political speech writing

Political Speech Writing: How Candidates Can Craft Compelling Messages

Understanding the Power of Political Speeches

Political speeches play a pivotal role in shaping the course of nations and can shape the trajectory of societies. Effective speech writing for elections allows leaders to communicate their vision, values, and policy objectives to the public. These speeches serve as a means of persuasion, providing a platform for leaders to connect with their constituents emotionally. Through carefully tailoring speeches, a political oratory has the potential to inspire, mobilize, and unite people around common goals and ideals.

One key aspect of political speeches is their ability to inform and educate the public. In a democratic society, an informed citizenry is essential for making sound election decisions and understanding government policy implications. A well-done political oratory allows leaders to clarify their positions and present evidence and data. Speechwriting for elections often requires addressing complex issues and helping citizens make informed choices about how they want the country to move. Moreover, political speeches serve as a channel for transparency and accountability.

Beyond their informational role, a well-crafted political oratory fosters unity and social cohesion by containing messages of hope, unity and inclusivity. They can transcend political divides and unite people, transcending differences of opinion and background. In times of crisis or uncertainty, campaign speeches provide reassurance and a sense of purpose. Furthermore, campaign speeches help a nation navigate challenges and emerge stronger.

Well-crafted campaign speeches can be transformative in elections by serving as a dynamic tool for candidates to connect with voters, sway public opinion and ultimately change the outcome of an election. When a candidate speaks passionately about issues that resonate with your audience, it creates a sense of trust and authenticity by tapping into the electorate's hopes, fears, and aspirations.

Speechwriting for elections helps to clarify a candidate's policy positions and goals, providing voters with a clearer understanding of what they stand for, allowing them to set themselves apart from their opponents and creating a sense of confidence in their leadership. A well-crafted political speech can sway undecided voters to the candidate's side.

Rousing persuasive communication can galvanize volunteers and grassroots activists , encouraging them to work harder for the candidate, leading to a higher voter turnout among the candidate's base.

Steps to Effective Political Speechwriting

Here are five tips for crafting an effective political speech:

#1: Make time for research.

Digging deep to find relevant information is crucial when writing a political speech because it adds depth and credibility to the discourse. Great research also ensures that the political speech addresses the complexities of voters' concerns. A speechwriter can write informative and persuasive communication by seeking out comprehensive data.

#2: Consider your audience.

Analyzing a target audience is essential for understanding their demographics, values, beliefs, and concerns. It allows speechwriters to tailor their message to resonate with their intended listeners' specific needs and interests. This analysis enables speechwriters to speak directly to the heart of the issues that matter most to the target audience. It also helps avoid potential pitfalls, such as using language or framing that might alienate or offend specific target audience segments.

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#3: Draw on the elements of storytelling.

Storytelling in politics is essential for political speechwriters because it helps engage and persuade the audience effectively. Furthermore, storytelling in politics captures the audience's attention by connecting them emotionally with the message. The right message provides a relatable and human dimension to the content. Furthermore, storytelling in politics helps create a cohesive speech that flows seamlessly, ensuring listeners understand and retain key points. Whether it is rallying support for a candidate, advocating for a policy change, or fostering a sense of unity, a well-crafted narrative can convey a compelling vision for the future and ignite a sense of purpose among the audience.

#4: Set the right tone.

A campaign speech must set the right mood because the emotional tone and atmosphere it creates can significantly impact how the audience receives and responds to the message. By establishing a positive and receptive attitude, the audience is more likely to be engaged and attentive to the speaker's message, which can inspire hope, rally support, and forge meaningful connections. Crafting a political speech that is positive and relatable makes the audience more receptive to the speaker's arguments, so it is a vital political communication strategy. A speech promoting a mood of unity helps to bridge divides, bringing people together.

#5: Edit and practice ahead of time.

Editing and rehearsing a political speech is essential because it ensures the message is clear, concise and free from ambiguity. A well-edited speech enhances the speaker's credibility by demonstrating that the candidate has thoroughly researched and prepared their remarks. Therefore, giving speeches can be a key political communication strategy.

Practicing a speech allows the speaker to fine-tune their delivery and tone to maintain the audience's engagement. Furthermore, practice enables the speaker to reinforce the critical points of the speech, ensuring that they communicate central ideas in an easily memorable way.

Examples of Memorable Political Speeches

Let's turn our attention to some political speechwriting examples. These political speechwriting examples can serve as a powerful guide for candidates.

#1: Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address

Consider Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address, as it is one of American history's most impactful political speeches. Presented during the Civil War at the dedication of the Soldiers' National Cemetery in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, the speech was concise, lasting just over two minutes, but its impact was profound. Lincoln eloquently emphasized the principles of equality and liberty and redefined the purpose of the American government as a "government of the people, by the people, for the people." This speech solidified the United States' commitment to democracy and freedom. It also marked a turning point in the Civil War, as it galvanized public sentiment and reinvigorated the Union's resolve to preserve the nation.

#2: Martin Luther King, Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” Speech

Another of the most impactful political speeches was Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech, delivered during the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. This political speechwriting example was pivotal in the American civil rights movement. King's eloquent articulation of his dream for a racially integrated and just society resonated deeply with millions. The speech helped mobilize support for civil rights legislation and highlighted the urgent need for racial equality. King's call for nonviolent protest and his vision for a future where individuals would be judged by the content of their character rather than the color of their skin inspired generations of activists. It was crucial in advancing civil rights legislation, culminating in the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

#3: Ronald Reagan’s “Tear Down This Wall” Speech

One of the most impactful political speeches ever given was the one delivered at the Brandenburg Gate in West Berlin, during which President Ronald Reagan issued a powerful challenge to the Soviet Union by demanding, "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!" The Berlin Wall, which had divided East and West Berlin for decades, symbolized the Cold War's division. This political speechwriting example indicated the West's commitment to freedom and democracy. While the immediate impact of the speech was limited, it contributed to the eventual fall of the Berlin Wall and the end of the Cold War. Reagan's words resonated with people on both sides of the Iron Curtain, serving as a rallying cry for change.

Studying these speeches and tailoring speeches after them and other iconic speeches is a great way to learn public speaking strategies. These American political speeches share the theme of advocating for equality, justice and freedom. They transcended their immediate contexts to become lasting symbols of American ideals and continue inspiring generations of Americans and people worldwide. 

Here are some public speaking strategies to employ based on these inspirational speeches:

Ensure that the central theme of your political campaign communication resonates with the target audience and keep it at the forefront of the speech.

Using metaphors, similes, and emotionally resonant phrases to evoke powerful imagery and emotions in the audience is a critical speech delivery technique that can help your political campaign communications.

Understanding the audience's needs, aspirations, and concerns so that the message connects deeply is a speechwriting best practice you will want to remember.

Incorporating a clear and compelling call to action into the speech is an essential political communication strategy.

Be aware of historical contexts when crafting political persuasions for political campaign communications.

Align messages with the speaker's personality and values.

Employ strategic repetition to emphasize critical political persuasions because it will make them more memorable.

Use speech writing techniques to capture the speaker's authentic voice and beliefs.

Tips for Effective Speech Delivery

Candidates often ask speechwriters to give them speech delivery techniques. They may recommend several public speaking strategies that will help you with effective speech delivery. These include:

Using body gestures and body language to enhance the message's impact is a critical speech delivery technique as it helps convey confidence and credibility so that the audience connects to you better.

Connecting with the audience is paramount because it establishes rapport, fosters voter engagement and ensures the message resonates with the listeners personally. Therefore, it is crucial to remember this idea while focusing on speech delivery techniques as you build your political communication strategy.

Breathing deeply right before giving a speech is a vital speech delivery technique that can help you overcome stage fright as it calms nerves and boosts confidence.

Adapting Your Speech for Different Audiences

Among speech writing best practices is to adapt a speech to different audiences and your audience's demographics. This is essential for ensuring political persuasion as the message is relevant, relatable, and inclusive. Practicing this as you concentrate on other speech writing best practices ensures audience engagement occurs and that they will understand your messaging better.

Another key among speech writing best practices is remembering to be specific during a speech. This is vital as it adds credibility and clarity to the candidate messaging, helping to ensure audience engagement. Therefore, ensure that you use speech writing techniques for persuasive communication that address specific issues and concerns experienced by the audience.

Navigating Ethical Considerations in Political Speechwriting

Honesty is a fundamental pillar of trust and accountability in a democratic society, so when politicians are truthful in their political campaign messaging, they build integrity and foster the public's faith in their leadership. Citizens can make informed decisions when a politician uses truthful political campaign messaging. Therefore, make sure to always practice ethical speech writing.

Ethical speech writing also means avoiding divisive rhetoric because it often deepens existing divisions, polarizes communities, and makes finding common ground on important issues more difficult. Divisive rhetoric hinders constructive dialogue between political opponents. Using speech writing techniques that are inclusive, respectful, and constructive fosters unity, promotes understanding and achieves positive outcomes, which is essential for driving audience engagement in your political campaign messaging.

Leveraging Technology for Speechwriting

Many speech writing resources can help you. Let these speechwriting resources serve as a guide, but do not rely totally on speech writing resources, or you will block out the candidate's personality. Among the most effective speech writing tips is to let speechwriting tools enhance the speech writing process by using them to improve speech writing techniques. Among these speech writing tools, speech writing software is a vital resource that plays a pivotal role in organizing thoughts, structuring arguments, and drafting coherent content while creating political discourse and crafting political messages. Utilizing these effective speech writing tips gives you access to templates, outlines, and organization features that help transform ideas into well-structured political discourses. Even if you usually shy away from technology, try speech writing software.

An easy place to start is Good Party’s AI Campaign Manager , which can help candidates draft launch speeches with ease, saving time and energy. 

Additionally, another favorite among effective speech writing tips is to use research databases. These are invaluable tools for the speech writing process as they allow you to access vast amounts of information, including historical data, statistics, and policy details. Therefore, they are an invaluable speech writing resource, enabling speechwriters to conduct thorough research, fact-check statements, and bolster arguments with credible sources.

Furthermore, grammar and style-checking software is another indispensable software component critical to the speech writing process. This speech writing resource helps to refine language and ensure that the political rhetoric is clear, is grammatically correct, and resonates with the intended audience. These tools help avoid common language pitfalls and enhance the overall quality of the writing.

Another effective speech writing tip is to incorporate digital elements into political discourse, as using them engages a more diverse audience. Integrating visuals, such as infographics and charts, can make complex data more accessible by providing a visual context that aids comprehension. These graphic elements enhance understanding, make the speech more memorable, and help to ensure that crucial candidate messaging resonates with broader demographics.

Speech writing and public relations are intrinsically linked, playing a pivotal role in shaping the perception of individuals. Effective speechmaking in public relations allows for the dissemination of critical messages to target audiences. Through speechwriting and public relations strategies, public figures can build and maintain trust, manage their reputation and foster meaningful connections with voters, underscoring the indispensable synergy between speech writing and public relations in elections.

The Role of Speechwriters in Political Campaigns

Speechwriters often collaborate closely with candidates to help them build political communication skills. These political communication skills include articulating their vision, values and policy positions. Ethical speech writing requires you to lay aside your ideas and write from the candidate's point of view. This effective speech writing tip often begins with in-depth interviews to understand the candidate's personality, goals and key messages. Speechwriters then craft political rhetoric aligning with the candidate's voice and resonating with their intended audience. Regular communication and feedback loops are vital for crafting political messages, allowing for revisions and fine-tuning political communication skills to ensure that inspirational speeches are authentic and compelling. The partnership between speechwriters and candidates when crafting political messages is a dynamic process that must convey the candidate's vision effectively and connect with voters.

