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Tony Snow Subject Files
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Speechwriting, White House Office of
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Snow, Tony, Files
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13899-012
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[Speechwriter's Newsletter, 11/91]
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2
7
Speechwriter's Newsletter
S/N
November 15, 1991 No. 618
THE WEEKLY VOICE OF THE SILENT PROFESSION
LETTERS
Visuals-their use and overuse
A picture may be worth a thousand words-but does it help
The Clarence Thomas hearings may be
or hurt the speech? Hint: Sometimes less is more
history, but opinions are still flying. A
sample of some of the letters SIN has
Abraham Lincoln didn't use slides of the Union dead to punctuate his delivery
received in response to an article on the
of the Gettysburg address. Winston Churchill didn't flash pictures of the
hearings in its October 25 issue:
beaches, the fields, the hills and the streets on which the British would fight and
Andrew Wilson, McDonnell Douglas
Corporation, St. Louis, Missouri: The
never surrender in 1940. But not all speeches are as stirring and not all speaking
Clarence Thomas hearing was certainly one
situations are as dramatic as these, and many speeches given in corporate
of the most riveting spectacles in Congres-
America today do lean heavily on slides, video and other visual tools.
sional history. But it lacked the cut-and-
Many speechwriters would just as soon avoid visual aids altogether. Doug
thrust of great debate or inspired invective.
Cochran of Virginia Power says, "My personal motto is, 'avoid all unnecessary
There was nothing to compare with the way
slides, and all slides are unnecessary." But Cochran does prepare speeches for
John Wilkes-one of the wittiest and most
delivery with slides, when the occasion-or the speaker-demands it.
rakish of 18th century British politicians—
The nature of some speeches-technical, financial-almost seems to require
parried a thrust from the Earl of Sandwich, a
some sort of visual help. Brian Vachon of National Life Insurance uses a lot of
parliamentary rival of almost equal
slides in the speeches he writes, mostly because "they have a lot of figures that
notoriety. The earl, who is said to have
are not worth memorizing, and it helps the audience and speaker to see them
invented the sandwich as a means of
visually." Brian Craven, of United Telephone of Florida, uses slides or video
nourishment at the gaming tables, forecast
that Wilkes would surely perish either of the
when the speech is introducing a new topic, or discussing something that may
pox or on the gallows. "That depends, sir,"
be hard for an audience to visualize. A recent speech he prepared on the
Wilkes shot back, "on whether I embrace
company's directory recycling program is a case in point. Using either slides or
your mistress or your principles."
video (slides for a larger audience where a bigger screen is used), the visuals
Andy Neimers, Insurance Corporation
show, in about a minute and a half, the process whereby used directories go into
of British Columbia: Whatever you Yanks
a recycling plant and come out as paper. Says Craven, "Video is great when it's
think of the whole affair, let me point out
not overused."
that many of us Canucks are envious of the
That sentiment is echoed by speechwriters in virtually every industry.
fact you do at least have a formal hearing
"Visuals are overused if they're improperly used," says Kim Lind of National
process for appointing Supreme Court
Car Rental. The chief offenses are putting too much information up on the
judges! Up hereabouts we get them named
by the federal cabinet as a fait accompli and
screen, and using them to repeat, not reinforce, the thrust of the speech. Lee
their backgrounds, views, and history of
Doyle, a speechwriter for the New York Stock Exchange: "I've seen some that
judgments are only known by some sector of
look as if the speaker just decided to put his notes up on the board, with 50
the legal community. It's very much a case
words on a slide."
of "getting to know you" after the fact for
What's to be done? If the speaker must use some kind of visual, United
the general populace.
Telephone's Craven recommends backing away from high-tech and giving the
For what it's worth, I thought Ms.
speaker a blackboard or flipchart for writing figures or bullet points during the
Alvarez did project a "studied" sincerity in
speech. "You need a very good, very animated speaker, but it works better than
her testimony. I also wonder how many of
a canned slide or transparency." On the opposite end of the spectrum, writer
the speakers' hands would have shook from
and teacher Kathleen Hall Jamieson, of the University of Pennsylvania's
honest emotion if they'd had to hold their
texts in theirs hands? Just wonderin'.
Annenberg School of Communication, pushes speakers to go even more high-
tech with video-computer interfaces that let speakers create and manipulate
Calling all speechwriters
images on the spot. To Jamieson, all other forms of visual aid are obsolete.
S/N wants to see copies of your
But speechwriters dead set against the whole idea of visuals might follow
speeches. Won't you please send us
one speechwriter's example: "I got my CEO to stop using slides by telling him,
your most recent speech today?
'George Bush doesn't use slides, why should you?" It worked.
LAWRENCE RAGAN COMMUNICATIONS, INC., PUBLISHER
RAGAN REPORT EDITOR'S WORKSHOP NEWSLETTER CORPORATE ANNUAL REPORT NEWSLETTER BOTTOM LINE COMMUNICATOR
1
SPEAKING OUT
PC or not PC?
ago to start calling some speech-
General Motors notes that "Ethnic,
The 'assault' on
writers at corporations and college
racist, and sexist jokes are out, and
campuses across the country. I can't
there's more consciousness of using
freedom of speech
say that anything I found out would
phrases like 'His and Hers,' and not
stand up to a rigorous, scientific
calling everyone 'guys." Still, it can
examination, but it does make me
lead to some troublesome situations.
On May 4, at the University of
think that the "assault" is somewhat
Stanulis recalls, in a previous job,
Michigan, President Bush stated:
less dramatic than the President
telling his speaker to avoid the phrase
"Ironically, on the 200th anniversary
characterized.
"individual achievement." Says
of the Bill of Rights, we find free
For most of the speechwriters on
Stanulis. "I told him that it's consid-
speech under assault throughout the
campus that I talked to, budgets and
ered a code word for the assumption
United States, including on some
money are more pressing topics than
that blacks can't make it individually,
college campuses. The notion of
political correctness. "I think every-
that success is always the result of a
'political correctness' has ignited
one's very much aware of the issue,"
group effort. He laughed and said,
controversy across the land."
Deborah Brown of Radford University
'Oh, Christ, I'll be damned if I change
Is freedom of speech really in
told me, "but I don't believe it's had
it."
danger from the political correctness
much effect. The major issue is
But in general, I don't think
trend? It sounds farfetched to me. But
economics-budget cuts."
freedom of speech is in danger in the
when I was in college, I was more
In the corporate sector, the situation
U.S. The "freedom" to be insensitive
concerned about my right to drink vast
is a little different. Most companies go
may be, and that's probably good-
amounts of beer than I was in anything
out of their way to avoid offending a
although it does open up the question
remotely involving political correct-
potential customer, but few speech-
of whose sensitivities come first. But
ness. A friend of mine tried to start an
writers wanted to call that political
if we're really going to become a
Association of White Students on
correctness. To Joanne Tracy of Bell
kinder, gentler nation, a greater
campus-the administration nixed that
of Pennylvania, it's "not a matter of
sensitivity to the attitudes and opin-
right away. I suppose, like many of us,
offending people, but just being
ions of our various audiences makes a
I took freedom of speech for granted.
sensitive."
good first step. -JC
But all the coverage of the PC trend
And that kind of is sensitivity is
made me curious enough a week or so
hardly objectionable. Ed Stanulis of
OPENING GAMBITS
'This is a story about a sign'
the clown on hole three was missing a chunk of fiberglass
hair. The windmill on hole twelve was short a vane. The
Raymond M. Fino, VP, Corporate Human Resource,
crowning touch, the Statue of Liberty on hole eighteen, had
Warner-Lambert, to the Railroad Personnel Association:
a burned-out torch and a broken nose. Now, I'm not the
A few months ago, one of my colleagues, Lodewijk de
sentimental type, but I ask you-is there anything sadder
Vink, opened a speech to securities analysts with a dramatic
than a miniature golf course gone to seed?
line-"This is a story about a sign." He then went on to talk
Anyway, back to the sign. Four weeks ago, I went on
about the sign in front of Warner-Lambert's main building.
vacation. Two weeks later, when I returned, I noticed that
It's a sign that proclaims our site as Warner-Lambert World
the miniature golf course had been magically reborn. It was
Headquarters. I like his speech, so I'm borrowing his
a sea of bright green felt and polished wood, shiny chrome
opening line. I too want to talk about a sign.
and well-crafted statuettes. And it had, above it, the sign that
My sign stands in front of a miniature gold course, on
said it all. Emblazoned in black letters on an orange banner
Route 22, near my home in Bridgewater, New Jersey. Now,
were these four carefully chosen words:
this particular course was built during the miniature golf
NEW OBSTACLES
craze of the 1960s. It had seen glorious days. But recently, it
LOWER RATES
was in a state of serious disrepair. You know what I mean-
That sign and those words struck me. New obstacles,
lower rates. Think for a second-these four words are the
Speechwriter's Newsletter is published weekly every Friday for $227.00
perfect capsule summary of the past decade in your busi-
per year by Lawrence Ragan Communications, Inc., 407 South Dearborn
ness, and in mine.
Street, Suite 1360, Chicago, IL 60605-9974. Application to Mail at
Second-Class Postage Rates is Pending at Chicago, Il. POSTMASTER:
Speechwriter John Santoro, Warner-Lambert, 201 Tabor Rd., Morris
Send address changes to Speechwriter's Newsletter, 407 South Dearborn
Plains, NJ 07950.
Street, Suite 1360, Chicago, IL 60605-9974.
S/N
2
Speechwriter's
Newsletter
November 15, 1991
IDEA FILES: QUOTES FOR YOUR SPEECHES
Economists
Ethics
Economists' unanimity that bad business is
We are not here to predict the future but to
ahead is the most reassuring news possible. It's
change-it-for-the good. We are not here as
very unlikely that this will be the one time
helpless creatures but as sons and daughters of
they're right.
Adam-capable of affecting our own fate. We
-Malcolm Forbes
.01
are not here to avoid decisions but to make hard
choices between good and evil by using an
Sexual harassment
ethical system not invented by man but by our
Getting good
It's not easy to pull yourself up by the
Creator-a framework of truth and moral
bootstraps when your boss has his hand on your
guidance through which we can find deliverance
players is
leg.
from despair.
easy. Getting
-Naomi Wolf, writer
.02
-Oliver North
.07
them to play
Business
Work
as a team is
Business has to have a scoreboard. It doesn't
To love what you do, and to feel that it
another
matter what anybody says. Warren Bennis [of
matters-how could anything be more fun?
the University of Southern California Business
-Katharine Graham
.08
story.
School] says there's too much relating business
--Casey
to sport. I'm sorry, Mr. Bennis-professor-I
Peace
Stengel
.25
don't agree with you.
Peace is not something you wish for. It is
-David Johnson, CEO of Campbell Soup
.03
something you make, something you do,
something you are, and something you give
Government
away.
There's no trick to being a humorist when you
-Robert Fulghum
.09
have the whole government working for you.
-Will Rogers
.04
Expendables
The graveyards are full of indispensable people.
Japan
-Charles de Gaulle
.10
Japan is a country committed to learning. The
U.S. isn't-and it shows.
Money
-Thomas P. Rohlen, Stanford University
.05
I think kids should have enough money to be
able to do what they want to do, to learn what
Leadership
they want to do, but not enough money to do
Leadership is not a magnetic personality-that
nothing.
can just as well be a glib tongue. It is not
-Warren Buffett
.11
"making friends and influencing people"-that
is flattery. Leadership is lifting a person's vision
Presidents
to higher sights, raising a person's performance
It is a great advantage to the President, and a
to a higher standard, building a personality
major source of satisfaction to the country, for
beyond its normal limitations.
him to know that he is not a great man.
-Peter Drucker
.06
-Calvin Coolidge
.12
3
Speechwriter's
Newsletter
QUOTES FOR YOUR SPEECHES
Continued from previous page
Wealth
Equality
There are three primary roads to wealth in
As long as there is poverty in the world, I can
America today: be born with the right set of
never be rich, even if I have a million dollars.
parents and, through no cleverness, uniqueness
As long as diseases are rampant and millions of
or facility of your own, outlive them; deal off
people in this world cannot expect to live more
the bottom of the deck or short-weight people
than 28 or 30 years, I can never be totally
often enough so that you can place what you
healthy-even if I just got a good checkup at
steal from them in your own bank account and
the Mayo Clinic. I can never be what I ought to
later buy respectability with it; and (at last!)
be until you are what you ought to be. This is
perceive a need, find a unique way of filling it
the way the world is made.
Knowledge is
and doggedly pursue it your entire life. This last
-Martin Luther King, Jr.
.19
group I find fascinating.
more
-Joseph L. Shaefer, Bringing Home the Gold
Mirth
valuable than
.13
Then I commanded mirth because a man hath
Failure
morals.
no better thing under the sun than to eat, drink
Sometimes I even look forward to the next
and be merry.
-Maxim
failure. Your true test comes when you hit
-Ecclesiastes
.20
Gorky
bottom.
.26
-Bud Hadfield, co-founder and chairman of
Comedy
Kwik Kopy Corp.
.14
God writes a lot of comedy The trouble is,
he's stuck with so many bad actors who don't
Habits
know how to play funny.
A man spends the first half of his life learning
-Garrison Keillor
.21
habits that shorten the other half.
-Ann Landers
.15
Perspective
Perhaps one has to be very old before one learns
Optimist
how to be amused rather than shocked.
An optimist is a man who has never had much
-Pearl S. Buck
.22
experience.
-Don Marquis
.16
Humor
You can turn painful situations around with
Imagination
laughter. If you can find humor in something,
Among all human constructions the only ones
you can survive it.
that avoid the dissolving hands of time are
-Bill Cosby
.23
castles in the air.
-Frederico de Roberto
.17
Leadership
Never tell people how to do things. Tell them
Days
what to do and they will surprise you with their
I try to take one day at a time, but sometimes
ingenuity.
several days attack me at once.
-George S. Patton
.24
-Ashleigh Brilliant
.18
We invite readers to send in their favorite quotes, anecdotes, humor, and statistics for speeches.
