From a 1995 Guest Lecture and Question and Answer session at American University, rebroadcast in 2006 on C-SPAN 3.
Theodore C. Sorensen’s 7 Rules for Speechwriting.
I watched it twice, and transcribed as best I could. The material and references are too good to let slide, so please forgive the informality and lack of polish of my diary--I am disabled and can't keep up a normal pace.
- Less is always more
Short words, short phrases, short speeches
He really likes the little book by Strunk. [Sorensen must mean: “The Elements of Style “
by William Strunk Jr ] Strunk’s main point = Omit unnecessary words.
[To quote Strunk:
Omit needless words.
Vigorous writing is concise. A sentence should contain no unnecessary words, a paragraph no unnecessary sentences, for the same reason that a drawing should have no unnecessary lines and a machine no unnecessary parts. This requires not that the writer make all his sentences short, or that he avoid all detail and treat his subjects only in outline, but that every word tell.
http://www.bartelby.com/...
For example:
Winston Churchill, radio broadcast, darkest days of world war two. Began not with elaborate statement to put his message in context, or soften the blow. Began with one sentence: “The news from France is very bad.”
You can’t improve on that. It says volumes.
Churchill’s broadcast, fuller quotation, in context:
- Choose each WORD as a precision tool. Listen to how it sounds (not how it reads...not an article or book)
make sure easy for speaker to pronounce and listener to understand. Basically clear.
- Organize the text to clarify, simplify...Always have an outline. Paragraphs, sections that are numbered (that you use or not in the speech). Logical, cohesive,...thematic....Series...Begin often with the first five or six words to make people understand we are moving on to another point. That kind of repetition can help.
- Many people can contribute, suggest. But only one person can write the speech.
- Rhetorical devices. To reinforce the memorability of the speech; not to distract...
You can use humor, poetry (short quotations from poetry), quotations (Bible or other)..alliteration, repetition, words that rhyme....Have a strong ending-- whether a story, a quotation, a note (Ex. Houston speech by Kennedy closes with quoting the oath of president).
[ADDRESS TO SOUTHERN BAPTIST LEADERS (1960)
John F. Kennedy
http://usinfo.state.gov/...
ends with:
“If I should lose on the real issues, I shall return to my seat in the Senate satisfied that I tried my best and was fairly judged.
But if this election is decided on the basis that 40,000,000 Americans lost their chance of being President on the day they were baptized, then it is the whole nation that will be the loser in the eyes of Catholics and non-Catholics around the world, in the eyes of history, and in the eyes of our own people.
But if, on the other hand, I should win this election, I shall devote every effort of mind and spirit to fulfilling the oath of the Presidency -- practically identical, I might add with the oath I have taken for fourteen years in the Congress. For, without reservation, I can, and I quote "solemnly swear that I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States and will preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution so help me God."
Source: New York Times, September 13, 1960.]
- Use an elevated tone (but not elaborate, flowery, or condescending...) no slang, no tired cliches, hackneyed phrases, corny, folksy, or other .......Instead, use graceful language, “King’s English”, declarative sentences. (NOT “maybe we’ll do this”, “we suggest that” , “probably the other”)
Say: We shall, we shall not....
- Substantive ideas are more important than applause line. It is the substance, ideas, content that makes speeches great; not the generalities.
More tips:
Statistics can be hard to grasp. Know the audience, know how much they know, know if they support what you’re going to say...Build BRIDGES with them..
Have a single coherent theme or small number of themes that emerge from the speech. That doesn’t mean a slogan or a catch phrase. JFK developed, from acceptance speech, “New Frontier” but he didn’t overuse it, he built up to it...new ideas, experiment..................
“The World’s Great Orations.” Book Sorensen gave JFK for Xmas early in their collaborations. Study the great speeches is a good way to learn speechwriting. Olson would give JFK examples...
[Does he mean the series of great orations edited by William Jennings Bryan “The World's Famous Orations”?]
Sorensen recommends other JFK speeches (for students to study): Am Univ. speech reexamining Cold War. TV address all forms of discrimination and segregation was a more important speech. Speech on TV that Soviets had missiles in Cuba was a more sensitive speech.
Ex. of Houston speech on religion. (campaign issue). Had to be done. But not to call people bigots.
Rev. Norman Vincent Peale said he thought it would be different society if Catholic President elected (JFK said, I’d like to think he was complimenting me but I don’t think he was). Not just red-neck but in finest high society they found hate-filled opponents to Catholic President. Also, people did have some real questions, appropriate questions about it. JFK disagreed with his church on divorce, aid to public schools, population control and other issues and he tried to explain that he differed with his church on some policies. (people still were afraid a Catholic President would take instructions from the Pope).
