Title sources

Where do good title ideas come from? Often you can get inspiration from the body of the speech itself. The ''We Got Algorithms'' title mentioned above was inspired by a statement in the speech that without computerization, labor costs of underwriting would ''drive today's premium algorithms off the chart.''

The Bible, Shakespeare, mythology, and other literature are rich sources of title ideas.

So are quotations, classical and modern. Some of the rhetorical devices discussed at length in previous chapters—alliteration, anaphora, triads, exaggeration, and so on—can be adapted as speech titles. Sports terminology can be effective, if the audience is likely to know the term you select.

Here are some effective speech titles. Some of them are my own; most are from speeches I have heard or read:

• ''Death and Taxes: Was Ben Franklin Right?'' This was a reference to Franklin's aphorism that nothing is certain but death and taxes. The central theme was that planning can help minimize estate taxes.

• ''Minerva's Owl: Building a Corporate Value System'' This title, the speaker explained, refers to a saying that ''Minerva's owl takes flight in the gathering darkness.'' Minerva is the goddess of wisdom. The owl symbolizes wisdom.

• ''Two Faces of Progress'' This speech opened with a reference to the Roman god Janus, for which January is named. Janus had two faces looking in opposite directions. The idea was that progress involves looking both backward and forward.

• ''On the Wings of a Butterfly'' An allusion to the so-called butterfly effect, the theory that the motion of a butterfly's wings in an Amazon forest can affect events around the world.

• ''Skating Where the Puck Is'' A reference to a statement attributed to the hockey player Wayne Gretzky. When someone asked Gretzky how he managed to score so many goals, he answered, ''I always skate where the puck is going to be, not where it's been.''

• ''How to Succeed in Business by Really Trying'' This was the title of a speech to student entrepreneurs, stressing the importance of hard work. The title played on the name of the Broadway show How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying.

• ''The Media and the Terrorist: A Dance of Death'' A communications specialist made this speech to a group of airline security people. The title dramatized the role of news coverage in terrorism.

• ''A Loaf of Bread'' This speech was delivered at a Boy Scout dinner. The title referred to a poignant anecdote about wasted life.

• ''Playing Poker With American Industry'' This speech compared poker—a game of guesses, chance, and bluffs—with chess—a game of long-term strategy. It suggested that the United States, in dealing with other countries, plays poker with American industry.

• ''Technology and the Three Rs'' An automotive executive, speaking at a convention of elementary school principals, was making the point that even in this high-tech era, we neglect the three Rs—reading, writing, and arithmetic—at some peril.

• ''We're Good, but Not That Good'' This was a speech by a CEO to employees of his company. The point was that although the company was doing well, it was not the time to become complacent.

• ''Zipping, Zapping, and Other Lethal Weapons'' I love this one. The speech was delivered by an ad agency executive at an industry convention. The thesis, from which the title was derived, was that with cable TV and VCRs, broadcast networks and local TV stations are gradually losing control of consumers' viewing decisions. The ''zipping and zapping'' refers to zipping from station to station and zapping out commercials on recorded programs.

* * *

We are now at the end of our discussion of how to write and deliver a speech. I hope that if this book has done nothing else, it has convinced you that you have it within yourself to make a great speech—or, if not a great one, at least a damn good one.

All that remains to say is ''Good luck.''

''A New Birth of Freedom''

No discussion of speaking and speech writing would be complete without President Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address. The occasion of this speech, you'll recall, was the dedication of the national cemetery at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, on November 19, 1863. Lincoln reputedly wrote the speech on the back of an envelope while traveling by train from Washington to Gettysburg. Whether this is true is open to question, but there is no question that the speech is a marvel of simplicity and brevity and a wonderful example of the art of the great speech. It is a fitting way to conclude this book. As you read Lincoln's immortal words, note the brilliant use of triads, anaphora, and antithesis:

Four score and seven years ago, our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

But in a larger sense we can not dedicate, we can not consecrate, we can not hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember, what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us, the living, rather to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion; that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain, that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom; and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.