Why not speech write?

One does not become excellent with the written word in a day. I actually struggled to write coherently until I went to college and significantly increased the volume of essays I wrote. In general, I noticed while my analysis was strong, I tended to dislike long form argument because I much preferred word economy.

I still don’t like writing extended arguments, because it feels as if most things can be argued more concisely. Interestingly, the more I’ve learned about writing, the more it seems obvious to me that logical argument is overrated relative to emotional appeal and ‘us versus them’ tribal thinking.

One common complaint that’s heard often is most college graduates aren’t excellent writers. This is no surprise. Combine the minimal volume of written material produced by the average college student with the minimal focus on revision, and it’s no surprise that whatever cake’s flung together lacks structure and strength. The same is true for politicians. Politicians tend to score high in charisma, but their coherence is limited.

This is where speech writers can be helpful. Speech writers take the high level perspective of the politician’s extemporaneous thoughts, and blend in themes, motif, and style that can be enjoyed by a more refined palette, or gorged in a race to the bottom, empty calories.