How to write an ANZAC day speech
If you are saying something official on Anzac Day, you should start by reading the information kit which the APL has compiled. It is...
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Speaking & Writing about writing & speaking | Author |Speaker | Teacher
Ms Claire Duffy
Speak for yourself!
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4 min read
Pick me ! or How to Survive and Succeed at a Job Interview
Like any speaking situation the key to success is preparation. Anxiety subsides when you know what to do. Answering interview questions...
4 min read
Speaking for Professional Athletes
Interest in outstanding performers doesn’t fade with their fame, it endures. The community remains interested because they are...
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Stagecraft – Moves with style
Getting on and off is part of the performance. Sometimes you need to arrive early and look at the venue to figure out how you’ll do this....
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Lights, Mics and Lecterns
There's a reason performers have rehearsals and tech checks just before the show. Unfamiliarity with the setup is a recipe for things...
2 min read
Moon man with the best line of all time
He left an indelible mark on the minds of millions, from those zany kangaroo hops on the moon’s surface to one of the most memorable...
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Lovely Voices: Your Grandma, the voice of contentment
The fact that my adult daughter had not read Winnie the Pooh is an indictment of everyone who has known her up until this point. The...
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Lovely Voices: Her Maj. Heppy Christmas, to you end your femmily
The Queen’s Christmas message is almost a religious ceremony in some households. At 3pm GMT, British families (and many others,...
3 min read
Words that changed history: The Redfern Speech
December 10th was the date that PM Keating made ‘the Redfern Speech’ to launch Australia’s program for the International Year of the...
1 min read
Lovely voices: James Earl Jones. Boomy, smoky, pause master.
I challenge you not to ge tingles when you listen to this.Your voice is an instrument, and using it to best effect takes practice. James...
3 min read
Laryngitis? Here’s how to fix it.
Colds, coughs and laryngitis are all too common. If you rely heavily on your voice— teaching, talking to clients, singing—even a few...
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Lovely Voices: David Attenborough, natural wonder.
Attenborough is a magician. He entrances and intrigues us. Fuelled by his own fascination with his subject and his genius for...
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Lovely Voices: Edward Tufte, the Chart Master
Way before the digital era and the info-graphic, Tufte laid down principles of good information design that are still the gold standard....
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Lovely Voices: David Tennant, pitch perfect.
Tennant gets much of his character and ‘actorly’ personality from the way he varies his pitch and inflection. Pitch is just like a note...
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Lovely Voices: the race caller
Purely information-based speeches are tough gigs. Think of a witness testifying in court, or a student announcing the results at the...
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Still the best leadership speech
"I will be ruthless in ridding the army of people who cannot live up to its values…" Why is it so powerful? There are three reasons....
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Lovely Voices: Billy Collins, the poetry of understatement.
When you describe Billy Collins you have to use words that don’t normally go together: contemporary best-selling poet. He gets (it’s...
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Perfect Introductions
Introductions are among the most common and least-well-done aspects of public speaking. Your job is to set the speaker up and excite the...
4 min read
“He is all of them. And he is one of us”. Keating’s eulogy for The Unknown Soldier
Keating’s speechwriter Don Watson wrote in his memoirs that Keating “painted word pictures, created images and moods at a stroke. He...
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‘Know Thy (speaking) self’
OK now I've used Socrates to catch your eye, this is really about your end of the speaker-audience connection. People will pay attention...
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