This presentation comes from our March 2012 chapter meeting. Mike Long is the former director of the White House Writers Group, and an accomplished speechwriter, author, essayist, and award-winning screenwriter and playwright. He has written remarks for members of Congress, U.S. Cabinet secretaries, governors, diplomats, CEOs, and four presidential candidates.

1. Speechwriting:
The Basics, and Fast
Michael Long
Georgetown University
Mike@MikeLongOnline.com
703.408.7570

2. Speechwriting: Philosophy
 Nobody wants…
 Speeches v. Presentation v. Oratory
 Oratory: Mainly emotional
 Speeches: Mix of information and emotion
 Presentation: Information (Power Point)

3. Speechwriting
Six Steps
1. Assess the Event and the Speaker
2. Create a Spec Sheet
3. Identify the Big Ideas and Put Them in Order
(“Identify and Prioritize”)
4. Add Evidence
5. Write the Open and the End
6. Make it Better: Social Media, Sourcing &
Loose Ends

4. Speechwriting
Step 1
1. Assess the Event and the Speaker
2. Create a Spec Sheet
3. Identify the Big Ideas and Put Them in Order
(“Identify and Prioritize”)
4. Add Evidence
5. Write the Open and the End
6. Make it Better: Social Media, Sourcing &
Loose Ends

5. Speechwriting:
Practicalities & Mechanics
 Collaborative
 w/principal (rarely)
 w/staff (usually)
 Timetables
 Iterations
 Getting it down on paper
 The rule: 1 minute = 100 words

6. Speechwriting
THE
KEY
IS
ORGANIZATION

7. The Big Secret:
The Music Man
and
The Custom Garment

8. Speechwriting
 Before you write a word, spend
time thinking.
 How much time do I have to write it?
 How long is the speech?
How to write
 What form for delivery, cards or text
or other?
 Who is the audience?
 What is the speech supposed to be
What to write
about?
 What do you want the speech to
achieve?

9. Speechwriting
Step 2
1. Assess the Event and the Speaker
2. Create a Spec Sheet
3. Identify the Big Ideas and Put Them in Order
(“Identify and Prioritize”)
4. Add Evidence
5. Write the Open and the End
6. Make it Better: Social Media, Sourcing &
Loose Ends

10. Speechwriting
Prepare Spec Sheet
Mechanics
 Speaker  Audience
 Date  Personal connection
 Location  Last time there
 City, building, room  Personal ties
 Duration  People to acknowledge
 Order
 Text / Notes /
Outline

11. Speechwriting
Prepare Spec Sheet
Content
 Topic
 from before
 What do you want the speech to achieve?
 also from before
 Three main ideas
 “The Meeting”

12. Speechwriting
Step 3
1. Assess the Event and the Speaker
2. Create a Spec Sheet
3. Identify the Big Ideas and Put Them in
Order (“Identify and Prioritize”)
4. Add Evidence
5. Write the Open and the End
6. Make it Better: Social Media, Sourcing &
Loose Ends

13. Speechwriting
 Identify and Prioritize
 Write the middle first: Outline the Structure
 Nothin’ fancy
 Make a list of the big points you need to make
 3 or 4 max
 No more than that, ever
 These will be the tent poles, the tree branches, etc

14. Speechwriting
I. Opening – DON’T WRITE THIS YET
II. Middle
A. Big Point #1
B. Big Point #2 Main points
C. Big Point #3
III. Closing – DON’T WRITE THIS YET

15. Speechwriting
I. Opening
A. Big Point #1
B. Big Point #2 Here’s what’s coming: bite-size
C. Big Point #3
II. Middle
A. Big Point #1
B. Big Point #2 Here’s what’s coming: bite-size
C. Big Point #3
III. Closing
A. Big Point #1
B. Big Point #2 Here’s what I told you: bite-size
C. Big Point #3

16. Speechwriting
Step 4
1. Assess the Event and the Speaker
2. Create a Spec Sheet
3. Identify the Big Ideas and Put Them in Order
(“Identify and Prioritize”)
4. Add Evidence
5. Write the Open and the End
6. Make it Better: Social Media, Sourcing &
Loose Ends

17. The Writing: Structure
II. Body
– Point 1: Subjective assertion
• Support: Objective evidence = EVIDENCE
– Point 2
• support
– Point 3
• support

18. Kinds of Evidence
 Anecdotes  Jokes
 Personal experiences  use of humor
 Statistics  Step-by-step logic
 Facts  Props
 History  Case studies

19. Speechwriting
Step 5
1. Assess the Event and the Speaker
2. Create a Spec Sheet
3. Identify the Big Ideas and Put Them in Order
(“Identify and Prioritize”)
4. Add Evidence
5. Write the Open and the End
6. Make it Better: Social Media, Sourcing &
Loose Ends

20. Speechwriting
 Write Opening and Ending
I. Opening
A. Acknowledgements (speech only) A
B. Rapport/Attention-getting R
C. Topic T
D. Subtopics (depending on length)
1. Big Point #1
S
2. Big Point #2
3. Big Point #3
II. Middle
III. Closing

21. Speechwriting
 Write Opening and Ending
I. Opening
II. Middle
III. Closing
A. Big Point #1
B. Big Point #2 Here’s what I told you: bite-size
C. Big Point #3
D. Personal remarks (if desired)
E. Call to Action (if necessary)

22. Speechwriting
 Also at the end...
 If you want to plant a single take-away message in the
mind of the audience, state it here—clearly!
 Make it a simple, memorable sentence or phrase.
 Repeat it throughout the talk.