4
Speechwriter's
Newsletter
November 15, 1991
IDEA FILES: STATISTICS FOR YOUR SPEECHES
Organ transplants
Sex discrimination
More than 22,000 patients are awaiting organ
For every dollar earned by men this year,
transplants in the U.S. this year. About 2,000
women-earned 73 cents. That's up from 59
patients are added to the waiting list each
cents in 1976. Percentages of male salary earned
month. Since 1987, there has been a 42 percent
by women in the same occupation:
increase in the number of people waiting for
Occupation
Percentage
kidney transplants, a 100 percent increase in the
Accountant
75
number of people waiting for liver transplants,
Advertising sales
85.2
Americans
and a 144 percent increase in the number
Bookkeeper
83.8
waiting for heart transplants. About one-fourth
Computer analyst
83
spent $3.7
of the patients on the list for heart transplants
Engineer
85.7
billion on
die before receiving a new heart.
Lawyer
87.8
athletic
-University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics .01
Psychologist
83.1
Secretary
73.5
footwear in
Cheating
Social worker
90.3
the first four
In a poll of 15,000 juniors and seniors at 31
Teacher (elementary)
90.3
-Women in Business
.05
months of
universities, more than 87 percent of business
majors admitted to cheating at least once in
1991.
college, the largest such percentage.
Garbage
-American
Engineering students came in second, with 74
In 1988, Americans generated 180 million tons
percent admitting to cheating. Next came
of garbage, of which 23.5 million tons was
Sports Data,
science students, with 63 percent. Humanities
recycled. Recycling recovered 18.4 million tons
Inc.
.15
majors, at 63 percent, are least likely to cheat.
of paper; 2.2 million tons of metal; 1.5 million
-The Conference Board
.02
tons of glass; and 1.4 million tons of
miscellaneous items.
Exercise
-Environmental Protection Agency
.06
One mile of walking or running is equal to three
miles of bicycling, one-quarter mile of
National debt
swimming, three-quarters of a mile of cross-
The $10.6 trillion national debt amounts to a
country skiing, eight to twelve minutes of
$42,227 IOU for every man, woman and child
rowing, aerobic dancing, or jumping rope, or 20
in the U.S.
minutes of playing a sport.
-A Nation in Debt, published by the Tax
-Donnelly News
.03
Foundation
.07
Japanese cars
California
There are 6,945 Japanese auto retailers
The 1990 census counted 29.8 Californians.
nationwide, a 29 percent increase from 1987.
This confirmed that during the 1980s California
-Ward's Automotive Reports
.04
added six million residents, more than any other
state has ever gained in one decade.
-California Population Characteristics
.08
5
Speechwriter's
Newsletter
STATISTICS FOR YOUR SPEECHES
Continued from previous page
Workers compensation
Water
The average cost of providing workers
About 70 percent of a person's weight is water:
compensation coverage in the U.S. is $500 per
five percent in blood, 15 percent in between
employee. The average medical claim on lost-
cells, and 50 percent inside of cells. A 150-
time cases rose 157 percent in the 1980s, from
pound person is 105 pounds of water. The
$2,100 in 1981 to $5,400 in 1989.
average sedentary person loses about 10 cups of
-Business Insurance
.09
water a day through the lungs, kidneys, and
gastrointestinal system.
Hotel rooms
-Hope Heart Institute
.12
Of the more
The world's ten largest hotel chains, and the
than 20,000
number of rooms they controlled as of Dec. 30,
Quality
objects fired
1990:
A success rate of 99.9 percent would mean that:
Hotel
Rooms
The IRS would lose two million documents a
into orbit
Holiday Inn Worldwide
320,599
year.
since 1957,
Best Western International
268,140
103,260 income tax returns would be
Choice Hotels International
201,140
processed incorrectly.
fewer than
Accor
159,877
22,000 checks would be deducted from the
five percent
Hospitality Franchise System
138,122
wrong bank accounts in the next 60 minutes.
remain
Marriott Corp.
131,238
1.314 phone calls per minute would be
ITT Sheraton Corp.
130,862
misplaced by telecommunications companies
operational.
Days Inns of America, Inc.
129,907
2,488,200 books would be shipped in the
-Office of
Hilton Hotels Corp.
94,232
next twelve months with the wrong cover.
Hyatt Hotels/Hyatt International
76,794
18,322 pieces of mail would be misdirected
Technology
-Hotels
.10
every hour.
Assessment
107 incorrect medical procedures would be
Metrics
performed every day.
.16
If the metric system were to be adopted by the
315 entries in Webster's Third New
United States, some of our favorite sayings
International Dictionary would be misspelled.
would read:
-Training
.13
Peter Piper picked 8.81 liters of pickled
peppers.
Traveling
It hit me like 907 kilograms of bricks.
The cost of lunch, dinner, and a hotel room for
A decigram of salt.
one night in London averages $364, making it
Beat him to within 2.54 centimeters of his
the most expensive city for business travelers in
life.
Europe. Paris, once the leader, is now second
All wool and 91.4 centimeters wide.
($332), followed by Stockholm ($313),
Give them 2.543 centimeters and they'll take
Copenhagen ($302), Milan ($287) and Frankfurt
1.609 kilometers.
($276). The least costly cities are Budapest
-The National Journal
.11
($143), Lisbon ($191), and Munich ($204).
-The Conference Board
.14
We invite readers to send in their favorite quotes, anecdotes, humor, and statistics for speeches.
6
STRICTLY SPEAKING
Broadcast transcripts job openings
our oil recovery efforts,' they'd be
asleep in five minutes." Walt
'rabbit hunting' political correctness
Disney Company speechwriter Dan
Wolf keeps three files on his com-
puter: one for jokes, one for quota-
Did you ever catch the last half of a
explanation. Flood was instructed by
tions, and one for facts. "If something
great segment on TV or the radio and
the speaker to research three areas:
makes me laugh, it goes in the joke
want to get the whole thing? You call
exploration, oil production, and
file. If it makes me think, it goes in the
the station, only to find that tapes or
recovering oil from smaller pools of
quote file. If something just sounds
transcripts may take weeks to get to
petroleum. Flood found that geologists
interesting, it goes in the fact file. I'm
you. Don't despair-call Video
call looking for oil reservoirs "rabbit-
not necessarily thinking of how this
Monitoring Services of America.
hunting," and that people who work
will fit into a particular speech. If it
"Radio and TV are not in the business
recovering oil from petroleum
gets a response from me, I put it in."
of providing people with information
reservoirs call themselves "tar-
One fact that provoked a response,
in this form, so we're geared up to
babies." "And 'sponges' was an
used in a speech for Disney CEO
provide it as fast as possible," says
analogy I came up with myself,
Michael Eisner at a conference on
VMS vice president Mike Farley.
because a petroleum reservoir is kind
transportation: "Consider the case of
VMS monitors news, talk shows, and
of like a sponge of interconnected
New York City. According to a traffic
public affairs programming on
channels, filled with oil natural gas
study made in 1907, horsedrawn
national, local and cable networks in
and salt water." Flood was looking for
vehicles in Manhattan moved at an
150 markets. A 5-minute video
a technique that would make the
average speed of 11.5 miles an hour.
cassette of a TV segment from a major
audience sit up and say "What's he
Today, the average daytime rate of
market costs $95; audio cassettes up to
talking about?" After all, says Flood,
travel for automobiles is just six miles
15 minutes run $40; transcripts are
"If you said, 'I want you to remember
an hour." Where does Wolf find his
$35 for 100 lines. In addition, you can
hunting for reservoirs and enhancing
material? "Well, I get something
register topics of interest with VMS,
and they'll contact you when anything
Overcoming the challenges
comes up in your field. You pay only
Sometimes a nightmare has a happy ending. Here are stories from two
when you actually order a tape or
speechwriters who stared disaster in the face and lived to tell about it.
transcript. For more information, call
Farley at VMS-Chicago, 312-649-
A speechwriter who prefers to remain
loved, but he was an absolutely brutal
1131. Job opening: Director of
nameless recalls a major product
public speaker. And he knew it." The
Corporate Relations for conservative,
announcement speech he once had to
speaker's major problem: losing his
international, industrial services
write, and the major disagreement
train of thought during the speech. At
corporation based in New York City.
between the CEO and the senior vice
an Orlando convention, the chairman
Will handle investor relations, annual
president of Marketing on how the
had to make a major address, but what
reports, media relations. Should be
product was to be positioned. "Their
to do to cover the lapses? "What we
hands-on manager with good investor
positions were SO different, I would
worked out was, we built the speech
relations/annual report preparation
show a draft to one, and he would look
around the Declaration of Independ-
background. Salary: $80,000-
at me like I was crazy. So I'd change
ence, and at five different occasions,
$100,000. Send résumé with current
it to fit his scenario, then take it to the
with graphics flashing in the back-
salary information to Marshall
other officer and get the same re-
ground, the chairman would stop and
Consultants, Inc., 360 E. 65th St.,
sponse." Finally the speechwriter,
there'd be an offstage voiceover of
Suite PHB, New York, NY 10021.
although new to the corporation, threw
Thomas Jefferson reading excerpts
Contact: Larry Marshall. No phone
up his hands and wrote a memo to
from the Declaration of Independence,
calls, please. "Clearly, we have to
both, asking them to please get
and other writings." Boyer played
become world leaders in the high-
together SO they could go forward.
Jefferson for the voiceover. The
tech fields of rabbits, sponges and tar-
"And they did." We love a happy
strategy added emphasis, and gave the
babies." So says Howard Dingle,
ending. Skip Boyer of Best
speaker time to stop and regain his
General Manager of Research and
Western writes speeches for the
equilibrium. Boyer says, "The night-
Technology for Esso Resources
yearly-elected chairman of the board.
mare was wondering, 'Will it work?'
Canada, in a recent speech. Rabbits,
Last year's chairman was a "wonder-
And it did."
sponges and tar-babies? We called
ful bear of a man whom everybody
speechwriter Jeff Flood for an
S/N
7
STRICTLY SPEAKING
called Speechwriter's Newsletter.
boss, the temporarily employed, the
Benjamin [Franklin] was curiously
Modesty forbids us from quoting
differently employed, the differently
watching his father storing the
further. In the most politically
optioned, people with options, people
family's food provisions in casks SO
correct introduction you'll ever
with stock options, the divestiturists,
food would be plentiful during the
come across, cartoonist Garry Trudeau
the deconstructionists, the home
long winter. Little Ben thought it
opens a speech at Yale University
constructionists, the homeboys, the
would be a good idea for the family to
with: "Dean Kagan, distinguished
homeless, the temporarily housed at
say grace over the cask, right then and
faculty, parents, friends, graduating
home, and, God save us, the perma-
there, to save time later at each
seniors, Secret Service agents, class
nently housed at home." A staff of
individual meal. It was that sense of
agents, people of class, people of
six people writes for this president,
efficiency that led to so many of
color, colorful people, people of
who speaks almost every day, some-
Franklin's inventions. In fact, I think
height, the vertically constrained,
times twice a day. President Bush?
he would have felt right at home here
people of hair, the differently coiffed,
No, John Bryson, chairman and CEO
today." A note on speech length:
the optically challenged, the temporar-
of Southern California Edison.
"I take the view, and always have
ily sighted, the insightful, the out of
Bryson's speeches are chiefly written
done, that if you cannot say what you
sight, the out-of-towners, the Eurocen-
by Steven Jay or Martha Hartley,
have to say in twenty minutes, you
trics, the Afrocentrics, the Afrocen-
though others help out on occasion.
should go away and write a book
trics with Eurail passes, the eccentri-
After each speech, Bryson and Hartley
about it." -Lord Brabazon.
cally inclined, the sexually disin-
sit down to discuss and critique each
clined, people of sex, sexy people,
other's work. From a speech written
Job openings for speechwriters
sexist pigs, animal companions,
by Hartley-or was it Jay?-for the
at your corporation? Send the listing
friends of the earth, friends of the
ElecTec 91 Conference: "Once young
to S/N. We'll run it free of charge.
COMING UP
Nov. 20: Conference Board workshop:
Relations Resources." Speakers
Facets of Communications." Contact
"Employee Communications: Com-
include former CBS executive VP Van
Debbi Trocchi at 703-519-3902.
municating Organizational Change."
Gordon Sauter. For details, call 202-
Dec. 10: Conference Board Work-
Location: New York City. Call 212-
872-1790. Dec. 4-6: National
shop: "Managing Corporate Commu-
339-0290 Nov. 20-21: Public
Association of Government Commu-
nications During Turbulent Times."
Affairs Council conference. Location:
nicators annual conference. Location:
Location: Chicago. For information,
Chicago. Theme: "Using All the
Arlington, Virginia. Theme: "Looking
call 212-339-0290.
Corporate Public Affairs and Public
Through the Kaleidoscope: The Many
IN CONCLUSION
Politics-makes-strange-bedfellows department:
"You all have another advantage over me.
At least all of you have met a Democratic president.
I've never had that honor yet."
-Jimmy Carter, at the opening of the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library,
which he attended with President Bush and past presidents Nixon, Carter, and Reagan.
Speechwriter's Newsletter is published
S/N
Please direct subscription correspondence to:
weekly by Lawrence Ragan
Speechwriter's
Newsletter
Speechwriter's Newsletter
Communications, Inc. Editorial office:
Editor: John M. Cowan
Subscription Dept. RRC
407 South Dearborn, Chicago, IL 60605
P.O. Box 3000
Customer Relations: Therese DeLeon
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Editorial Director: Janine Wood
President: Brian Ragan
8
Create New file: writing /Syrechwiskr's newsigtter
Speechwriter's Newsletter
S/N
November 22, 1991 No. 619
THE WEEKLY VOICE OF THE SILENT PROFESSION
LETTERS
Survey results: Average salary is $57,000
The annual survey, conducted at the 1991 Speechwriters
Glynn Young, Monsanto Company, St.
Conference, measured salary, workload, and other issues
Louis, Illinois: This is probably best left
alone, but if you're open to a response to Alan
Speechwriters frequently toil in isolation and anonymity, with no way to see
Perlman's letter (S/N 11-8), I have one. First
where they stand in comparison with their colleagues. The 1991 Speechwriter
let it be said that Alan and I have a mutual
Survey, distributed at the Fourth Annual Speechwriters Conference in
admiration society going, for I have the
greatest respect for him as a speechwriter, even
Chicago, provided some useful data for those who feel lonely in their field.
if he is WAY WAY OFF BASE on this one.
