Topics covered in my speechwriting workshops
Various modules/themes can be combined for a custom course
Process
- Knowing your audience
- Focusing your topic
- Targeted research
- First drafts
- Rewriting
Structure
- Reverse outlining tool to discover structure
- Thinking in acts (Act 1, Act 2, etc.)
- Hero’s Journey structure
- Types of thinking as structure
Typical problems
- Wandering storyline
- Overburdened structure
- Matters of style
- Dangers of speechwriting in an academic setting
Rhetorical Devices
- Creating your own metaphors
- Repetition
- Rule of 3
- Alliteration
- Phrase reversals
Simplifying the complex
- Using statistics well
- Simplifying with metaphor
- Familiarization
- Comparison
- Low-density language
Practical Matters
- Collecting and storing ideas
- Recording and transcribing interviews
- Speechwriting workflow
- Useful websites
- Language and style resources
Feedback from workshop participants
“It was helpful when Rhea showed us how she rewrote our sentences that were too complicated.”
Simone Anderhub, Assistant to the President, Bielefeld University
“I liked the open atmosphere, best-practice examples and Rhea’s examples of how to reformulate our texts.”
Frauke Rogalla, Executive Director of the Association of University Presidents in North Rhine-Westphalia (Landesrektorenkonferenz der Universitäten in NRW).
“It was an intense working atmosphere with useful inputs and interesting discussions on our personal speechwriting experiences.”
Dr. Hans-Martin Kruckis, Program Director, Zentrum für Ästhetik, Bielefeld University