As I write, Mr. Obama has just finished delivering his first State of the Union Address. We can debate the policies later, but for style, I felt he missed a key grace note of leadership. Over and over he used the word “I”. But the essential word of leadership is “we”. Nothing is about me. Everything is about us, the people, whom I, the leader, serve.
Statistics are like a birthday gift. You never know what you’ve really got until you unwrap them. Take today’s unemployment data (for December). It shows the unemployment rate at 10 percent. That’s still lower than the rate at the peak of the 1982 recession — 10.8 percent in December of that year. But any experienced speechwriter knows that topline numbers are only a starting point, not a finishing line. Read
When communicating with people in The Netherlands, one of the easiest ways to get in dutch is to refer to their country as Holland. North and South Holland are just two of the 12 provinces in The Netherlands. Calling the whole country Holland is like referring to the United Kingdom (or Great Britain) as England. (For that matter, it’s like referring to the United States as America when you are speaking to Canadians.)
These are just a couple of small examples of the kind of idiomatic and cultural knowledge it is increasingly important to have, whether writing a speech, an article, a report or any other communications tool aimed at reaching a foreign audience. Read
As the 1972 election campaignwas approaching, strategists for President Richard Nixon had a problem. They wanted to announce the formation of a re-election committee. But there had been some question raised in the media about whether Vice-President Spiro Agnew would be on the ticket. They couldn’t call it “Citizens for Nixon-Agnew” because that would pre-empt the President’s decision. And they couldn’t call it “Citizens for Nixon” because that might appear to be throwing Agnew under the bus. They turned to the resident master of language, William Safire, who was then writing speeches for the President. His suggestion? “Committee to Re-elect the President.” Read
Perhaps the most important aspect of writing a speech is crafting a clear message. The goal of a speech isn’t to impress people with how well you can write — it’s to get across the point you are trying to make. But what is the key message? Frequently there are several. Which one do you really want to focus attention on? Which message do you want to build the most quotable soundbite around; which point do you want to build up to, and build the speech around? Read
One of the tricks of effective writing is coining memorable phrases. Soundbites. Here are some tips:
Names: Think of the New Deal, the Iron Curtain, the Evil Empire. By giving your idea or initiative a name, you give people something to remember.
Images and Metaphors: Look at those names again. ”New Deal” and “Iron Curtain” each incorporated an image and metaphor into the name. People are more likely to remember words the conjure a vision in their imaginations than an abstraction.
Popular Culture: ”Evil Empire” was a reference to Star Wars, which had recently been released at the time Ronald Reagan slapped the name on the Soviet Union. People are also more likely to remember references to popular culture if only because they know popular culture so well.
There is nothing magical about crafting language that is memorable. The trick is having ideas and arguments that are worth remembering.