The survey was distributed to some 256 speechwriters at the conference. In
Back in July, SIN asked for reader reactions
between sessions listening to speechwriting instructor Jerry Tarver, scribbling
to Senator Tom Harkin's use of an epithet in
down thirty ideas presented in a thirty-minute lunchtime session, or listening
his political speeches. S/N wasn't running a
to chief White House speechwriter Tony Snow, 175 people managed to at
"yea or nay" opinion poll, but instead asked for
least partially complete the survey form. The 68 percent response rate was
readers' reactions. Reader Joe Beckham
somewhat higher than 1990's (60 percent), but the same as the rate at the 1989
provided his reaction to the question, which
conference.
included a statement of his religious beliefs-
The salary results were, as usual, of the greatest interest. The average
and another reader objected to it, saying that
S/N should have used "judicious editing" so as
speechwriter has been doing the job for 6 years, and makes a salary of
not to offend some of its readers.
$57,000. The figure is almost identical to last year's $56,300. For comparison,
My defense of Beckham's letter was based
a survey of speechwriters in the Chicago area, carried out by the Chicago
on the idea that freedom of speech is not
Speechwriter's Forum earlier this year, reported an average salary for corpo-
limited to the politically correct. I was
rate speechwriters of $65,000. Steve Hallmark, then president of the Forum,
defending his freedom of speech, and
remarked at the time that Chicago seemed to be "a pricey neighborhood for
indirectly S/N's freedom to publish.
speeches."
My comment about the honesty of
The highest salary reported was $150,000, by a speechwriter with 12 years
Beckham's letter was because I like to know
of experience in corporate work. The lowest salary: $18,000, reported by a
the context in which something is said-
speechwriter only in the job for two months.
whether it's a speech by a Senator, a letter to
The results of the survey are far from scientific. As Steve Hallmark noted,
the editor, a quotation, an opinion, or what-
ever. In this case, I could judge Beckham's
a salary of $18,000 for a speechwriter "is hardly enough to pay for subscribing
statement and why he was saying it, testing it
to all the publications you need."
against my beliefs, opinions, values and
The average speechwriter's workload came to 25 speeches per year. One
experience. I didn't have to agree with it. I
respondent reported writing 270 speeches, though, as pointed out by some, it's
might even be offended by it, but at least it left
unclear whether that reflects the work of a single person or a department. On
no doubt as to the why of what he said. I can't
the other extreme, one conference-goer reported writing a mere two speeches
say the same for Senator Harkin.
per year.
Finally, I'm surprised that Alan's letter
More results: Most speechwriters reported working in Corporate Commu-
would say that "Respondents were not invited
nications departments, followed closely by Public Relations, Investor Rela-
to append little essays on their religious
tions, and Internal Communications. Twenty-eight said they have the some-
beliefs" and then concludes with a statement
what unusual job title of "Speechwriter."
about freedom from religion, which strikes me
as a kind of little essay on religious beliefs. But
Few reported writing speeches exclusively. On average, speechwriters at
I don't believe that SIN should have applied
the conference spend about 60 percent of their time on speeches. Almost twice
"judicious editing" and removed it from his
as many of the speeches they do write are for external audiences: 62 percent,
letter, even if it might offend some readers.
as opposed to 38 percent composed for internal publics.
Further information on the survey will be reported in future issues of SIN.
LAWRENCE RAGAN COMMUNICATIONS, INC., PUBLISHER
RAGAN REPORT EDITOR'S WORKSHOP NEWSLETTER CORPORATE ANNUAL REPORT NEWSLETTER BOTTOM LINE COMMUNICATOR
1
SPEAKING OUT
They're everywhere!
and you leap from bed too quickly.
speeches, Hal Gordon, who's now a
Speechwriters can pop up
The episode is ruined-all I can think
freelancer and an SIN subscriber. I
about is how to work the guest
won't try to tell you I sat glued to the
all over the place
character into the newsletter some-
screen for the rest of the hour, but it
how.
did make watching a few minutes of
Ringing alarm clocks bring to mind
the show a little more interesting.
The interesting thing about my job as
another example. A week ago the
People in the petroleum industry, or
editor of this newsletter is how often it
clock radio woke me up at 6:40 to
insurance, or utilities, must have the
creeps up and grabs me from behind
hear National Public Radio's Bob
experience of seeing their industry or
when I least expect it. Like reading a
Edwards interview a man who has
profession depicted in the media-
good Stephen King novel, it can be a
compiled an audio collection of the
sometimes accurately, frequently not.
disconcerting feeling, but I enjoy it.
great speeches of the 20th century.
Imagine how a police officer feels
For example, S/N readers may
One minute I'm in dreamland-never
after watching a rerun of T.J. Hooker.
recall that last year I mentioned
mind what I'm dreaming-and the
So I'm not reaching toward any
(repeatedly) an episode of CBS-TV's
next I'm wondering how I can get in
profoundly original conclusions here.
Murphy Brown that used a presidential
touch with this guy to interview him
But incidents like these remind us that
speechwriter as a character. I remem-
for SIN.
we're not working in an isolated,
ber vividly the feeling of sitting at
I've got one more example. I was
insulated void. In my position, it's
home, relaxed, watching one of my
channel surfing (flipping randomly
kind of fun to realize that speeches are
favorite TV shows, S/N's offices a
through TV stations with my remote
everywhere and speechwriters can pop
thousand miles away in my mind,
control) a few nights ago, and paused
up unexpectedly. We sometimes take
when a guest star walks into Murphy's
to rest on CNN during a segment of
for granted that speechwriting is an
apartment and introduces himself as a
the Larry King show. One of King's
invisible, silent profession. Exceptions
White House speechwriter. WHAM!
interview subjects was James Miller,
that prove (i.e., test) that rule are
All of a sudden I'm yanked from my
who during the Reagan administration
valuable-and make life more fun.
leisure mode and flung back to work.
was director of the Office of Manage-
-JC
My head is spinning the way it does
ment and Budget. It SO happens that I
when the alarm clock rings too loudly
know the person who used to write his
NEWS TO USE
Translation tips for speechwriters
If you send photo captions for translation, include the photo
itself. Without seeing the visual, a translator does not know
As a follow-up to S/N's front-page story on translating
whether "widget assembly" means "widget unit" or "widget
speeches into foreign languages, Berlitz Translation Service
being assembled." In Spanish, for example, "assembly"
has made available some general guidelines to writers
would be translated as "coniunto" in the first case, but "en-
working on projects for translation:
samblaje" in the second. You might wish to send Polaroid
pictures, drawings or sketches. An innocent word like
Scan the copy for ambiguous word clusters of the type
"valve" has different translations in most foreign languages,
"modifier + noun + noun (i.e. "plastic widgets and fasten-
depending on its appearance, purpose or even size. In
ers"). These are commonplace in English, but for languages
French, for example, "soupape," "clapet," "vanne," and
like Spanish and French, where modifiers must follow their
"robinet" are all equivalent to the English "valve." A
nouns, it is critical that the translator know whether "plas-
translator must know what the device looks like and what its
tic" refers both to the widgets and the fasteners, or only to
function and relative dimensions are in order to select the
the widgets. A good way to check is to reverse the nouns:
correct French word.
If "plastic fasteners and widgets" is correct in the context,
let the translator know that both items are plastic by
Remember that most translations "grow." The translated
penciling in "(plastic)" before "fasteners" in the original
version may take up anywhere from 125 to 150 percent of
phrase.
the space of an English version. Indonesian can take as
Speechwriter's Newsletter is published weekly every Friday for $227.00
much as 200 percent. Chinese, on the other hand, with a
per year by Lawrence Ragan Communications, Inc., 407 South Dearborn
writing system in which nearly every character represents a
Street, Suite 1360, Chicago, IL 60605-9974. Application to Mail at
Second-Class Postage Rates is Pending at Chicago, Il. POSTMASTER:
complete word, will frequently be shorter than the English.
Send address changes to Speechwriter's Newsletter, 407 South Dearborn
Street, Suite 1360, Chicago, IL 60605-9974.
S/N
2
Speechwriter's
Newsletter
November 22, 1991
IDEA FILES: QUOTES FOR YOUR SPEECHES
Art
Life
The arts are a force that keeps violence and
This life is a test-it is only a test. If it had been
despair in check, that keeps hope alive.
an actual life, you would have received further
-Lynn Taylor-Corbett, choreographer
.01
instructions on where to go and what to do.
-unknown
.08
News
News is what a chap who doesn't care much
Punishment
about anything wants to read.
When the anger of the gods is incurred, wealth
Well done is
-Evelyn Waugh
.02
or power only bring more devastating
better than
punishment.
Generosity
-Euripides
.09
well said.
Money giving is a very good criterion, in a way,
-Benjamin
of a person's mental health. Generous people
Inferiority
Franklin
are rarely mentally ill people.
No one can make you feel inferior without your
.28
-Dr. Karl Menninger
.03
consent.
-Eleanor Roosevelt
.10
Sales
A salesman has got to dream, boy. It comes
Wall Street
with the territory.
Wall Street is a place where the day begins with
-Arthur Miller, Death of a Salesman
.04
good buys.
-Salomon Today
.11
Incumbents
The rhetoric on this floor and the House floor is
Change
so disgusting the American people ought to rise
If a company has had a long history of success
up and toss every incumbent out until we start
with certain assumptions about itself and the
doing our work.
environment, it is unlikely to want to challenge
-Senator Jake Garn
.05
or reexamine those assumptions. Such
assumptions now operate as filters that make it
Patience
difficult for key managers to understand
Once a man would spend a week waiting
alternative strategies for survival and renewal.
patiently if he missed a stage coach. Now he
-Edgar Schein, Organizational Culture and
rages if he misses the first section of a revolving
Leadership
.12
door.
-Simeon Strunky
.06
Greatness
Greatness, after all, in spite of its name, appears
Wrinkles
to be not so much a certain size as a certain
Wrinkles merely indicate where smiles have
quality in human lives. It may be present in
been.
lives whose range is very small.
-Mark Twain
.07
-Phillips Brooks
.13
3
Speechwriter's
Newsletter
QUOTES FOR YOUR SPEECHES
Continued from previous page
Peace
Dream
Perhaps the single most important point to be
All men dream: but not equally. Those who
made today is that the only real peace dividend
dream by night in the dusty recesses of their
is, quite simply, peace.
minds wake in the day to find that it was vanity:
-Margaret Thatcher
.14
but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men,
for they may act their dreams with open eyes, to
Conscience
make it possible.
Accomplishing
The disease of an evil conscience is beyond the
-T.E. Lawrence
.21
the
practice of all physicians of all countries in the
world.
Human resources
impossible
-William Gladstone
.15
This is the lesson of the new paradigm: If
means only
people are your greatest resource and creativity
Land
that the boss
is the key to success, then business results
We love this earth as a newborn loves its
cannot be divorced from personal fulfillment.
will add it to
mother's heartbeat. So, if we sell you our land,
-Frank Rose
.22
your regular
love it as we have loved it. Care for it as we
have cared for it. Hold in your mind the
Character
duties.
memory of the land as it is when you receive it.
You can easily judge the character of others by
-Doug
Preserve the land for all children and love it.
how they treat those who can do nothing for
-Chief Seattle of the Dwamish tribe of the
Larson
them or to them.
.29
Pacific Northwest, 1852
.16
-Malcolm Forbes
.23
Illusion
Sports
What if everything is an illusion and nothing
Sports is the only place we have left where we
exists? In that case, I definitely overpaid for my
can start even.
carpet.
-Bear Bryant
.24
-Woody Allen
.17
Command
Success
Men are of no importance. What counts is who
I couldn't wait for success-so I went ahead
commands.
without it.
-Charles De Gaulle
.25
-Jonathan Winters
.18
Fortune
Yesterday
The tallest trees are most in the power of the
Yesterday's gone on down the river, and you
winds, and ambitious men of the blasts of
can't get it back.
fortune.
-Larry McMurtry
.19
-William Penn
.26
Mistakes
Optimism
We're all proud of our little mistakes. It gives us
Optimism is the content of small men in high
the feeling we don't make any big ones.
places.
-Andy Rooney
.20
-F. Scott Fitzgerald
.27
We invite readers to send in their favorite quotes, anecdotes, humor, and statistics for speeches.
4
LETTER FROM WASHINGTON
November 22, 1991
Say it ain't so: Bush departs from text-
the less-than-kind campaign begins
Personal attacks
Speeches, by George: One sure sign that an
foreign policy and editing (Communications
by Senate
election is around the corner: George Bush is
Director David Demarest also wields a blue
Democrats leave
ad-libbing his speeches. In four political
pencil, we're told). One sign things are moving:
Bush 'stuttering
speeches in early November, the president
White House Chief of Staff John Sununu called
and his writing team have come up with the
in the writers for a talk on Nov. 18, presumably
mad'-and
formula for next year's campaign. The
to discuss the recent political speeches and map
willing to stray
surprise is the president's role in the process.
out strategy for the coming weeks.
from his
Speaking at fundraisers in Houston and
speechwriters'
Dallas, Mr. Bush strayed from his prepared
Where's the Justice?: What was different
text (on cue cards, no teleprompters) to
prepared texts
about William P. Barr's opening statement
launch into personal assaults against Senate
before the Senate Judiciary Committee? The
Majority Leader George J. Mitchell and
Attorney General-designate's script was not the
Massachusetts Sen. Edward M. Kennedy.
product of Justice Department speechwriters
Before the Dallas event, Mr. Bush had seen
but, rather, the agency's Office of Policy
Sen. Mitchell on TV, criticizing the president
Development.
as being insensitive to the needs of average
Barr's speech played the political straight and
Americans. "He sees these as personal
narrow, detaching him from the BCCI scandal
attacks," says a White House speechwriter,
and his controversial predecessor, Dick
"and it really gets under his skin and gets
Thornburgh. "He didn't give a speech as much
him stuttering mad in front of a
as an explanation of what he's been doing for a
microphone."
long time," says Justice speechwriter Chris
A week later, in a political spin through
Collins, who moved over to Justice from the
Missouri, Mr. Bush's ad-libs had been
National Conservative Foundation a couple of
refined to a less kind, less gentle stump
months ago. "Barr is so up to speed on his
speech that includes Mitchell, Kennedy and
subjects that he probably didn't need much
Congressional liberals en toto. The new
coaching."
speech is the handiwork of Curt Smith, who
along with Mary Kate Grant crafts the White
What We've Heard:
House political rhetoric. Smith wrote the
That Charles Sweeney, a speechwriter over at
speech Mr. Bush used at a fundraiser for
the Democratic National Committee, came up
Missouri Sen. Kit Bond. The Kansas City
with the slogan, "George Bush went to Rome
speech-a foreign policy discussion at the
and all I got was this lousy recession." The
Future Farmers of America's national
slogan was printed on t-shirts, 10,000 of which
convention-was authored by Joe Duggan.
were sold by the DNC at $10 a pop.