However, not all candidates need to hire speechwriters. With Good Party’s AI Campaign Manager , candidates can generate drafts of political speeches, completely for free. Our tools are especially helpful for crafting launch speeches, which candidates can give at campaign launch events and to kick off their campaigns.

Inspirational speeches, meticulously tailored to resonate with diverse audiences and delivered with authenticity, possess the potential to inspire, inform and mobilize voters, encapsulating a candidate's vision and values. Often, the words spoken reverberate in the electorate's hearts and minds. Tailoring speeches in this way gives them the power to shape the outcome of campaigns and the nation's course. Political rhetoric bridges the divide between candidates and voters, uniting diverse communities under a shared vision. Overall, remember that the qualities of a great speech rely on elements of style, elements of substance, and elements of impact.

DPI-835M: Speechwriting

In this section.

• Courses related to climate
• Course Registration
• Courses related to racism & bias
• Cross-Registration & Auditing

Stephen Krupin

MaryRose Mazzola

What makes a speech persuasive and memorable – and how do you write one? How can storytelling help political, corporate, nonprofit, and community leaders achieve their goals? What is the role of the speech in our politics, policymaking, and international relations? This course will explore the techniques speechwriters and speakers use, from research to rhetoric, to shape messages that move people and change the world.

Each course in the DPI communications series assumes a fluency with the English language. Attendance at first class mandatory.

How To Write A Political Speech

Crafting a compelling political speech holds immense importance for any aspiring politician and successful political campaign. It is a powerful tool for connecting with the audience, influencing opinions, and igniting action. To make speeches truly impactful, harnessing the power of voter engagement and direct sourcing is key. Politicians can gather valuable insights directly from the people they aim to represent by actively engaging with voters and listening to their concerns.

This approach adds significant value to speeches and establishes an authentic connection with voters. This blog post will explore the significance of delivering compelling political speeches and highlight the benefits of incorporating voter engagement and direct sourcing techniques. By the end, you'll gain practical insights into creating lessons that resonate with your audience and make a lasting impact. Revise your political speechwriting skills with valuable tips and actionable strategies!

Writing a compelling political speech that resonates with your audience is vital for any politician. Two key factors are crucial to achieving this: defining your objectives and knowing your target audience.

• Defining the objectives: Your speech should have a clear purpose, whether it is to persuade, inspire, or educate your listeners. You can shape your address by defining your goals to achieve those desired outcomes effectively. ‍
• Knowing your target audience: Understanding your audience's demographics, concerns, and aspirations is fundamental. This knowledge allows you to tailor your message in a way that connects with them on a personal level. You can create a speech that resonates deeply and captures their attention by addressing their needs and desires.

Research and Preparation

Research and preparation are vital steps in writing an impactful political speech. By gathering comprehensive data from various sources, conducting surveys, and analyzing voter demographics, you can enhance the effectiveness of your address. Here are key actions to take:

• Collecting data from various sources: Traditional media such as newspapers, TV, and radio provide insights into current political events and public sentiment. Social media platforms like Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube offer information on trending topics and public discourse. Online forums and communities like Reddit, Quora, and specialized political forums allow you to tap into discussions and understand different perspectives. ‍
• Conducting surveys and opinion polls: ‍ Engaging in surveys and opinion polls helps you gauge your target audience's opinions, preferences, and concerns. This data provides valuable insights to shape your speech accordingly. ‍
• Analyzing voter demographics and specific concerns: ‍ Understanding your audience's demographics, including age, gender, and location, enables you to tailor your speech to resonate with their unique backgrounds and experiences. Additionally, identifying specific concerns and issues that matter to voters allows you to address them directly in your speech, making it more relevant and impactful.

By undertaking thorough research and preparation, you will have a solid foundation for crafting a compelling political speech that speaks directly to your audience's needs and aspirations. In the upcoming sections, we will explore these topics in more detail, providing you with practical strategies to integrate the collected data effectively into your speechwriting process. Get ready to take your political speechwriting skills to the next level!

Crafting a Compelling Political Speech

Crafting a powerful political speech requires careful consideration of the message you want to convey. Here are key steps to help you create a compelling address:

• Identifying key issues and topics: Start by identifying crucial issues such as the economy and jobs, healthcare and social welfare, education and student debt, climate change and environmental policies, and national security and foreign affairs. These topics are often at the forefront of public discourse and resonate with voters. ‍
• Prioritizing topics based on voter feedback and relevance: ‍ Listen to the feedback and concerns of voters through surveys, town hall meetings, and direct engagement. Prioritize the topics that resonate most with your audience, ensuring your speech addresses their pressing issues. ‍
• Developing a compelling narrative: ‍ Structure your speech with a clear introduction, body, and conclusion to provide a cohesive flow. Utilize storytelling techniques to make your message engaging and relatable, capturing your audience's attention. Connect your experiences to policy proposals, humanizing your speech and showing your understanding of real-life impacts. Emphasize empathy and relatability to establish a genuine connection with your audience, showcasing that you understand and share their concerns.

Following these steps, you can craft a persuasive political speech highlighting key issues, resonating with voters, and inspiring action. In the following sections, we will delve deeper into each aspect, providing you with practical tips and techniques to enhance the impact of your speech. Prepare to deliver a memorable and influential address that leaves a lasting impression!

Rehearsing your political speech is a critical step that significantly aids your confidence and overall delivery. Here are some valuable tips to consider when it comes to rehearsing:

• Practice makes perfect: Dedicate ample time to rehearsing your speech before presenting it to an audience. Aim to rehearse your address at least five times to familiarize yourself with the content, structure, and flow. ‍
• Seek feedback from your team: Once you've practiced independently, deliver your speech to your team and invite their constructive criticism. Their feedback can provide valuable insights and help you refine your points, delivery, and overall performance. ‍
• Conduct a full dress rehearsal: Organize a complete dress rehearsal with your team, where they play the roles of a moderator and your competition. This simulation allows you to identify potential weaknesses in your arguments, anticipate challenging questions, and fine-tune your delivery. ‍
• Capture and review your performance: Consider filming yourself giving the speech during rehearsal. Watching the recording afterwards lets you objectively evaluate your performance, body language, and speaking style. Take note of areas where improvements can be made and make adjustments accordingly. ‍
• Ensure accessibility through simplicity: While rehearsing, approach your speech from the perspective of someone unfamiliar with the topics you're addressing. Use simple language and many analogies to make your political speech accessible to many listeners. This approach enhances understanding and enables your message to resonate with the entire electorate.

By incorporating rehearsal into your speechwriting process, you can boost your confidence, identify areas for improvement, and deliver a polished and impactful speech. Remember, rehearsing allows you to refine your points, connect with your audience effectively, and ensure your message is conveyed clearly, concisely, and relatable. ‍

Use Common Language

Using common language in political speech writing is essential to effectively connect with your audience and ensure your message resonates with a wide range of listeners. Here are key considerations when it comes to using common language:

• ‍ Speak in an accessible manner:   Communicate in a way that is easily understandable to all. Avoid excessive jargon, complex terminology, or convoluted sentences that may confuse or alienate your audience. Use clear and concise language that allows anyone to grasp your message. ‍ ‍
• Avoid offensive terms:   Maintaining a respectful and inclusive tone during your speech is important. Steer clear of profane or derogatory language that could offend or marginalize certain groups. Treat your audience with respect, emphasizing unity and understanding. ‍ ‍
• Harness the power of stories and personal accounts:   Stories and first-person narratives profoundly impact your audience. Utilize relatable anecdotes and real-life experiences to illustrate your points, making your arguments more engaging, relatable, and emotionally compelling. ‍ ‍
• Balance simplicity with depth:   While most of your content should be easily understandable by anyone, it is acceptable to incorporate academic research, quotations, or statistics that may require additional explanation. Find a balance between simplicity and depth, ensuring that even complex ideas can be grasped by your listeners with the appropriate context and explanation.

Using common language can effectively bridge the gap between complex ideas and the understanding of your audience. Remember, the goal is to connect with as many people as possible, making your message accessible, relatable, and impactful. So, craft your speech with clarity and simplicity while utilizing stories and personal accounts to create an emotional connection that resonates with your listeners.

How to Construct An Argument

Constructing a compelling argument is crucial to writing a persuasive political speech. Here's a step-by-step guide to help you build a strong and impactful argument:

• Clearly state your thesis: Begin by articulating your main point or thesis statement. This sets the foundation for your argument and provides a clear focus for your speech. ‍
• Gather supporting evidence: Collect relevant facts, statistics, expert opinions, and real-life examples that support your thesis. Strong evidence adds credibility and strengthens your argument. ‍
• Organize your points logically: Structure your argument logically and coherently. Present your facts in a sequence that builds upon each other, leading your audience towards your main thesis. ‍
• Anticipate counterarguments: Consider potential counterarguments to your position and address them proactively. This demonstrates thoroughness and strengthens your overall argument. ‍
• Use persuasive language: Choose words and phrases that are persuasive and compelling. Craft your message to resonate with your audience emotionally and intellectually. ‍
• Appeal to logic and emotions: Blend logical reasoning with emotional appeals to make your argument more persuasive. Use rational evidence to support your claims and evoke emotions to connect with your audience more deeply. ‍
• Use rhetorical devices: Employ rhetorical devices such as repetition, analogy, and rhetorical questions to enhance the impact of your argument and make it more memorable. ‍
• Summarize and restate your main points: Conclude your argument by summarizing your main points and restating your thesis. Leave your audience clearly understanding your position and a compelling call to action.

These steps can construct a strong and persuasive argument in your political speech. Remember to support your claims with evidence, organize your points effectively, and appeal to logic and emotions. With a well-constructed argument, your address will be poised to influence opinions and inspire action.

Voter Engagement for your Speech

Engaging with voters through various tactics is essential to crafting a compelling political speech. Here's why it matters and how you can make the most of it:

importance of voter contact tactics:

• Door-to-door canvassing allows you to connect with voters on a personal level, fostering trust and building rapport.
• Town hall meetings provide a platform for open dialogue, enabling you to directly understand local issues and concerns of the community.
• Phone calls and text messages offer an opportunity to engage voters individually, creating a sense of importance and personal connection.

Benefits of engaging voters directly:

• Building trust and rapport strengthens your relationship with voters, making your message more impactful and memorable.
• Understanding local issues and concerns firsthand helps you address them effectively in your speech, showing your commitment to representing the community's needs.
• Obtaining firsthand stories and anecdotes allows you to humanize your speech, adding authenticity and relatability to your message.

Techniques for effective voter engagement:

• Active listening and showing empathy demonstrate your genuine interest in understanding voters' perspectives and concerns.
• Asking open-ended questions encourages voters to share their thoughts and experiences, providing valuable insights for shaping your speech.
• Encouraging voter participation in the speechwriting process empowers them. It ensures their voices are heard, enhancing the authenticity of your speech.
• Utilizing social media platforms to solicit input and feedback broadens your reach. It allows you to engage with a wider audience, gathering diverse perspectives and ideas.

By actively engaging voters through canvassing and other community outreach , you gain invaluable insights, stories, and anecdotes that can greatly enrich your political speech. In the upcoming sections, we will delve deeper into these techniques, providing you with practical strategies to maximize voter engagement and create lessons that truly resonate with your audience. Get ready to harness the power of direct sourcing and make a meaningful impact with your speech!

