Where can you read prize-winning speechwriting?

First, you can read the winners of the multiple annual Cicero Speechwriting Awards, which are associated with Vital Speeches of the Day. Marcus Tullius Cicero was a famous Roman.

There are long Acrobat pdf files you can download with the texts for all of the winners from 2007, 2008, and 2010. What happened to 2009? I don’t know, but I couldn’t find that file easily.

For 2010 along with a Grand Prize Winner there were texts of winners (and some honorable mentions) for the categories of: Educator, Agriculture, Commerce and Retail, Energy, Government, Nonprofit, Pharmaceutical, Transportation, Hot Buttons Topics, Diversity, Education, Healthcare, Leadership and Management, Public Policy, Commencement Address, and Award Acceptance.

Second, there also is an annual Theodore C. Sorensen Speechwriting Award that has been given out in 2009 and 2010. Ted Sorensen was special counsel and adviser to President John F. Kennedy. Unlike Cicero, Ted is still alive and able to speak for himself.

For 2010 the winner was Brenda Jones for a Keynote for 60th Anniversary of the National Trust for Historic Preservation. For 2009 the winner was Laurie Vincent for Leadership is the New Normal.

One 2010 honorable mention up was Grant Neely for Why Business Must Change to Earn Back Trust, and another was LeAnne Petry for Leading Through a Fundamental Business Transformation.