+44 (0)1273 732 888
Blog
The anatomy of a good speech
Author : Rob Ashton
Posted : 02 / 10 / 08
Share this:
Whether you think David Cameron is Blair MK II or the saviour-in-waiting of UK plc, the BBC’s analysis of his speeches down the years here and here makes very interesting reading. Top of the list of most-used words is ‘people’, which Emphasis has always cited as one of the most powerful in the English language.
The UK’s Conservative Party (of whom Cameron is leader) is currently riding high in the polls with a nine point lead over Labour, and many put this down at least partly to a well-orchestrated communications policy. This is unsurprising given that Cameron is the former head of corporate affairs at a large media company. But credit must also go to the speechwriters on the Tory campaign team, who clearly know how to turn a phrase or two to their leader’s advantage.
The analysis reveals how they seem to have chosen words very carefully to support a deliberate strategy. For example, Gordon Brown said in his speech last week that this was ‘no time for novices’, in a sideways swipe at his opponent’s lack of experience. So Cameron this week gave Margaret Thatcher a name-check purely to give his speech weight, apparently.
The BBC uses ‘word clouds‘ to show how the latest conference speeches from the leaders of all three main UK political parties compare. It’s all fascinating stuff.
Advice and tips (136)
Grammar (61)
Choose your words wisely (44)
Plain English (25)
Uncategorised (21)
60-second fix (21)
Language abuse (21)
Psychology and linguistics (19)
Reader-centred writing (15)
Online and social media (15)
Punctuation (15)
Technology (14)
News from Emphasis (13)
Spellings (13)
Jargon (12)
International issues (10)
Presentations and speeches (10)
Podcast (10)
Design and formatting (9)
Technical writing (9)
Courses for companies (8)
Report writing (8)
Letters and CVs (8)
Proofreading (7)
Quizzes (6)
Graduates (6)
Numbers and finance (6)
Customer relations (6)
Videos (5)
Literacy and education (5)
Writing news stories (4)
Twitter (4)
Legal writing (4)
Wordplay (4)
Advertising (4)
Style guide (4)
Development of English (4)
MCA (3)
Partners (3)
Editing (2)
FAQ (2)
Team leaders and managers (2)
Conferences and exhibitions (2)
Pitches and proposals (2)
Email (2)
PDF downloads (2)
Book reviews (1)
Writing for media (1)
webinars (1)
Learning and development (1)
Policies and procedures (1)
Internal communication (1)
Tutorial (1)
More topics