Ghosting Authenticity: Characterization in Corporate Speechwriting

One of the most distinctive stylistic virtues of speechwriting is characterization, the art of capturing a client’s voice in a believable and engaging manner. This article examines characterization in the context of corporate communication, interweaving an interview with veteran executive speechwriter Alan Perlman with accounts from the ancient rhetorical tradition. As the analysis shows, Perlman’s approach to characterization confirms long-standing rhetorical wisdom yet incorporates insights that reflect the contemporary corporate context in which he has worked. The analysis also calls attention to enduring tensions in characterization—tensions between imitation and representation, effectiveness and ethics, and dramatic character and trustworthy ethos.

[1]  L. Einhorn.  The ghosts talk: Personal interviews with three former speechwriters , 1988 .

[2]  Gary R. Orren,et al.  Eloquence in an Electronic Age: The Transformation of Political Speechmaking@@@The Electronic Commonwealth: The Impact of New Media Technologies on Democratic Politics , 1988 .

[3]  U. Eco,et al.  Travels in Hyperreality , 1986 .

[4]  G. Kennedy.  Progymnasmata : Greek textbooks of prose composition and rhetoric , 2004 .

[5]  M. Nichols.  Rhetoric and Criticism , 1967 .

[6]  W. Pearce,et al.  The Conversational Frame in Public Address. , 1996 .

[7]  E. Cope.  An Introduction to Aristotle's Rhetoric: With Analysis, Notes and Appendices , 2008 .

[8]  Bernard K. Duffy,et al.  "Speak the Speech, I Pray You." The Practice and Perils of Literary and Oratorical Ghostwriting. , 1989 .

[9]  L. Beason.  Strategies for Establishing an Effective Persona: an Analysis of Appeals to Ethos in Business Speeches , 1991 .

[10]  Martin J. Medhurst,et al.  Presidential Speechwriting: From the New Deal to the Reagan Revolution and Beyond , 2004 .

[11]  A. B. Thro.  CEOs' Hybrid Speeches , 2009 .

[12]  E. G. Bormann.  Ethics of ghostwritten speeches , 1961 .

[13]  C. Carey.  Rhetorical means of persuasion , 2002 .

[14]  Hugh M. Scott.  You can't have one without the other. , 2000 .

[15]  Michael Waldman.  POTUS Speaks: Finding the Words That Defined the Clinton Presidency , 2000 .

[16]  C. Smith.  Contemporary Political Speech Writing. , 1976 .

[17]  James C. Humes.  Confessions of a White House Ghostwriter: Five Presidents and Other Political Adventures , 1997 .

[18]  P. Noonan.  What I Saw at the Revolution: A Political Life in the Reagan Era , 1990 .

[19]  William M. Sattler,et al.  Conceptions of ethos in ancient rhetoric , 1947 .

[20]  S. Southard.  Ghosting authenticity: Characterization in corporate speechwriting , 2012 .

[21]  J. Wisse.  Ethos and Pathos from Aristotle to Cicero , 1989 .