Off I go soon to address tomorrow this year’s Speechwriters Guild conference in Bournemouth, the theme being all about how leaders deliver good news and bad.

Haha, some leaders ARE the bad news, as Gordon Brown found out to his cost. See also the results of the latest elections in the USA.

The UK Speechwriters’ Guild has selected a group of wise, entertaining and controversial speakers to offer expert insights, stimulate thought and share experience on the subject of how to improve the clarity of communication in public life

I wonder whether I am marked down as wise, entertaining or controversial. I’ll try to be all three.

While I am away, look at Walter Russell Mead’s resounding advice to students going to college, and in particular this point (my emphasis):

… learn to write well.  This paradoxically is going to be more important than ever for the next generation. 

I can’t tell you how many editors at how many famous magazines have told me over the years that most professors and academics simply cannot write, and bemoan the immense amount of time they must devote to impose some kind of intellectual structure and comprehensible prose on the crabbed drafts they get from, often, fairly well known people.

This will not last.  Publications are not going to be able to continue paying editors to spin straw into gold; if you want to have a public voice in the next generation you are going to have to learn to write well. 

This is a hard skill to acquire, but it can be taught.  Most schools don’t do this well; it is expensive and academics generally don’t value clear and attractive prose writing as much as they should.  This is important enough that I would recommend you use it as a factor in choosing a college, but for those of you already enrolled, make a point of seeing what your school offers in this area.

Couldn’t agree more.

You either carry with you through life the full set of the strong precision tools which a firm grasp of language and meaning (and therefore thought itself) afford you, or you don’t.

A point relevant to speechwriters.