A blog post by David Murray at Writing Boots on May 23, 2023 is titled Yo, Writer: Yes, Your Best Prose is Jargon-Free. But Your Negotiations with Non-Writers Should Be Jargon-y. One item of jargon he mentioned is:
“Howdahell: A term for a little local knowledge casually sprinkled into a speech, usually near the beginning. A commencement speaker can bring the crowd to its feet simply by making reference to having a beer at the local college watering hole. ‘Howdahell does Condoleeza Rice know about Suds on State?”
He also said it at Pro Rhetoric on May 25, 2023 in an article titled “The Lehrman Landing” – and Other Jargon Speechwriters Should Use Constantly. I blogged about two jargon items in that article. One was in a post on June 13, 2025 titled The Four Part Close for a speech is also known as “The Lehrman Landing.” Another was in a post on June 19, 2025 titled Monroe’s Motivated Sequence is a framework for persuasive speeches.
Robert Lehrman’s 2010 book, The Political Speechwriter’s Companion: A guide for writers and speakers says on page 147 that howdahell was invented by Eric Schnure. Another article by Elena Veatch at The Campaign Workshop on August 19, 2019 titled Speechwriting: 7 Questions with Eric Schnure has Eric explain:
“I like to say that every speech should have a ‘howdahell’ moment. That’s where the audience says to themselves, ‘How the hell did she/he know that about me, my school, my town, my hopes and fears?’ I don’t mean that in a Big Brother kind of way. Instead, it's about creating a moment of community and commonality. When a speaker achieves that - it can be powerful stuff.”
We will get to know our audience and find a howdahell by asking some of them questions. On January 8, 2024 I blogged about The 5Ws and 1H (or Kipling Method) for planning public speaking or other communication.
My devil cartoon was adapted from one at OpenClipArt.
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