Become a better Speech Writer by increasing your General Knowledge
Posted by: Claudia Raab in Good to know on
Feb 13, 2009
I'm an avid advocator for increasing your General Knowledge. Keep up with the news - whether you listen to the radio while driving in the car, watch television or read the newspapers.
Sometimes little funny facts will come in handy when you have to write a speech and are desperately trying to find a great beginning for a talk. Take this for example: Have you ever wondered why a technical defect on a computer is called a "bug in a computer"?
Here's why: The word 'bug' in a technical sense is often attributed to Grace Murray Hopper, who invented the first large-scale computer for the U.S. Navy in 1945. When the machine stopped working, she found a moth in the works and taped its body to her lab report, captioning it "a bug in the computer".
However, although a beautiful story, Thomas Edison had used "bug" almost 50 years earlier to describe the "little faults and difficulties" that drive inventors and engineers batty.
Anyway, don't forget: Stories are a great way to get your audience involved right from the start! Use them!