Writing Speeches

My thoughts on speech writing are that one should be concise, but informative. However, there’s no reason not to have a humorous tone even if the speech is of a serious nature. I’m not talking slapstick or nonsensical humor, but I’m of the opinion that your audience is going leave you, if not physically at least mentally, if you drone on.

For instance, a group of us are presenting a forum on our globally changing climate. We have, we hope, people coming who might not agree that our climate is changing or who believe God takes care of the climate. This, I think, makes gentle humor in my introductions even more appealing.

The first speaker’s talk is about how to deal with atmospheric changes, such as more ferocious hurricanes and more variances in rainfall amounts from year to year. For him, I’m going to say: You might say he’s seen the clouds from both sides now. (For you youngsters out there, that’s a reference to a folk/pop song written by Joni Mitchell, but made famous by Judy Collins.)

The second speaker is an expert on rivers and we have a delightful picture of him sitting in a row boat holding a container of greenish-brown river water. He’s grinning as if he’d just got a fish for dinner or pulled up Black Beard’s treasure. But his tag line on his emails is a quote from Mark Twain. For him I plan to say: So, what better job than surveying rivers and teaching other people about them. Plus, he quotes Mark Twain.

            The third speaker is a retired Marine colonel who is telling us about how the military has to deal with climate changes. For him I’m saying: How can you not like a guy whose nickname is Otter?

The final speaker is a wildlife specialist who is telling us about the changes in animals and their migratory patterns in eastern North Carolina. His introduction include my statement: He gets great joy from showing the people what lives around here.

I could have just recited their technical bios, but don’t you think people are going to be more receptive to what’s being said if they have more warm and fuzzy feelings about the speakers?

I’m writing this now after the fact, and am thrilled to say that the forum was an overwhelming success largely due to our four dynamite speakers, but also because of the way we set it up. And, she says with not a smidgen of humility, because I added humor into my introductions and because my co-leader started us off with a song.

Thanks for reading. Hope to hear from you. Next week I’ll get back fiction writing or reviews. Sarah