Meanwhile, back at the ranch: No word
That Bruce Reed, formerly with the
yet from the speechwriters as to when Bush
Washington-based Progressive Policy Institute,
'92 formally swings into action. "Nobody
has signed up as policy director for Arkansas
has said a peep here about the campaign as
Gov. Bill Clinton's presidential campaign. Reed
far as organization or even the legal question
is the author of "The New Covenant," the
of where speechwriters can work," says a
Clinton speech that insiders rate as the best
White House scribe.
speech in the pre-Mario Cuomo stage of the
Best bet: The two political writers (Mary
campaign.
Kate Grant and Curt Smith) move over to
That Iowa Sen. Tom Harkin's editorial in The
Bush '92, while Joe Duggan and Dan
Washington Post lambasting Cuomo for playing
McGroarty stay at 1600 Pennsylvania.
Hamlet with the Democratic Party was written
Duggan, who was brought over from the
by the senator himself. Harkin, who works off
State Department, handles both foreign and
notes, will not hire a full-time speechwriter until
domestic policy. McGroarty, deputy director
early next year.
to chief speechwriter Tony Snow, doubles on
Speechwriter's
Newsletter
(Turn page, please)
5
LETTER FROM WASHINGTON
(Continued from previous page)
That Nebraska Sen. Bob Kerrey is actively
You say Tomato: "When it comes to ethics, the
recruiting a speechwriter. The early frontrunner
Democratic Party has selective moral outrage.
is Paul Begala, one of the masterminds behind
They are unconvinced that John Kennedy
the winning Wofford campaign in Pennsylvania.
might have schemed with Chicago and Texas
That no new writers are welcome in the
politicians to steal the 1960 Presidential
campaigns of Virginia Gov. L. Douglas Wilder
election. They do not ask how Lyndon
or former California Gov. Jerry Brown. Seems
Johnson, who was born into poverty and spent
both have a serious Svengali factor: Wilder's
a career in public service, managed to retire as
speeches are crafted by Virginia Democratic
a multimillionaire. But when the topic turns to
Chairman Paul Goldman, Brown's by former
Republicans in general and Ronald Reagan in
Jimmy Carter pollster Pat Caddell. Brown and
particular, suddenly those Democrats make
Caddell deny any orchestration, but insiders
Cotton Mather look like Hugh Hefner."
point out that Caddell was "in the shoot" at
-Rep. Bob Livingston (R-La.)
Brown's announcement speech.
On the House floor, November 4, 1991
That word of a speechwriting opening at the
Education Department was news to education
I say Tomato: "George Bush can spend all the
officials. Lamar Alexander, the new secretary,
time he wants at $1,000-a-plate fundraisers, at
does not use speechwriters and prefers to work
6th Avenue and 53rd Street, or viewing
off cards and notes. How does that compare to
America at 30,000 feet through those oval
other agencies? HUD Secretary Jack Kemp has
windows on Air Force One. But he does it too
two full-time writers, Energy Secretary James
far removed from the lives and concerns of
Watkins has four, and HHS Secretary Louis
average Americans. And the hallmarks of his
Sullivan employs six.
presidency will be the frequent flyer coupon
That Energy is looking to add another writer to
and the capital gains tax cut, not a growing
its stable, but no time soon. Seems the extra hire
economy or jobs for Americans."
is caught up in red tape. Congress is presently
-Rep. Larry Smith (D-Fla.)
on its third continuing resolution for funding
On the House floor, November 13, 1991
federal agencies, so the DOE budget picture is
cloudy.
Let's Call the Whole Thing Off: "The plain
That Bush writers are trying to get the
truth is that a Republican president cannot
president to lose his caribou fetish. In 1988,
implement domestic policy because a
then-candidate Bush used the animal to defend
Democratic Congress will not let him. No
his pro-drilling stance on the Arctic National
wonder he prefers the foreign policy arena.
Wildlife Refuge, saying Alaskan caribou were
And a Democratic Congress cannot implement
"rubbing up" against the oil pipeline. Recently,
policy because a Republican president will not
in Houston, Mr. Bush revisited the caribou. This
let it. Result - paralysis and doubt. The
time they were "leaning against the pipeline
Democrats yearn for a Democratic president
making love all day."
next year and we Republicans yearn for a
This reminded Bushies of another speech in
Republican Congress. The potential tragedy for
1988 when the prez-to-be strayed from his text
the country is that we may both get our wish
and said about Ronald Reagan: "We have sex."
and thus preserve the status quo ante - a
divided and paralyzed government."
- Rep. Bill Clinger (R-Penn.)
On the House floor, November 12, 1991
Speechwriter's
Newsletter
6
STRICTLY SPEAKING
Technical speeches
how-to article by Colonel James
computers
McDonough (author of the books
military speechwriters
ethical questions
Platoon Leader, The Defense of Hill
781, and The Limits of Glory), and a
survey on speechwriting instruction at
The Chicago Speechwriters' Forum
front windshield. A sign at the
three major U.S. universities. Says
met in November to listen to Lew
entrance said, 'Please have exact
Captain Dave Stockwell, Monthly
Smith, public affairs officer to General
change ready." They did not have
Update's editor: "We get a steady
Norman Schwarzkopf during the Gulf
movies. Instead, the pilot put on a
stream of calls from the field, 'I've
War. Smith's duties for Schwarzkopf
puppet show and showed slides of his
just been tasked to write a speech,
included scheduling press conferences
vacation." For a sample copy of The
what should I do?" In the military, as
and interviews with the general, and
Laugh Connection, contact Bob Ross
in the corporate sector, speechwriters
acting as liaison to the 1700 members
and Associates, 3643 Corral Canyon
seem to mostly learn by doing. "It
of the media covering the war. He also
Rd., Bonita, California 91902,
comes down to, whoever can do it,
stood a watch in Schwarzkopf's war
telephone 619-479-3331. Military
does it," says Stockwell. For a copy of
room during the 100-hour ground war,
speechwriters might find interesting
Monthly Update, contact Stockwell at
and recalls being called upon by the
the October 1991 issue of the U.S.
the Office of the Chief of Public
general for his opinion there.
Army's Monthly Update. The issue
Affairs, Department of the Army,
Schwarzkopf was thinking about what
highlights speechwriting, with former
Washington, D.C. 20310-1510,
to say at the press briefing, and he
Reagan speechwriter Peggy Noonan, a
telephone 703-697-0050. Doesn't
needed a zinger for a punchline. "How
about if I say, "Tomorrow morning,
It happened to me
we'll be one hundred miles from
Maybe it wasn't the end of the world-but it seemed like it at the time.
Baghdad?" he asked. Smith's life
Speechwriters share stories of days when all their hard work came to nought.
flashed before his eyes as he
scrambled to think of an answer. He
Peter Delwiche of Dairyland Power
looked at the document before. He
finally responded, "I don't know about
Cooperative once spent long hours
the press, but the troops would love
usually was very good about looking
it." (For more about Smith's wartime
preparing a slide presentation for an
over drafts ahead of time, but he'd
experience, see S/N's interview with
awards banquet to honor employees'
been travelling and just hadn't had
years of service. The slides were
time. He stumbled over sentences,
him in the 8-30-91 issue) When
arranged in reverse order on the slide
writing a speech on a technical
inverted clauses, everything. I wanted
carousel, from most years of service to
subject, how do you translate scien-
to hide under the table. I felt truly
least. But the nightmare arose when
embarrassed-more for him than for
tific language into everyday English?
the master of ceremonies decided it
Rick Roose of Abbott Laboratories, a
me." Eugene Ritchie, now with
worldwide health care company,
would be more dramatic to go in the
KPMG Peat Marwick, once was an
other direction. "All of a sudden, our
admits it can be difficult. "What I do,
account executive for a large public
slides were out of order. The woman
after talking to the scientist, is I go to
relations agency. One of his clients
that person's boss, or maybe their
running the projector tried to reverse
was making a presentation at a major
them, but it couldn't be done." Lesson
boss's boss, and say, 'From an
trucking conference, and Ritchie had
administration point of view, can you
learned: When using slides, make sure
written the speech and prepared the
let me know if I'm on the mark with
the speaker understands that their
slides, planning to use a two-projector
this about what's really important?"
order can't be changed at a moment's
dissolve. One of his client's competi-
Another source on information: the
notice. "The worst thing that ever
tors also brought slides, and when
marketing department. "They gener-
happened to me is so common I
their projector died, Ritchie's client
ally have some sort of scientific
hesitate to mention it," says Promus
generously agreed to let them borrow
Companies' Randy Baker. At a
one of his. "But it threw ours com-
background, but they bridge both
worlds, and they have to communicate
previous job with a PR firm, Baker
pletely out of whack when our client
both
ways." Fear of flying? Some
worked with a client who held a yearly
gave his presentation. The slides
press conf rence to summarize the
jokes about travelling via small air-
didn't match what he was saying. We
annual business results. Baker wrote
had to shut down the slides and do the
planes from The Laugh Connection
newsletter: "There was a luggage rack
the speech. "Well, one year the
speech without them." In the client's
on the roof and a bug screen on the
president got up to give the speech and
words, "I guess we made the ultimate
it was just obvious that he'd never
sacrifice."
S/N
7
STRICTLY SPEAKING
everyone use a computer these days?
is in New York City, telephone
Dennis Juren poses an ethical dilemma
Says Bill Lamneck, a speechwriter for
number 212-685-9311. Dr. Joseph
for an audience of MBA/Law students
Nationwide Insurance: "We have
Hankin, president of Westchester
at Texas A&M University: What to do
some speechwriters who work in
Community College, sends a news-
when a visiting foreign minister whose
longhand, and I write on a manual
paper article on speechwriting by
government can make or break your
typewriter." Nationwide's speechwrit-
speechwriter John B. Donovan. One
business venture in his country
ers all have terminals for E-Mail and
piece of advice: "Finally, check
demands you find him a "date" for the
other functions, but many are not
through your text for minor glitches,
evening. In fact, says speechwriter Bill
attuned to composing on computer. "I
such as pages being out of sequence.
Shaffer, the speaker worked for a
find my manual typewriter therapeu-
Otherwise, you might find yourself in
company where that very scenario
tic," says Lamneck. "I can pound
the predicament of an absent-minded
came to life. The foreign minister got
away all my frustrations on it."
U.S. Senator, who mounted the
his date, but a lawsuit many years later
"The paradox of the public relations
podium not only with his speech but
revealed the impropriety. Shaffer says
job market today is that there is still
with a press release intended to be
the speaker wanted to use the anecdote
lots of work, but not many jobs," says
distributed afterward. He had the press
to draw lessons about "what kinds of
Elaine Goldman of the executive
release on top, and with a booming
things can happen in the global
search firm The Goldman Group.
voice, he started off, 'For immediate
marketplace."
"The one growing job sector seems to
release! Washington, D.C.!' and so on,
be freelancing, and many individuals
'til about three sentences later his
are doing surprisingly well even
brain registered what he was doing."
Job openings for speechwriters
though they never intended to become
Oops.
A speech delivered by the
at your corporation? Send the listing
entrepreneurs." The Goldman Group
Coastal Corporation's Executive VP
to S/N. We'll run it free of charge.
COMING UP
Dec. 4-6: National Association of
Conference Board Workshop: "Man-
Location: San Francisco. For informa-
Government Communicators annual
aging Corporate Communications
tion, call 1-800-PRO-IABC.
conference. Location: Arlington,
During Turbulent Times." Location:
Virginia. Theme: "Looking Through
Chicago. For information, call 212-
Calling all speechwriters
the Kaleidoscope: The Many Facets of
339-0290. May 24-27, 1992:
SIN would like to see copies of your
Communications." Contact Debbi
International Association of Business
speeches. Won't you please send or
Trocchi at 703-519-3902. Dec. 10:
Communicators annual conference.
fax us your most recent speech today?
IN CONCLUSION
Not just another pretty face
"If there is a plastic surgeon who claims to be responsible for this
face, then New York State will decertify him immediately."
-Mario Cuomo, debunking rumors of plastic surgey
Speechwriter's Newsletter is published
weekly by Lawrence Ragan
S/N
Please direct subscription correspondence to:
Speechwriter's
Newsletter
Speechwriter's Newsletter
Communications, Inc. Editorial office:
Subscription Dept. RRC
407 South Dearborn, Chicago, IL 60605
Editor: John M. Cowan
P.O. Box 3000
312-922-8245; Fax 312-922-3336
Contributing Editors:
Denville, NJ 07834-9865
Mark Z. Barabak, Bill Whalen
Customer Relations: Therese DeLeon
Editorial Director: Janine Wood
Publisher: Mark Ragan
8
Writing / Speechwiters Newslotter
Speechwriter's Newsletter
S/N
November 22, 1991 No. 619
THE WEEKLY VOICE OF THE SILENT PROFESSION
LETTERS
Survey results: Average salary is $57,000
The annual survey, conducted at the 1991 Speechwriters
Glynn Young, Monsanto Company, St.
