The five canons of classical rhetoric – invention, arrangement, style, memory and delivery – can be very helpful when writing a speech.
Articles on Speeches
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The length of Booker’s speech grabbed headlines, but the senator’s media strategy helped sustain attention afterward while disrupting Trump’s public spotlight.
Last week’s record-breaking marathon speech by United States Sen. Cory Booker is important not just for what was said, but also for the way it was delivered.
From the cold war to civil rights to Trump 2.0, award ceremonies have always been stages for activism.
A strain of sorrow and pessimism underlies all of Vonnegut’s fiction, as well as his graduation speeches. But he also insisted that young people cherish those fleeting moments of joy.
The Ukrainian president’s key wartime speeches are to be published in a book. His ability to weave a narrative bigger than any one life or nation has shaped the way we have understood this war.
In Africa, French will only continue to embed itself - if speaking it is in the interests of Africans and not attached to French foreign policy interests.
It’s important to keep in mind public speaking has two parts to it: writing the speech and delivering it.
In a speech that touched on America’s darkest days and most inspirational leaders, Ukraine’s embattled president made a powerful call for stronger action on Russia.
Rioters at the Capitol represented a ‘dagger against the throat’ of American democracy, President Biden said in an address laden with imagery.
Trump uses more religious terms in his set-piece addresses than any other president in the last 100 years.
A good public speaker needs to be able to write and deliver an effective speech as well as to improvise.
In order to avoid being labeled a communist sympathizer, King needed to publicly distance himself from the controversial poet. Privately, King found ways to channel Hughes’ prose.
It was remarkable to see Donald Trump stay on script for a full 80 minutes. It also proved what a gruelling tradition the State of the Union is.
Eloquent Obama and bombastic Trump certainly have different speaking styles. But a big data analysis of their speeches also shows a surprising commonality.
An address that’s normally a call for unity instead mirrored the rhetoric of his campaign: unfocused, contradictory and divisive.
Trump will be the 44th man to take to the inaugural podium. Very few have left a mark on it.
Heading into the last days of the Obama administration, the outgoing first lady cemented a noble legacy for herself.
A good concession speech will use what rhetorical scholars call ‘transcendent rhetoric,’ which emphasizes conciliatory, unifying language.
Australian politicians – unlike their American counterparts – have largely abandoned the art of stirring speeches. Good rhetoric doesn’t equal good policy, but at least it’s evidence of imaginative thinking.
Top contributors
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Professor of Communication and Journalism, Texas A&M University
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Senior Lecturer (Associate Professor) in Political Communication, University of Liverpool
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Associate Professor of Communication Studies and Affiliate Faculty in the Department of Rhetoric and Writing, The University of Texas at Austin
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Assistant Lecturer, North Carolina State University
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Distinguished McKnight University Professor and Professor of Political Science, University of Minnesota
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Research Associate, King's College London
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PhD Researcher in Performance and Politics, University of Surrey
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Lillian Chavenson Saden Professor of Sociology, Yale University
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Professor of Modern History, University of Leeds
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Foundation Member of the First Year College, Victoria University
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Associate Professor of Rhetoric, Communication Consultant, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
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Professor of Sociology, Cornell University
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Senior Lecturer and Senior Digital Learning Developer, UCL
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Lecturer, Political Science and International Studies, University of Birmingham
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Associate Professor in International Relations, UNSW