Speech Writing, Part 3

Tips to Consider

Moving on, I have also learnt certain techniques to consider in speech writing. Some of them, I have used in my Toastmasters projects - in project 4 "How to Say it" of our Competent Communitor module - about words.

Many of the examples in the following tips are culled from John F Kennedy's Inauguration Speech, delivered on January 20, 1961.

Use:

1. Alliteration [e.g. as different as chalk and cheese, friend and foe, break the bond of mass misery. Readers will have noticed that I loved alliteration. In my previous post, I taught my boy to use "It was wild, it was wet. We were wowed by Wild, Wild Wet." This is a combinition of alliteration and set of three.]

2. Anecdotes [basically a short story.]

3. Antithesis [Opposition and contrast. It is a nice balance and play on words. E.g. "ask not what your country can do for you - ask what you can do for your country." "united, there is little we cannot do, divided, there is little we can do.]

4. Call to action [- usually it is position towards the end of a speech "Let us go forth" ]

5. Contrasts [light and darkness, symbolizing an end, as well as a beginning]

6. Conversation English

7. Definitions [ not a victory of party, but a celebration of freedom. ... not because ... but because it is right/]

8. Humor with care

9. Quotations

10. Repetition

11. Rhetorical question [questions which you do not expect an answer. E.g. "Will you join in that historic effort?"]

12. Rounded-off figures

13. Short sentences

14. Set of three

15. Similes (similar in one way) and metaphors (similar in all aspects - more powerful than similes) (E.g. "Now the trumpet summons us again - not as a call to bear arms, though arms we need - not as a call to battle, though embattled we are - but a call to bear the burden of a long twilight struggle..."]

16. Simple words

17. Sound bites [e.g."Let us never negotiate out of fear. But let us never fear to negotiate."]

18. Statistics [use them sparringly]

19. Transitions

20. Vivid imagery [e.g. "that torch has been passed to a new generation of Americans..."

Avoid

- Cliches (expressions that are no longer fresh. E.g. at this moment in time, without further ado, last but no least - just us "finally". We work 24/7, on that note) and platitudes (Sentences that say something that is true but people have heard it so many times. E.g. "Change is the only constant.")