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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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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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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Ninth in an occasional series about compelling stories and ideas worth telling. Have you ever been in a relationship with a con artist? Did you lose a lot of money? Did you try to get him or her back, against your better judgment? Did that con artist try to kill you? Did you survive and…
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Early in my career as a book editor, and edited a manuscript of an expository essay in which the author asserted that the presence and existence of ISIS signaled that Armageddon, as described in the Book of Revelation, is here. I had to do a lot of fact checking, especially making sure the author correctly…
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Eighth in an occasional series about stories and ideas worth telling. Everybody, brothers included, makes choices, and there always are repercussions and consequences of the choices everybody makes. One can choose to live near nature, hear the sounds of birds and insects chirping; enjoy the clean, crisp air, and feel peace—and be susceptible to wild…
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I’m going to begin by stating something incredibly obvious: Words matter in speeches. Trust a speech writer in NYC. Duh, I hear you thinking. Fair enough, let me continue. A speech should be written concisely, meaning the speaker gets up, gets it done quickly, and gets out. That means the speaker (and by extension, the…
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To AI or not to AI, that is the question. See what I did? I, a human, took something famous written by another human and put a twist on it. I wanted to see if I could get AI to write the same line, so I went to ChatGPT and asked it to “Take Shakespeare’s…
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Continuing with my desire to help people use the right words so they sound professional, credible, remarkable, and compelling to the people they want to serve, today I discuss whether to use the word shut or close. The idea came from seeing a post on a LinkedIn group I belong to: “I don’t know if this is…
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I like to say I help my clients use the right words to highlight what makes them remarkable and compelling to the people they want to serve. To do that requires knowing what the right words are. From time to time, I will publish posts that spotlight issues I see people having with word choice,…
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