Conference, measured salary, workload, and other issues
Louis, Illinois: This is probably best left
alone, but if you're open to a response to Alan
Speechwriters frequently toil in isolation and anonymity, with no way to see
Perlman's letter (SIN 11-8), I have one. First
where they stand in comparison with their colleagues. The 1991 Speechwriter
let it be said that Alan and I have a mutual
Survey, distributed at the Fourth Annual Speechwriters Conference in
admiration society going, for I have the
greatest respect for him as a speechwriter, even
Chicago, provided some useful data for those who feel lonely in their field.
if he is WAY WAY OFF BASE on this one.
The survey was distributed to some 256 speechwriters at the conference. In
Back in July, SIN asked for reader reactions
between sessions listening to speechwriting instructor Jerry Tarver, scribbling
to Senator Tom Harkin's use of an epithet in
down thirty ideas presented in a thirty-minute lunchtime session, or listening
his political speeches. S/N wasn't running a
to chief White House speechwriter Tony Snow, 175 people managed to at
"yea or nay" opinion poll, but instead asked for
least partially complete the survey form. The 68 percent response rate was
readers' reactions. Reader Joe Beckham
somewhat higher than 1990's (60 percent), but the same as the rate at the 1989
provided his reaction to the question, which
conference.
included a statement of his religious beliefs-
The salary results were, as usual, of the greatest interest. The average
and another reader objected to it, saying that
S/N should have used "judicious editing" so as
speechwriter has been doing the job for 6 years, and makes a salary of
not to offend some of its readers.
$57,000. The figure is almost identical to last year's $56,300. For comparison,
My defense of Beckham's letter was based
a survey of speechwriters in the Chicago area, carried out by the Chicago
on the idea that freedom of speech is not
Speechwriter's Forum earlier this year, reported an average salary for corpo-
limited to the politically correct. I was
rate speechwriters of $65,000. Steve Hallmark, then president of the Forum,
defending his freedom of speech, and
remarked at the time that Chicago seemed to be "a pricey neighborhood for
indirectly S/N's freedom to publish.
speeches."
My comment about the honesty of
The highest salary reported was $150,000, by a speechwriter with 12 years
Beckham's letter was because I like to know
of experience in corporate work. The lowest salary: $18,000, reported by a
the context in which something is said-
speechwriter only in the job for two months.
whether it's a speech by a Senator, a letter to
The results of the survey are far from scientific. As Steve Hallmark noted,
the editor, a quotation, an opinion, or what-
ever. In this case, I could judge Beckham's
a salary of $18,000 for a speechwriter "is hardly enough to pay for subscribing
statement and why he was saying it, testing it
to all the publications you need."
against my beliefs, opinions, values and
The average speechwriter's workload came to 25 speeches per year. One
experience. I didn't have to agree with it. I
respondent reported writing 270 speeches, though, as pointed out by some, it's
might even be offended by it, but at least it left
unclear whether that reflects the work of a single person or a department. On
no doubt as to the why of what he said. I can't
the other extreme, one conference-goer reported writing a mere two speeches
say the same for Senator Harkin.
per year.
Finally, I'm surprised that Alan's letter
More results: Most speechwriters reported working in Corporate Commu-
would say that "Respondents were not invited
nications departments, followed closely by Public Relations, Investor Rela-
to append little essays on their religious
tions, and Internal Communications. Twenty-eight said they have the some-
beliefs" and then concludes with a statement
what unusual job title of "Speechwriter."
about freedom from religion, which strikes me
as a kind of little essay on religious beliefs. But
Few reported writing speeches exclusively. On average, speechwriters at
I don't believe that SIN should have applied
the conference spend about 60 percent of their time on speeches. Almost twice
"judicious editing" and removed it from his
as many of the speeches they do write are for external audiences: 62 percent,
letter, even if it might offend some readers.
as opposed to 38 percent composed for internal publics.
Further information on the survey will be reported in future issues of SIN.
LAWRENCE RAGAN COMMUNICATIONS, INC., PUBLISHER
RAGAN REPORT EDITOR'S WORKSHOP NEWSLETTER CORPORATE ANNUAL REPORT NEWSLETTER BOTTOM LINE COMMUNICATOR
1
SPEAKING OUT
They're everywhere!
and you leap from bed too quickly.
speeches, Hal Gordon, who's now a
Speechwriters can pop up
The episode is ruined-all I can think
freelancer and an SIN subscriber. I
about is how to work the guest
won't try to tell you I sat glued to the
all over the place
character into the newsletter some-
screen for the rest of the hour, but it
how.
did make watching a few minutes of
Ringing alarm clocks bring to mind
the show a little more interesting.
The interesting thing about my job as
another example. A week ago the
People in the petroleum industry, or
editor of this newsletter is how often it
clock radio woke me up at 6:40 to
insurance, or utilities, must have the
creeps up and grabs me from behind
hear National Public Radio's Bob
experience of seeing their industry or
when I least expect it. Like reading a
Edwards interview a man who has
profession depicted in the media-
good Stephen King novel, it can be a
compiled an audio collection of the
sometimes accurately, frequently not.
disconcerting feeling, but I enjoy it.
great speeches of the 20th century.
Imagine how a police officer feels
For example, SIN readers may
One minute I'm in dreamland-never
after watching a rerun of T.J. Hooker.
recall that last year I mentioned
mind what I'm dreaming-and the
So I'm not reaching toward any
(repeatedly) an episode of CBS-TV's
next I'm wondering how I can get in
profoundly original conclusions here.
Murphy Brown that used a presidential
touch with this guy to interview him
But incidents like these remind us that
speechwriter as a character. I remem-
for SIN.
we're not working in an isolated,
ber vividly the feeling of sitting at
I've got one more example. I was
insulated void. In my position, it's
home, relaxed, watching one of my
channel surfing (flipping randomly
kind of fun to realize that speeches are
favorite TV shows, S/N's offices a
through TV stations with my remote
everywhere and speechwriters can pop
thousand miles away in my mind,
control) a few nights ago, and paused
up unexpectedly. We sometimes take
when a guest star walks into Murphy's
to rest on CNN during a segment of
for granted that speechwriting is an
apartment and introduces himself as a
the Larry King show. One of King's
invisible, silent profession. Exceptions
White House speechwriter. WHAM!
interview subjects was James Miller,
that prove (i.e., test) that rule are
All of a sudden I'm yanked from my
who during the Reagan administration
valuable-and make life more fun.
leisure mode and flung back to work.
was director of the Office of Manage-
-JC
My head is spinning the way it does
ment and Budget. It SO happens that I
when the alarm clock rings too loudly
know the person who used to write his
NEWS TO USE
Translation tips for speechwriters
If you send photo captions for translation, include the photo
itself. Without seeing the visual, a translator does not know
As a follow-up to S/N's front-page story on translating
whether "widget assembly" means "widget unit" or "widget
speeches into foreign languages, Berlitz Translation Service
being assembled." In Spanish, for example, "assembly"
has made available some general guidelines to writers
would be translated as "coniunto" in the first case, but "en-
working on projects for translation:
samblaje" in the second. You might wish to send Polaroid
pictures, drawings or sketches. An innocent word like
Scan the copy for ambiguous word clusters of the type
"valve" has different translations in most foreign languages,
"modifier + noun + noun (i.e. "plastic widgets and fasten-
depending on its appearance, purpose or even size. In
ers"). These are commonplace in English, but for languages
French, for example, "soupape," "clapet," "vanne," and
like Spanish and French, where modifiers must follow their
"robinet" are all equivalent to the English "valve." A
nouns, it is critical that the translator know whether "plas-
translator must know what the device looks like and what its
tic" refers both to the widgets and the fasteners, or only to
function and relative dimensions are in order to select the
the widgets. A good way to check is to reverse the nouns:
correct French word.
If "plastic fasteners and widgets" is correct in the context,
let the translator know that both items are plastic by
Remember that most translations "grow." The translated
penciling in "(plastic)" before "fasteners" in the original
version may take up anywhere from 125 to 150 percent of
phrase.
the space of an English version. Indonesian can take as
Speechwriter's Newsletter is published weekly every Friday for $227.00
much as 200 percent. Chinese, on the other hand, with a
per year by Lawrence Ragan Communications, Inc., 407 South Dearborn
writing system in which nearly every character represents a
Street, Suite 1360, Chicago, IL 60605-9974. Application to Mail at
Second-Class Postage Rates is Pending at Chicago, II. POSTMASTER:
complete word, will frequently be shorter than the English.
Send address changes to Speechwriter's Newsletter, 407 South Dearborn
Street, Suite 1360, Chicago, IL 60605-9974.
S/N
2
Speechwriter's
Newsletter
November 22, 1991
IDEA FILES: QUOTES FOR YOUR SPEECHES
Art
Life
The arts are a force that keeps violence and
This life is a test-it is only a test. If it had been
despair in check, that keeps hope alive.
an actual life, you would have received further
-Lynn Taylor-Corbett, choreographer
.01
instructions on where to go and what to do.
-unknown
.08
News
News is what a chap who doesn't care much
Punishment
about anything wants to read.
When the anger of the gods is incurred, wealth
Well done is
-Evelyn Waugh
.02
or power only bring more devastating
better than
punishment.
Generosity
-Euripides
.09
well said.
Money giving is a very good criterion, in a way,
-Benjamin
of a person's mental health. Generous people
Inferiority
Franklin
are rarely mentally ill people.
No one can make you feel inferior without your
.28
-Dr. Karl Menninger
.03
consent.
-Eleanor Roosevelt
.10
Sales
A salesman has got to dream, boy. It comes
Wall Street
with the territory.
Wall Street is a place where the day begins with
-Arthur Miller, Death of a Salesman
.04
good buys.
-Salomon Today
.11
Incumbents
The rhetoric on this floor and the House floor is
Change
so disgusting the American people ought to rise
If a company has had a long history of success
up and toss every incumbent out until we start
with certain assumptions about itself and the
doing our work.
environment, it is unlikely to want to challenge
-Senator Jake Garn
.05
or reexamine those assumptions. Such
assumptions now operate as filters that make it
Patience
difficult for key managers to understand
Once a man would spend a week waiting
alternative strategies for survival and renewal.
patiently if he missed a stage coach. Now he
-Edgar Schein, Organizational Culture and
rages if he misses the first section of a revolving
Leadership
.12
door.
-Simeon Strunky
.06
Greatness
Greatness, after all, in spite of its name, appears
Wrinkles
to be not so much a certain size as a certain
Wrinkles merely indicate where smiles have
quality in human lives. It may be present in
been.
lives whose range is very small.
-Mark Twain
.07
-Phillips Brooks
.13
3
Speechwriter's
Newsletter
QUOTES FOR YOUR SPEECHES
Continued from previous page
Peace
Dream
Perhaps the single most important point to be
All men dream: but not equally. Those who
made today is that the only real peace dividend
dream by night in the dusty recesses of their
is, quite simply, peace.
minds wake in the day to find that it was vanity:
-Margaret Thatcher
.14
but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men,
for they may act their dreams with open eyes, to
Conscience
make it possible.
Accomplishing
The disease of an evil conscience is beyond the
-T.E. Lawrence
.21
the
practice of all physicians of all countries in the
world.
Human resources
impossible
-William Gladstone
.15
This is the lesson of the new paradigm: If
means only
people are your greatest resource and creativity
Land
that the boss
is the key to success, then business results
We love this earth as a newborn loves its
cannot be divorced from personal fulfillment.
will add it to
mother's heartbeat. So, if we sell you our land,
-Frank Rose
.22
your regular
love it as we have loved it. Care for it as we
have cared for it. Hold in your mind the
Character
duties.
memory of the land as it is when you receive it.
You can easily judge the character of others by
-Doug
Preserve the land for all children and love it.
how they treat those who can do nothing for
-Chief Seattle of the Dwamish tribe of the
Larson
them or to them.
.29
Pacific Northwest, 1852
.16
-Malcolm Forbes
.23
Illusion
Sports
What if everything is an illusion and nothing
Sports is the only place we have left where we
exists? In that case, I definitely overpaid for my
can start even.
carpet.
-Bear Bryant
.24
-Woody Allen
.17
Command
Success
Men are of no importance. What counts is who
I couldn't wait for success-so I went ahead
commands.
without it.
-Charles De Gaulle
.25
-Jonathan Winters
.18
Fortune
Yesterday
The tallest trees are most in the power of the
Yesterday's gone on down the river, and you
winds, and ambitious men of the blasts of
can't get it back.
fortune.
-Larry McMurtry
.19
-William Penn
.26
Mistakes
Optimism
We're all proud of our little mistakes. It gives us
Optimism is the content of small men in high
the feeling we don't make any big ones.
places.
-Andy Rooney
.20
-F. Scott Fitzgerald
.27
We invite readers to send in their favorite quotes, anecdotes, humor, and statistics for speeches.
4
LETTER FROM WASHINGTON
November 22, 1991
Say it ain't so: Bush departs from text-
the less-than-kind campaign begins
Personal attacks
Speeches, by George: One sure sign that an
foreign policy and editing (Communications
by Senate
election is around the corner: George Bush is
Director David Demarest also wields a blue
Democrats leave
ad-libbing his speeches. In four political
pencil, we're told). One sign things are moving:
speeches in early November, the president
White House Chief of Staff John Sununu called
Bush 'stuttering
and his writing team have come up with the
in the writers for a talk on Nov. 18, presumably
mad'-and
formula for next year's campaign. The
to discuss the recent political speeches and map
willing to stray
surprise is the president's role in the process.
out strategy for the coming weeks.
from his
Speaking at fundraisers in Houston and
Dallas, Mr. Bush strayed from his prepared
Where's the Justice?: What was different
speechwriters'
text (on cue cards, no teleprompters) to
about William P. Barr's opening statement
prepared texts
launch into personal assaults against Senate
before the Senate Judiciary Committee? The
Majority Leader George J. Mitchell and
Attorney General-designate's script was not the
Massachusetts Sen. Edward M. Kennedy.
product of Justice Department speechwriters
Before the Dallas event, Mr. Bush had seen
but, rather, the agency's Office of Policy
Sen. Mitchell on TV, criticizing the president
Development.
as being insensitive to the needs of average
Barr's speech played the political straight and
Americans. "He sees these as personal
narrow, detaching him from the BCCI scandal
attacks," says a White House speechwriter,
and his controversial predecessor, Dick
"and it really gets under his skin and gets
Thornburgh. "He didn't give a speech as much
him stuttering mad in front of a
as an explanation of what he's been doing for a
microphone."
long time," says Justice speechwriter Chris
A week later, in a political spin through
Collins, who moved over to Justice from the
Missouri, Mr. Bush's ad-libs had been
National Conservative Foundation a couple of
refined to a less kind, less gentle stump
months ago. "Barr is so up to speed on his
specch that includes Mitchell, Kennedy and
subjects that he probably didn't need much
Congressional liberals en toto. The new
coaching."
speech is the handiwork of Curt Smith, who
along with Mary Kate Grant crafts the White
What We've Heard:
House political rhetoric. Smith wrote the
That Charles Sweeney, a speechwriter over at
speech Mr. Bush used at a fundraiser for
the Democratic National Committee, came up
Missouri Sen. Kit Bond. The Kansas City
with the slogan, "George Bush went to Rome
speech-a foreign policy discussion at the
and all I got was this lousy recession." The
Future Farmers of America's national
slogan was printed on t-shirts, 10,000 of which
convention-was authored by Joe Duggan.
were sold by the DNC at $10 a pop.
