The Turner Ink blog contains rants, bloopers, observations and opinions. It also has handy tips on grammar and punctuation such as colons: semicolons; and full stops. As well as some very useful ‘how tos’. Feel free to leave comments. Be nice though.

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Copywriting Services London

Posts tagged 'speech writing'

His finest hour: Churchill’s great speeches

29th
May
by Sarah Turner

Winston Churchill was a brilliant writer and one of the greatest orators in living memory, despite suffering from a slight lisp, an occasional stutter and a dread of speaking in public.

His understanding of classical rhetorical techniques made his war-time speeches memorable, emotional and truly inspiring. Here are some of the techniques he used.  

Anaphora: Repetition of words and phrases.

We shall fight them on the beaches. We shall fight on the grounds. We shall fight in the fields, and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills. We shall never surrender.

(This style was also used in Martin Luther King’s ‘I have a dream speech’.) 

Assonance and Alliteration: Repetition of vowel and consonant  

Let it roll. Let it roll on full flood, inexorable, irresistible, benignant to broader lands and better days.

Epistrophe: Repetition of words at the end of successive phases

….the love of peace, the toil for peace, the strife for peace, the pursuit of peace…

Epizeuxis: emphatic repetition

This is the lesson: never give in, never giver in, never, never, never, never…

Antimetabole: reversing the word order of a previously used phrase

This is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.

Paronomasia: Using similar sounding words or phrases for effect

To jaw-jaw is always better than to war-war.

 


Tags: speech writing
Posted in Word stuff | comments icon No comments yet »

Of the people, by the people, for the people…

21st
Oct
by Sarah Turner

Anyone who knows me, will know how much I love a great speech. 

None more so than Lincoln’s Gettysburg address. (And yes, I really do own a copy of Lincoln’s speeches; it sits on my bookshelf next to Bart Simpson’s Guide To Life.)

On November 19th 1863, at the dedication of the Soldiers’ National Cemetery in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, Edward Barrett gave a two hour speech which absolutely no-one remembers. President Lincoln stood up, spoke for 2 minutes, used 269 words, and delivered one of the most memorable speeches in American history.

So, if you’re making any sort of speech, announcement, or PowerPoint presentation: keep it short. And then make it a bit shorter. And a bit shorter still. Because if you can convey meaning and emotion in as few words as possible – your audience will love you for it.

And they may even remember what you said.


Tags: speech writing
Posted in Business writing | comments icon No comments yet »

 

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