Talking Shop with my 10-Year-Old

Every once in awhile I have the chance to take a little father-son walk with my 10-year-old. Sometimes we talk about little things of little consequence. Sometimes we talk about big things that matter a lot to him. Other times we just play silly word games.

Often, though, he asks me what I've been doing at work lately. I don't remember ever asking my dad what he did at work. I knew he was a computer analyst with the Government of Canada, but I had no idea what that meant and I wasn't all that interested in finding out.

So I'm grateful that my son takes an interest in what I do all day. I told him I was working on a speech for a conservation association dinner in New Brunswick. They're very concerned about Atlantic salmon populations in the Miramichi River. He said he thought it sounded pretty important and I agreed that it probably was.

Then he told me that it's too bad the speechwriters don't receive some sort of recognition when the speaker delivers the speech. I explained to him that our job is to help the speaker sound good and deliver the right message. If the speaker or someone else in the organization expresses kind words about the product, that's all the recognition that we need.

He said he guessed so, but then he asked me if other people write their own speeches. I told him President Obama or Prime Minister Harper would have writers who work closely with them and almost nobody really knows or cares who they are.

I discussed how someone like the President and his speechwriters would likely work together to help him deliver the message he wants to convey. I said that if he wants to get across the message that his government has everything under control, the President can't just stand up there and say, "Everything's under control!" He has to use the right words and tone to convey the FEELING that everything is under control. This is how some politicians live or die on what comes out of their mouths and how it comes out of their mouths. It's one reason why so many politicians don't aspire to great oratory anymore. The nature of the news media in the 21st century is another. Politics no longer rewards risk-taking and bold statements so much as it rewards not screwing up.

I told my son that many of the great public figures of the past, like Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King and Winston Churchill, wrote their own speeches. I reminded him that King was first and foremost a minister of religion who had both training in, and a natural gift for, public speaking - a sense of rhythm that made his words come to life in a way that no other speaker could. All the great speakers have a way of making the speech their own. A great speaker knows his or her strengths and weaknesses and is able to use both to good effect.

When I said "rhythm" to my musically precocious son he started making hip-hop noises with his mouth and did a rap to "I have a dream." I explained that rhythm in this case means something a little more complex but just as captivating, if not more so.

We discussed why another person might not be able to pull off the "I have a dream" speech, just like another speaker might not be able to do justice to Churchill's "what is our aim?" or even Nixon's "Checkers" speech.

This is why the writer needs to know the speaker's strengths and weaknesses as well as the speaker does. I once worked for a Cabinet Minister who was a very good speaker in a folksy sort of way, but couldn't or wouldn't attempt anything more than a word or two in a foreign language. Writing speeches for a trip to Russia, I inserted an entire paragraph in of Russian. When it came back from his office for revisions, everything but "spasiba" (thank you) had been crossed out. He wasn't going to look silly tripping over a whole paragraph's worth of foreign words and, in hindsight, I don't blame him.

I have always enjoyed writing for speakers who enjoy public speaking and give a lot of thought to what they're saying, to whom they're saying it, and why. The first question I ask when I sit down with program experts to discuss a speech is something along the lines of "why is the Minister speaking and what are we trying to accomplish?"

This is something else all the great speakers have - a sense of purpose. Every speech has a purpose, however grandiose or humble. The job of the writer is to find out what it is and make sure it accomplishes its goal.