内容来源：分享美国  地址链接：http://go.usa.gov/cnwt9

乔恩•法夫罗（Jon Favreau）连续6年参与撰写总统发表的几乎每一个重要演说；从2007年总统竞选期间至2013年初，他一直主管奥马总统的演讲稿撰稿工作。

每一篇精彩的演说都讲述一个故事；像每个故事那样，它有开头、中间和结尾。每当我撰写文稿时，我考虑得最多的是演说的逻辑以及怎样展开论点，就像一个好听的故事那样。

撰写国情咨文（State of the Union address）的全过程提前几个月就开始了。总统召集他所有的顾问和内阁成员，讨论他将在讲话中谈到的问题和话题。

通常，我们撰稿人需要涵盖一系列不同的国内和国际问题，并争取将所有内容纳入到一个50-60分钟的讲话中。我们学会了言简意赅，学会了怎样使讲话尽快展开。

当我在白宫工作时，在动手撰稿前我会和总统一起坐下来，听取他关于如何安排讲话结构以及讲话主题的想法。然后，我和其他的撰稿人便动手起草讲话初稿。

接下来的过程是在总统和一组撰稿人之间来回传送初稿。有时总统会在黄色的长条草稿本上写下要包括在讲话稿中的各部分内容，然后我们逐行逐句地反复进行编辑，直到发表讲话的那一天为止。

每年最令人煞费苦心的是怎么说“国情强盛”这句话。这句话已成为国情咨文的一个传统，我们的目标是每年将其穿插其中，避免给人以陈词滥调之感。

有时我们将它作为最后一行写进讲话稿，有时将它放在开头，总之使用这句话时尽量有一些变化。我将聆听今年他们是如何处理这句话的。

– 乔恩•法夫罗 

Jon Favreau had a hand in crafting nearly every major speech the president delivered for six years, having served as President Obama’s director of speech writing from the presidential campaign in 2007 through early 2013.

Every great speech tells a story, and just like a story, each has a beginning, a middle and an end. As I write I think most about the logic of a speech and how an argument will unfold, much like a great story.

The whole process for writing a State of the Union address starts a few months before. The president gathers all his advisers and members of his Cabinet and talks about the issues and the topics he’ll discuss in the speech.

Typically, we writers need to cover a really diverse list of issue areas, both domestic and foreign, and to try to fit everything in a 50–60 minute speech. We learn brevity, and we learn how to keep the speech moving as quickly as possible.

When I worked for the White House, I would sit with the president before I started writing and get an idea from him about how he wanted to structure the speech and what the theme of the speech would be. Then the other speechwriters and I would go off and we would work on a draft.

From there it was a process of sending drafts back and forth between the group of speechwriters and the president. Sometimes he wrote longhand on a yellow legal pad the various sections of the speech that he wanted to include, and then we would go back and forth on line edits right up until the day of the speech.

The trickiest thing each year was figuring out how to say “The state of the union is strong.” That line has become a tradition in the State of the Union speech, and our goal was to weave it in each year so that it didn’t seem too clichéd.

A couple of times we wrote it as the very last line of the speech, sometimes we put it at the beginning, but we tried to have some variety in how we used that phrase. I’ll be listening to hear how they do it this year.

– Jon Favreau