Dale Carnegie

"My popularity, my happiness and sense of worth depend to no small extent upon my skill in dealing with people."

Some speakers get the best results while walking out and ruminating, jotting down notes as they pause in their walk. Others never put pen to paper until the whole speech has been thought out. The great majority, however, will take notes, classify their notes, write a hasty first draft, and then revise the speech.

best—for you

classify your notes by setting down the big, central thoughts of your material on separate cards or slips of pape

arrange these main ideas or heads in such an order that they will lead effectively to the result you have in mind, so that the speech may rise in argument, in interest, in power, by piling one fact or appeal upon another until the climax—the highest point of influence on your audience—has been reached.

guide–outline which you will expand into the written address, if written it is to be.

whatever you do, write it at white heat, with not too much thought of anything but the strong, appealing expression of your ideas.

imagine yourself to be before your audience, for a speech is not an essay and what will convince and arouse in the one will not prevail in the other.

whatever motive it be chosen, let the title be fresh, short, suited to the subject, and likely to excite interest.

Arrange the results of your research in the form of an outline, or brief.