Incorporating voter input into your speechwriting process is a powerful way to create speeches that truly resonate with your audience. Here's how you can leverage voter input, with a special emphasis on the significance of canvassing:

• ‍ Analyzing and categorizing voter stories and concerns: By carefully listening to voters' stories and concerns gathered through canvassing, town hall meetings, and other engagement tactics, you can analyze and categorize them to identify common threads and key issues. ‍ ‍
• Identifying common themes and patterns: By recognizing recurring themes and patterns in voter input, you gain insights into your constituency's collective concerns and aspirations. This knowledge allows you to address them effectively in your speech. ‍ ‍
• Integrating voter anecdotes into the speech: Personalizing the message by incorporating specific anecdotes and stories voters share, you personalize your speech, making it relatable and impactful. Highlighting real-life impacts: Sharing how specific policies or decisions affect real people helps create a deeper understanding and empathy among your audience. ‍ ‍
• Acknowledging and addressing dissenting viewpoints: While incorporating voter input, it's important to acknowledge and address dissenting views. By respectfully engaging with opposing perspectives, you demonstrate inclusivity and a willingness to consider all voices.

By actively involving voters in the speechwriting process, you ensure their concerns and experiences are reflected in your message. This adds authenticity and relatability and strengthens your connection with your audience. In the subsequent sections, we will delve deeper into these strategies, providing you with practical tips to seamlessly integrate voter input into your political speeches. Get ready to create addresses that truly resonate and engage your audience profoundly!

The Ten Minutes Beforehand

The ten minutes beforehand hold significant value in maximizing the impact of your political speech. Here's how you can make the most of this crucial time, offering practical strategies to enhance your performance and connect with your audience:

Center yourself through mindfulness techniques:

• Take deep breaths to calm your nerves and center your mind.
• Practice mindfulness or meditation to focus your thoughts and promote a sense of presence.

Review your key talking points:

• Take a moment to mentally review the main points and messages you want to convey.
• Ensure that your speech aligns with your objectives and resonates with your audience.

Visualize success:

• Visualize yourself delivering a powerful and impactful speech with confidence and clarity.
• Envision a positive response from your audience, creating a sense of belief and determination.

Positive self-talk:

• Engage in positive self-talk to boost your confidence and banish self-doubt.
• Remind yourself of your strengths, expertise, and message value.

Establish a connection with your audience:

• Scan the room and make eye contact with individuals in the audience.
• This brief interaction establishes an initial connection and helps you establish rapport.

Review technical aspects:

• Double-check any specialized equipment or visual aids to ensure they are functioning properly.
• Familiarize yourself with the stage setup and microphone placement for seamless delivery.

Warm up your voice and body:

• Perform vocal warm-up exercises to ensure clarity and projection in your speech.
• Engage in gentle stretches or movements to release tension and promote a relaxed body language.

By utilizing these strategies ten minutes beforehand, you can optimize your mindset, refine your delivery, and establish an immediate connection with your audience. Remember that these moments set the stage for a memorable speech, allowing you to effectively convey your message, inspire your audience, and leave a lasting impact.

Engaging voters through direct sourcing, especially through canvassing, holds immense power in creating impactful political speeches. By incorporating voter input, speeches can exude authenticity and relatability, connecting with the concerns and aspirations of the electorate. This approach inspires trust and establishes a strong connection between politicians and the people they aim to represent. Crafting well-articulated speeches that resonate with voters is a transformative way to influence opinions and ignite action. As you refine your speech writing skills, remember the significance of actively engaging voters, listening to their stories, and addressing their concerns. By doing so, you will deliver speeches that make a lasting impact, inspire change, and foster a deeper connection with your audience.

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Rhetoric: The Art of Persuasive Writing and Public Speaking

Gain critical communication skills in writing and public speaking with this introduction to American political rhetoric.

Associated Schools

Harvard Faculty of Arts & Sciences

What you'll learn.

When and how to employ a variety of rhetorical devices in writing and speaking

How to differentiate between argument and rhetorical technique

How to write a persuasive opinion editorial and short speech

How to evaluate the strength of an argument

How to identify logical fallacies in arguments

Course description

We are living in a contentious time in history. Fundamental disagreements on critical political issues make it essential to learn how to make an argument and analyze the arguments of others. This ability will help you engage in civil discourse and make effective changes in society. Even outside the political sphere, conveying a convincing message can benefit you throughout your personal, public, and professional lives.

This course is an introduction to the theory and practice of rhetoric, the art of persuasive writing and speech. In it, you will learn to construct and defend compelling arguments, an essential skill in many settings. We will be using selected addresses from prominent twentieth-century Americans — including Martin Luther King Jr., John F. Kennedy, Margaret Chase Smith, Ronald Reagan, and more — to explore and analyze rhetorical structure and style. Through this analysis, you will learn how speakers and writers persuade an audience to adopt their point of view.

Built around Harvard Professor James Engell’s on-campus course, “Elements of Rhetoric,” this course will help you analyze and apply rhetorical structure and style, appreciate the relevance of persuasive communication in your own life, and understand how to persuade and recognize when someone is trying to persuade you. You will be inspired to share your viewpoint and discover the most powerful ways to convince others to champion your cause. Join us to find your voice!

Course Outline

Introduction to Rhetoric

• Define the term "rhetoric."
• Articulate the importance of effective communication.
• Summarize the history of rhetorical study, from the ancient Greeks to the modern-day.
• Identify the parts of discourse.
• Define the three modes of appeal.
• Identify tropes and schemes, and explain their use in composition.
• Compose an opinion editorial on a topic of your choice.

Civil Rights - Martin Luther King, Jr.

• Analyze Martin Luther King, Jr.’s “I Have a Dream…” speech
• Define inductive reasoning and some of its associated topics
• Identify instances of inductive reasoning in writing and speech
• Define deductive reasoning and some of its associated topics
• Identify instances of deductive reasoning in writing and speech
• Recognize and evaluate the strength of an argument's refutation
• Apply the elements of rhetoric you have learned so far into the final draft of your op-ed

Gun Control - Sarah Brady and Charlton Heston

• Analyze Sarah Brady’s Democratic National Convention Keynote Speech.
• Analyze Charlton Heston’s speech on the Second Amendment.
• Define “inductive reasoning” and some of its associated topics
• Define “deductive reasoning” and some of its associated topics
• Recognize and evaluate the strength of an argument’s refutation
• Apply the elements of rhetoric you have learned so far in the final draft of your op-ed

Introduction to Oratory

• Describe the origins of the practice of oratory.
• Recognize ways in which orators tailor their writing for the spoken word.
• Describe techniques for effective public speaking, both prepared and extemporaneous.
• Brainstorm ideas for your own short speech.

The Red Scare - Joseph McCarthy and Margaret Chase Smith

• Analyze Joseph McCarthy’s “Enemies Within” speech.
• Analyze Margaret Chase Smith’s "A Declaration of Conscience" speech.
• Identify the modes of appeal and the logical reasoning of the featured speeches.
• Identify both common and special topics used in these speeches, like cause and effect, testimony, justice and injustice, and comparison, and begin to recognize their use in other speeches.
• Identify examples from these speeches of logical fallacies including the either/or fallacy, the fallacy of affirming the consequent, the argument ad hominem, the argument ad populum, begging the question, the complex question, and the use of imprecise language.
• Discuss the importance of winning and keeping an audience’s trust and the pros and cons of attempting to tear down their confidence in an opponent.
• Define for yourself the definition of "extremist rhetoric," debate its use as a political tool.
• Consider the moral responsibilities of those who would seek to persuade others through language.

Presidential Rhetoric - John F. Kennedy and Ronald Reagan

• Discuss how the audience and the desired tone for a speech can influence diction (word choice).
• Compare the effects of using passive vs. active voice, and first-person vs. other tenses in a speech.
• Discuss the effectiveness of the use of symbolism in writing and speech.
• Define hyperbole, antimetabole, and polysyndeton, and identify when these devices might be appropriate and useful in terms of persuasion.
• Describe techniques for connecting with your audience, including storytelling and drawing on shared experience.

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James Engell

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Cambridge Festival of Ideas debate to examine the changing nature of political speeches.

Martin Luther King could get away with elevated language because his cause was a noble one. You can’t really do that when you are talking about the reform of local government. It just isn’t as big an affront to justice. Phil Collins

All eyes will be on Ed Miliband today and much has been written about the importance of his party conference speech.

But what makes a good political speech? Inevitably, Ed Miliband will be compared with Labour leaders of the past, particularly Tony Blair who was known for his persuasive powers. Phil Collins, who wrote many of Blair's speeches, says that great political speeches need a big event or a rallying cause and there are just less of them than there were in the past.

He will be speaking in a debate on political rhetoric at this year's Cambridge Festival of Ideas next month. Other speakers include David Runciman, reader in political thought at the University of Cambridge, author Piers Brendon, former Keeper of the Churchill Archives Centre and Michael White, the Guardian's political editor. The event will be held at Churchill College, Cambridge on October 20th.

For Collins, great political speeches need three key ingredients: a serious argument which leaves the audience thinking something new or resolved to act; great delivery that stirs the emotions as well as appealing to reason; and a sense of occasion.

He says: “Martin Luther King could get away with elevated language because his cause was a noble one. You can’t really do that when you are talking about the reform of local government. It just isn’t as big an affront to justice. So, there is a very good reason we have fewer remarkable speeches which is that we don’t need them as much as we did.”

Collins also justifies the use of sound bites, although he says he always worked by building a solid argument first and then trying to distil the best possible phrase out of the argument rather than the other way around. He says that not only are soundbites vital in a world where a 24/7 media edits chunks of speeches down to one phrase, but all the great writers are full of them. “We should guard against the derogatory association of the word soundbite,” he says. “All we mean, really, is a pithy way of capturing the essence of the point. To be or not to be – that really was the question. It was a soundbite too.”

He adds that the emphasis on soundbites is likely to increase. “The endless fragmentation that results from the coverage of modern media is the main reason that the soundbite has become such a ubiquitous part of political discourse. Your words are going to be chopped into pieces in any case so you might as well offer up the encapsulation you think is the best one.”

Collins says that one of the potential pitfalls of modern party conference speech is the number of people who vet it. “The big conference speeches have many authors, or at least many contributors,” he says.  “It is inevitable, when there are lots of hands at work, that the integrity of the argument goes missing. The task for a conference speech is always to recuperate the argument. The more a single person can be in overall control, as a sort of editor-in-chief, the better. Writing by committee is rarely a good way to work.”

Nevertheless, a good political speech can make all the difference. David Cameron owes his leadership of the Conservatives to two speeches, he says – one he gave which was well received and one given by his rival David Davis which “bombed”. He adds that it is hard to imagine Barack Obama would have become President without his oratory powers.

The audience is clearly vital for any speech writer and Collins says people's attention spans have declined, as has the breadth of their vocabulary and range of reference. Mass democracy means that references to  high culture divide an audience where they would once have united it, he says. There are also more political speeches than there used to be.

“Gladstone and Disraeli used to speak rarely every year. Each speech was an epic, months in the preparation, but they would not be doing speeches three times a week, as many politicians are now,” he says. “In the process, we have devalued the currency a little. The effective political speech, though, remains what it has always been – a mixture of reasoned argument and emotional passion.”

Other speakers at the Festival of Ideas debate will focus on the historical or wider issues associated with political speech-making. Piers Brendon, for instance, will talk about Churchill's use of political rhetoric, which he likens to the style of a music-hall performer, and contrast it with today's more colloquial, television-orientated and soundbiteish delivery.

• The event, to be held at Wolfson Theatre, Churchill College from 6-7.15pm on Thursday, 20 October, will be chaired by Allen Packwood, Keeper of the Churchill Archives Centre. Arrive at 5.30pm to see an exhibition of documents from the Centre.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Licence . If you use this content on your site please link back to this page.

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Inside The Art Of Political Speech Writing

Barack Obama has the chance to set a new standard for speech making when he accepts the Democratic nomination tonight. But just what goes into crafting a memorable political speech?