23. Speechwriting
Step 6
1. Assess the Event and the Speaker
2. Create a Spec Sheet
3. Identify the Big Ideas and Put Them in Order
(“Identify and Prioritize”)
4. Add Evidence
5. Write the Open and the End
6. Make it Better: Social Media, Sourcing &
Loose Ends

24. Speechwriting
 Add Polish
 Think like a fourth-grader/sound like a PhD:
“talk it out”

25. Speechwriting
 Add Polish
 Convert to text or turn in an outline
 Avoid “leading” interstitial language
 Replace weak/placeholder anecdotes with stronger
ones
 Add more color, detail and evidence
 Revise recognitions/acknowledgements
 Look for better rapport/personal connections
 Wordsmith/clean up language
 Keeping inspired...

26. Speechwriting
 Test it by reading out loud
 Write for the ear, meaning...
 Use
 short, declarative sentences
 Avoid
 STAGE DIRECTION / PAUSES / “WAIT FOR
LAUGH”
 “lost in the weeds” detail – consider what a listener can
easily hold in his head, not on paper

27. Speechwriting: Social Media
• BEFORE
 Use Twitter hashtags to ask audience what
they want to hear (as appropriate)
 Tweet/FB pithy quotes from the speech
 In catchy language, identify
questions/issues you will address
 Occasionally countdown to the date

28. Speechwriting: Social Media
• DURING
 Encourage liveblogging, tweeting and FB-
ing as you speak
 Offer hashtags to identify the speech and/or
topics
 Have someone tweet/FB on your behalf
matching quotes/stories with links to further
information or documentation

29. Speechwriting: Social Media
• AFTER
 Post a short video of the opening on FB; link
to text or video
 Post grafs/quotes; link to text or video
 Convert to multiple blog entries
 Post distilled elements as “Note” on FB

30. Speechwriting: Sourcing
 Yes, it’s necessary
 The great forgotten task of speechwriting
 What if the speaker gets asked later?
 Speaker just wants to know
 Endnotes, not footnotes
 Not mixed in with text
 Separate page
 Embedding sources in the spoken text
 When and when not to / length of citation
 “According to…”

31. Speechwriting: Sourcing
• The Rule:
– The more controversial the fact, the greater
the need to document its source
50 million children
300 million
in the US go to
people live in
bed hungry every
the US
night
LESS The need for sourcing MORE
“That sounds
“Are you sure?”
right.”

32. Make Writing Easy on Yourself
 The Printing-Proofing Trick (Font &
Size)
 Give it a title
 Use subheads and/or section marks
 One sentence = one graf
 White space

33. Your Questions
 How can I write talking points that are
effective, and how can I do it more efficiently?
Talking Points are
 phrases,
 sentences and
 very short paragraphs
that a speaker can use as a basis for an extemporaneous
talk.

34. Your Questions
Talking Points
 Keep them short.
 Get to the point.
 Write for the ear – when possible, use catchy phrases
 Alliteration, consonance, assonance, imagery
 Use this thinking for writing sound bites, too.
 Use white space and labels so the speaker can sort
through the material at a glance.
 Also okay: Jumping off points to jog the memory to
further comment

35. Your Questions
 When given a broad topic, how do I narrow it down
to something manageable? (e.g., professionalism)
 How do I write quotable, memorable lines – sound
bites?
 How do I drive home a line – how do I get reporters
to pick up the line and how do I get audiences to
remember it?

36. Your Questions
 How do I “break into” speechwriting inside the
office?
 How do I capture the tone and voice of the speaker?

37. Your Questions
 What are some source materials for commencements,
general remarks and other events that are oriented
more toward mood than toward fact?
 “Condemned to Repeat It” by Wick Allison
 “This Day in Business History” by Raymond Francis
 “Tunesmith” by Jimmy Webb
 “Theatre” by David Mamet
 “Get some art in you…”

38. Speechwriting
Review: Six Steps
1. Assess the Event and the Speaker
2. Create a Spec Sheet
3. Identify the Big Ideas and Put Them in Order
(“Identify and Prioritize”)
4. Add Evidence
5. Write the Open and the End
6. Make it Better: Social Media, Sourcing &
Loose Ends