This piece, a mock State of the Union address written as if I was one of President Obama's speechwriters, is my capstone project for the Minor in Writing. It is entirely self-directed; I crafted my own prompt and worked the entire semester on mastering President Obama's voice, understanding the genre, and determining what issues to include and what ones to leave out. Because the political world is always evolving, this project required many edits. During my time writing the speech, the Republican Party won a majority in the Senate, President Obama used executive action regarding immigration, and announced travel plans to India, all of which required me to redraft pieces of the speech.
Political speechwriting: the ultimate blend of the left, policy-focused side of my brain and the right side that houses the creative writer. The left brain got a lot of use during the research portion of my writing process. I used former State of the Union addresses as models, reverse engineering them to anticipate what the president is likely to talk about and where each topic might fall in the speech. President Obama's speeches have typically fallen between 5,900 and 7,000 words, and mine fits into that model, totaling about 6,000 words. Below the speech, you'll find my annotated bibliography. It details the various resources I used, such as previous speeches, news articles, and the White House website.
During the creative process, I considered bringing back some of President Obama's oratory (my model can be found here) that made him so popular during his first election season. After doing a bit of research, I ended up at this Washington Post article, written just before his second inaugural address, that talks about how his campaign oratory isn't as feasible in the role of the presidency. It mentions, however, a possible return to this style during the 2012 inaugural address, as the need to worry about reelection disappeared. I felt this argument also provides great grounds for me to bring that back after the mid-term election, as now there will be no further national elections during the rest of President Obama's tenure in the White House.
Below you'll find my essay. It signifies the end of my time in the Minor in Writing, but the beginning of what I hope will be a long career filled with political writing.
Political speechwriting: the ultimate blend of the left, policy-focused side of my brain and the right side that houses the creative writer. The left brain got a lot of use during the research portion of my writing process. I used former State of the Union addresses as models, reverse engineering them to anticipate what the president is likely to talk about and where each topic might fall in the speech. President Obama's speeches have typically fallen between 5,900 and 7,000 words, and mine fits into that model, totaling about 6,000 words. Below the speech, you'll find my annotated bibliography. It details the various resources I used, such as previous speeches, news articles, and the White House website.
During the creative process, I considered bringing back some of President Obama's oratory (my model can be found here) that made him so popular during his first election season. After doing a bit of research, I ended up at this Washington Post article, written just before his second inaugural address, that talks about how his campaign oratory isn't as feasible in the role of the presidency. It mentions, however, a possible return to this style during the 2012 inaugural address, as the need to worry about reelection disappeared. I felt this argument also provides great grounds for me to bring that back after the mid-term election, as now there will be no further national elections during the rest of President Obama's tenure in the White House.
Below you'll find my essay. It signifies the end of my time in the Minor in Writing, but the beginning of what I hope will be a long career filled with political writing.