NPR's Tony Cox asks Susan Estrich, professor of law and political science at the University of Southern California and the former manager of Michael Dukakis' 1988 presidential campaign; Chriss Winston, the first woman to head the speech writing staff at the White House; and Charlton McIllwain, assistant professor of culture and communication at New York University.

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Obama's acceptance pledge: fix 'broken politics'.

The art of political speechwriting—from a former White House speechwriter

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The West Wing portrays speechwriting as a distinctive skill that requires Herculean efforts at breakneck speed. But, as the television show suggests, the position can also be particularly rewarding, affording the writer a front-row seat to history.

Alan Stone, who worked on President Bill Clinton’s first presidential campaign in 1992 and then in the White House as a speechwriter from 1993 to 1995, says the real-world experience is pretty similar. “Being part of memorable moments is fairly commonplace for a White House speechwriter, if for no other reason than your physical proximity to the moments that will live in history” noted Stone. “While you are aware of what is going on you are also extremely busy, so it is not often until much later that you realize the weight of the events you are part of.”

Stone, who is currently senior consultant for Northeastern University, wrote speeches on topics ranging from economics to social justice. He even got a line in Clinton’s first inaugural address.

[Watch Stone tell this story on our Facebook page .]

How did you get a job working as a speechwriter in the White House?

I was chief speechwriter for U.S. Senator Tom Harkin during his run for the Democratic nomination in the 1992 presidential election. After Harkin lost and Clinton got the nomination, someone from Clinton’s team called Harkin and said “We are staffing up. Can you recommend some of your senior people?”

I guess my name came up. And people kept saying to me “I hear the Clinton people are going to hire you.” There was even a mention of it in a local gossip column. But I hadn’t heard anything from the Clinton campaign.

I was in Los Angeles at the time and I did something very uncharacteristic; I called the Clinton campaign, asked for David Kusnet, Clinton’s head speechwriter, and asked him what was going on. He said, “I was just about to call you, I swear. When can you get here?”

I told him I didn’t really expect a job offer right then and I’d need to think about it. He responded, “We need you here in 24 hours.” So I packed up my Puegeot 504, with my old Mac, and some clothes, got on the road, and didn’t sleep until I arrived in Little Rock, Arkansas.

[ Hear Stone tell the story of his first encounter with Clinton on our Instagram page.]

What is speechwriting on a campaign like?

The stump speech is the pack mule of every campaign. It’s mostly low art with a bit of high art thrown in. I say low art because it gets repeated in basically the same form hundreds of times in any presidential race. It contains the core message and themes of the campaign as well as proven applause lines and critiques of your opponent. That framework gets adjusted for locale and issues. So, for example, you’d mention ethanol and price supports if the speech is given to a rural group. You always acknowledge local leaders. You try hard to add some local color and humor. But the scaffolding remains the same and these make up the bulk of campaign speechifying.

Be passionate about the issues. It will really help. Leave your ego at the door—your words are meant to be read by someone else. — Alan Stone

What, then, is the “high art” version of a campaign speech?

It’s a campaign speech of significant political consequence given to a critical audience. It requires much more work and craft than a stump speech.

Bill Clinton gave such a speech at the University of Notre Dame on Sept. 11, 1992. Just as is the case today, abortion was a hot-button issue at the time. And this was the first major speech Clinton gave after he was harshly attacked on “family values” by Pat Buchanan and others at the Republican National Convention.

Clinton spoke about the influence the Catholic social mission had had on him and how deeply his plans reflected those values. He talked about how the “religious war” Buchanan sought was antithetical to the values rooted in faith that most Americans have.

The audience was very tough on him that day. There were lots of catcalls and attempts to shout him down. But he stuck to his guns and met his goals, which were to connect to this traditional Democratic constituency, to frame his opponents as not in the mainstream of traditional values, and conversely to identify core Catholic values as those animating his proposals. This speech was beautifully drafted by Kusnet.

Do you think writing in a presidential campaign has changed?

Of course. All presidential campaigning is changing and communications is no exception. While stump speeches and more major speeches are obviously still important to campaigns, and free media is still coveted, and third-party or earned media is still the gold standard, social media is now playing an enormous and growing role in every campaign.

This is not my field of expertise, but I imagine at a minimum if a campaign is not great at using Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram to its advantage, it is in big trouble. Likewise, if a campaign is not good at assessing its engagement, sharing and networking, and making changes on the fly, it will be at a big disadvantage.

Do you have any advice for people who are interested in political speechwriting?

Be passionate about the issues. It will really help. Leave your ego at the door—your words are meant to be read by someone else. When you hear something you like, go back and study what worked for you. And steal the good stuff—the ideas not the words—because someone else has almost certainly stolen it before you.

As I’ve said, being part of memorable moments is oddly fairly commonplace for a White House speechwriter. For example, when the Oslo Accords were signed, in 1993, I was literally working only steps away. So the most memorable moments for me were ones that stood out for more personal reasons. The night we won, sitting at a pub in Little Rock feeling overcome with equal parts pride and exhaustion; meeting Rosa Parks at a speech in Los Angeles; flying back to Washington, D.C., on my last trip on Air Force One before beginning my new career, thinking about how overwhelming the experience had been and hoping time and reflection would help me understand it more. And it has.

What is it really like working in the White House? What happens behind the scenes?

It was the hardest work I have ever done, by far. The speeches need to be perfect, yet the process that went into them was often chaotic, with changing topics, delayed prep sessions, etc. The deadlines, however—they never moved. And the volume was relentless.

Was there a specific approach you took to writing speeches? A formula? Or was every one new and different?

You have to know the themes and messages of the moment—the stump. You need to know the audience and the goals of the speech. After that, I always tried to tell a story with a spine; I always looked for new data or a new anecdote to make my point; and I always tried to be positive in the sense of forward movement and looking toward the future. Finally, I always tried to end big. That’s about it. I hope I hit my goal more than I missed it, but that is a judgment for history.

Alan J. Stone, an attorney and writer, is president of Alan J. Stone Consulting, LLC. He currently resides in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

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What It's Really Like To Be a Political Speechwriter

Spoiler alert: it's nothing like The West Wing .

Few political staffers are lionized as much as the political speechwriter. You know the caricature: the rumpled hair, desk strewn with empty coffee cups, peering at a laptop screen searching for the perfect turn of phrase. Their struggle is real, but their gallant prose can bring a nation to its feet.

In reality, few speechwriters look like Sam Seaborn, or even his rubber-ball-throwing counterpart, Toby Ziegler . Rather than tortured wordsmiths who can afford to belabor every syllable, speechwriters have to deal with the same time constraints, bureaucracy, and petty office politics as any other drone in a political office.

Barton Swaim occupied that space for nearly four years as a speechwriter for Rep. Mark Sanford during his time as governor of South Carolina. When Swaim started working in Sanford's office, he knew he wanted to write a book about the political life — something funny, maybe a novel. Then the Appalachian Trail happened. Swaim's new book, The Speechwriter , chronicles his time in Sanford's office before and after the revelation that Sanford was having an affair with a woman in Argentina when he told his staff he was hiking.

When he first came to Sanford's office, Swaim, who has a Ph. D. in English, quickly learned that his writing was not up to the governor's snuff. One of Swaim's duties was transcribing Sanford's dictated letters to constituents, and he picked up the quirks of the governor's speech that way.

"I copied down a lot of his phrases and weird expressions, and I would just sprinkle everything I wrote with those expressions, whether they were appropriate or not," Swaim said.

Some of those phrases: "speaks volumes," "a whole host of," "in large measure," "pearls of wisdom," "unique," "fabulous," and especially "given the fact that." When giving a speech or discussing policy, Sanford would demand the writers give him three points, never two.

Sanford preferred to write his own speeches when he had the time, so Swaim was consigned to writing speeches for less-than-momentous occasions — the ground-breaking and ribbon-cutting ceremonies that take up much of a governor's face time with the public.

"I thought I was going to be this great speechwriter, stringing grand phrases together and soaring oratory and all this," Swaim said. "I was basically just coming up with cute things that you could say at a gathering of the National Square Dancing Society, or a grand opening at the Heinz factory. So, coming up with stories about ketchup."

Matt Latimer can sympathize. He became a speechwriter for then-Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld in 2004. He recalls receiving a "snowflake," one of Rumsfeld's infamous brief one-page notes, from the secretary on his writing preferences.

"One of my favorite snowflakes he sent me was, 'I never use the word "very." It is a very weak word,' " Latimer said.

In 2007, Latimer moved from the Pentagon to the White House to write speeches for President George W. Bush. This was in the late stages of Bush's presidency, when the Iraq War was going sideways and the economy was collapsing in on itself.

"It was less like Aaron Sorkin's The West Wing and more like The Office ," Latimer wrote in his 2009 book Speech-Less: Tales of a White House Survivor .

Like Swaim, Latimer often found himself frustrated with the layers of bureaucracy involved in writing more high-profile speeches, so he gravitated toward ceremonial speeches. One of the speeches Latimer is most proud of writing was when Bush presented the Congressional Gold Medal to members of the Tuskegee Airmen.

Here's an excerpt of that speech:

"I'm interested in a story about a young man who was so worried that the Army might change its mind about allowing him to fly that he drove immediately to the train station; he left his car as well as $1,000 worth of photography equipment. He never saw his car. He never saw his camera. But he became a flyer. These men in our presence felt a special sense of urgency. They were fighting two wars: one was in Europe, and the other took place in the hearts and minds of our citizens. That's why we're here."

It's a near-perfect blend of prose, research, anecdote, and commitment to the greater purpose of our country. And even Latimer, who by that point already felt some disenchantment toward his job, still recognized the importance of delivering all those elements — that Bush's audience deserved to hear something good.

Being a speechwriter is like being a novelist, only with more behind-the-scenes power and fewer accolades. The one thing being a speechwriter does not provide is fame — that is, until you leave your job and write a tell-all book about your old boss.

Swaim and Latimer are just two in a long tradition of political speechwriters turning toward more creative expressions of their craft. Peggy Noonan's book, What I Saw at the Revolution , chronicles her work as a speechwriter for President Reagan and Vice President George H.W. Bush. And Mark Salter, who wrote speeches for Sen. John McCain during his 2008 presidential run, was revealed as the anonymous author of O: A Presidential Novel in 2011.

When asked if he would ever want to work as a speechwriter again, Swaim — who now works as the communications director for the South Carolina Policy Council — chuckled. "Who would hire me?"

Correction: An earlier version of this story misstated the name of a speechwriter for Sen. McCain's 2008 campaign. His name is Mark Salter.

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January 20, 2012

How to write a (good) political speech.

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Often It's A Good Political Speech That Gets The Vote Out

Political speeches, for the most part, are forgettable . Except when they aren’t. If you’ve spent any time listening to the types of speeches that politicians are giving these days, they are basically junk ( the Phil Davison, GOP Candidate, Delivers Stark County Treasurer Speech on YouTube is a classic bad political speech ). The question is whose fault is this: the speech writers or the speech givers? I’m willing to bet that the art of writing a good political speech has been forgotten by far too many speechwriters. I’m going to solve that problem right now…

What Is Rhetoric?

Political speeches are a specialized form of speech. According to Wikipedia, rhetoric is the art of using language to communicate effectively and persuasively . What this means for us is that when we use rhetoric to create a political speech, we want the speech to accomplish a goal – convince an audience to vote our way.

If you want to dive in deeper to rhetoric , you can explore the three audience appeals: logos (reason), pathos (emotions), and ethos (knowledge). For our purposes here we’ll stick with the understanding that a good political speech needs to win over an audience no matter how you go about doing it.

