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
![Uni Bielefeld Logo](https://rheawessel.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/Uni-Bielefeld-Logo-150x58.png)
“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).
![Frauke Rogalla_250_168](https://rheawessel.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/Frauke-Rogalla_250_168-150x101.jpg)
![Uni Bielefeld Logo](https://rheawessel.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/Uni-Bielefeld-Logo-150x58.png)
“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