How to Write a Speech

Anybody can deliver a speech. Men prove that every day. They stand up on their feet, and they say what they want to say. If a man fears he can't make a speech, he can take a short course in public speaking and almost immediately he will acquire the ability to rise and give out with words of wisdom or what not.
But few men 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. 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 fellow 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 who isn't a good talker, talking about a cause in which you have no interest. Yet he holds your interest for twenty or thirty minutes or an hour. His voice lacks volume; it squeaks; he has no presence—nothing to hold you but his mes­sage. Yet he holds your interest through the whole talk.

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