Category: Blog
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The Muses can be reluctant creatures, and creativity doesn’t always flow when you want it to. Throughout history, many great scholars have attempted to capture tonics, rituals, and structures to help inspire creativity. Aristotle gave us logical formulas to whet the mind, Cicero gave us structure to order it, and Quintilian told us how to…
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One of the most famous speeches of the Nazi regime was Goebbels’ Total War speech which he delivered on 18th February 1943. Germany had just lost the Battle of Stalingrad, and the morale in the country was at breaking point. Attempting to reboot the war effort, Joseph Goebbels, the notorious Nazi Minister of Propaganda, gave a riling speech…
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A few weeks ago I looked at Malenkov’s use of statistics and then on how he threatened the USA with nuclear war. Statistics are often used as evidence – sometimes more menacingly than others. This is part of the rhetorical branch of logos (the use of logic). While Malenkov used statistics to gloat of an apparent Soviet…
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Last week I looked at Malenkov’s ridiculously long sentences and somewhat meaningless statistics. This time, I want to look at his use of threats! Despite starting with boring statistics, Malenkov’s speech picked up when he started talking about international affairs. He placed a great emphasis on characterising the USSR as friendly but powerful if it…
Cambridge Speechwriter 