Speech in Houston...Preparing for it. JFK asked Sorensen to find out how many Catholics had died at The Alamo.
Researcher came back with answer that he struck out, information doesn’t exist. Can give names of who died...Irish, Hispanic...maybe they were Catholic, but no record of their religion. Sorensen turned it to a positive....Along side Bowie, Crockett ....died (Irish, Hispanic names)....but nobody knows whether they were Catholics.....
Other people looked at the speech beforehand. A Liberal on church-state issues clergy man helped edit the speech to make sure no language that would be offensive to the audience.
Sorensen says he never wrote any of JFK’s speeches; he only helped, worked with him. JFK’s ideas, JFK worked on them until the last minute. JFK would fall if speeches failed. These are HIS speeches.
Houston audience was cold, tense...tired of being called bigots for not supporting a Catholic President.
Response? Reasonable people there felt they had their reasonable questions answered by the speech.
Protestant, Catholic organizations still refer to the speech.
Inaugural Address. 1961. In Sorensen’s book “Kennedy,” he writes about how the speech was written....drew from earlier speeches in his campaign. Many drafts, edits. Had to get it right. Each audience...Americans, our allies, esp. Latin America, our foes, new countries emerging, UN.
A few weeks earlier Khrushchev had made a speech urging revolutions all over the world.
JFK reached out to say to Moscow, let’s cooperate....use science to help mankind, explore, conquer poverty and disease.
Adlai Stevenson, Chester Bowles, others were asked to contribute suggestions and paragraphs.
Walter Lippman edited, suggested “foe” for enemy (not as harsh).
Ken Galbraith suggested that “Joint venture” sounds like mining companies. Changed to something like cooperative ventures.
No teleprompter in those days. JFK never memorized the speeches but was familiar enough with it that he could look down to read or refer to speech, but not lose eye contact.....(for long).
Q and A. from students.
Sorensen said his advantage was that he wasn’t a speechwriter. He was JFK’s counsel. Sorensen was in the room when decisions were made, heard arguments, understood which facts were most relevant to JFK’s decision. A great speech reflects great decisions. After 8 years (in Senate, etc.) with JFK, Sorensen knew his ideas....Could go back to his own office and write draft....sometimes JFK accepted, sometimes changed a lot. Sometimes accused Sorensen of trying to put back in things JFK had rejected in other speeches just because Sorensen like them. (true).
Peace Corps. JFK had idea, an idea which had a thousand father....Hubert Humphrey had introduced a bill....some kind of international service.....responding to what the Soviets and the Cubans were doing....sending not soldiers but teachers, doctors, engineers etc. to developing nations. JFK speech (off the cuff, short) to American University students was challenging them to make similar sacrifice ...a year overseas.
Q. Access? What if you don’t have access to the person you are writing for?
A. Proceed with caution. ALWAYS PREPARE VERY CAREFULLY. Even if it’s for a nothing, unimportant event. You need time to research and prepare carefully for every speech.
Speechwriters Sorensen admired? Came from talkative family; father was in politics. High School debate team, oratorical contests, some politics. Writing for high school literary magazine, editor of Law Review.
Learned a lot during eight years in Senate with JFK, so did JFK. Last four years in Senate, ‘shadow campaign’ visiting all fifty states, made speeches, tried things out, saw what worked, what didn’t.
Q. Tone of defiance in early speeches; later more conciliatory. Why?
A. Situation changed. Sorensen says ‘defiant’ is not the right word. Survival of Liberty...we would do anything...but also said he offers the hand of conciliation, cooperation. Cuban Missile Crisis. No condemnation or hostility to Cuba or people of Cuba. Had to stand up to Soviets or things would have deteriorated. Afterwards, both JFK and Khruschev had stared down the barrel of nuclear weapons. Had to re-examine positions. Both changed. 1963...we established hotline between Moscow and White House. Ban on weapons in outer space. First sale of wheat to Soviets. First test ban treaty. That Fall JFK gave list of measures he hoped we and Soviets could agree on. Had JFK lived, and Khruschev stayed in power...Sorensen thinks we wouldn’t have had another fifteen or twenty years of Cold War...and the deaths in all the armed conflicts....
Berlin speech. Important moment. People everywhere, in every window. Short, punchy speech. After every sentence or couple of sentences the translator speaks. Time for speaker to focus on next part. JFK improvised on the spot in some parts.
Q. Ask not ...That sequence. Did they know it would be high point?
A. Sorensen did not realize in advance that it would be the centerpiece or best remembered part of the Inaugural Speech. During campaign JFK had 3 speeches he gave on the same idea, with different formulation.