What’s Wrong With Political Speeches Today?

Most speeches given by politicians today suffer from the same fatal flaw: they are completely forgettable . Exactly who’s fault this is has not been resolved: is it the speechwriter’s fault or the speech givers? No matter, both are probably partially to blame.

Where did things go wrong? Jeff Shesol who is a political speech writer believes that one of the reasons that political speeches have lost their punch is because of how speech writers are writing them.

He points out that it’s all too easy for political speech writers to focus on the sound bites that they hope will be captured out of a speech. In order to make this happen, they over use such tools as alliteration (repetition of a particular sound in the first syllables of a series of words and/or phrases: “economy, employment, empowerment”) and cliches (an expression, idea, or element of an artistic work which has been overused to the point of losing its original meaning or effect: “there’s no place like home”).

Even worse, too many speech writers / speakers believe that if they keep saying the same thing over and over again it will eventually become true . The reality is that the audience tunes out the speaker and the speech ends up being quickly forgotten.

What Does It Take To Write A Good Political Speech?

All of this negativity talking about political speeches might make you feel as though there is no hope – maybe it’s not possible to create a political speech that has an impact . The good news is that history shows us that this is not true. Churchill, Kennedy, Reagan, Clinton, etc. have shown us that political speeches can still change the world. They just have to be created the right way.

The first thing that you need to realize when you are sitting down to write a political speech is that the speech needs to have a point . What is the main goal: do you want the audience to take some action, vote a particular way, etc.? A political speech without a point is just a waste of everyone’s time.

Next, you had better take the time to organize your speech in a way that your audience will be able to follow what you are saying. Sure, you might believe that what you are asking them to do is the right thing, but if you don’t lay out your reasoning in a way that they can follow then they won’t come along for the ride.

Finally, and this may be the most important point of all, every single word in your speech must matter . This means that there can’t be any phrases that are in there just for filler or just to transition from one thought to another. Instead, ruthless editing is involved and every word that is not contributing to reaching the final goal needs to be chopped out and removed. Shesol points out that an excellent example of this is the speech that Bill Gates gave at the Davos meeting of the World Economic Forum in which he introduced “Creative Capitalism”.

What All Of This Means For You

At some time we are all called on to write a political speech. We may not be running for president, but perhaps we’re trying to get elected to the local school board. No matter, there are too many bad political speeches out there – we don’t want to contribute to this mess .

Instead, we want to write a good political speech . To do this we need to make sure that our speech has a very clear point to it. The speech will need to be well organized and every word in it will need to have a purpose for being there.

If we can craft a political speech that has these characteristics, then we will have created a very powerful communication tool . With tools like this, elections can be won and from there, the world can be changed.

Contact Blue Elephant Consulting

If you are interested in finding out more about how you and your team can improve how you give presentations using the Clear Blue Presentation System(tm) , get in contact with Blue Elephant Consulting in order to find out how a customized presentation, consulting or training program could be created to meet your unique needs.

Related posts:

• Just How Does One Create A Keynote Presentation?
• Give The Best Speech Of Your Life!
• Persuade An Audience Using 3 Secrets Used By Presenters
• 4 Things That You Should Never Talk About

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How to Write a Campaign Speech

Last Updated: December 28, 2023 Fact Checked

This article was co-authored by Lynn Kirkham . Lynn Kirkham is a Professional Public Speaker and Founder of Yes You Can Speak, a San Francisco Bay Area-based public speaking educational business empowering thousands of professionals to take command of whatever stage they've been given - from job interviews, boardroom talks to TEDx and large conference platforms. Lynn was chosen as the official TEDx Berkeley speaker coach for the last four years and has worked with executives at Google, Facebook, Intuit, Genentech, Intel, VMware, and others. This article has been fact-checked, ensuring the accuracy of any cited facts and confirming the authority of its sources. This article has been viewed 804,369 times.

A good campaign speech can persuade, excite, and motivate, compensating for weaknesses in other parts of the campaign. Although good speakers make it look natural, there are actually specific techniques you can use to make your own speeches more effective, techniques which apply to all manner of campaign speeches. Whether your speech is for a student election or governmental election, you can use these techniques to transform your speech into one everyone will be talking about.

Sample Speeches

Delivering Your Own Student Council Speech

• A lot of people get nervous when they give a speech, and when people get nervous they talk fast. But fast talkers seem untrustworthy. So if you get nervous, space out your words (literally, put five spaces in between each word on the page) to keep your speech measured.

• Don't go overboard with informality. You're asking to lead your peers, so they need to trust you can do that. Most people can't lead well, so to convince them you can lead well, your speech should also reflect that you're more capable than an average person. You need to strike a balance. Speak at a level just above the level of a typical conversation.

• Instead of: "We need to address the way we schedule our lunch breaks in a reasonable but fair way, because the way we do it now isn't fair to anyone."
• Try: "We have people eating lunch at 10:30 am. They're still serving breakfast at Burger King at 10:30! It doesn't make sense! By the time 2:00 rolls around, the early lunch kids are starving. There is a better way. We all know it."

Structuring a Campaign Speech

• So, if you’re talking to one classroom, don’t only talk to the classroom about a general problem the school has. Talk to the classroom about how that general problem affects them and how you can change it.
• For example, don’t say: “The breaks in between homeroom and first period aren’t long enough.” Say: “Everybody in homeroom has gotten at least one demerit for being late to first period. We can’t get all the way from North Campus to South Campus in time. Elect me as homeroom representative, and I won’t let the administration forget it.”

• The beginning needs to catch people’s attention and raise the questions you’re going to answer. The middle needs to provide the answers, and the end connects the answers back to the questions. In very simple terms: You tell them what you’re going to tell them. Then, you tell them. Then you tell them what you told them.

• Don’t say: “My name is Joe Blow, and I’m running for City Council. I’m a member of…”
• Instead, get right to it. Say: “Not a single person in this city thinks the parking situation on Main St. is adequate. No one.”
• There's a lot of ways to get this done. You can use a story, a challenge, a joke, or just vividly describe a problem. You just need to get the audience's attention quickly. Earn their attention, don't expect it to come to you.

• You want to have a good mix of facts, feelings, and action. If you only talk facts, your audience will get bored. Only talk feelings, and you’ll wear them out. Only talk action, and it invites disbelief, because you haven’t offered enough factual and emotional support for your argument.

• To continue with the parking example, don’t end your speech talking about the width and number of parking spaces on Main St. Make it bigger than that—something that makes them feel weaker for not supporting you and stronger for supporting you.
• “This isn’t just about parking spaces. The parking situation is just a symptom of everything that’s wrong with the Council in this city. We’ve asked. We’ve begged. We’ve done all we could. Now we have to send a message that they can’t just ignore us.” With this kind of appeal, you put the listener in a position where they are either a person who votes for you or a person who lets themselves be ignored. Most people will take the first choice.

Writing a Political Stump Speech

• Your speech needs a clear beginning, middle, and end.
• The beginning needs to hook the audience, you need to keep them interested through the middle, and the end should leave them nodding their heads in agreement, applauding and on their feet.

• Staying on message is about more than repeating yourself. Focus on a problem and then offer a solution. Say your issue is healthcare. That’s a multifaceted issue, so bring up specific problems, and offer specific solutions.
• For example, start by offering the problem: “Prescription drug costs are too high!” Give a few details or anecdotes to illustrate the magnitude of the problem, and then offer your solution: “And that’s why we’re going to negotiate directly with the drug companies to lower prices.”

• They are one of us and deserve our allegiance because they protect us.
• They are one of us and understand us because they have lived a life like mine.

• Emotional appeals can turn audiences against things for a simple reason: anger and fear are easy emotions to stimulate.
• For example, when a politician says: “The system is rigged! They think they’ve got you fooled, but I know different.” They are making an emotional appeal based on stoking the anger of the audience. When they imply that “they” think of the audience as fools, the speaker plays to the audience’s sense of ridicule. This infuriates the audience, turning the audience against “them.”

• For example, "Very few of us would argue with the proposition that 99/3=33. That’s because we’ve been logically convinced of its truth. There’s almost nothing a person could do to convince us otherwise, and therein lays the power of a logical appeal. However, it took us far longer to understand division than it did for us to feel anger or fear, or understand that we were part of a group."

• If your biggest appeal is associational, your argument is less about specific points than it is about you. Design your speech to emphasize your biography and why it makes you trustworthy. People elect a person, not a set of ideas.
• If your biggest appeal is emotional, keep your speech short, so that the audience doesn’t notice the logical flaws. Adjust your energy level to the audience's. If they're agitated, start slowly. If they’re bored, then start off at a higher energy level. Always work to an emotional crescendo, however. Never start at the emotional level you want to finish at.
• If your biggest appeal is logical, break up the facts with feeling. You can’t risk boring your audience to death, so you need to break up your logical propositions into bite-sized chunks. Think of it as the spoonful of sugar principle—a spoonful of sugar makes the medicine go down.

• If you will be speaking at a podium or beside a table, put your notes on a piece of paper or a notepad--not notecards. Very few people can shuffle notecards discretely enough to look professional while doing it.
• If you won’t have a podium and you must use notes, get your notes onto one notecard.

• Brevity is the soul of wit. No one is going to remember sixty word sentences. Since you are striving to be memorable, make sure to pepper your speech with short, punchy lines. You don’t want to sound like a limerick, but you do want to use alliteration, assonance, and rhythm to your advantage.
• For example, “Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country,” contains only nine unique words, with seven examples of alliteration.

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• ↑ Lynn Kirkham. Public Speaking Coach. Expert Interview. 20 November 2019.
• ↑ https://www.conversationagent.com/2018/04/writing-for-listening.html
• ↑ https://www.write-out-loud.com/student-council-speeches.html
• ↑ https://www.cam.ac.uk/research/news/what-makes-a-great-political-speech
• ↑ https://www.european-rhetoric.com/ethos-pathos-logos-modes-persuasion-aristotle/
• ↑ https://www.communicationcache.com/uploads/1/0/8/8/10887248/the_effects_of_anger_sadness_and_happiness_on_persuasive_message_processing-a_test_of_the_negative_state_relief_model.pdf

About This Article

If you’re writing a campaign speech, first outline a beginning that catches people’s attention and raises questions, a middle that provides answers, and an end that connects the answers back to the questions. Then, when you write, open by using a story, a joke, or a challenge to make your main point immediately. Use a mixture of facts, feelings, and actions to support your theme through the middle of the speech. Finally, write a conclusion that makes it clear what’s at stake, using strong, forceful language to convey your position. For more tips on writing a campaign speech, including writing a political stump speech, scroll down! Did this summary help you? Yes No

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Opinionator | the political speechwriter’s life.

The Political Speechwriter’s Life

Draft is a series about the art and craft of writing.

Kurt Vonnegut once wrote that “only nut cases want to be president.” But he helped me become a White House speechwriter. In 1965, Vonnegut was my adviser at the University of Iowa Writers’ Workshop, where I was studying fiction. One day, he said he could get me an assistantship, but I’d have to teach speech.

“I know nothing about speech,” I said.

He said something like: “Learn. It’s 1,800 bucks.”

In class, Kurt had annoyed some students by boiling all fiction down to a diagram: “Get someone in trouble. Get them out!” he would say. “Man-in-the-hole!”

Right, Kurt. But I was in a hole. $1,800 would help.

Next fall, as the Vietnam War was heating up, I stayed one chapter ahead of my students. When I decided that politics mattered to me just as much as writing novels, I’d learned enough to become a speechwriter. But wait! Isn’t speechwriting the sewage-filled, dumbed-down tributary of writing, designed to deceive and make inarticulate politicians seem smart?

