Writing from the Heart: Writing for the Ear

What is a Speech Anyway?

A speech is something special. It’s part poetry and part prose; part song and part sermon. A speech shouldn’t proselytize, but it can educate. (For example, Bill Clinton’s 2012 Democratic National Convention speech.) A speech sounds good, but can’t be so smooth and slick that it slips by like something coated with TEFLON® which doesn’t stick.

A speech has a message, but not a command; a rhythm, sometimes even a rhyme. A speech should move us, not make us.

A speech is a communication from one person to a group of other people. The speaker has something to say or he or she shouldn’t be up there talking. The subject can be anything, but it should be something that this particular audience needs to hear or something that the occasion or setting demands be said.

A speech is a formal utterance. It’s not some spontaneous outburst, but rather something that was thought about ahead of time.

But a speech is also a conversation. That is, the audience should feel like the speaker is fully present, saying something just to them in terms they can easily understand. If you’ve heard Bill Clinton give a speech, the one thing you remember more than anything else is it felt like he was talking only to you—whether you were part of a large audience in an auditorium or a select group in a small conference room.

Speaking the Truth: Writing from the Heart

For me, the essential ingredient in a good speech is truth.

I’m not talking here about TRUTH—some philosophical ideal, written in caps—but rather your truth. What’s true for you and what you need to talk about to be authentic. What you’re passionate about. What you’re here on this earth to do. It’s telling your story. Sharing your gift.

When you speak from your heart, not your head, you’ll reach our heart and not our head. And it’s the heart that persuades people, moves people, and inspires people. An example of speaking from the heart is Bobby Kennedy’s powerful Mindless Menace of Violence speech given the day after Dr. Martin Luther King was assassinated.

Writing for the Ear

What do I mean by writing for the ear? I mean that a speech is different than most things you write. It’s not meant to be read from a page; it’s meant to be heard by the ear. And that means you have to pay attention to the sound that the words you use make, not just the sense that they make. It means that if you want to move people with your words, you have to use uplifting language. It means that if you want your words to sink in, you’ve got to create a rhythm and use repetition. And it means that you have to create images and pictures with your words. Give people visuals that they can walk away with, not just abstract concepts. And perhaps the best way to be remembered is to tell stories.

There is no special “speech” language. In fact, to be conversational you have to have to use everyday language, language people will readily understand.

A good part of Abraham Lincoln’s success as a speaker and a leader was that he spoke the language that everyone spoke.

However, speakers do use “figures of speech” (i.e., any intentional and creative deviation from the ordinary and simple mode of speaking) to get their message heard. The following are some of the most common and most effective ones—ones you’ll hear again and again and, hopefully, use again and again:

Alliteration: Repetition of initial or medial consonants in two or more words. For example, note the repetitive c’s in Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech:

“I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.”

Another good example is the repeated “l” sound in Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address. It sounds like poetry:

“The world will little note nor longer remember what we say here…”

Allusion: A passing but intentional reference to another speech or literary work which brings the latter to the mind of the listener, adding weight to the speech. For example, Dr. King’s evocation of Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address with his “Dream” speech opening:

“Five score years ago…”

Another example is the opening of the “Gettysburg Address” itself:

“Four score and seven years ago…”

By deliberately using the archaic word “score”, Lincoln is alluding to the Bible and bringing the authority and solemnity of that holy text to one of America’s bloodiest battlefields.

Anaphora: Repetition of the same word or group of words at the beginning of successive clauses. Martin Luther King was certainly not the only speaker to use anaphora. But he probably used it more—and more effectively—in his “I Have a Dream” speech than most speakers do. For example, the repeated clauses that begin with:

“One hundred years later…”
“Now is the time…”
“We must…”
“We can never be satisfied…”
“Go back to…”
“I have a dream…”
“Let freedom ring…”

Or another great example is Jesus’ “Sermon on the Mount” from the New Testament:

“Blessed are the poor in spirit…”
“Blessed are the sorrowful…”

Antithesis: The juxtaposition of contrasting ideas, often in parallel structure. Two frequently-cited American examples are found in John F. Kennedy’s “Inaugural Address”:

“Ask not what your country can do for you: ask what you can do for your country.”
“Let us never negotiate out of fear, but let us never fear to negotiate.”

Epistrophe: Repetition of the same word or group of words at the end of successive clauses. For example, Ted Kennedy’s 1980 Democratic National Convention speech where he provokes audience reaction by ending a series of clauses accusing the opposing candidate of being:

“…no friend of labor.”
“…no friend of this city and our great urban centers across the nation.”
“…no friend of the senior citizens of this nation.”
“…no friend of the environment.”

Metaphor: An implied comparison between two things that aren’t alike yet have something in common. The metaphor (and the simile which is an explicit comparison) create images that make a concept or abstract idea easier to comprehend. For example, Dr. King’s extended metaphor in his “I Have a Dream” speech:

“In a sense, we’ve come to our nation’s capital to cash a check. When the architects of our republic…they were signing a promissory note…. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check…a check which has come back marked insufficient funds.”

