Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with speechwriting

I want to put words in the mouths of politicians

orange swan — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 09:11:24 -0800

I would like to start working as a speech or letter writer for a political/government office. What advice do you have for me on how to best go about this? In terms of existing qualifications and experience, I have a B.A. in English, a community college diploma in publishing, a handful of college certificates (one in desktop publishing, the others in unrelated things), and I've spent my entire career so far (14.5 years) working as an editor in various publishing companies in Toronto. I have a book review website with something like 40 book reviews on it to offer a sample of my writing skills. My level of competency in the French language... eh bien, c'est juste triste. I'm not very open to relocation.

Of course the answer is likely to be "bone up on current affairs and apply already" but perhaps there is more I could do to better my chances and/or one of you works at Queen's Park and has an insider perspective. (I have a friend who's spent her career working in various ministries of the Ontario government and I've asked her to ask her contacts for advice.)

Hive mind, please let your sweet, honeyed words of wisdom flow.

Bob Fleischburg's Gettysburg Address, as Read By Lincoln?

Shepherd — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 07:46:21 -0800

When did professional speech-ghostwriting start, and how confident can I be that those who delivered "classic" speeches and letters actually wrote them themselves? I was heartily impressed by Sherman's letter to Atlanta, as linked in this Metafilter thread, and was thinking about it when it occurred to me that I assume that all speeches, letters, and discourse beyond a kind of fuzzy 1950-ish date were actually created by the person that delivered/sent it.

By contrast, I don't think anybody expects that even the most "inspirational" people in public life and politics actually write their own material these days; U.S. politicians certainly don't now, nor, I expect, do the leaders of corporations or huge social movements.

So how far back can I be confident that public figures actually did write their own speeches? Or did they ever?

Tony Blair's Economist Essay

disillusioned — Thu, 07 Jun 2007 04:05:26 -0800

EconomistFilter: How much of this fantastic essay did Tony Blair actually write? I know politicians have speechwriters who primarily compose their speeches and who write a great deal of their correspondence, (along with assistants) but I wonder if the same still applies in a situation as seemingly... unique? as this. (I've not seen the still-active-if-just-barely leader of an industrialized nation actually "write in" to a newspaper at all. Or have an essay featured therein, by invitation or otherwise. Other examples of this get bonus points, too!)

I really liked this essay and truly appreciated reading something in the same paper that was asking "how will history remember him" just a few weeks ago.

I guess my question is: Is it as unlikely as I think that Blair actually penned much of this at all? How does one impart an essay of this specific nature ("what I learned") through a speechwriter? This seems to really be written firsthand, but a good speechwriter would do that well, right?

Wedding jokes/one-liners

adoran2 — Fri, 30 Apr 2004 00:25:54 -0800

What's the best joke/ one-liner you've heard in a speech at a wedding? I'm getting married this year and it's getting to be speech-writing time; the books and websites I've found on this so far have all been quite corny. Does anyone have any gems out there?