Political Rhetoric as Predictable as an Episode of 'Law & Order'
http://www.poynter.org/column.asp?id=78&aid=149447
Political oratory in America has become as predictable as an episode of "Law & Order."

The writer at Poynter who penned the above observation is being more than a little critical of the formulaic convention speeches. My guess is the criticism is well deserved. At the same time, if you take a perspective of the need for getting your message out, for meeting the needs of the audience for both style and content and you accept that generally Americans find rhetoric or speeches or speechifying boring, maybe the speech creators and makers could do a lot worse than follow the Law and Order formula. Law and Order has been running on American television a lot of years. Maybe it is the predictability of the story line that keeps the viewers coming back. And, one thing most of our politicians require is that potential voters keep coming back so they will ultimately make take the major action -- pressing the button in the voting booth. Remember, voting is something that far too many Americans also find aggravating, annoying and ..................................

So, I am thinking that if the audience finds the formula working for their understanding I may continue to point out to public speaking students because they ultimate goal is to get and keep the voting audience involved.

One other time I have mentioned the blog, Presentation Zen, and tonight I was reading over the latest post and thought it would be good to recommend again. He is discussing a documentary called "Comedian" and there are thoughts this documentary demonstrates the creative process, the artistic process and, in so doing, the speaking process. If you are thinking about getting some out-of-th-box thoughts about public speaking, I am going to suggest you watch the Comedian and tell if you thought it was useful in demonstrating some of the key areas of preparing for a presentation.