Meanwhile, back at the ranch: No word
That Bruce Reed, formerly with the
yet from the speechwriters as to when Bush
Washington-based Progressive Policy Institute,
'92 formally swings into action. "Nobody
has signed up as policy director for Arkansas
has said a peep here about the campaign as
Gov. Bill Clinton's presidential campaign. Reed
far as organization or even the legal question
is the author of "The New Covenant," the
of where speechwriters can work," says a
Clinton speech that insiders rate as the best
White House scribe.
speech in the pre-Mario Cuomo stage of the
Best bet: The two political writers (Mary
campaign.
Kate Grant and Curt Smith) move over to
That Iowa Sen. Tom Harkin's editorial in The
Bush '92, while Joe Duggan and Dan
Washington Post lambasting Cuomo for playing
McGroarty stay at 1600 Pennsylvania.
Hamlet with the Democratic Party was written
Duggan, who was brought over from the
by the senator himself. Harkin, who works off
State Department, handles both foreign and
notes, will not hire a full-time speechwriter until
domestic policy. McGroarty, deputy director
early next year.
to chief speechwriter Tony Snow, doubles on
Speechwriter's
Newsletter
(Turn page, please)
5
LETTER FROM WASHINGTON
(Continued from previous page)
That Nebraska Sen. BobKerrey is actively
You say Tomato: "When it comes to ethics, the
recruiting a speechwriter. The early frontrunner
Democratic Party has selective moral outrage.
is Paul Begala, one of the masterminds behind
They are unconvinced that John Kennedy
the winning Wofford campaign in Pennsylvania.
might have schemed with Chicago and Texas
That no new writers are welcome in the
politicians to steal the 1960 Presidential
campaigns of Virginia Gov. L. Douglas Wilder
election. They do not ask how Lyndon
or former California Gov. Jerry Brown. Seems
Johnson, who was born into poverty and spent
both have a serious Svengali factor: Wilder's
a career in public service, managed to retire as
speeches are crafted by Virginia Democratic
a multimillionaire. But when the topic turns to
Chairman Paul Goldman, Brown's by former
Republicans in general and Ronald Reagan in
Jimmy Carter pollster Pat Caddell. Brown and
particular, suddenly those Democrats make
Caddell deny any orchestration, but insiders
Cotton Mather look like Hugh Hefner."
point out that Caddell was "in the shoot" at
-Rep. Bob Livingston (R-La.)
Brown's announcement speech.
On the House floor, November 4, 1991
That word of a speechwriting opening at the
Education Department was news to education
I say Tomato: "George Bush can spend all the
officials. Lamar Alexander, the new secretary,
time he wants at $1,000-a-plate fundraisers, at
does not use speechwriters and prefers to work
6th Avenue and 53rd Street, or viewing
off cards and notes. How does that compare to
America at 30,000 feet through those oval
other agencies? HUD Secretary Jack Kemp has
windows on Air Force One. But he does it too
two full-time writers, Energy Secretary James
far removed from the lives and concerns of
Watkins has four, and HHS Secretary Louis
average Americans. And the hallmarks of his
Sullivan employs six.
presidency will be the frequent flyer coupon
That Energy is looking to add another writer to
and the capital gains tax cut, not a growing
its stable, but no time soon. Seems the extra hire
economy or jobs for Americans."
is caught up in red tape. Congress is presently
-Rep. Larry Smith (D-Fla.)
on its third continuing resolution for funding
On the House floor, November 13, 1991
federal agencies, so the DOE budget picture is
cloudy.
Let's Call the Whole Thing Off: "The plain
That Bush writers are trying to get the
truth is that a Republican president cannot
president to lose his caribou fetish. In 1988,
implement domestic policy because a
then-candidate Bush used the animal to defend
Democratic Congress will not let him. No
his pro-drilling stance on the Arctic National
wonder he prefers the foreign policy arena.
Wildlife Refuge, saying Alaskan caribou were
And a Democratic Congress cannot implement
"rubbing up" against the oil pipeline. Recently,
policy because a Republican president will not
in Houston, Mr. Bush revisited the caribou. This
let it. Result - paralysis and doubt. The
time they were "leaning against the pipeline
Democrats yearn for a Democratic president
making love all day."
next year and we Republicans yearn for a
This reminded Bushies of another speech in
Republican Congress. The potential tragedy for
1988 when the prez-to-be strayed from his text
the country is that we may both get our wish
and said about Ronald Reagan: "We have sex."
and thus preserve the status quo ante - a
divided and paralyzed government."
- Rep. Bill Clinger (R-Penn.)
On the House floor, November 12, 1991
Speechwriter's
Newsletter
6
STRICTLY SPEAKING
how-to article by Colonel James
Technical speeches computers
McDonough (author of the books
military speechwriters
ethical questions
Platoon Leader, The Defense of Hill
781, and The Limits of Glory), and a
survey on speechwriting instruction at
The Chicago Speechwriters' Forum
front windshield. A sign at the
three major U.S. universities. Says
met in November to listen to Lew
entrance said, 'Please have exact
Captain Dave Stockwell, Monthly
Smith, public affairs officer to General
change ready." They did not have
Update's editor: "We get a steady
Norman Schwarzkopf during the Gulf
movies. Instead, the pilot put on a
stream of calls from the field, 'I've
War. Smith's duties for Schwarzkopf
puppet show and showed slides of his
just been tasked to write a speech,
included scheduling press conferences
vacation." For a sample copy of The
what should I do?" In the military, as
and interviews with the general, and
Laugh Connection, contact Bob Ross
in the corporate sector, speechwriters
acting as liaison to the 1700 members
and Associates, 3643 Corral Canyon
seem to mostly learn by doing. "It
of the media covering the war. He also
Rd., Bonita, California 91902,
comes down to, whoever can do it,
stood a watch in Schwarzkopf's war
telephone 619-479-3331 Military
does it," says Stockwell. For a copy of
room during the 100-hour ground war,
speechwriters might find interesting
Monthly Update, contact Stockwell at
and recalls being called upon by the
the October 1991 issue of the U.S.
the Office of the Chief of Public
general for his opinion there.
Army's Monthly Update. The issue
Affairs, Department of the Army,
Schwarzkopf was thinking about what
highlights speechwriting, with former
Washington, D.C. 20310-1510,
to say at the press briefing, and he
Reagan speechwriter Peggy Noonan, a
telephone 703-697-0050. Doesn't
needed a zinger for a punchline. "How
about if I say, 'Tomorrow morning,
It happened to me
we'll be one hundred miles from
Maybe it wasn't the end of the world-but it seemed like it at the time.
Baghdad?" he asked. Smith's life
Speechwriters share stories of days when all their hard work came to nought.
flashed before his eyes as he
scrambled to think of an answer. He
Peter Delwiche of Dairyland Power
looked at the document before. He
finally responded, "I don't know about
Cooperative once spent long hours
the press, but the troops would love
usually was very good about looking
it." (For more about Smith's wartime
preparing a slide presentation for an
over drafts ahead of time, but he'd
experience, see S/N's interview with
awards banquet to honor employees'
been travelling and just hadn't had
him in the 8-30-91 issue) When
years of service. The slides were
time. He stumbled over sentences,
arranged in reverse order on the slide
writing a speech on a technical
inverted clauses, everything. I wanted
subject, how do you translate scien-
carousel, from most years of service to
to hide under the table. I felt truly
least. But the nightmare arose when
embarrassed-more for him than for
tific language into everyday English?
the master of ceremonies decided it
Rick Roose of Abbott Laboratories, a
me." Eugene Ritchie, now with
worldwide health care company,
would be more dramatic to go in the
KPMG Peat Marwick, once was an
other direction. "All of a sudden, our
admits it can be difficult. "What I do,
account executive for a large public
slides were out of order. The woman
after talking to the scientist, is I go to
relations agency. One of his clients
that person's boss, or maybe their
running the projector tried to reverse
was making a presentation at a major
them, but it couldn't be done." Lesson
boss's boss, and say, 'From an
trucking conference, and Ritchie had
administration point of view, can you
learned: When using slides, make sure
written the speech and prepared the
let me know if I'm on the mark with
the speaker understands that their
slides, planning to use a two-projector
this about what's really important?"
order can't be changed at a moment's
dissolve. One of his client's competi-
Another source on information: the
notice. "The worst thing that ever
tors also brought slides, and when
marketing department. "They gener-
happened to me is so common I
their projector died, Ritchie's client
ally have some sort of scientific
hesitate to mention it," says Promus
generously agreed to let them borrow
Companies' Randy Baker. At a
one of his. "But it threw ours com-
background, but they bridge both
worlds, and they have to communicate
previous job with a PR firm, Baker
pletely out of whack when our client
both ways." Fear of flying? Some
worked with a client who held a yearly
gave his presentation. The slides
press conf rence to summarize the
jokes about travelling via small air-
didn't match what he was saying. We
annual business results. Baker wrote
had to shut down the slides and do the
planes from The Laugh Connection
newsletter: "There was a luggage rack
the speech. "Well, one year the
speech without them." In the client's
on the roof and a bug screen on the
president got up to give the speech and
words, "I guess we made the ultimate
it was just obvious that he'd never
sacrifice."
S/N
7
STRICTLY SPEAKING
everyone use a computer these days?
is in New York City, telephone
Dennis Juren poses an ethical dilemma
Says Bill Lamneck, a speechwriter for
number 212-685-9311. Dr. Joseph
for an audience of MBA/Law students
Nationwide Insurance: "We have
Hankin, president of Westchester
at Texas A&M University: What to do
some speechwriters who work in
Community College, sends a news-
when a visiting foreign minister whose
longhand, and I write on a manual
paper article on speechwriting by
government can make or break your
typewriter." Nationwide's speechwrit-
speechwriter John B. Donovan. One
business venture in his country
ers all have terminals for E-Mail and
piece of advice: "Finally, check
demands you find him a "date" for the
other functions, but many are not
through your text for minor glitches,
evening. In fact, says speechwriter Bill
attuned to composing on computer. "I
such as pages being out of sequence.
Shaffer, the speaker worked for a
find my manual typewriter therapeu-
Otherwise, you might find yourself in
company where that very scenario
tic," says Lamneck. "I can pound
the predicament of an absent-minded
came to life. The foreign minister got
away all my frustrations on it."
U.S. Senator, who mounted the
his date, but a lawsuit many years later
"The paradox of the public relations
podium not only with his speech but
revealed the impropriety. Shaffer says
job market today is that there is still
with a press release intended to be
the speaker wanted to use the anecdote
lots of work, but not many jobs," says
distributed afterward. He had the press
to draw lessons about "what kinds of
Elaine Goldman of the executive
release on top, and with a booming
things can happen in the global
search firm The Goldman Group.
voice, he started off, 'For immediate
marketplace."
"The one growing job sector seems to
release! Washington, D.C.!' and so on,
be freelancing, and many individuals
'til about three sentences later his
are doing surprisingly well even
brain registered what he was doing."
Job openings for speechwriters
though they never intended to become
Oops. A speech delivered by the
at your corporation? Send the listing
entrepreneurs." The Goldman Group
Coastal Corporation's Executive VP
to S/N. We'll run it free of charge.
COMING UP
Dec. 4-6: National Association of
Conference Board Workshop: "Man-
Location: San Francisco. For informa-
Government Communicators annual
aging Corporate Communications
tion, call 1-800-PRO-IABC.
conference. Location: Arlington,
During Turbulent Times." Location:
Virginia. Theme: "Looking Through
Chicago. For information, call 212-
Calling all speechwriters
the Kaleidoscope: The Many Facets of
339-0290. May 24-27, 1992:
SIN would like to see copies of your
Communications." Contact Debbi
International Association of Business
speeches. Won't you please send or
Trocchi at 703-519-3902. Dec. 10:
Communicators annual conference.
fax us your most recent speech today?
IN CONCLUSION
Not just another pretty face
"If there is a plastic surgeon who claims to be responsible for this
face, then New York State will decertify him immediately."
-Mario Cuomo, debunking rumors of plastic surgey
Speechwriter's Newsletter is published
Speechwriter's
S/N
Please direct subscription correspondence to:
weekly by Lawrence Ragan
Newsletter
Speechwriter's Newsletter
Communications, Inc. Editorial office:
Subscription Dept. RRC
407 South Dearborn, Chicago, IL 60605
Editor: John M. Cowan
P.O. Box 3000
312-922-8245; Fax 312-922-3336
Contributing Editors:
Denville, NJ 07834-9865
Mark Z. Barabak, Bill Whalen
Customer Relations: Therese DeLeon
Editorial Director: Janine Wood
Publisher: Mark Ragan
8
Speechwriter's Newsletter
S/N
November 29, 1991 No. 620
THE WEEKLY VOICE OF THE SILENT PROFESSION
LETTERS
When less is more: Writing the 'mini-speech'
Not all speeches are created equal. A three-minute speech may be
J. Lee Carrier, South Central Bell,
more difficult to write than a 20-minute model. Here are some tips.
