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The Lost Art Of The Great Speech: How To Write One - How To Deliver It [Paperback]

Dowis
5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
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Book Description

1 Nov 1999

"Splashy slides, confident body language, and a lot of eye contact are fine and well. But if a speech is rambling, illogical, or just plain boring, the impact will be lost. Now everyone can learn to give powerful, on-target speeches that capture an audience's attention and drive home a message. The key is not just in the delivery techniques, but in tapping into the power of language.

Prepared by an award-winning writer, this authoritative speech-writing guide covers every essential element of a great speech, including outlining and organizing, beginning with a bang, making use of action verbs and vivid nouns, and handling questions from the audience. Plus, the book includes excerpts from some of history's most memorable speeches--eloquent words to contemplate and emulate."


Frequently Bought Together

The Lost Art Of The Great Speech: How To Write One - How To Deliver It + Winning Arguments: From Aristotle to Obama - Everything You Need to Know About the Art of Persuasion + You Talkin' To Me?: Rhetoric from Aristotle to Obama
Price For All Three: £22.54

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Product details

  • Paperback: 224 pages
  • Publisher: Amacom (1 Nov 1999)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0814470548
  • ISBN-13: 978-0814470541
  • Product Dimensions: 14.9 x 2.2 x 22.6 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 181,705 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Product Description

About the Author

Richard Dowis (Waleska, GA) recently retired from his position as senior vice president at the PR firm of Manning, Selvage & Lee. He now leads several popular business-writing seminars and is the president of the Society for the Preservation of English Language and Literature. He has also won PRSA Phoenix Awards for speech and annual report writing. His books include How to Make Your Writing Reader-Friendly and (as coauthor) The Write Way.


Inside This Book (Learn More)
First Sentence
Winston Churchill was arguably the most eloquent and dynamic speaker of the twentieth century. Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
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Customer Reviews

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
23 of 25 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars This is one of the great ones... read it 24 April 2005
Format:Paperback
As a professional speaker and communicator, one sometimes stumble accros books that one is delighted to have read. Maybe one in five...? Well, this is definetly one of them! It offers very good and pragmatic insights and shares valuable tips that can only be accumulated by experience. And, it does so without falling into the trap of silly 'pep-talk' as so many other "how to..." books.
Read the book, then go back and look again at yours, and others, speeches - and I can almost guarantee that you will see them in a different light.
With so much to read on the subject, make this one a priority!
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant, intuitive and very readable 23 July 2009
Format:Paperback
Excellent book. Dowis is an excellent writer who inspires through making his written word readable and interesting. He sets out his methodology for creating a speech with great clarity and excellent explanations, then forcing home the point through the use of dramatic and historical speeches delivered throughout history.

This is an educational book that also inspires. I expected a reference book, but found an incredibly readable guide which i've managed on and on.

Although I'm not a speech writer, and only bought the book to help improve my public speaking ability as a training officer, shortly after purchasing it i found myself in the unusual position of having to write a speech for my partner. It proved excellent an excellent guide and i was able to use the techniques to help put together a reasonable speech.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars The best found so far 20 Feb 2011
Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase
"Lost Art of the great speech" is by far the most useful book I have found to improve your ability to make a better speech, not just better, a really good one. What a pity I did not read this book before the many speeches I have given. Poor listeners, poor me. The book describes just about every aspect of designing and presenting a speech with confidence. The confidence that follows from knowing that you have done everything you can to communicate your message so that listeners understand you and enjoy it.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Just a fantastic resource 3 Sep 2012
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
It's written in a really logical manner which means you can use it as a reference as you prepare a speech and it uses wonderful examples not just of each point it makes but some inpiring excerpts from famous speeches.

A really good read even if you weren't writing a speech but given I'm preparing to teach others to do it I can't recommend this book highly enough.

If only someone English could produce something as useful as this - there is a little drawback in this book of him using examples from the Georgia, USA business world a lot - but they are still clear so no matter.
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15 of 18 people found the following review helpful
By A Customer
Format:Paperback
This is a good, well structured book which takes you right through the process of preparing to write a speech, writing it and delivering it.

It offers good advise on techniques to use, like linguistic styles (such as triplets) and various openings to speeches, and their relevance to the type of speech being made. It discusses vocal delivery and body language, preparation techniques before you go on stage, an overview on common grammatical mistakes (eg affect vs effect), and the importance and effectiveness of simple language.

All this is backed up by a wide and comprehensive range of famous speeches at the end of each chapter, alongside short snippets of speeches the author has written or by other important speakers.

All through the book has a friendly style and you really feel the author is concerned about helping you become a "better speaker".

This book has not taught me a lot of new ideas, though there have been a few - moreover it has reasserted and reminded me about how to make a good speech.

And for the price, its certainly a worthwhile investment. Go buy! Go buy!

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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
By S Smyth
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
By following the advice in this book, and by paying attention to the example at the end of each chapter, one should be capable of turning out a good, if not necessarily a brilliant speech. Brilliant takes a lot more work :-) To help with improving brilliance, I would recommend that you also study the elements of rhetoric in greater detail, than this book delves into, even though it covers the essentials. To that end, Language Intelligence by Joseph R. Romm would be a sound choice.
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