He made the abstract ideas of freedom and justice as tangible and familiar as a bad check. Listening to the laughter that follows that line confirms that everyone in that audience knew exactly what he was talking about.

Parallel Structure: Similarity of structure in a pair or series of related words, phrases, or clauses. It is one of the basic principles of rhetoric and grammar that equivalent things be stated in co-ordinate grammatical structures.

For example, the repetition of successive “that” clauses in the “Declaration of  Independence”:

“We hold these truths…that all men are created equal…that among these are…that to secure these rights…that whenever any form of government….”

And the long list of grievances that the Americans cited in the same document as reasons for breaking with Great Britain. Referring to King George III:

“He has refused…”
“He has forbidden…”
“He has refused…, etc.”

Rhetorical Question: Asking a question, not for the purpose of eliciting an answer, but for the purpose of asserting or denying something obliquely. For example, Bobby Kennedy asks in his “Mindless Menace of Violence” speech:

“Why? What has violence ever accomplished? What has it ever created?”

Besides figures of speech, there are other aspects of writing for the ear. These include language, repetition, what’s called the Rule of Three, structure, and theme.

Language: Most of the better speeches today use everyday language—simple words, uncomplicated sentence construction (except when you intentionally change it to create a figure of speech), active versus passive voice, verbs versus nouns, etc. In short, what you’d hear in ordinary conversation. Even though he wrote his speeches more than 150 years ago, Lincoln is a model for some of the better modern speakers. (And speechwriters.) His most famous speeches are noted for his careful selection of words, frequent use of simple words—many of them monosyllables, use of rhythmic prepositional phrases, and a combination of short and long sentences to prevent monotony while creating a pleasing sound and memorable rhythm. Listen to what he achieves in his final great speech, his “Second Inaugural Address”:

“With malice toward none; with charity for all; with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in; to bind up the nation’s wounds; to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow and his orphan—to do all which may achieve and cherish a just, and a lasting peace, among ourselves, and with all nations.”

Repetition: Repetition is essential to writing for the ear. Whether it’s repeated sounds as in alliteration or repeated phrases as in anaphora or epistrophe or repeated words as in Lincoln’s use of (and play on) the word “dedicate” in his Gettysburg Address, you can’t expect the message to get across if it’s not repeated. After all, the listener can’t go back over what you’ve just said as he or she might if you’d written it on a page of a book or a paper. Important words need to be repeated to be remembered. Likewise, key statistics need to be repeated or, better yet, put into context so that the listener grasps their significance. Don’t just use percentages or numbers; try to put them in human and familiar terms; for example, that’s the size of New York City or that means that every third person in this room has the risk of being infected. Make the audience see and feel the number.

Rule of Three’s: Also not technically a figure of speech, the rule of three’s is the recognition that there is something pleasing, complete, and rhythmical and therefore memorable in repeating things in triads. For example, Lincoln’s famous conclusion to his Gettysburg Address:

“…and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”

Or Dr. King’s uplifting ending to his “I Have a Dream” speech:

“Free at last! Free at last! Thank God almighty, we are free at last!”

Theme: A theme is a repeated phrase or word or image that captures what the speech is about. It’s short-hand for the message and its repetition helps reinforce the main idea and, if used well, can help hold the speech together.

A good example is Governor Mario Cuomo’s Keynote Address to the 1984 Democratic National Convention. In it, he refers to President Ronald Reagan’s calling the United States a “shining city on a hill.” Cuomo, who wrote his own speeches, picked up the phrase and, in a play on words, turns it back on the President by saying “this nation is really more a Tale of Two Cities than it is just a shining city on a hill.” He goes on to contrast the two parties’ visions and comes back to the shining city theme at the end of the speech as a way to pull everything together. He uses it to set up the inspirational immigrant story of his father. A good theme can unify a speech.

Another example is Bill Clinton’s Church of God in Christ Convention speech in Memphis in 1993. Speaking in the place where Martin Luther King gave his final speech—the night before he was assassinated—Clinton and his audience of clergy can’t help but be mindful of the significance of the setting. The late civil rights leader is an implicit presence throughout the speech but is explicitly called to bear witness late in the speech when Clinton creates the image of King giving the present generation a report card on the last 25 years. In a litany that begins with “You did a good job, he would say…”, the President lets King pass judgment on the present by starkly contrasting this nation’s accomplishments with its failures over the last two-plus decades since his death.

Writing for the ear is paying special attention to words and how they’re selected and arranged so that the audience comprehends the ideas you’re trying to express.

Nothing beats listening to the master’s voice to learn how to write for the ear. The great speeches demonstrate a love for the spoken word. They will give you an appreciation for the care with which words are chosen for sound as well as sense, and for the careful arrangement of these words to create a memorable cadence or rhythm. But perhaps most important of all they will give you a sense of the speaker’s passion and conviction, vision and integrity, and ability to use words to tap into something universal to stir our souls.

Listen to Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech. Even if the speaker departed from his text halfway through the speech, it’s one of the best examples of writing for the ear. It’s his sermon on the steps.