No, because those charges fall far below even a half-truth. Political speechwriters trade the pleasure of writing under our own names for the power to help achieve policies we’re passionate about and, of course, help elect people who favor them. Democratic and Republican speechwriters may differ on the content of the speeches, but we agree on the value of the writing. This is why at midnight, in any political office, you find writers adding detail to a paragraph, compressing a sentence and trying to create the runs of antithesis that bring crowds to their feet.

When I write speeches, I’m influenced by novels. I use story to move listeners. I also plant something in the opening and bring it back at the end, the way Anton Chekhov advised (“If in the first act you have hung a pistol on the wall…”), and I search for illuminating details, as Joseph Conrad urged (“My task is to make you hear, to make you feel, and, above all, to make you see”). But this hectic, collaborative life is nothing like the novelist’s, especially when it comes to the nerve-jangling pressure to meet impossible deadlines.

Once, back in the ’90s, when I wrote for Representative David E. Bonior of Michigan, the Democratic House majority whip, he said he wanted to do a one-minute speech. Something about the economy, he said. It was 11:50. “When do you speak?” I asked. “12:02.”

I wrote a 150-word speech, called my mother to tell her if she turned on C-Span she’d see me on the House floor, ran up three flights and handed it to Mr. Bonior just as he was walking to the well.

It’s tough to do great work when your first draft is often your last. It also can be difficult to make someone sound like Moses addressing the Israelites when you announce a three-point plan for reducing the deficit. And it’s an art to write for a general American audience, which averages a seventh-grade reading level . It genuinely distresses some academics that politicians today speak many school grades below George Washington’s Farewell Address. But a few years back researchers gave us a sense of what that seventh-grade level means. They tested adult, English-speaking hospital patients on some common directions about health, like the idiomatic sentence “Do not take this medicine on an empty stomach.” Did patients understand it? More than 40 percent didn’t.

To speechwriters that means, don’t write sentences even that complex. You can’t hand your boss a speech saying, “It’s got all your ideas. But 40 percent of your audience won’t know what you’re talking about.” Luckily, English is a rich language. Without losing nuance you can say a lot with simple words — use, not utilize; now, not currently — and simple sentences.

Speechwriters must help maintain what Aristotle called ethos , or character. Voters cast ballots not just for candidates they agree with, but for those they like. Are they compassionate? Humble? Optimistic?

To convey likability, politicians can’t just point to problems. They need to propose solutions. Monroe’s Motivated Sequence, the five-step structure most popular in political speech, has problem solving at its core. The most meaningful part of writing in politics is the attempt to make terrible problems real to listeners. But once we do that it’s hard to convince people of our sometimes puny solutions.

Even if we do all of that well, we won’t please everyone. If a president announces that the United States will invade Iraq or that he favors same-sex marriage, you can’t expect those on the other side to appreciate your graceful turn of phrase.

In 1989 I wrote Senator Lloyd Bentsen’s Democratic response to President George Bush’s address to Congress. It’s impossible for someone sitting alone in a room facing a single camera to match the glitzy presence of a president in a packed House chamber. The next morning I complained to my wife: 39 million people had watched Mr. Bush, but as soon as Mr. Bentsen started, 11 million turned off the television. Well, she said, gently, 28 million listeners were about 300 times as many people as had read all my novels.

Much of what lures speechwriters is the prospect of reaching so many people about ideas we think so important — as Peggy Noonan did for Mr. Bush in 1989 (“thousand points of light”) ; Bob Shrum did for Edward M. Kennedy in 1980 (“the dream shall never die”); and Matt Scully did for Sarah Palin in 2008 (“If character is the measure in this election …”).

I have passed no bill, stopped no war, created no policy that would bring health insurance to a single person. But if we expect to see such results solely from our work, that dooms many to disappointment. There’s plenty to celebrate about being part of the team.

As a speechwriter in the House, Senate and White House, I wrote about 25,000 words a month — as much as three books each year. I cherish the four novels I wrote. But I am also proud that when Al Gore spoke at Nelson Mandela’s inauguration, he read my words. I’ve written a eulogy for Rosa Parks, speeches against a war I hated and for presidential candidates I loved. I’ve written about ways to educate children in the United States and to save the lives of children in Africa. At a Rose Garden event where Mr. Gore introduced President Bill Clinton, a photographer snapped a picture of Gore whispering to my son, “He wrote the president’s speech, too.”

So it would have been nice to tell Kurt how much more than 1,800 bucks I got out of his idea. He probably would have thought I put way too much faith in politics, though he would have been too nice to say it. If he picked up one of my speeches, would he have heard echoes of Conrad and Chekhov? Not likely.

But when he read through my problem-solution section he might have said what I now know is true of stories, speeches, speechwriting and, come to think of it, much of life. “Man-in-the-hole!!”

Robert Lehrman, who was the chief speechwriter for Vice President Al Gore, is the author of four novels and “The Political Speechwriter’s Companion” and teaches speechwriting at American University.

What's Next

The Helpful Information on How to Write a Political Speech.

If you want to become a class president, inform a city council about the inappropriate behavior of your neighbors, or present your theories in a scientist gathering, chances are you will be facing a political speech writing. It is quite a difficult task to determine the definition of political speech. We see it as a concern decision of political manner about some courses of action that people can argue about. When presenting a political speech, a writer tries to persuade somebody concerning some issues that the community, party, council, government, or country can influence. 

When writing a political speech, you should care about the following things.

• Don’t try only to explain things. Make sure to prove them with the stable facts or reasons that will fulfill your proposition; • When creating a draft version of your speech, think about the significant arguments you have provided. Will they also be interesting for other people? • When providing this type of speech do your best to be as precise as possible. The great thing will be to use data, quotations, examples from safe resources, and facts. • Do not forget that you will be given a set of questions from the audience concerning your speech. Think about possible questions and create the answers in advance. Make your answers constructive. It will definitely be appreciated by the listener. • When it comes to political speech, you can use logos, pathos, and symbols. This is a way to create a great impact. The symbolics will make it easy to trace the persuasiveness of your speech. The symbols are made to create emotional connections with the audience, show the credibility of the speaker, and support a logical argument visually. Moreover, when using symbols, you activate the visual memory. • Analyze the character of the language that you have used. Determine if the speech makes good use of words, check if the vocabulary is appropriate and if the speaker delivers the information memorably and vividly. Ask yourself a couple of questions: " Did I use figurative language correctly?", " Is the structure solid and correct?", " Does the topic stand the same ideas that the body of the speech?". • Think through the perfect note to end on. The conclusion is as important as the beginning. When making it right, you will be able to leave a great aftertaste and powerful impact. You can end your speech on a joyous note or with a quotation from a famous person.

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PPOG 635 Speech Writing for Candidates and Officeholders

• Course Description

Speech Writing for Candidates and Officeholders is a research and writing course instructing students in the drafting of comments, sound bites, and full campaign and policy speeches for use by candidates and office holders.

For information regarding prerequisites for this course, please refer to the  Academic Course Catalog .

Course Guide

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*The information contained in our Course Guides is provided as a sample. Specific course curriculum and requirements for each course are provided by individual instructors each semester. Students should not use Course Guides to find and complete assignments, class prerequisites, or order books.

Effective communication is the lifeblood of governance and the political and public policy processes. PPOG 635 introduces public policy students to the art and craft of writing speeches for political candidates and political officeholders. It is in this course that public policy students will begin learning to refine substantive policy ideas and to craft effective speeches of the kinds needed and demanded by today’s political leaders.

Course Assignment

Course requirements checklist.

After reading the Syllabus and Student Expectations , the student will complete the related checklist found in the Course Overview.

Discussions (4)

The student is required to provide a thread in response to the provided topic for each discussion. Each thread must be 400–500 words in length and demonstrate course-related knowledge. In addition to the thread, the student is required to reply to 2 other classmates’ threads. Each reply must be original and unique and should be 200–250 words.

Speech Review Assignments (2)

The student will be required to submit 2 short, 5-page Speech Review Assignments in this course. The papers must be written in current Turabian format, utilize and cite appropriate sources in sufficient quantity to justify the student’s position and/or conclusions, and should, in all other respects, accord with the standards of academic writing.

Candidate Announcement Speech Assignments

This assignment consists of 4 subsequent building assignments. This assignment places the student in the seat of a new speechwriter who has been assigned the task of crafting a candidacy announcement speech for a fictional political candidate. All information necessary to  compile all components of this assignment is provided in the “Candidate Announcement Speech Memorandum” document included in the Assignment Instructions folder of the course.

Opening Assignment

The student will compose an 400-600-word opening to effectively introduce the speaker and prepare the audience for the substance of the speech and present the speaker in the best light possible. In the opening the student must fully consider and effectively deal with political subtleties and practical ramifications of the communication, biases of the audience, opposition etc. This opening must be written in current Turabian format and citations are only necessary if attributed languages is borrowed from other sources.

Rough Draft Assignment

The student will compose an 1200-2000-word speech rough draft. This rough draft must persuasively and effectively introduce and establish the credibility of the candidate, effectively cast a vision for the candidate’s leadership, and announce the candidate’s candidacy. It is important that the speech rough draft consider and effectively deal with political subtleties and practical ramifications of the communication, biases of the audience, likely opposition, etc. This assignment must be written in current Turabian format and citations are only necessary if attributed languages is borrowed from other sources.

Final Draft Assignment

The student will compose an 1200-2000-word speech final draft. This rough draft must persuasively and effectively introduce and establish the credibility of the candidate, effectively cast a vision for the candidate’s leadership, and announce the candidate’s candidacy. It is important that the speech final draft consider and effectively deal with political subtleties and practical ramifications of the communication, biases of the audience, likely opposition, etc. As this is the final draft of the speech, it is important that the student incorporate feedback provided to the Rough Draft, to effectively incorporate the speechwriting concepts covered in the course, and polish all language to produce a high-quality final draft of the speech. This assignment must be written in current Turabian format and citations are only necessary if attributed languages is borrowed from other sources.

Press Release Assignment

The student will be required to submit 1 short, 1-page Press Release Assignment during the course. The Press Release must be written in the format of the Model Press Release, which will be provided to the student.

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The Political Speechwriter's Companion: A Guide for Writers and Speakers First Edition

There is a newer edition of this item:.

Other guides on public speaking focus on how to convey knowledge or understanding. While it is useful to master such informative speech, other goals and strategies are essential for a politician: publicity, for one. To communicate optimism, to rely on material written by others, to speak repeatedly, day in and day out. Above all, politicians need to persuade their audiences. They can use facts or appeal to values, but in the end, they must urge action. Politicians are advocates.

Robert Lehrman, former speechwriter for Vice President Al Gore, offers both speakers and writers the LAWS of political speech. He explains how speakers can deliver: • Language the audience will understand and remember, • Anecdotes that make listeners laugh and cry, • Wit that pokes fun at opponents but also shows their own lighter side, and • Support in the way of statistics, examples, and testimony.

With how-to guidance in each chapter―including annotated speeches―Lehrman shows how to apply the LAWS at every step, even providing an entire chapter on delivery. Lehrman also opens up his Rolodex to readers, interviewing speechwriting luminaries who offer up their best advice in a "Behind the Scenes" feature. "As Delivered" boxes point to Web links for watching notable speeches, while a handy "Speechwriter’s Checklist" concludes every chapter.

