In the preceding years an Oxford sociology researcher called Max Atkinson had been studying conversations and speeches – particularly the moments in speeches which triggered applause. He identified a series of "buzz" devices or techniques that were common in the most successful examples – whether he looked at the oratory of classical times, the great Harold Macmillan, the tub-thumping of the Ian Paisley or the poetical content and lyrical delivery of that icon of natural speechmakers, Martin Luther King.
While there will always be gifted individuals like Macmillan and King – born orators whose intuition unconsciously led them to shape a political speech not only with good content but also with the rise and fall of language, tone and emotion in all the right places – Atkinson suspected that many of the tricks of the trade could be acquired with enough diligence and practice.
He made a television programme to prove the point. Taking Ann Brennan, a woman who had never before spoken in public, as his guinea-pig, he trained her in weeks to stand up at the SDP conference and deliver a speech that would elicit standing ovations. Three lines into it, she had the crowd clapping, cheering and in the palm of her hand. She received several standing ovations.
So what does this tell us? That the same devices which the great speakers employ to manipulate a crowd can be used by the rest of us to woo the audience at a conference, grip the guests at a wedding or funeral, and certainly keep colleagues awake at a business presentation. That's what Atkinson believes, anyway. "I'm not saying that everyone can become a Martin Luther King. But anyone can become better."
When you think about it, the best speeches become fixed in the memory using a combination of techniques like anecdotes and dramatic repetition. For those of us writing speeches for private occasions like weddings, research among friends and family is the key to unearthing the right anecdotes.
Think of the repetition and satisfying rhythm of the classical "Veni, vidi, vici,"(I came, I saw, I conquered) or "liberté, fraternité, egalité", (freedom, fraternity, equality) Abraham Lincoln's "government of the people, by the people, for the people," Hugh Gaitskell's "fight, fight, and fight again…", and of course Tony Blair's "education, education' education".
The latter has sprung up and bitten Blair many times since he said it in 1987, but it certainly imprinted itself instantly on the collective psyche. But as far as style and technique go, Blair is classified by Atkinson as "masterly".
The best speeches also use imagery, as in "float like a butterfly, sting like a bee" (Muhammed Ali) or the comparison used by Denis Healey, likening barbs from Geoffrey Howe to "being savaged by a dead sheep".
For politicians and others in the public eye, the business of speechmaking has become more difficult these days because speeches are rarely heard in full by the public, and the average length of the soundbites used by radio and TV has dropped from 42 seconds to just nine seconds since 1968. Important points must be made pithily, colourfully and briefly.
The same maxim is a pretty good one for private occasions, says Atkinson. You don't want to be remembered for the length of your speech, rather than its fascinating content and warm, engaging delivery, do you?
The experiment with Ann Brennan changed Max Atkinson's life. Having taken academic research into the public arena with such spectacular success, the following morning the phone was hot. The country's business and industry leaders were beating a path to his door. After that, training others to speak effectively soon took over from his academic career – although he is still a visiting professor at The Henley Management Centre.
For many years he worked with former Liberal Democrat leader Paddy Ashdown, subsequently acknowledged by many to be one of the most effective public speakers of his generation. He's also coached Richard Branson (who is better but still not great), and leads speaking workshops at which he tries to persuade business people to stop boring each other with unnecessary slide shows, used as a crutch for the speaker rather than as an aid to the listener's understanding. "They're fine when they are genuine visual aids," he says.
"It's been reckoned that in the UK somewhere between £15m and £20m in salaries a year is going down the tubes because people are away from work at conferences where many speakers have no effect because they're useless."
Max Atkinson grew up in Pontefract, one of three sons of a farmer. His father had left school at 14 but was nonetheless very keen on education. He encouraged Max to study, and after St Peter's School in York he went to Reading University, followed by a doctorate at Sussex.
During a research fellowship at Wolfson College, Oxford, he analysed the language used in the courtroom, becoming increasingly interested in what did and didn't keep jurors awake.
After publishing two books, he progressed to study political speeches and applause, which led to the publication of His Masters' Voices: The Language and Body Language of Politics. His latest book, Lend Me Your Ears: All You Need to Know About Making Speeches and Presentations, is aimed at anyone who needs to speak to any audience and doesn't know where to start – or those who already do so and recognise their weaknesses.
Atkinson has in the past worked with White House speech writers. Perhaps he should have been training those who work with President Bush or Senator John Kerry. If he had, the voters of America might have suffered a lot less tedium in the last few months, and one of the contenders might have shone more in the recent televised debates.
In different ways they seem to show how the right content and learning presentational skills can't make up for the kind of crowd-pleasing charisma possessed by a Clinton, Reagan or Kennedy, and which we have come to expect of our leaders in an age where we consume them largely via a camera lens.
"The two candidates are almost complete opposites, " says the professor. "Bush has cultivated a folksy style, using short sentences to convey simple messages…but his choice of words and the way he puts sentences together is sometimes confused, giving the impression that he is not as intelligent as a president ought to be."
And Senator Kerry? "He tends to use a more formal debating style, using long sentences that can sound more stilted and generally lacking in quotable quotes. But it does at least give the impression of someone who is thoughtful, understands the issues, and is a safe pair of hands."
Prof Atkinson and his techniques have their detractors. "Tony Benn is snooty about me, and so is Ken Livingstone. It's easy for them
to say this, as they are both naturally good public speakers, who use the right techniques without even realising it.
"Livingstone says great speakers are born, not made, and that people should just be themselves, without worrying about technique.
He really means 'leave power in the hands of people like me.'"
sheena.hastings@ypn.co.uk

Lend Me Your Ears by Prof Max Atkinson is published by Vermilion (£9.99). To order a copy from the Yorkshire Post Bookshop, call free on 0800 0153232. Postage and packing is £1.50.