What great speeches can teach us

Three crucial communication lessons, drawn from the three top winners of Vital Speeches of the days’ first annual Cicero Speechwriting Awards

The best way to learn how to write good speeches is to read good speeches. History is full of those, but harder to come by are good collections of contemporary speeches on the very issues we’re dealing with today.

That’s the value of the PDF that resulted from Vital Speeches of the Day’s first-annual Cicero Speechwriting Awards. Have yourself a long look when you have a need for inspiration and some time on your hands.

Meanwhile, here are excerpts from the top three award winners—and a key communication lesson from each:

Lesson One: You don’t have to end happily, just memorably