What Would Churchill Do?
I was asleep at 9:00 p.m. but was awakened a couple of hours later, and there’ll be no sleep for awhile. As I have asked myself so many times in …
A speechwriter’s reflection on “3D Public Servants: The Courage to Be Human”
I quit my job and moved across the country for this speech. It started out with a question I saw written on a white board during my final interview at …
Commencement speech podcast fest, May 15
Commencment-speech-a-palooza is taking place on May 15. Put on by iHeartRadio, Commencement Speeches 2020 will include virtual talks by a couple dozen celebrities, from Hillary Clinton to Pitbull. “High school and college …
Rhetorical Recap: You’ve Got a Friend
We’ve lost hold of the anchoring and orienting forms by which we connect to politics. Guess who to the rescue, for Democrats at least. The day after Bernie Sanders endorsed …
Strategically, she writes
Review of Leading Lines by Lucinda Holdforth (HarperCollins, 2020) If you’re going to read one book about speechwriting this year, then pick up a copy of Australian speechwriter Lucinda Holdforth’s just-published Leading Lines. Her book …
American Embassy in Poland seeks speechwriter
The American Embassy in Poland needs a speechwriter: “Serves as the principal English-language writer for the Ambassador and other senior Embassy officials. Collaborates with the Ambassador to develop original content, appropriately …
“Help Another Writer Out” lets freelancers share gigs
Gotham Ghostwriters has introduced the Help Another Writer Out Campaign (#HAWO). “In this moment of economic crisis, we are seeing the freelance writing community respond with its typical reciprocity and …
Your Audience Is Bored Already
It was a relatively good week for speeches and speechwriters! On Sunday, Queen Elizabeth gave a widely appreciated televised speech calling on British citizens to show “the quiet, good-humored resolve” they’ve been …
The Right Book for Right Now
Review of: FDR on Democracy: The Greatest Speeches and Writings of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, by Harvey J. Kaye (available via Amazon in both print and ebook) In these days of …
How to Write the “Catastrophe Speech”
How to write the “catastrophe speech.” By writer Kevin Toolis’ definition, coronavirus is not a “catastrophe”—a singular disastrous event. But it will almost certainly contain such events—for the world, for your …