Book Editing

4 More Speech Types Guaranteed to Please

By Lee Barnathan / April 21, 2025
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Last week, I wrote about four different speech types: informative, how-to, persuasive, and oratorical. Read it here. Now, I’ll cover four more types of speeches that speechwriters often compose. Motivational — Tony Robbins. Les Brown. Zig Ziglar. These are three speakers who mastered this speech type in which the speaker inspires and excites the audience…

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4 Speech Types Sure to Work

By Lee Barnathan / April 14, 2025
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Even though he wasn’t taking about speech types, business advisor Somers White once said that 90% of how well a speech goes is determined before the speaker steps on the platform, moves to the dais, steps in front of a microphone, and opens his or her mouth. Preparation is critical, which means speech writing is…

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4 Rich Speech Tips for Short Attention Spans

By Lee Barnathan / April 7, 2025
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One reason stories are so effective is because, when presented with conviction, enthusiasm, and clarity, they are memorable—and you need a speech to be memorable because people have short attention spans. According to Gloria Mark, a psychologist and the chancellor’s professor of informatics at the University of California, Irvine, attention spans have been shrinking over…

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4 Critical Book Editing Options

By Lee Barnathan / March 31, 2025
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A recent newsletter I received from Ally Machate, who runs a editing and marketing firm, mentioned three costly mistakes authors make when publishing. The first mistake is rushing to publish without proper editing. “Skipping professional editing might save time (and money in the short term),” she writes, “but it often lead to … negative reviews.”…

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Critical Thinking and 1 Author’s Voice

By Lee Barnathan / March 17, 2025
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Last week, I wrote about the importance of critical thinking in book editing. Read it here. Buried in the 11th paragraph of that piece was this sentence: Are my edits removing the author’s voice? Too often, one editor takes a manuscript and butchers it in such a way that the author no longer recognizes it.…

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