Ronald Reagan’s speaking script for his 1987 “Tear Down This Wall!” speech in Berlin. Photo from the National Archives Catalog.
Chloe Adams
‘Write for the ear’. If you’ve ever taken a public speaking course, or been otherwise instructed on speech, you’ve probably heard this phrase. In the world of print, picture, and paragraphs, ‘writing for the ear’ seems a foreign, mysterious concept—one that many struggle to grasp. Writing that seems great on the page might fail to roll off the tongue, or worse, fail to be received by your audience altogether. From work presentations to wedding toasts, most everyone will need to use these writing skills at some point. In this post, I’m going to condense important foundations for writing that is easy to speak, and easy to listen to.
Drafting Techniques ‘for the Ear’
A common tendency for first-time speech writers is to write their manuscript as if it were an essay, then try to divide and rearrange their work. I would like to begin by advising that if possible, you should avoid doing this—it creates more work, and traps you in an incompatible style that is hard to break out of.
This is impossible to do, however, without understanding how to start drafting for the spoken word. A strong manuscript, like a strong essay, starts with a strong outline. Bullet pointing the key elements of your speech is an excellent starting point, and one that will be familiar to first time speech writers.
After you have a strong outline, the approach begins to shift. You can use this process to transform that outline into a manuscript:
- Don’t write, practice, and perform. Outline first. Speak off of that outline. This will help you get an idea of where you want to go.
- Write a line and say it, moving iteratively.
- Prep your speech, practice it, revise from there. Cycle through this repetitively.
The general theme of this advice is that running your speech, speaking your ideas aloud as you write them, is the ideal method of composition. This will help you to get a feel for what is easy to say and might sound good out loud: most people, even first time speech writers, tend to have a feel for when something feels unnatural to say.
Overall, know that speaking isn’t the last step in a speech—it is critical to the process of creating it as well. Writing for the ear starts by writing with your ear.
Formatting ‘for the Ear’
Even once you have written for the ear, a great speech is a speech that is well performed. The most beautifully written speech, with excellent style and clarity, is completely stripped of its beauty if performed monotone at a rate of 400 words per minute. Now that you have an idea of how to start drafting your speech for the ear, there are several formatting techniques that can enhance your manuscript and benefit your performance. These techniques are meant to remind the beginning speaker of intended pauses, stresses, and volume changes. True to ‘writing for the ear’ fashion, try to incorporate these naturally as they come up while you are writing. To demonstrate these techniques, let’s take the following segment from a speech manuscript. After each change, take the time to read the segment aloud, seeing how the formatting alters your individual performance:
Planned Parenthood’s motto is Care, no matter what, and they inspire all of us to do the same. To care for those around us, when it is easy and when it is difficult. To care about the rights of our vulnerable. To care without judgment, without shame, and without prejudice.
To begin, a speech manuscript is more successful when freed from the traditional paragraph format. The page should look like the feed of a teleprompter: each sentence or phrase in its own chunk. This helps prevent some of the ‘reading’ delivery speakers fall into. The extra spacing between lines promotes pausing when spoken aloud, and helps to emphasize each individual sentence. Finally, it can be a good reminder to slow down. Let’s apply this to our speech:
Planned Parenthood’s motto is ‘care, no matter what’, and they inspire all of us to do the same.
To care for those around us, when it is easy and when it is difficult.
To care about the rights of our vulnerable.
To care without judgment, without shame, and without prejudice.
Next, let’s add in some special characters. Each individual has their own preference for what characters they like to use, but everyone can benefit from their usage. The double slash, for example, is a common indicator of a shift in tone. The speaker here may want to really lean into inspiration in the second half of the first sentence:
Planned Parenthood’s motto is ‘care, no matter what’, // and they inspire all of us to do the same.
To care for those around us, when it is easy and when it is difficult.
To care about the rights of our vulnerable.
To care without judgment, without shame, and without prejudice.
Finally, text decoration can be utilized sparingly to indicate important areas for emphasis or intonation. This is especially helpful in remembering to effectively perform stylistic devices. Again, each individual has their preference when it comes to which decoration to use; the key is to use them sparingly in areas where emphasis is critical. Let’s complete our transformation of the above segment:
Planned Parenthood’s motto is ‘care, no matter what’ // and they inspire all of us to do the same.
To care for those around us, when it is easy and when it is difficult.
To care about the rights of our vulnerable.
To care without judgment, without shame, and without prejudice.
As you become more comfortable with public speaking and utilizing your manuscript, formatting techniques such as text-decoration and extra characters become less relevant—but for a beginner they can be an incredibly helpful reminder. Spacing your sentences in a teleprompter fashion is always helpful, whether you are starting out or a seasoned pro. Lastly, if you have poor eyesight, I suggest increasing your manuscript’s font size.
With that, we have at least partially demystified writing for the ear. May this advice be helpful as you hone your skills and get ready to write great speeches!