Speechwriting Editing Services

Writing for a spoken audience

Speeches require a unique and specific style. They have to be evocative, informative, and persuasive, a task at which many speechwriters fall short. This is not helped by the prevalence of the fear of public speaking (“Glossophobia”), which has attracted a significant amount of research efforts into investigating its causes, its neurological pathways, its symptoms such as the characteristic verbal tics that people under its influence experience (Lewin, 1996), and how it might be resolved through therapy, practice, or developing a firmer grasp of the subject at hand.

Note that here, a speechwriting editing service can help refine and expand upon the language the speaker wishes to deliver, help them redraft difficult passages that might present stumbling blocks, and give a speaker confidence in the quality of English in the text they hope to present.

Audience and context

Note also that when speechwriting, there are subtle and often difficult to grasp differences in the form and flow of language to avoid being too formal and stuffy when presenting while also steering clear of over-familiarity or informality with the audience. Speeches should be tailored to the audience and the tone can shift vastly depending on whether the intended purpose is to inform, debate, persuade, or entertain. For example, a poster presentation at a scientific conference has to carefully consider what background knowledge they can presume their audience possesses and build upon that with precision and clarity to explain how their cutting-edge discovery expands and/or refines our current understanding of whatever facet of reality is the focus of their project.

Note that a speechwriting editing service can help greatly in this regard, particularly when they can assign an editor with a firm grasp of the subject area, a specialty that many such services can provide. On the other hand, a large part of comedian’s job is getting their audience on-board with whatever train of thought they wish to explore by first establishing common ground with their audience to help draw them over to the perspective the comedian needs to use as a lifting-off point.

A useful way to keep the audience engaged is the use of props and supplementary materials, giving them a brief summary of the more difficult concepts that are addressed can help people follow your overall presentation, while statistical data that underpins your argument and bolsters the position you are advocating can be projected as a presentation so that either it immediately backs up your rhetoric or can be discussed to clarify the points you are making.

Political speech and public messaging

Meanwhile, political speechwriting is a whole different beast. There are many tricks and tips that can help a politician get their message across. A good one to listen for in any public speaker of quality is that they can condense their message into a short phrase that they punctuate and emphasise clearly, often with specific hand movements, and repeat carefully so that it sticks in the listeners’ minds. A good example of this is the American senator Bernie Sanders; he carefully and deliberately waves his hands like a conductor, bringing them down as he stresses certain syllables in particular phrases in his speeches to emphasize their importance all while displaying a singular gift for clear and evocative oration.

Of course, this can backfire spectacularly. The British politician Ed Miliband had an unfortunate habit of over-repeating his talking points almost entirely no matter the context, giving his speeches a robotic quality that many found off-putting (Sweney, 2011). Staying in Britain, another major challenge is when what is said by politicians is directly undermined by their actions. During the UK’s COVID-19 restrictions in 2020, public controversy over an adviser’s travel illustrated the importance of consistency between a public message and the speaker’s conduct.

The advisor’s lame attempts to weasel out of responsibility and the prime minister’s refusal to punish the advisor severely undercut the government’s official messaging on the virus and caused many to take the pandemic insufficiently seriously, creating a public health risk. While a speechwriting editing service cannot provide adequate help when the messaging does not adequately align with reality, competent public relations experts know to consult with many different voices to gather a broad spectrum of opinions when handling such crises, included those who can refine the coherence and persuasiveness of the message at hand.

References

Lewin, M. R., McNeil, D. W., & Lipson, J. M. (1996). Enduring without avoiding: Pauses and verbal dysfluencies in public speaking fear. Journal of Psychopathology and Behavioral Assessment, 18(4), 387–402.

Sweney, M. (2011, July, 1). Ed Miliband TV interviewer reveals shame over 'absurd' soundbites. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2011/jul/01/ed-miliband-interviewer-shame-strike-soundbites