Sept. 20, 1960 on TV. “We do not campaign stressing what ______ can do for _____”.....
After Inaugural speech... Many people claimed to have written or to have heard same, similar...Khalil Gibran people, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Harding. [Note: http://www.poemhunter.com/...
My fellow Americans, ask not what your country can do for you—ask what you can do for your country.
(John Fitzgerald Kennedy (1917-1963), U.S. president. Inaugural address, January 20, 1961, Washington, DC. quoted in Theodore C. Sorensen, Kennedy, pt. 3, ch. 9 (1965). Kennedy continued, "My fellow citizens of the world, ask not what America will do for you, but what together we can do for the freedom of man." Many antecedents to these words have been cited, including Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr., in his Memorial Day address, 1884: "It is now the moment ... to recall what our country has done for each of us, and to ask ourselves what we can do for our country in return." Kennedy himself expressed the same idea in a televised campaign address, September 20, 1960.)
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Q. How to know when to end working on a speech. How do you know it is done?
A. When time runs out. Sorensen was never satisfied with a speech. What to beware of. In Spring-Summer 1963 they talked about the need to talk on Civil Rights ...TV, send legislation to Congress.....Time was never quite right. Then Gov. Wallace in Alabama stood in front of the door barring students from entering...Federalizing National Guard. Time to go on national TV that day...Two hours to prepare.....Sorensen pulled together passages from other JFK speeches...Civil Rights........also from proposed legislation. JFK thought he’d have to give his speech off the cuff because Sorensen was busy pulling it together but it was ready fifteen minutes before live broadcast.
Q. Flow and rhythm. Questioner likes it. Was it JFK’s natural rhythm or something Sorensen liked.
A. JFK and Sorensen had the same standard and the same style. It’s hard to say where any particular element came from but there was a rhythm....A speech person analyzed the contrapuntal ________”whatever that is”....”We didn’t know we were dancing when we were dancing.” JFK was a man of Reason who rejected extremism. Natural for him to say, we will do this but we will not do that....This contributed to the rhythm.
Tone. Difference from Senator, Candidate (sounds alarm, makes charges, raises questions) but President has to come up with answers, reassure people you are in charge, declare what has to be done. The world looks very different when you are inside the White House looking out (than vice versa). Things looked more complicated once they were inside The White House......JFK was very funny person, good at poking fun at himself. When appropriate, it came through in his speeches.
Q. Timing. JFK did the right things at the right time. Contrast with Clinton’s first act introducing gay rights in military, asks questioner.
A. Sorensen’s book “DECISION MAKING IN THE WHITE HOUSE.”
Timing is everything. JFK had a promise to keep...fair housing act,. Did not sign it on first day, could have...but Civil Rights groups he was in close touch with realized that his minimum wage bill, housing bill, etc. would die a certain death without first building more support............Timing, to best serve the interests of all.
You can get a good deal on these second hand books on http://www.abebooks.com
DECISION-MAKING IN THE WHITE HOUSE: THE OLIVE BRANCH OR THE ARROWS. FOREWORD BY JOHN F. KENNEDY.
Sorensen, Theodore C.
Books by Sorensen:
Kennedy (ISBN: 1568520352)
Theodore C. Sorensen
A Different Kind of Presidency: a Proposal for Breaking the Political Deadlock (ISBN: 0060390328)
Sorensen, Theodore C
THE KENNEDY LEGACY a Peaceful Revolution for the Seventies
Theodore C. Sorensen
Leaders of Our Time: Kennedy (ISBN: 1568520352)
Theodore C. Sorensen
Watchmen in the Night: Presidential Accountability after Watergate (ISBN: 0262191334)
Theodore C. Sorensen, James MacGregor Burns
Why I Am a Democrat (ISBN: 0805044140)
Theodore C. Sorensen Henry Holt & Co
Let the Word/forth (ISBN: 0440500419)
Sorensen, Theodore
AT HOME IN THE WORLD: THE PEACE CORPS STORY (ISBN: 0964447215)
Peace Corps) [John Coyne, Theodore Sorensen, Bill Moyers, Kevin O'Donoghue, Laura Stedman, John Rude, Martin Gleason, Orin Hargraves, Matt Losak, Maureen Orth, Mary Beth Simmons, et al] [Introductions / Forwards by Mark D. Gearan and Paricia Garamendi]
Link to my previous comment about Sorensen and JFK:
http://www.dailykos.com/...
Note: ‘teacherken’ wrote a diary in which he mentioned Theodore Sorensen’s brother’s institute:
http://www.sorenseninstitute.org/...
http://www.sorenseninstitute.org/...