Birmingham, Alabama: In reference
to Jerry Brown's speech in Philadel-
Everyone knows the saying: "I'm sorry this letter is so long; I didn't have time
phia [discussed in S/N's 11-8 issue]:
to write a shorter one." When it comes to speeches, the shorter ones can be the
How the hell do you footnote a speech?
most time-consuming. Press statements, welcomes, introductions-speech-
Is the speaker supposed to stop and
writers are called upon to create these "mini-speeches" almost as often as they
say, "Footnote number seven reads
write full-length, 20-minute works.
Footnotes in a speech are a joke.
Speeches lasting only two, three, or five minutes have their own rules.
I often give my speaker background
Getting to the point is crucial. Says Steve Palkovitz, a speechwriter for the FBI:
material for a Q&A session that
"In a 20-minute speech, you can ramble around, there's a little more leeway.
expands on material in the speech, but
[With a shorter speech] you've got to hit the nail on the head right away." A
nothing goes into the speech that would
shorter speech requires less redundancy; the speechwriter doesn't need to repeat
require the speaker to read a footnote.
and reinforce key ideas three times. "You just sort of blast it out."
A speech is an oration, not a college
For some, a shorter speech is an opportunity to get away with a little more
thesis. If you steal an idea or quote,
style. Dennis Whalen, of the Ohio State Bar Association, looks for a visual
you have to tell the audience and a
image that will "crystallize" a situation. "The best short speeches I've heard, or
written footnote does not accomplish
written, are those that find one image, or one word picture, or an anecdote." In
that purpose in a verbal delivery.
remarks for a ceremony swearing in a group of new lawyers, for example,
Politicians employ "professional"
Whalen's speaker cautions his audience that "We should never forget that the
speechwriters for the same reason
true measure of our character and our professionalism isn't how we perform
CEOs do-they don't have the time to
when the bright lights are on and thousands are watching-but how we perform
prepare the talks themselves, and,
alone at the end of the day, when no one else will ever know."
sometimes, they don't have the talent.
The short speech may have more to do with motivation than information.
When someone pays us to prepare a
When welcoming an audience to a conference, for example, the goal is not just
talk, we're not only getting paid for the
to tell people why a particular event is important, but to get the audience excited
brilliant words and great research,
about the occasion. Says Billy Dugger, of the Mississippi Power Company, "We
we're also getting paid to keep the
want to tell them how we hope they'll feel, think and act when they leave."
speaker's behind out of trouble. The
Similarly, the goal may be to congratulate a group-employees returning from
fault lies entirely with the speechwriter.
duty in Operation Desert Shield/Desert Storm-or to persuade, as when the
The words are marvelous and Jerry
CEO opens the annual United Way banquet. In all these cases, information is
Brown cannot be faulted for wanting to
less important than mood.
use them. He should not have to ask his
But for a statement to the press, information is the key component. "There
speechwriter if every line was stolen
has to be enough meat to generate questions," says Steve Drake of the American
and he should not have to wade
Soybean Association. How do you write a statement that will do that? Put on
through footnotes to see if there is
your "journalist's cap," advises Drake, and ask why the event is newsworthy.
something in the speech that's going to
"Make sure you know what the positioning is." If you're introducing a new
get him into trouble.
product, be sure you know what segment of the market it's aimed at. If you're
There's an old axiom in speech-
announcing a corporate action, how does the company want it to be perceived?
writing that the audience never has a
Humor may or may not be an important element of the short speech. More
chance to reread a sentence. They also
crucial is setting the tone of the event, establishing the mood. And the prime
never have the chance to read a
consideration for that is the relationship between the speaker and the audience.
footnote.
Formal or informal? Friendly or hostile? Says Cindy Leiberman of Beltone
Continued on page 2
LAWRENCE RAGAN COMMUNICATIONS, INC., PUBLISHER
RAGAN REPORT EDITOR'S WORKSHOP NEWSLETTER CORPORATE ANNUAL REPORT NEWSLETTER BOTTOM LINE COMMUNICATOR
1
SPEAKING OUT
Some basics of
This is even true of the proper
has just been said? Good form! "That
treatment of modifiers. Suppose one
furnace cost us $250 million. That's
speechwriting,
wants to brag that his company has
right, I said a cool $250 million!"
from an old pro
just completed a new, state-of-the-art,
Consider it a rule that facts and figures
$250-million, completely computer-
that a serious reader would reread in a
ized, 2,000-foot-long reverberating
printed text should be repeated orally
The following is adapted from an
furnace. It should never be put that
in a speech. If one thinks-or looks-
article by John Heinz, a former
way! A long string of modifiers is
back over a few of the points I have
contributing editor to SIN:
frustrating and confusing to listeners;
made, the reader will realize that
they want to know-right off-what
speech texts-or at least important
One widely acknowledged tenet for
the speaker is talking about. Good
passages within such texts-often are
speechwriting is to use simple and
speech style calls for: "My company
longer and wordier than comparable
direct sentence structure and to keep
just completed a new, state-of-the-art
writings for print, and necessarily so.
sentences as short as feasible. There is
reverberating furnace. It cost $250
After all, speakers have to rely entirely
nothing remarkable about that; but the
million. It's 2,000 feet long. It's
on audience comprehension through
fact is that sentence structure that is
etc.
hearing, and a speaker's words skitter
commonly accepted in writing for
The speaker should get to the point,
by so swiftly!
print-that, in fact, is not only
and get there with maximum effective-
Finally-and this may come as the
stylistically impeccable but is virtually
ness, which is why signaling is an
most unkindest cut of all to purists-
indispensable to expert writers-can
indispensable technique in any
most speeches call for use of conver-
be taboo to speechwriters.
speechwriter's bag of tricks. While
sational, colloquial English. Most
I refer, for example, to something
one would never write "Would you
speakers, on most speaking occasions,
along the following lines: "Although
like to guess how much our new
should sound natural, not pedantic.
the economy is in extremely poor
reverberating furnace cost my com-
"We're going to do it" is more natural,
shape, my company has been report-
pany? No takers? Well, listen care-
and sounds more natural, than "We
ing excellent financial results." That is
fully and I'll tell you that is
will do it." Similarly, "We've got to
what we speechwriting gurus call
excellent speechwriting style if only
do it" is more natural than "We must
bass-ackward sentence structure.
because challenging the audience in a
do it." I would hazard a guess that
What is wrong with it? The
sprightly conversational manner tends
scores of words and phrases in
problem is that the point of a state-
to awaken snoozers and invigorate the
virtually every one of the 750 or so
ment should ordinarily come first. If
lethargic. On a more positive note,
executive speeches I have written
your company is reporting impressive
there cannot be any question of the
through the years would be criticized
financial results, say so right out front,
value of alerting audiences that
by most high-school English teachers.
then add the impressive fact that this
information worth listening to is
But rest easy, Miss Dalrymple, when I
success has been achieved despite a
forthcoming.
reedit speech scripts for print publica-
weak economy. Serve the entree first,
While on that particular subject,
tion, I always revert to good old
let the other courses follow.
how about restating something that
academically pure English usage.
THE 'MINI-SPEECH'
Continued from page 1
difficult." Because there's less time to build logical argu-
ments, Johnson finds the form "not as meaty-there's no
Electronics, "If you get the tone right, it won't be too bad no
depth." Others find the short speech easier, because the
matter what the speaker says. If you get it wrong, if you
topic is usually very concrete and less research is required.
speak informally to a formal audience, it can be a disaster."
Says Beltone's Leiberman, "What you need is a hook, and
Is the mini-speech easier or harder to write? Janilee
that can come to you when you're driving home or taking a
Johnson of Nynex finds short speeches "infinitely more
shower."
Speechwriter's Newsletter is published weekly every Friday for $227.00
Not all corporations even bother scripting short remarks.
per year by Lawrence Ragan Communications, Inc., 407 South Dearborn
Executives may have the option of speaking extemporane-
Street, Suite 1360, Chicago, IL 60605-9974. Application to Mail at
ously. "In many cases, executives wing it," says one
Second-Class Postage Rates is Pending at Chicago, П. POSTMASTER:
Send address changes to Speechwriter's Newsletter, 407 South Dearborn
speechwriter. "We try to get them away from that-because
Street, Suite 1360, Chicago, IL 60605-9974.
we've heard them."
S/N
2
Speechwriter's
Newsletter
November 29, 1991
IDEA FILES: QUOTES FOR YOUR SPEECHES
Information
Questions
I was brought up to believe that the only thing
No one should ask anyone else about anything,
worth doing was to try to add to the sum of
because questions only oblige one to lie.
accurate information in the world.
-B. Traven
.09
-Margaret Mead
.01
Life
Goals
Each human life must work through all the joys
Everyone goes to the forest; some go for a walk
and sorrows, gains and losses, which make up
Amusement
to be inspired, and others go to cut down the
the history of the world.
trees.
-Thomas Mann
.10
is the
-Vladimir Horowitz
.02
happiness of
Thought
those who
Ignorance
Thought depends absolutely on the stomach;
If you don't know, it's not always necessary to
but, in spite of that, those who have the best
cannot think.
admit it.
stomachs are not the best thinkers.
-Alexander
-Malcolm Forbes
.03
-Voltaire
.11
Pope
.29
Life
Unemployment
Ancient religion and modern science agree: We
This is a call to arms, a call to wage war. The
are here to give praise. Or, to slightly tip the
enemy is unemployment, a menace which
expression, to pay attention.
cannot be met by complacency. The army of
-John Updike
.04
unemployed is greater than any army this nation
was ever called upon to face.
Worth
-B.C. Forbes, 1931
.12
The real measure of your wealth is how much
you'd be worth if you lost all your money.
Good
-unknown
.05
We should all tremble at the thought that all the
good we do in the world, or could possibly do,
Crisis
is too little.
There cannot be a crisis next week. My
-Thomas More
.13
schedule is already full.
-Henry Kissinger
.06
Human resources
The organizations that will truly excel in the
People
future will be the organizations that discover
I love animals and children. People I could do
how to tap people's commitment and capacity
without.
to learn at all levels of the corporation.
-Zsa Zsa Gabor
.07
-Peter Senge, The Fifth Discipline
.14
Risk
Ambition
Those who'll play with cats must expect to be
A man's worth is no greater than the worth of
scratched.
his ambitions.
-Cervantes
.08
-Marcus Aurelius
.15
3
Speechwriter's
Newsletter
QUOTES FOR YOUR SPEECHES
Continued from previous page
Killing
Judgment
To live without killing is a thought which could
Give us clear vision that we may know where to
electrify the world, if men were only capable of
stand and what to stand for; because unless we
staying awake long enough to let the idea soak
stand for something, we shall fall for anything.
in.
-Peter Marshall
.23
-Henry Miller
.16
History
Taxes
The Union sacrificed more men than the entire
Why does a small tax increase cost you two
United States did in any other war to put down a
hundred dollars and a substantial tax cut save
rebellion by a less populous section that it
No error is
you thirty cents?
outproduced in 1860 by 30 to 1 in firearms, 24
too small to
-Peg Bracken
.17
to 1 in locomotives, and 13 to 1 in pig iron.
-Donald McCluskey, economist
.24
ignore.
Disagreement
-Japanese
The ultimate test of a relationship is to disagree
Reality
but to hold hands.
saying
The real world is not easy to live in. It is rough;
.30
-Alexandra Penney
.18
it is slippery. Without the most clear-eyed
adjustments we fall and get crushed.
Free enterprise
-Clarence Darrow
.25
Free enterprise is a rough and competitive
game. It is a hell of a lot better than a
Business
government monopoly.
One of the first declarations of business
-Ronald Reagan
.19
philosophy I heard from my father, soon after I
came to work at Neiman-Marcus in 1926, was,
Evil
"There is never a good sale for Neiman-Marcus
Evil acts of the past are never rectified by evil
unless it's a good buy for the customer."
acts of the present.
-Stanley Neiman
.26
-Lyndon Johnson
.20
Greatness
Respectability
There is a great man who makes every man feel
I've always thought respectable people
small. But the real great man is the man who
scoundrels, and I look anxiously at my face
makes every man feel great.
every morning for signs of my becoming a
-G.K. Chesterton
.27
scoundrel.
-Bertrand Russell
.21
Power
I sit here all day trying to persuade people to do
Clarity
the things they ought to have sense enough to
If you can't write your idea on the back of my
do without my persuading them.
calling card, you don't have a clear idea.
-Harry S. Truman
.28
-David Belasco
.22
We invite readers to send in their favorite quotes, anecdotes, humor, and statistics for speeches.
4
POLITICAL MEMO
November 29, 1991
Forget the candidates-this year,
the speechwriters won on November 5
As the political
Consider a few winners from this year's
speechwriter. Shrum's résumé includes
mood of the
crazyquilt of elections. Harris Wofford, the
Gephardt and Massachusetts Sen. Edward M.
country
former civil rights activist and Kennedy New
Kennedy. The trio came up with the best line of
Frontiersman, overcame a 40-point deficit to
changes, so
the year, Wofford's query: "Every criminal has
defeat former Attorney General Dick
a right to a lawyer, shouldn't you have a right to
does the
Thornburgh in the Pennsylvania senate race.
a doctor?"
language of
And Kirk Fordice, a Republican businessman,
"Everybody's been looking for the 'vision
speeches-and
became the first GOP chief executive in
thing' and the game has been to hire a
maybe the role
Mississippi since Reconstruction.
visionary," notes John Roberts, a Republican
But those are the obvious choices. Now, for a
of political
speechwriter with the public relations firm
surprise winner: political speechwriters. For as
Sawyer-Miller. "What the Wofford campaign
speechwriters
this year's elections may have demonstrated, the
did was convert the anti-incumbent mood and
era of lofty, high-minded rhetoric-the
also the notion that there's economic
oratorical counterpart to the go-go '80s-quite
nationalism out there. It also points to a lot of
possibly came to a grinding halt on Nov. 5.
themes and language that you want to weave
The candidates who fared best on Election
into speeches to show that you have a candidate
Day were the ones who cast themselves as
who's connected to the voters he represents."
outsiders-outsiders who have not lost touch
The change in rhetoric did not go unnoticed
with the common man. "What we have right
in Washington. The question is what if any
now is people sensing that the political climate
changes the White House will make in its
has changed," says Paul Begala, a Democrat
approach to speechwriting now that the oratory
speechwriter who managed Wofford's Senate
has changed. Unlike the Reagan White House,
campaign. "There's a new playing ground,
where the speechwriters enjoyed high profiles,
whole new rules for the '90s and they want to
Team Bush is not as reliant on oratory. Bush did
find the words that work within that
not make a major speech during the Gulf War,
environment."
for example. His only memorable speech with
The Pennsylvania Senate race typifies the
regard to domestic policy was an appearance
change in political oratory. Political observers
earlier this year at the University of Michigan.
considered the race, which pitted the outsider
Whereas Ronald Reagan preferred the Oval
Wofford against Thornburgh, a close friend of
Office and national addresses, George Bush is
President Bush, as a precursor to next year's
more comfortable with drop-bys at the White
presidential race. What they got was a surprise.
