Speechwriting

Public Diplomacy is much about communication, advocacy, and appeals.  D-Day, June 6, 1944, and President Roosevelt's radio prayer to the American people allow us to take a professional look at public communication on “The Longest Day.”  The President was heard by as many as 100 million Americans.  He sought a full engagement of the nation’s deepest values and religious emotions.

This article brings together and contextualises some ostensibly disparate ‘readings’ of political speeches from Australia and the United States, both good examples and not-so-good examples, to examine a characteristic that prevails in all public communication, and which is especially noticeable in politics.  That characteristic is the nexus between the poetic and the political in all public language.  In this case, it is grounded in a distinction between political speakers-as-performers and the advisors who script many of their performances for them.  The dynamics of this relationship are critical influences on the more publicly explicit relationship between speakers and their audiences.  Consequently, these dynamics are critical to our understanding of political discourse, and of public communication more broadly.

The "Churchillian" speech by Taoiseach (Prime Minister) of Ireland Leo Varadkar on March 17, 2020, is worth reading and watching for its plain-language estimate of the ongoing medical crisis, its rhetorical structure, its messaging to adults and children both, and its call to endure now to prevent tragedy later.  It will illustrates the importance of "credibility" in public communications.

Public speaking is considered an important leadership skill. This subject has been around for more than 3,000 years and I love reading, writing, and teaching it. This book is an outcome of my doctoral studies. When I started digging into academic theories to find answers to my research question “What makes an impactful speech and why are some speakers more impactful than others?”, I was surprised that there is an ocean of literature available on this topic. I was able to find three broad theories that explained this phenomenon from different angles namely, the theory of communication studies, the theory of persuasion studies, and, finally, the theory of charismatic leadership. 
This book is designed to help the reader understand the various interconnected components of public speaking when viewed together from these three broad academic lenses. Together, these lenses make a unique kaleidoscope for the reader to answer the question as to why some speeches are more impactful than others. This kaleidoscope includes more than 50 parameters that engage in interplay among themselves to create an impactful communication and serve as a foundation for future academic work on this topic. 
This book is intended for a broad audience including students, scholars, researchers, and professors in undergraduate and graduate schools who want to learn the art and skill of public speaking. The book can also help trainers, consultants, and practitioners around the world who are interested in this topic.  The objective is to give them a quick view into the ocean of academic literature and spur further research on, and understanding of, this topic.

Presidents not only use speechwriters; they also have views on speechwriting. This essay examines public presidential mentions of speechwriting and speechwriters to explore how POTUS's comments might reveal implicit and explicit criticisms and compliments of speech-writing as a component of presidential rhetoric. The essay also considers some advice offered by presidents on the practice of effective speechwriting. Presidents Johnson, Ford, Carter, Reagan, Bush, Clinton, W. Bush, and Obama are featured.