Robert Lehrman

Other guides on public speaking focus on how to convey knowledge or understanding. While it is useful to master such informative speech, other goals and strategies are essential for a politician: publicity, for one. To communicate optimism, to rely on material written by others, to speak repeatedly, day in and day out. Above all, politicians need to persuade their audiences. They can use facts or appeal to values, but in the end, they must urge action. Politicians are advocates. Robert Lehrman, former speechwriter for Vice President Al Gore, offers both speakers and writers the LAWS of political speech. He explains how speakers can deliver: * Language the audience will understand and remember, * Anecdotes that make listeners laugh and cry, * Wit that pokes fun at opponents but also shows their own lighter side, and * Support in the way of statistics, examples, and testimony. With how-to guidance in each chapter--including annotated speeches--Lehrman shows how to apply the LAWS at every step, even providing an entire chapter on delivery. Lehrman also opens up his Rolodex to readers, interviewing speechwriting luminaries who offer up their best advice in a "Behind the Scenes" feature. "As Delivered" boxes point to Web links for watching notable speeches, while a handy "Speechwriter's Checklist" concludes every chapter.

The Political Speechwriters Companion: A Guide for Speakers and Writers

Andrew S. Crines

David S. Moon

How do leading Democratic Party figures strive to communicate with and influence their audience? Why have some proven more successful than others in advancing their ideological arguments? How do orators seek to connect with different audiences in different settings such as the Senate, conventions and through the media? This thoroughly researched and highly readable collection comprehensively evaluates these questions as well as providing an extensive interrogation of the political and intellectual significance of oratory and rhetoric in the Democratic Party. Using the Aristotelian modes of persuasion ethos, pathos and logos it draws out commonalties and differences in how the rhetoric of Democratic Party politics has shifted since the 1960s. More broadly it evaluates the impact of leading orators upon American politics and argues that effective oratory remains a vital party of American political discourse.

Robert Lehrman

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