House press room.
The expectation was that Thornburgh would
Speechwriters from both parties give Bush
push the "hot buttons" that usually work so well
the same handicap: It's not so much a choice of
for GOP candidates in socially conservative
words as it is a lack of choices. "The problem
states like Pennsylvania: racial quotas, abortion,
has less to do with speechwriters than it does
gun control and foreign policy.
with policymakers. There's only so artful a way
Instead, it was Wofford who seized the
you can say, 'I'm not sure," complains a GOP
agenda. Wofford hired three experts on the art
speechwriter. "If [the White House] is sitting
of oratory: Begala, James Carville and Bob
around thinking their problem is the tenor of
Shrum. Carville is a Louisiana Cajun who is
Bush's language, they're wrong. The notion that
sometimes called the "Democrats' Lee Atwater"
Bush, to prove he's in charge and takes
for his slash-and-burn tactics. Begala, who also
problems seriously, should try to give Jimmy
works part time for House Majority Leader
Carter-like speeches, well, you figure it out."
Richard A. Gephardt, was the campaign's lead
In 1980, voters did.
Speechwriter's
Newsletter
5
LETTER FROM WASHINGTON
November 29, 1991
Presidential candidates-
some serious, some not
Jerry Brown
The promising presidential campaign of Sen.
in a widely covered speech at the National Press
survived his bout
Joe Biden (D-Del.) went up in flames four years
Club, he made sure to give Rep. Leon Panetta,
with plagiarism
ago in a firestorm sparked by revelations he
D-Calif., due credit for his plan to radically
plagiarized the words of British Labour Party
reduce the size of the federal government by
-not so Joe
leader Neil Kinnock.
consolidating a number of cabinet departments.
Biden. The
More recently, Jerry Brown was caught using
Feeling the heat: President Bush had
reason?
the lyrics of the Australian rock band Midnight
originally planned to kick off his re-election
Different
Oil-sans attribution-in launching his 1992
fundraising drive on Oct. 31 with a
standards for
presidential bid. [See S/N 11-8 for details.]
platitudinous, feel-good speech before the good
Biden was forced out of the race and still
burghers of Houston, his adopted home-town.
different
suffers the ignominy; Brown's deed is generally
Instead, a piqued Bush tore into the
candidates
ignored and laughed off by the few familiar
Democrats and "demagogues" who run
with the details.
Congress in a stemwinder half-delivered, half-
What's the difference? Several things,
shouted before a crowd of about 850 who paid
among them:
$1,000 a plate to attend in lieu of treat-or-
Biden appropriated not just Kinnock's
tricking.
words, but his whole up-from-the-working-class
Originally set to talk for ten minutes, Bush
life style.
went on for nearly an hour. Not coincidentally,
Biden's action was part of a pattern that
the fusillade followed a White House meeting
included the earlier use of remarks by Robert F.
that morning in which White House
Kennedy without attribution and a scene at a
Republicans wrung their hands over the state of
New Hampshire coffee klatsch, captured on C-
the economy and expressed their concern about
SPAN, where he embroidered on his résumé.
the political impact and the perceived non-
The Kinnock incident played into doubts
response from the president.
among the political press corps and beltway
Playing to the home-town crowd (read: Big
pundits about the depth of Biden's convictions.
Oil), Bush resurrected one of the weirder lines
There was a view in some circles that the
from his 1988 campaign. Pitching his proposal
senator was something of an empty suit, tailored
to open up the Arctic National Wildife Refuge
by his pollsters and political strategists.
to oil exploration, Bush spoke again of the
But most important: Biden was considered a
erotic benefits for the native fauna.
serious candidate.
He noted that naysayers worried about the
Brown, plagued by his spacey Gov.
detrimental effects the original trans-Alaska
Moonbeam image, is treated as a joke not just
pipeline would have on the birds and bees.
by the Jay Lenos and Johnny Carsons, but
"Today, you have to shake [the caribou] away
virtually the whole political establishment. Just
with a stick, Bush said. "They're all making
mention Brown's name among political insiders
love laying up against the pipeline."
and you're guaranteed to get a laugh.
Advice best ignored: At a recent appearance
Different rules apply to candidates taken
before a group of condominium leaders in south
seriously and those considered irrelevant.
Florida, one woman asked the campaigning
Remember Gary Hart/Hartpence back in 1983
Kerrey, "What are you going to say when they
when he was an asterisk in the polls? Of course
throw the L-word at you?"
not. Who cared? And you didn't hear much
Before the Nebraska Democrat could
about Donna Rice when Hart was making his
respond, a voice from the crowd shouted,
comeback long after the rest of the 1988 field
"Throw the F-word at them!"
passed him by.
Neologism watch: "I don't want to over-
Which is not to say the rules haven't
cheerlead on the economy, but I don't want to
changed. One result of the media's closer
talk people into a further lack of confidence,
attention to proper attribution: a fetish for
because it's a good time to buy a house,
footnoting. When Nebraska Sen. Bob Kerrey
frankly." -Bush at Houston fundraiser.
recently outlined his national economic agenda
Speechwriter's
Newsletter
6
STRICTLY SPEAKING
Using film clips failing to change
is Michael McKinley?" you ask, as
have several SIN readers. McKinley,
job
openings
cow paths as a metaphor
48, is a professional speaker based in
Eau Claire, Wisconsin. "I try to help
people understand that change goes on
"The challenge and the pleasure of
approval process, but it definitely
even when they don't know it. I talk a
writing a speech is finding the right
brightened up the speech. One note of
lot about coping measures." McKinley
rhythm and nuance to fit the speaker,
caution, though: "You should be very
was a corporate president for 15 years
the right quote and the right metaphor
sure you observe copyright law. Our
before turning to speaking as a
to carry forward the argument of the
legal department told us that many of
profession. "I was speaking a lot while
speech." That's Rich Greb, freelance
the major studios and TV networks
I was doing my job, and one day I
speechwriter, in a "First Person" inter-
have people on hotel staffs who
decided to do it fulltime. It's been a
view in a recent Chicago Tribune
basically act as moles"-reporting on
tremendous journey." Call McKinley
Sunday magazine. Every week, "First
any unauthorized use of commercial
at 715-832-2488. "You can't write
Person" interviews an individual about
movie footage at a speech or meeting.
off Duke's voters as racists. Duke is
his or her occupation. Greb's inter-
"So we made sure everything was
talking about things people really care
view came about as a result of his
legal and documented. It wasn't
about: high taxes, crummy schools,
association with the Chicago Speech-
cheap." Oops. The Washington-
crime-ridden streets, welfare depend-
writers' Forum. The most gratifying
based PR firm of Robinson, Lake,
ency, equal opportunity. A lot of
part of the experience, says Greb, has
Lerer and Montgomery is not looking
politicians aren't talking about these
been having a number of people tell
to fill a speechwriting position, as
things." That's White House chief
him that it's one of the most substan-
reported in SIN 11-8. S/N regrets the
speechwriter Tony Snow, as quoted by
tive "First Person" interviews in recent
error. "When we fail to change,
columnist Clarence Page. The days
memory. "And people were pleased to
we fail," says Michael McKinley, as
of the long speech aren't over yet.
see the money figure in there," says
quoted in SIN 11-8's Idea Files. "Who
Dave Crehore, a writer for the
Greb-$2,500 for a 20-minute speech,
including research, first draft, and one
Nightmares and bad dreams
rewrite, representing about 32 hours'
worth of work. Are we
Maybe you don't have a "worst nightmare story," but we all have headaches
speechwriters or speech writers?
and worries as speechwriters. Three speechwriters share their experiences.
asks Annmarie Geddes of the Ohio
"My biggest worry is trying to inject
speech and write a new one." Lynch
Bureau of Workers' Compensation.
humor when a speaker is ill-prepared,
took a new slant on the subject, and
Her dictionary, Webster's New World,
or has bad delivery," says Paul Stansel
fortunately, his speaker loved draft
3rd College Edition, lists "speech"
of First Brands Corporation. It
two. It didn't exactly happen to
"speech clinic," "speechmaker," and
happened to him once, as he heard
Ann Ober of the Virginia Department
other permutations, but not "speech-
after the fact. His speaker, fatigued
of Motor Vehicles, but she witnessed
writer," nor, for that matter, "speech
from travelling, told a joke and looked
it-and it could have ruined the
writer." S/N's preference is clear from
around for a laugh, and didn't get one.
speech. A popular political analyst
looking at our nameplate on page one.
"A friend who was there said there
was addressing a meeting at a hotel in
What do you folks think? Film
was absolute dead silence. I said, 'Oh,
Charlottesville when a young bellhop
clips from the movie The Bad News
hell.' My friend said, 'Yeah." The
entered the room with a message for
Bears highlight a speech by Richard
speaker was gracious and didn't blame
the speaker. "He didn't leave the
D. Farman, chairman of the American
Stansel, but the speechwriter learned a
message with someone at the back of
Gas Association. How did the idea
lesson: "If I'm going to use humor, or
the room, he leaned over and asked a
develop? Speechwriter James Showal-
something risky like that, I'm going to
member of the audience who so-and-
ter explains: "I was describing to a
prepare and spend time with the
so was, and then he went up to the
colleague over the lunch the way the
speaker." Mike Lynch of the
podium and handed the speaker the
gas industry sometimes seems to be
American Academy of Pediatrics once
message." The speaker accepted the
operating, fussing with each other
had a speech pronounced "unaccept-
message and went on without missing
over minor stuff. And he said, 'Sounds
able" only a few days before it was
a beat, but speechwriters and planners
like the Bad News Bears.' I bought
scheduled for delivery. "I waited to
may want to remember the incident
him lunch that day." Showalter was
hear what was wrong with it, but that
when talking with hotel staff prior to
surprised the concept got through the
was it. I just had to trash the whole
the speech.
S/N
7
STRICTLY SPEAKING
Wisconsin Department of Natural
Boston position: $80,000-$100,000;
the analogy of the cow path. If you've
Resources, reports that he recently
Cleveland position: $70,000-$80,000.
ever been in a city or a small town
received a hefty speech assignment
Also: Communications consultant,
where the roads meander about, you
from his boss, William Selbig. "The
Boston location. Position requires 4-5
can probably bet that those roads were
people wanted a 45-minute speech. I
years in communications consulting,
once old cow paths-and what you
argued, but the boss couldn't refuse
with project, client, and new-business
now see are paved cow paths. Well,
them. It was like writing a term
development skills, as well as effec-
GTE Directories is not out to pave old
paper." Job openings. Two
tive communication and presentation
cow paths. We want to design our
positions for Communications
skills, writing and production skills,
work processes and procedures to be
Managers are open, one in Boston and
and desire to market. Successful
right for the job and company of the
one in Cleveland, for individuals with
applicant will develop communication
future." Political powerhouse?
6-8 years in communications: mini-
campaigns, design, write, produce and
"Mr. Sununu and Mr. Darman do not
mum three years with a consulting
follow-through implementation.
want Mr. Bush's speechwriting office
firm or 8-10 years corporate commu-
Salary: $60,000-$70,000 (negotiable).
to be a place where ideas ferment
nications experience with benefits
For all positions, call Sue Kranz at
because that would make it an
background. Excellent client/project
813-264-7165. Cow paths are a
alternative power source, as it was in
management skills, plus new-business
metaphor in a speech by GTE Directo-
the Reagan years." -The New York
development skills. Manage a small
ries President Thomas Lysaught. Dis-
Times.
communications staff to develop
cussing GTE Directories' pursuit of
communication campaigns, write, edit,
the 1994 Malcolm Baldrige award: "In
Job openings for speechwriters
produce and follow-through imple-
speaking to Baldrige QIT members
at your corporation? Send the listing
mentation for Fortune 500 clients.
about our self-assessment, I've used
to S/N. We'll run it free of charge.
COMING UP
Dec. 4-6: National Association of
Conference Board Workshop: "Man-
Location: San Francisco. For informa-
Government Communicators annual
aging Corporate Communications
tion, call 1-800-PRO-IABC.
conference. Location: Arlington,
During Turbulent Times." Location:
Virginia. Theme: "Looking Through
Chicago. For information, call 212-
Calling all speechwriters
the Kaleidoscope: The Many Facets of
339-0290. May 24-27, 1992:
SIN would like to see copies of your
Communications." Contact Debbi
International Association of Business
speeches. Won't you please send or
Trocchi at 703-519-3902. Dec. 10:
Communicators annual conference.
fax us your most recent speech today?
IN CONCLUSION
"I sometimes marvel at the extraordinary docility
with which Americans submit to speeches."
-Adlai Stevenson
Speechwriter's Newsletter is published
Speechwriter's
S/N
Please direct subscription correspondence to:
weekly by Lawrence Ragan
Newsletter
Speechwriter's Newsletter
Communications, Inc. Editorial office:
Subscription Dept. RRC
407 South Dearborn, Chicago, IL 60605
Editor: John M. Cowan
P.O. Box 3000
312-922-8245; Fax 312-922-3336
Contributing Editors:
Denville, NJ 07834-9865
Mark Z. Barabak, Bill Whalen
Customer Relations: Therese DeLeon
Editorial Director: Janine Wood
Publisher: Mark Ragan
8