• ISBN-10 1604265493
• ISBN-13 978-1604265491
• Edition First Edition
• Publisher CQ Press
• Publication date October 28, 2009
• Language English
• Dimensions 6 x 0.75 x 8.75 inches
• Print length 293 pages
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• Publisher ‏ : ‎ CQ Press; First Edition (October 28, 2009)
• Language ‏ : ‎ English
• Paperback ‏ : ‎ 293 pages
• ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1604265493
• ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1604265491
• Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.1 pounds
• Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6 x 0.75 x 8.75 inches
• #374 in Public Speaking Reference
• #451 in Nationalism (Books)
• #994 in Journalism Writing Reference (Books)

About the author

Robert lehrman.

As a student at the University of Iowa's Writer's Workshop in the 1960's, Bob Lehrman studied with then-unknown novelist, Kurt Vonnegut. One day Vonnegut told Bob he could have an assistantship but he'd have to teach speech.

"I know nothing about speech," Lehrman said.

"You better learn," Vonnegut said. "It pays 1800 bucks."

Chastened, Lehrman took Vonnegut's advice, stayed a chapter ahead of his students, and when he went into politics, knew how speeches were made.

Since then, this novelist, teacher, journalist, and speechwriter has spent over four decades writing speeches. He served as Chief Speechwriter to Vice President Al Gore and, in 2004, as Chief Speechwriter for the Democratic National Committee. As a speechwriter he has written for political figures, celebrities, actors, heads of nonprofits, and corporate CEOs, including those from Fannie Mae, Texaco, and Pfizer.

He wrote the first edition of The Political Speechwriter's Companion, published in 2009, and collaborated on the second edition with his longtime co-teacher, colleague, and friend, Eric Schnure.

He also teaches the subject. As an adjunct professor, Lehrman has taught speechwriting and public speaking at American University for two decades, as well as at Johns Hopkins and George Washington University.

It was at AU that he created the political speechwriting course he and Professor Schnure teach, which won him AU's 2010 University Faculty Award for Outstanding Teaching in an Adjunct Appointment.

Lehrman speaks about speech often at other campuses, conferences, and associations, and appears often on TV. He's lectured and led speechwriting workshops in the U.S. and around the world, including countries like Australia, South Korea, and Vietnam.

With a B.A. from Tufts University, Lehrman also has an M.F.A. from the University of Iowa’s Writers’ Workshop, where he studied with Vonnegut and Richard Yates. He has written on politics for the New York Times, Washington Post, The Hill, CNN.com, and many other publications, including a series of widely read cover stories for the Christian Science Monitor.

In an earlier part of his career, Lehrman published four novels, including the highly praised Defectors (Morrow, 1988), and two award-winning novels for young adults: Juggling, an ALA Best Book for 1982, and The Store That Mama Built, one of three finalists for the National Jewish Book Award for young adults. In 2012 he entered Narrative Magazine's winter short-story contest and won first prize in that widely read literary journal.

Born in New York, Lehrman is married to Congressional Research Service analyst, Dr. Susan Thaul. They have two children, Eric and Michael, both in the film and TV industry in Los Angeles, and two grandchildren, Theo and Miles.

Lehrman ran track and played soccer in high school and college. These days he plays table tennis, where he loses regularly in tournaments--but holds his own against the table tennis robot installed in his garage.

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There's Now an A.I. That Can Write Political Speeches

By anna green | jan 27, 2016.

Artificial intelligence systems have produced everything from Friends screenplays to full-length musicals  (the latter with a little human intervention). And now, an A.I. system has taken on politics. Created by a team of researchers at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, the system uses a range of methods, including n-grams and recurrent neural networks to generate political speeches [ PDF ]. 

The researchers claim that the system can not only generate coherent speeches, but that it can be made to argue a supporting or opposing opinion, and adjusts its rhetoric depending on which political party it is writing for. “Many political speeches show the same structures and same characteristics regardless of the actual topic,” writes researcher Valentin Kassarnig. “The goal is to generate speeches where no one can tell the difference to hand-written speeches.”

To that end, the team had their system analyze more than 4000 speeches delivered during U.S. Congressional floor debates. Using the vocabulary, grammatical structures, and rhetorical flourishes it observed, the system began generating its own speeches. The results were surprisingly coherent: While many A.I. systems can mimic human writing for a few words or sentences at a time, their creations rarely make much sense when read as a whole. That the political speech generator created reasonably logical speeches is a testament to the Amherst team’s sophisticated design—and throws into sharp relief just how formulaic political speeches can be. Check out a sample from the report below:

Mr. Speaker, for years, honest but unfortunate consumers have had the ability to plead their case to come under bankruptcy protection and have their reasonable and valid debts discharged. The way the system is supposed to work, the bankruptcy court evaluates various factors including income, assets and debt to determine what debts can be paid and how consumers can get back on their feet. Stand up for growth and opportunity. Pass this legislation.

[h/t: Futurity ]

MIT Technology Review

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How an AI Algorithm Learned to Write Political Speeches

• Emerging Technology from the arXiv archive page

“Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country.” —John F. Kennedy, 1961

When it comes to political speeches, great ones are few and far between. But ordinary political speeches, those given in U.S. congressional floor debates, for example, are numerous.

They are also remarkably similar. These speeches tend to follow a standard format, repeat similar arguments, and even use the same phrases to indicate a particular political affiliation or opinion. It’s almost as if there is some kind of algorithm that determines their content.

That raises an interesting question. Is it possible for a machine to write these kinds of political speeches automatically?

Today, we get an answer thanks to the work of Valentin Kassarnig at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, who has created an artificial intelligence machine that has learned how to write political speeches that are remarkably similar to real speeches.

The approach is straightforward in principle. Kassarnig used a database of almost 4,000 political speech segments from 53 U.S. Congressional floor debates to train a machine-learning algorithm to produce speeches of its own.

These speeches consist of over 50,000 sentences each containing 23 words on average. Kassarnig also categorized the speeches by political party, whether Democrat or Republican, and by whether it was in favor or against a given topic.

Of course, the devil is in the details of how to analyze this database. Having tried a number of techniques, Kassarnig settled on an approach based on n-grams, sequences of “n” words or phrases. He first analyzed the text using a parts-of-speech approach that tags each word or phrase with its grammatical role (whether a noun, verb, adjective, and so on).

He then looked at 6-grams and the probability of a word or phrase appearing given the five that appear before it. “That allows us to determine very quickly all words which can occur after the previous five ones and how likely each of them is,” he says.

The process of generating speeches automatically follows from this. Kassarnig begins by telling the algorithm what type of speech it is supposed to write—whether for Democrats or Republicans. The algorithm then explore the 6-gram database for that category to find the entire set of 5-grams that have been used to start one of these speeches.

The algorithm then chooses one of these 5-grams at random to start its speech. It then chooses the next word from all those that can follow this 5-gram. “Then the system starts to predict word after word until it predicts the end of the speech,” he says.

There are few tricks along the way, of course. The algorithm knows, for example, the probability that a particular topic will appear in a speech. It then chooses topics by working out what other topics the speech already contains and determining how well these are being covered.

The results are surprisingly good. Here is an example of an automatically generated Democratic speech:

“Mr. Speaker, for years, honest but unfortunate consumers have had the ability to plead their case to come under bankruptcy protection and have their reasonable and valid debts discharged. The way the system is supposed to work, the bankruptcy court evaluates various factors including income, assets and debt to determine what debts can be paid and how consumers can get back on their feet. Stand up for growth and opportunity. Pass this legislation.”

That’s impressive given that there is no training involved other than the initial parts of speech tags, the 6-gram analysis of the political speech database and a little bit of magic sauce. Kassarnig has evaluated these speeches against criteria such as grammatical correctness, sentence transition and speech structure and content and found that they generally perform well. “In particular, the grammatical correctness and the sentence transitions of most speeches were very good,” he says.

Nevertheless, Kassarnig is not optimistic about his algorithm’s chances of taking the political stage by storm. “Despite the good results it is very unlikely that these methods will be actually used to generate speeches for politicians,” he says, presumably because the kind of unscrupulous politician who might exploit his algorithm is so rare (cough).

However, the algorithm could be used to generate other kinds of texts. Kassarnig suggests that it could produce news stories, given other stories on the same incident. Another option could be to produce blog posts about arXiv papers, given a large database of similar stories (ahem).

And he encourages anybody to have a go, say that all of his source code is available on GitHub ( https://github.com/valentin012/conspeech ). “We explicitly encourage others to try using, modifying and extending it,” he says. “Feedback and ideas for improvement are most welcome.”

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GOP advances Garland contempt charges after White House exerts executive privilege over Biden audio

The White House has blocked the release of audio from President Joe Biden’s interview with a special counsel about his handling of classified documents, arguing Thursday that Republicans in Congress only wanted the recordings “to chop them up” and use them for political purposes.

Two House committees moved ahead with contempt charges against Attorney General Merrick Garland for refusing to turn over audio from Pres. Biden’s interview with a special counsel, after the White House’s decision to block release of the recording.

Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, speaks during the House Judiciary Committee markup hearing to hold Attorney General Merrick Garland in contempt of Congress, Thursday, May 16, 2024, on Capitol Hill in Washington. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

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FILE - Attorney General Merrick Garland speaks during the 36th Annual Candlelight Vigil to honor the law enforcement officers who lost their lives in 2023, in Washington, on May 13, 2024. House Republicans are set to advance contempt of Congress charges against Garland for his refusal to turn over unredacted audio of a special counsel interview with President Joe Biden. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana, File)

President Joe Biden, right, sitting next to Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, left, speaks at the beginning of his meeting with the Combatant Commanders in the Cabinet Room of the White House in Washington, Wednesday, May 15, 2024, before hosting them for a dinner. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

President Joe Biden speaks at a memorial service to honor law enforcement officers who’ve lost their lives in the past year, during National Police Week ceremonies at the Capitol in Washington, Wednesday, May 15, 2024. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-Calif., speaks during the House Judiciary Committee markup hearing to hold Attorney General Merrick Garland in contempt of Congress, Thursday, May 16, 2024, on Capitol Hill in Washington. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

Rep. Hank Johnson, D-Ga., speaks during the House Judiciary Committee markup hearing to hold Attorney General Merrick Garland in contempt of Congress, Thursday, May 16, 2024, on Capitol Hill in Washington. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

Rep. Jeff Van Drew, R-N.J., speaks during the House Judiciary Committee markup hearing to hold Attorney General Merrick Garland in contempt of Congress, Thursday, May 16, 2024, on Capitol Hill in Washington. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

Rep. Glenn Ivey, D-Md., speaks during the House Judiciary Committee markup hearing to hold Attorney General Merrick Garland in contempt of Congress, Thursday, May 16, 2024, on Capitol Hill in Washington. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

WASHINGTON (AP) — Two House committees moved ahead Thursday with contempt charges against Attorney General Merrick Garland for refusing to turn over audio from President Joe Biden’s interview with a special counsel , advancing the matter after the White House’s decision to block the release of the recording earlier in the day.

In back-to-back hearings that nearly spilled into early Friday, the House Judiciary and Oversight and Accountability committees voted along party lines to advance an effort to hold Garland in contempt of Congress for not turning over the records. But the timing of any action by the full House, and the willingness of the U.S. attorney’s office to act on the referral, remained uncertain.

“The department has a legal obligation to turn over the requested materials pursuant to the subpoena,” Rep. Jim Jordan, the GOP chairman of the Judiciary Committee, said during the hearing. “Attorney General Garland’s willful refusal to comply with our subpoena constitutes contempt of Congress.”

The rapid sequence of events Thursday further inflamed tensions between House Republicans and the Justice Department, setting the stage for another round of bitter fighting between the two branches of government that seemed nearly certain to spill over into court.

If House Republicans’ efforts against Garland are successful, he will become the third attorney general to be held in contempt of Congress. The White House slammed Republicans in a letter earlier Thursday, dismissing their efforts to obtain the audio as purely political.

