How to talk your way into the White House | Mark Forsyth | TEDxPenn

There are formulas for great poetry, great advertising, and great political speeches, and they are formulas you can learn. The Ancient Greeks worked them out. Shakespeare learned them in school. Today they are forgotten, but, when people stumble across them, a great line is born. Mark is a journalist, proofreader, ghostwriter, and pedant, but here, he delves into how these “formulas” for writing can change our everyday life and can take you anywhere.

Mark attended Winchester College and Lincoln College, Oxford University, studying English Language & Literature. Through his work on language and words, he gave a TEDx Talk in 2012 about political rhetoric and how it has evolved. Mark is also a Sunday Times Number One Bestseller and has authored four books: The Etymologicon, The Horologicon, The Elements of Eloquence, and The Unknown Unknown. In his free time, he taps into the hidden connections of the English language on his blog, “Inky Fool.”

This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at http://ted.com/tedx