Oooooh. When the VNS editor's desk writer jabs his dagger he may not insert it to the hilt. Nevertheless, he does enjoy twisting it ever so slowly. His latest is ostracizing Virginia Beach Mayor Will Sessoms for employing a speech writer.

Follow up:

To alleviate any semantic incoherency I will define a speechwriter as a person who is hired to prepare and write speeches that will be delivered by another person. Speechwriters are used by many senior-level elected officials, government executives, governors, and the president or prime minister of a country. Speechwriters are also used in the private sector, to write speeches or presentations for company presidents and Chief Executive Officers.

In the case of Sessoms, I contend that the professionally prepared compositions were economic presentations rather than political rhetoric. Moreover, the funding source was correctly charged to Economic Development resources for that specific purpose.

In a personal interview prior to his election, the Mayor laid emphasis on need the for his personal attention to regional and Virginia Beach’s development issues. He was ardent that previous third party efforts had not been as productive as he thought they could be. Hence, he relegated himself to personally deliver Virginia Beach’s economic message.

Writing a speech involves several steps. A speechwriter has to meet with the executive and the staff to find out the broad framework of points or messages that the executive wants to cover in the speech. Then, the speechwriter does their own research on the topic, to flesh out this framework with anecdotes, and examples. The speechwriter will also consider the audience for the speech, which can range from a town-hall meeting of community leaders to an international leaders' forum. Then the speechwriter blends the points, themes, positions, and messages with their own research to create an "informative, original and authentic speech" for the executive.

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