Speechwriting

Try these approaches next time you’re speaking at a meeting with colleagues or in a lecture hall brimming with industry peers.

Start with self-confidence, add a hefty dose of energy, angle your body, gesture appropriately, toss in a dash of props—and you’re well on your way to winning over your audience.

Simple, cold facts won’t cut it when you’re dealing with people who’ve suffered a great loss—nor will platitudes. Connect first, and then learn more so you can make a difference.

The proper typeface, styling and point size are essential to helping your audience see and read your text. There’s more, though: Pay attention to colors and contrast, too.

Aristotle, Winston Churchill, Maya Angelou and a few others of note have words of wisdom to charge up your next presentation.

The author is no fan of slideware, but he acknowledges that many speakers feel uncomfortable with nothing on the screen behind them. Here, then, are essential dos and don’ts.

From Martin Luther King Jr. to Adolf Hitler, these men knew how to capture an audience and inspire action—and isn’t that what you want to do?

Your keynote speaker is in a plane stacked up over the city, or he just keeled over. Now what? Here are some backup ideas to have in place should disaster strike at the last minute.

You’ve got a dynamite opening and a brilliantly-reasoned argument. Now how do you end the speech?

A recent case of plagiarism has put practitioners in an awkward position. Over time, diligent adherence to attribution and other responsible behaviors can and should erase that blot.

If you’re not sure if you wrote too little or too much, use this veteran speechwriter’s rule of thumb.

The pontiff employed a tandem of important techniques to engage his audience and convey a resonant message.

The pontiff employed a tandem of important techniques to engage his audience and convey a resonant message.

Numbers can be numbing, unless you present them wisely. Follow these guidelines to power up your speech, rather than putting your audience into a deep REM state.

Are the eyes in your audience busily trying to read all those words you’ve jammed into your slides or, worse yet, glazing over? Here’s help in overcoming those blunders.