An interesting feature of today's post about oratory on the BBC website is that it doesn't say anything about why it should be appearing today, or any other day for that matter.
I say this because, as I've noted before, the BBC, like other media outlets, has systematically reduced the numbers of speeches they show on television over the past twenty years, which I regard as a worrying trend. You can see more on this in earlier postings on this blog, including Obama’s rhetoric renews UK media in the ‘lost art’ of oratory.
And the title of that is what I would bet inspired Denise Waterman, and/or whoever it was at the BBC who commissioned the piece, to write about a subject that they'd probably never have bothered with in the pre-Obama era.
So a few months ago Alan Yentob, who in his former job at the BBC played a part in taking speeches off the air, suddenly became interested in the subject, probably to justify the expense of sending so many staff to Washington for Obama's inauguration - on which, see ‘The Lost Art of Oratory’ by a BBC executive who helped to lose it in the first place.
If you'd like to learn more about Obama's techniqes, the following posts include line-by-line analyses:
Rhetoric and imagery in Obama’s victory speech
Rhetoric and imagery in President Obama’s inauguration speech
There are quite a lot of other posts about him on the blog, and the easiest way to access them is either to type his name (or that of any other politician you might be interested in) into the search box on the left, or to go to my business website where there's a complete list of posts (and direct links to them) since the blog began.
Welcome to visitors from the BBC website
Other bloggers, authors and anyone else interested in the impact of different links on the number of hits you get and/or how many books you sell may like to know that I'll be monitoring these things quite closely today.
This is because I was interviewed last week for an article that's just appeared on the BBC website.
As with all such contacts, you never quite know what they'll make of whatever it was you managed to splutter out from wherever you happened to be when they called - in this case from my mobile phone somewhere in the depths of Wiltshire. But one thing I do know from previous mentions by the BBC is that they usually generate a sudden and dramatic surge in traffic.
Regular readers can watch this space for a periodic updates on progress (if any).
And, if you've just arrived here from a link from the BBC web, a very warm welcome to the blog.
If you want to find out more about speech-making and communication, you'll be able to find plenty more about it here, some of it topical, some historical and much of it illustrated with suitably selected video clips.
I hope you'll find it interesting enough to become a regular visitor, and perhaps even introduce any of your friends who might also want to know more about the subject.
If you want to learn more about speechwriting, why not join the UK Speechwriters' Guild?
And, if you're interested in writing speeches and/or making speeches and presentations, my books on the subject are available from Amazon at very reasonable prices by clicking on the boxes at the top of the page.
This is because I was interviewed last week for an article that's just appeared on the BBC website.
As with all such contacts, you never quite know what they'll make of whatever it was you managed to splutter out from wherever you happened to be when they called - in this case from my mobile phone somewhere in the depths of Wiltshire. But one thing I do know from previous mentions by the BBC is that they usually generate a sudden and dramatic surge in traffic.
Regular readers can watch this space for a periodic updates on progress (if any).
And, if you've just arrived here from a link from the BBC web, a very warm welcome to the blog.
If you want to find out more about speech-making and communication, you'll be able to find plenty more about it here, some of it topical, some historical and much of it illustrated with suitably selected video clips.
I hope you'll find it interesting enough to become a regular visitor, and perhaps even introduce any of your friends who might also want to know more about the subject.
If you want to learn more about speechwriting, why not join the UK Speechwriters' Guild?
And, if you're interested in writing speeches and/or making speeches and presentations, my books on the subject are available from Amazon at very reasonable prices by clicking on the boxes at the top of the page.
D-Day memorabilia: from Normandy to Lüneburg
I've just been sorting through an old suitcase that belonged to my late father-in-law, who, by the time he landed in Normandy in 1944, had been promoted from Private to Major in the Pioneer Corps.
One of the things I'd never seen before was an official regimental Christmas card for 1944 (above). Inside, there's a map of their journey towards Lüneburg Heath, where he ended up running a refugee camp after the war ended.
