word “unprecedented” was banned at a meeting I attended at the University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business. That’s a hard rule to …

Intrepid Vital Speeches rhetoric editor Neil Hrab unearthed a great speechwriting-industry time capsule, written by New York Times’ reporter Don Oberdorfer and published on Sunday, April 26, 1964—surely to the stifled consternation of …

Reading a Fox News piece last week headlined “Biden’s Afghanistan speech written poorly with even worse delivery, experts say,” I was taken back to a formative moment very early in my career. I …

“We don’t hit, we don’t bite, and we don’t throw things.” Those are the first rules any parent teaches any child. And then the parents put the kids to bed, …

When I accepted the job as AFL-CIO Director of Speechwriting, my coworkers at the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union sent me off with a toast: “To the voice …

In my book An Effort to Understand, I tell the story of how I once told my five-year-old daughter that in our family, we don’t say passed away—we say died. …

Last week I was writing a column on speechwriters’ behalf for a magazine for CEOs. (Oh yes, I’ll share that when it comes out.)  I was at pains to explain …

In his inaugural address, President Biden named a lot of massive problems the country has to tackle. COVID. Economic horrors. Social justice and racial equity—the explicit term, “white supremacy” appeared …

I was invited to sit in on a conference call with some political speechwriters this week. As we discussed President-Elect Biden’s rhetoric, I said something that annoyed some of the …