Since Obama took office, there have been many articles in the Japanese press about how the Japanese are learning English from him. Many of their lessons have come from the 2008 release of the international best-selling book "The Speeches of Barack Obama," which sold nearly a half million copies...

In a prime time speech delivered at the United States Military Academy at West Point last week, President Barack Obama committed 30,000 more troops to fight the war in Afghanistan. His decision was consistent with a policy he had stated during his campaign for the presidency in 2007:

In the previous post, you read that New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg poured $90 million of his own money into his re-election campaign but, leaving no stone unturned, he also made three significant changes in his presentation style to overcome a reputation that the New York Times

Last week, billionaire Michael Bloomberg won his campaign for a third term as the Mayor of New York City, but only by a surprisingly close margin. According to the report of his victory in the New York Times, "Published polls in the days leading up to the election suggested...

On Saturday, two separate articles from two diverse sources--sports and politics--provided a lesson about the importance of being positive in communication.

The sports item featured Stanford's freshman quarterback, Andrew Luck, whose coach calls him "a rare combination of confidence and humility." Luck demonstrates that rare combination in his...

After his formal address to a Joint Session of Congress last Wednesday about his health care reform proposals, President Obama went out on the stump to seek the support of the public. According to CBS News, by Saturday, when he got to Minneapolis to speak "to more than...

In his weekly New York Times column yesterday, Frank Rich called Barack Obama's health care speech to a joint session of Congress last Wednesday, "inspired, lucid and, in the literally and figuratively Kennedyesque finale, moving."

Mr. Rich was referring to two Kennedys, Ted and John; the latter was the...

When you don't know the answer to a question, just say you don't know -- as simple as that.

It's perfectly permissible to admit that you are not the repository of every minute fact known to humankind. No one expects you to be a walking encyclopedia. But also say that...

In last month's blog about Barack Obama's fourth press conference, you read about a contentious exchange between the president and Chuck Todd of NBC News, sparring about the demonstrations in Iran. In yesterday's blog about Obama's fifth press conference, you read how Obama diminished his use of "unwords"...

Barack Obama, whose smooth, articulate delivery style in his major speeches has been lauded by friend and foe alike, has also been derided by friend and foe alike for his tendency to sputter "unwords" -- "ums" and "ahs" -- during his answers in extemporaneous press conferences. In my previous...

To everyone's -- including the Republican Party's -- great surprise, Sarah Palin resigned as the Governor of Alaska during the July 4th weekend.

To no one's great surprise, two of the New York Times' most mordant columnists, Gail Collins and Maureen Dowd, promptly dipped their pens in their customary...

From his stunning upset victory in the Iowa Caucuses at the start of the presidential primaries, throughout the election campaign, and in the first hundred days of his term in office, the media treated Barack Obama like a rock star and handled him with kid gloves. He acknowledged as much...

Sooner or later every human being on the face of this planet is confronted with tough questions. One of the toughest and most common is the infamous loaded question, "When did you stop beating your wife?" which implies that you have indeed been beating your wife. How do you answer...

The presidential election is over, but intense jockeying from all quarters about legislation, issues, rights and wrongs, and errors and omissions has not abated one iota. Contention is a given in the competitive world of politics and is often expressed by spinning, the black art of attempting to influence public...

In an earlier blog, inspired by London's Ben Schott, whose "Schott's Vocab" column in the New York Times asked readers "to exorcise their linguistic pet peeves and vocab vexations by posting a comment," we listed 22 of the most frequently-referenced peeves of the many comments he received. We...

A recent Sunday New York Times crossword puzzle had as its theme, "Roughly Speaking," which played out in answers of words containing either "er" or "um." When spoken, those two sounds are known as "fillers" or "unwords," because they have no meaning. Unwords are the bane of any speaker's existence...

Ben Schott, whose self-portrait you see here, is a London-based writer, who is also a contributing columnist to the New York Times with a blog called, "Schott's Vocab." Schott describes his blog as "a repository of unconsidered lexicographical trifles -- some serious, others frivolous, some neologized, others newly newsworthy."...

Listening is a social skill that is rapidly becoming extinct in the 21st Century, a subject I wrote about in a March blog, saying, "For those people who still retain a semblance of politeness, it has become waiting for one's turn to speak; for those who no longer bother,...

Because of the creative aspect of presentation development, we can often find guidance in other related fields of communication such as writing, television, and music. In yesterday's blog, you read advice from Mark Twain, and in previous blogs from such diverse sources as Oprah Winfrey and Fred...

In what seems like an extension of his election campaign, President Obama -- in an effort to fulfill his promise to be accessible to the electorate -- has been popping up all over the television tube. Since he took office, he has been seen...