Anybody can deliver a speech.

 

People prove that every day.

They stand up on their feet, and they say what they want to say.

If you fear you can\'t make a speech, you can take a short course in public speaking and almost immediately acquire the ability to rise and give out with words of wisdom - or what not.

But few can write a speech. That\'s why you hear so many inept speeches.

Go to church on Sunday, to your service club, your trade association, to any business meeting, and you hear speakers who have spent time and effort in preparing a speech or presentation.

Yet they don\'t interest you. They talk loud enough. They have the voice, the presence, the words, but they don\'t know how to put those words together in a way to arouse your interest.

You hear a man make a speech for a cause in which you are interested, but the way the guy puts the appeal just about breaks your heart.

It isn\'t that he can\'t make a talk. He simply doesn\'t know how to make his talk interesting.

Then you hear a man or woman who isn\'t a good talker, talking about a cause in which you have no interest.

Yet they hold your interest for twenty or thirty minutes or an hour. Their voice lacks volume; it squeaks; has no presence - nothing to hold you but his mes­sage. Yet they hold your interest through the whole talk.

What is the difference? One knew how to write a speech - the other didn\'t.

Now most of the bad speeches you hear have good material. The speakers have put hours into assembling the data.

Properly handled, this material could be made into an interesting talk.

But these speakers just don\'t know how to handle speech material properly.

Continued...From \"How to Write a Speech\"
By: EDWARD J. HEGARTY

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