1. When a speaker has a real message in his hand and heart- an inner urge to speak, he is almost sure to do himself credit. A well prepared speech is already nine-tenth delivered.
2. What is preparation? The setting down of mechanical sentences on paper? The memorizing of phrases? Not at all. Real preparation consists of digging something out of yourself, in assembling and arranging your own thoughts, in cherishing and nurturing your own convictions.
3. Do not sit down to manufacture a speech in thirty minutes. A speech can’t be cooked to order like a steak. A speech must grow. Select your topic early in the week, think over it during odd moments, brood over it, sleep over it, dream over it. Discuss it with friends. Make it a topic of conversation. Ask yourself all possible questions concerning it. Put down on pieces of paper all thoughts and illustrations that come to you and keep reaching out for more. Ideas, suggestions, illustrations will come drifting to you at sundry times –when you are bathing, when you are driving downtown, when you are waiting for dinner to be served. That was Lincoln’s method. It has been the method of almost all successful speakers.
3. Do not sit down to manufacture a speech in thirty minutes. A speech can’t be cooked to order like a steak. A speech must grow. Select your topic early in the week, think over it during odd moments, brood over it, sleep over it, dream over it. Discuss it with friends. Make it a topic of conversation. Ask yourself all possible questions concerning it. Put down on pieces of paper all thoughts and illustrations that come to you and keep reaching out for more. Ideas, suggestions, illustrations will come drifting to you at sundry times –when you are bathing, when you are driving downtown, when you are waiting for dinner to be served. That was Lincoln’s method. It has been the method of almost all successful speakers.
