The Lost Art of the Great Speech: How to Write It * How to Deliver It

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 ...