Book Review of:
The Gettysburg Approach to
Writing & Speaking Like a Professional

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Reviewer: Mark Lamendola, author of over 6,000 articles.

One of my favorite references for writers is The Elements of Style, by Strunk and White. I believe Professor Strunk would, if he were alive today, have nice things to say about this book by Yaffe. In fact, Yaffe espouses the same core concepts of writing.

This isn't a remake, however, of TES. It's an original work, and it's well done. It's also badly needed in this era of semi-literacy and poor speaking. Anyone who communicates with other human beings can benefit from reading this book and applying the lessons therein.

As the title suggests, the author bases his book on the writing approach Lincoln used when composing the Gettysburg Address. Yaffe explains this approach clearly, and distills the principles into a few formulas that the reader can easily remember and apply. He also provides examples to illustrate "before" and "after," and I found those particularly helpful.

One thing that struck me as odd about Yaffe's analysis of the Gettysburg address is he does not address Lincoln's deliberate misuse of words. The reason for giving the Gettysburg address was to boost support for Lincoln's war. Historians tell us that public support was waning, and Lincoln badly needed a victory. He finally got that victory. He had, in fact, written the Gettysburg address in anticipation of it (not because he was so moved afterwards that he sat down and penned the address).

While it's true that Lincoln gave an amazing and powerful speech, it's also true that Lincoln lied while doing so. Consequently, even today people mistakenly refer to his war as "The American Civil War." By definition, however, this was not a civil war. In a civil war, insurgents seize the means of governing. Recall that the Confederate States didn't seize the capital, but seceded from the union and set up their own capital.

We can all agree that Ulysses S. Grant knew a thing or two about this war. Not once in his (extensive) memoirs did he refer to it as a civil war, but always as "the war between the states" or something similar. I think when you cover a speech that has propagated a manipulative lie as successfully as this one has, you need to address that issue somehow. Maybe a future edition can do this, with a new appendix for that purpose.

This book consists of 236 pages, 107 of which are appendices. That's a large appendix to text ratio, but don't be put off by it. In fact, it's a good thing.

Many years ago, I got involved in a project of revamping all of the maintenance procedures for a large, multi-plant manufacturing facility. I'd already earned my stripes as a writer, yet was always open to new ideas on how to improve. My boss on this project observed that most of the text in a typical procedure contains details people value but don't need to read to do the job. Instead of adding value, this extra detail detracted from the value of the procedure. He suggested this might be why we had a zero compliance rate with our procedures.

Yaffe talks about the pyramid way of writing, meaning you put the important information first. He walks the talk by doing this with those appendices. We did the same thing to solve our procedure problem.

Imagine a writing book bloated with things for you to wade through. It would not exactly a good example, would it? Yaffe's example is such a clear example of how to organize information that you don't even need to read the book to learn something that would vastly improve the performance of the typical writer or public speaker.

Don't be put off by the fact that Yaffe didn't bloat the main text with things for you to wade through. Strunk and White didn't believe in bloated text either, and their book is consequently a highly readable and useable resource for writers who wish to excel. For this, and other reasons, Yaffe's book is also a highly readable and useable resource for writers who wish to excel. And it goes beyond that to flip the writing coin over and address its other side: speaking.

I spent several years on the rubber chicken circuit, and honed my speaking style considerably. Why? Because I endured Death by Powerpoint and other abuses inflicted by "speakers" in many other meetings. I wanted to do better than that. So I developed a set of speaking principles. Yaffe hits those principles exactly on target.

If you don't communicate with other people, then you probably won't miss anything by not reading this book. On the other hand, if you live on planet Earth then this book is well worth the cover price. Read it, study it, apply it. You'll be glad you did.