But I'm not sure what the numbers on the back cover refer to. They start six months before D-Day and could perhaps be the numbers of soldiers killed during the different periods. If anyone can shed any light on this, do let me know so that I can pass on a fuller story to his grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
There's also a scrap of paper with his neatly written personal record of his journey to Lüneburg Heath:
Some of the entries include addresses, presumably of where they were billeted, and I was amazed to see a reference to La Hulpe, just outside Brussels - because, 45 years later, I went to the same place to give some lectures at an IBM training complex that's now become a hotel and conference centre.
More on body language & non verbal behavior
A few weeks ago, Olivia Mitchell got quite a debate going on the blogosphere about some of the more ridiculous claims that have been circulating as 'facts' about the allegedly overwhelming importance of non-verbal factors in communication.
I've found the way the debate has been going very encouraging, not least because I've been banging on about these myths for years and had a go at debunking some of them in my book Lend Me Your Ears: All You Need to Know about Making Speeches and Presentations, which included some email exchanges with the originator of the myth discussed by Olivia Mitchell and in a video that's just appeared on YouTube (see below).
Whether or not what I wrote five years ago had anything to do with inspiring others to start addressing such issues, I don't know. Nor do I really care, because what really matters is that the tide finally seems to be moving in a more sensible direction - which might help to save thousands of people from being mislead into a state of needless anxiety by so-called 'experts' in the field.
If you're interested in the subject, related postings on this blog, including various cartoons and video clips, can inspected by clicking on any of the following.
• Non-verbal communication
• How to use video to study body language, verbal and non-verbal communication
• Margaret Thatcher, body language and non-verbal communication
• Body language and non-verbal communication video
• Another body language & non-verbal communication cartoon
• Body language, non-verbal behaviour and the myth about folded arms and defensiveness
• Body language and non-verbal communication
You might also enjoy the following video that's just been posted on YouTube about one of the most preposterous myths of all.
I've found the way the debate has been going very encouraging, not least because I've been banging on about these myths for years and had a go at debunking some of them in my book Lend Me Your Ears: All You Need to Know about Making Speeches and Presentations, which included some email exchanges with the originator of the myth discussed by Olivia Mitchell and in a video that's just appeared on YouTube (see below).
Whether or not what I wrote five years ago had anything to do with inspiring others to start addressing such issues, I don't know. Nor do I really care, because what really matters is that the tide finally seems to be moving in a more sensible direction - which might help to save thousands of people from being mislead into a state of needless anxiety by so-called 'experts' in the field.
If you're interested in the subject, related postings on this blog, including various cartoons and video clips, can inspected by clicking on any of the following.
• Non-verbal communication
• How to use video to study body language, verbal and non-verbal communication
• Margaret Thatcher, body language and non-verbal communication
• Body language and non-verbal communication video
• Another body language & non-verbal communication cartoon
• Body language, non-verbal behaviour and the myth about folded arms and defensiveness
• Body language and non-verbal communication
You might also enjoy the following video that's just been posted on YouTube about one of the most preposterous myths of all.
Guinea pigs
Regular readers will know that I'm pretty keen on using short video clips to illustrate points about speaking and communication.
So I'm pleased to report that the use of video for educational purposes seems to be running in the family, as you'll see from this film produced by my 11 year old granddaughter that's just been posted on YouTube:
So I'm pleased to report that the use of video for educational purposes seems to be running in the family, as you'll see from this film produced by my 11 year old granddaughter that's just been posted on YouTube:
A commentator likely to keep his job
The other day, in discussing the analysis of videotaped behaviour, I compared the analyst's challenge as being similar to that of a sports commentator - in that, if a commentator's description regularly fails to match what viewers saw for themselves, he or she is unlikely to stay in the job for very long. Little did I realise that such a gem of an example would crop up so soon. If you didn't hear it, it's well worth listening to Geoffrey Boycott's rant about the fall of a key England wicket on the first day of this year's first test match against Australia.
Boycott has been commentating on cricket ever since he retired from the game. On this evidence, and especially if you saw Pietersen's 'daft shot', I think he'll manage to hold his job down for a quite a few more years.
You can listen to him HERE and see what you think.
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