Dear speech-fans and friends,
How to catch the audience’s attention?
Speechwriters’ and speakers’ recurring question.
Our selection this month focuses on refreshing
openings, tangible examples, and ceremonial speeches and how they throw light
on our challenges today.
You may also like to listen
to a selection of Nobel Peace Lectures, in French and English, gathered by the
radio station France culture in these times between the announcement of the
Nobel Prizes (early October) and the Lectures to come (early December).
Even better, let’s meet! Our fellow speechwriter Jan
Sonneveld – whom I met at the World conference of the Professional
Speechwriters Association in Washington earlier this month – will be in town on
November 25th. Save your lunchbreak to meet this talented colleague (see his
Vital speech: How
Speechwriting Changed Me, or his Twitter
and Tumblr).
A « save-the-date » is following this mail.
Enjoy the reading, the listening, and the networking.
Isabelle
A
selection of refreshing openings:
This is THE book to start with as a new political speechwriter but also to go back to as an experienced speechwriter.
For this second edition, Robert Lehrman and Eric Schnure have built on their experience as chief speechwriter and speechwriter to former Vice-President Gore and as teachers mainly in the United States but also in Europe, Asia, and [...]
Read more
« There is another milestone we should celebrate tonight. As you all know, 2019 marks the 30th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. I wanted to ask a question about this anniversary. Was the fall of the Berlin Wall a beginning, an end, or a middle? Think about it. (and, echoing this opening, here is the closing) So, let us return to my orig... »Christine Lagarde
Dear speech-fans and friends,
Challenges and how to take up these
challenges: this has been the leading theme in
European speeches this month.
Little surprise there are several quotes in
German this time. No worry: they are so well organised that everything has its
translation into English J
Viel Spaß. Enjoy the reading.
Isabelle
State of the European Union
Our European Union is not in a good state.
There is not enough Europe in this Union.
And there
is not enough Union in this Union.
We have to
change this.
And we have
to change this now.
President Juncker,
State of the Union 2015: Time for Honesty, Unity and Solidarity, 9 September
2015
What ails
Europe, what ails our nations today is a poisonous cocktail of a lack of mutual
trust and a lack of self-confidence. We are slow to react to challenges, we are
slow to implement even the most obvious common answers, because we do not
believe in ourselves, in our ability to adapt, to respond to challenges, to
make tomorrow better than today. We are slow to find common answers not because
there are no answers, but because we do not trust the word “common”…
Dear
speech-fans and friends,
This
summer has been everything but quiet, which means a rich harvest of speeches.
Here
is a short selection of empowering stories, varied quotes, rhythmic tricolons,
and memorable antimetaboles delivered in July and August.
Welcome
back !
Isabelle
Speeches
to call for action
Ladies and gentlemen, never underestimate the power of how you are, and will, transform people's lives.
It's no small thing to show the world that what's always been done, can be done
better.
So, spread your story far, wide and fast! Even the smallest of patient
innovations can bring hope and happiness!
Commissioner Moedas, 13 July 2015, Sharing Solutions, Improving Life
through Citizen Innovation
Change is
happening before our eyes at an alarming pace. It is up to us to take action
before it is too late.
But
addressing climate change is not only about saving our planet. It is also about
saving ourselves from poverty, unemployment, war, and oppression.
Why?
Because the rise in temperatures creates an entire range of effects;
from floods to heatwaves and wildfires;
from new diseases and health hazards to draughts and food shortage,
from extinction of animals to entire populations fleeing their territories in
search of liveable conditions.
We cannot simply watch this happen.
Vice-President Šefčovič, 1 July 2015, World Summit of Climate and
Territories
Dear all,
Here is a short selection of speeches
delivered this month,
together with a few other pieces - as
long as they can serve our inspiration and aspiration to improve.
Once again, I would like to thank the
colleagues and friends who drew my attention to some references for circulation
to other speech-fans.
Isabelle
The noble art of
speechwriting
Not too long ago, the President and I were working on a speech
that we knew would get a lot of attention. (…) So two days before the speech, I
handed him the first draft in the Oval Office (…). He started out by saying,
“Look, this is well-written, and I could probably deliver it as is,” which
almost never means he actually wants to deliver it as is. “But we have two
days, so let’s make it better.”
And then he gave me one of the best pieces of advice I’ve ever
gotten, one I wish he’d given me years ago. “You took a half-swing on this.
Take a full swing.”
Chief White House Speechwriter
Keenan, Commencement Address, 19 June 2015, selected Vital Speech of the Week
Dear all,
For your attention, here’s a short
selection of speeches delivered this month, together with an older abstract you
might appreciate as well.
I would like to thank the colleagues and
friends who forwarded some references for circulation to other speech-fans.
Isabelle
If you only read one speech this month, you will find a good mix of logos,
pathos and ethos in this one: President Tusk, Charlemagne Prize, 13 May
2015
What is then the challenge for the third
generation of European unity?
Nothing less than to deliver on the
promise of Europe with a ruthless determination.
President Tusk, Charlemagne
Prize, 13 May 2015
In three words: Brilliant - Eye-opener - a Must. In much more than three words: After reading this book I ca[...]
Posted by Anna CAPRILE | Join the conversation