“The absence of a legitimate need for the audio recordings lays bare your likely goal — to chop them up, distort them, and use them for partisan political purposes,” White House counsel Ed Siskel wrote in a scathing letter to House Republicans ahead of scheduled votes by the two House committees to refer Garland to the Justice Department for the contempt charges.

“Demanding such sensitive and constitutionally-protected law enforcement materials from the Executive Branch because you want to manipulate them for potential political gain is inappropriate,” Siskel added.

Garland separately advised Biden in a letter made public Thursday that the audio falls within the scope of executive privilege, which protects a president’s ability to obtain candid counsel from his advisers without fear of immediate public disclosure and to protect confidential communications relating to official responsibilities.

The attorney general told reporters that the Justice Department has gone to extraordinary lengths to provide information to the committees about special counsel Robert Hur’s investigation, including a transcript of Biden’s interview with Hur. But, Garland said, releasing the audio could jeopardize future sensitive and high-profile investigations. Officials have suggested handing over the tape could make future witnesses concerned about cooperating with investigators.

AP AUDIO: White House blocks release of Biden’s special counsel interview audio, says GOP is being political

Speaking with reporters, Attorney General Merrick Garland says the audio from President Biden’s special counsel interview that Republicans have requested will not be released.

“There have been a series of unprecedented and frankly unfounded attacks on the Justice Department,” Garland said. “This request, this effort to use contempt as a method of obtaining our sensitive law enforcement files is just most recent.”

The Justice Department warned Congress that a contempt effort would create “unnecessary and unwarranted conflict,” with Assistant Attorney General Carlos Uriarte saying, “It is the longstanding position of the executive branch held by administrations of both parties that an official who asserts the president’s claim of executive privilege cannot be held in contempt of Congress.”

Siskel’s letter to lawmakers comes after the uproar from Biden’s aides and allies over Hur’s comments about Biden’s age and mental acuity, and it highlights concerns in a difficult election year over how potentially embarrassing moments from the lengthy interview could be exacerbated by the release, or selective release, of the audio.

Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson slammed the White House’s move, accusing Biden of suppressing the tape because he’s afraid to have voters hear it during an election year.

“The American people will not be able to hear why prosecutors felt the President of the United States was, in Special Counsel Robert Hur’s own words, an ‘elderly man with a poor memory,’ and thus shouldn’t be charged,” Johnson said the during a press conference on the House steps.

House Democrats defended Biden’s rationale during the back-to-back hearings on Thursday, citing the massive trove of documents and witnesses who have been made available to Republicans as part of their more than yearlong probe into Biden and his family.

Rep. Jerry Nadler, the top Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, said on Thursday that Republicans want to make it seem like they’ve uncovered wrongdoing by the Justice Department.

“In reality, the Attorney General and DOJ have been fully responsive to this committee in every way that might be material to their long dead impeachment inquiry,” the New York lawmaker said. “Sometimes, they have been too responsive, in my opinion, given the obvious bad faith of the MAGA majority.”

The contempt effort is seen by Democrats as a last-ditch effort to keep Republicans’ impeachment inquiry into Biden alive, despite a series of setbacks in recent months and flailing support for articles of impeachment within the GOP conference.

A transcript of the Hur interview showed Biden struggling to recall some dates and occasionally confusing some details — something longtime aides say he’s done for years in both public and private — but otherwise showing deep recall in other areas. Biden and his aides are particularly sensitive to questions about his age. At 81, he’s the oldest-ever president , and he’s seeking another four-year term.

At a news conference, House Speaker Mike Johnson says the American people will not get to hear the president’s special counsel interview.

Hur, a former senior official in the Trump administration Justice Department , was appointed as a special counsel in January 2023 following the discovery of classified documents in multiple locations tied to Biden.

Hur’s report said many of the documents recovered at the Penn Biden Center in Washington, in parts of Biden’s Delaware home, and in his Senate papers at the University of Delaware were retained by “mistake.”

However, investigators did find evidence of willful retention and disclosure related to a subset of records found in Biden’s Wilmington, Delaware, house, including in a garage, an office and a basement den.

The files pertain to a troop surge in Afghanistan during the Obama administration that Biden had vigorously opposed. Biden kept records that documented his position, including a classified letter to Obama during the 2009 Thanksgiving holiday. Some of that information was shared with a ghostwriter with whom he published memoirs in 2007 and 2017.

Associated Press reporters Zeke Miller and Eric Tucker in Washington contributed.

Landmark Texas, Florida social media cases added to Supreme Court term

The justices announced Friday which cases they will add to their calendar for the term that begins Monday

The Supreme Court said Friday it would wade into the future of free speech online and decide whether to allow laws passed in Texas and Florida that would restrict social media companies from removing certain political posts or accounts.

The justices’ decision to take the landmark social media cases came in an order that also added 10 other cases to the calendar for the Supreme Court term that begins Monday. The additional cases concern the FBI’s “no-fly” list, individual property rights and the ability of criminal defendants to confront witnesses against them, among other matters.

Earlier this year, the high court said it would tackle issues in the coming term involving gun regulations , voting rights and the power of federal agencies. As they prepare to begin hearing oral arguments, the justices are facing intense pressure from Democratic lawmakers to address ethics issues confronting some of their colleagues, including potential conflicts in some of the cases.

Tech industry groups, whose members include Facebook and Google’s YouTube, asked the court to block Texas and Florida laws passed in 2021 that regulate companies’ content-moderation policies. The companies say the measures are unconstitutional and conflict with the First Amendment by stripping private companies of the right to choose what to publish on their platforms.

The court’s review of those laws will be the highest-profile examination to date of allegations that Silicon Valley companies are illegally censoring conservative viewpoints. Those accusations reached a fever pitch when Facebook, Twitter and other companies suspended then-President Donald Trump’s accounts in the wake of the Jan. 6 , 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.

The justices’ ruling could have significant implications for the future of democracy and elections, as Americans increasingly rely on social media to read and discuss political news. It could also have wide-ranging effects for policymakers in Congress and statehouses around the country as they attempt to craft new laws governing social media and misinformation.

As Congress has remained deadlocked on those issues, states are playing a larger role in governing digital privacy, artificial intelligence and social media. Democrats largely have argued that the companies are not doing enough to root out hate speech and other harmful content online, and they have passed laws in California and New York to force greater transparency of the companies’ rules and decisions.

“There are really fundamental questions here about how to fit these new technologies with this old law that were always going to come due,” said Evelyn Douek, an assistant professor at Stanford Law School.

Appeals court judges, all nominated by Republican presidents, have issued conflicting rulings on a state’s authority to restrict a business’s ability to select, edit and arrange content that appears on its social media platform.

The Biden administration urged the Supreme Court to take the social media cases and to prevent the Texas and Florida laws from taking effect.

“The act of culling and curating the content that users see is inherently expressive, even if the speech that is collected is almost wholly provided by users,” U.S. Solicitor General Elizabeth B. Prelogar told the justices. “And especially because the covered platforms’ only products are displays of expressive content, a government requirement that they display different content — for example, by including content they wish to exclude or organizing content in a different way — plainly implicates the First Amendment.”

The First Amendment generally protects against government infringement on speech. Courts have also held that private companies, including newspapers and broadcasters, have the right to control the speech they publish and disseminate. That includes the right of editors not to publish something they don’t want to publish.

The Texas law, signed by Gov. Greg Abbott (R), allows state residents and the attorney general to sue large social media companies if they believe they were unfairly banned or censored from a platform. A similar Florida law would penalize social media companies for blocking a politician’s posts.

Last spring, in a 5-4 vote, the Supreme Court prevented the Texas law from taking effect while the litigation continues.

“Social media platforms have transformed the way people communicate with each other and obtain news,” Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. wrote in a dissent to that ruling, which was joined by fellow conservative justices Clarence Thomas and Neil M. Gorsuch. “At issue is a groundbreaking Texas law that addresses the power of dominant social media corporations to shape public discussion of the important issues of the day.”

Alito added: “It is not at all obvious how our existing precedents, which predate the age of the internet, should apply to large social media companies.”

Liberal justice Elena Kagan also dissented from the majority ruling but did not provide an explanation.

The court is increasingly reckoning with the future of social media. Earlier this year, the court declined to weigh in on a controversial internet law at the center of the debate over social media regulation, part of a high-profile case that focused on whether social media companies should be liable when their algorithms promote harmful content. The Biden administration has also asked the justices to weigh in on a lower-court ruling that restricts the White House, FBI and key public health agencies from coercing social media companies to remove or suppress posts.

In some ways, the cases are thrusting the court into unfamiliar terrain.

“We’re a court. We really don’t know about these things. You know, these are not like the nine greatest experts on the internet,” Kagan said during oral arguments in February in the Gonzalez v. Google case, over the companies’ responsibility for terrorist attacks.

Jeff Kosseff, an associate professor of cybersecurity law at the United States Naval Academy, said the Supreme Court has “no choice” but to increasingly take on cases about the future of online speech.

“As you’ve had the internet playing an increasingly central role in life, and platforms playing an increasingly central in life, it’s raising all of these questions where we don’t have clear answers,” he said. “It’s their job to give clear answers.”

Tech trade groups Netchoice and the Computer & Communications Industry Association argue that if the laws take effect, they could make it legally risky for tech companies to remove violent, hateful or indecent content. But leaving the content online could lead to user and advertiser boycotts of the services, the companies say.

The CCIA, which represents Meta, X and Google, called the decision to review the laws “encouraging.” “It is high time that the Supreme Court resolves whether governments can force websites to publish dangerous content,” CCIA president Matt Schruers said in a statement. “Telling private websites they must give equal treatment to extremist hate isn’t just unwise, it is unconstitutional, and we look forward to demonstrating that to the Court.”

Kylie Mason, a spokeswoman for Florida attorney general Ashley Moody (R), said the state government was also “pleased” that the Supreme Court took up the case. “ … We look forward to defending our social media law that protects Floridians,” she said in an email.

Legal experts say it is difficult to predict how the courts will rule in the social media cases. Even though the laws were passed by Republican politicians, questions about their constitutionality could conflict with long-standing conservative judicial philosophy, Douek said.

“This is one of the few areas of constitutional litigation where the stakes are extremely high, but the political breakdown or what the court’s going to do is still extremely uncertain,” she said.

In the case involving the FBI’s “no-fly” list , which the government maintains to prevent terrorism suspects from boarding airplanes, the Biden administration asked the court to reverse a ruling from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit. That ruling said an Oregon man’s challenge to his placement on the list could proceed even though the government had removed him from the list seven years ago and had submitted a sworn declaration stating that the man “will not be placed on the No Fly List in the future based on the currently available information.”

The high court will also review a case involving the right of property owners to sue the government for compensation when private land is taken for public use. A group of more than 70 landowners in Texas sued the state after they claimed that a highway construction project caused widespread flooding of their land. The project, designed to keep part of the road open during heavy rainfall, caused the other side to flood, along with the adjacent land, according to the property owners.

The floods turned farms into lakes, destroying crops and killing animals, according to the Institute for Justice, a nonprofit civil liberties group representing the landowners. The group is asking the Supreme Court to reverse a ruling from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit that sided with the state and held that claims could not proceed because Congress did not pass a law allowing citizens to sue.

“Texas’s refusal to pay for the damage it caused has been a gross violation of our rights,” Richie DeVillier, one of the affected property owners, said in a statement. “It’s not just about us, it’s about all property owners, and the fundamental principles of responsibility and fairness.”

Texas attorneys told the court that the state is protected from liability and is not to blame for flooding during major storms in 2017 and 2019.

In another case the court accepted Friday, the justices agreed to consider the right of criminal defendants to confront expert witnesses at trial.