The famed defense attorney, F. Lee Bailey<\/a>, was once asked what the key was to a successful case.\u00a0 People expected him to say a spellbinding closing statement or a good jury selection process or an impressive cross-examination of a crucial witness.<\/p>\n

Instead his answer was \u201cinvestigation\u201d\u2014knowing the facts of your case up and down, forward and backward.<\/p>\n

The same holds true for a successful speech or presentation.\u00a0 The key is research: knowing everything about your audience, about the place where the remarks will be delivered, about everything that has led up to the planning of the event, and then tailoring a speech to those facts.<\/p>\n

In his book Speech*Less<\/a>, <\/em>Matt Latimer, a presidential speechwriter, tells the story of how he prepared a speech for President Bush to deliver on National Adoption Day.<\/p>\n

The first thing I did [as a speech writer] was consider the audience.\u00a0 I pictured the president standing before a large group of adoptive parents and their kids.\u00a0 I thought about the portraits of presidents that people would see just outside the East Room, including a portrait of an adopted son named Gerald R. Ford and another of an adoptive father named Ronald Reagan.<\/em><\/p>\n

And then I thought of the large pictures of George Washington that would be just to the president\u2019s left as he spoke.\u00a0 George Washington had been an adoptive father too, raising two children who weren\u2019t his by birth.\u00a0 (They were the children of his wife, Martha.)<\/em><\/p>\n

Searching the internet, I found a letter that Washington wrote to his stepson while he was in college, complaining about his lack of attention to his studies.\u00a0 (I had our researchers verify its existence.)\u00a0 This led to a perfect joke for President Bush.\u00a0 After reading the excerpt to the audience, the president said, \u201cCome to think of it, my dad once said the same thing to me.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

I noted that Thanksgiving was approaching and so many new adoptive parents and children, including those in that room, would have the blessing of celebrating it together as a family for the first time.\u00a0 That thought made people cry.\u00a0 The president teared up.\u00a0 Even Mrs. Bush, who usually stood motionless while the president delivered his speeches, took an interest.\u00a0 She leaned forward and stole glances at the president\u2019s note card, as if to see how this was happening.<\/em><\/p>\n

When writing a speech, or in working with a speech writer, spend plenty of time thinking about the occasion, the audience, the location, and anything else that might give you an \u201cin\u201d with the audience.<\/p>\n

Do plenty of research, on line or in a library.\u00a0 Ask your speech writer to do the same.\u00a0 Knowing the facts makes your speech more original and gives you confidence.\u00a0 And that feeling can make your delivery livelier, and your audience more engaged.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The famed defense attorney, F. Lee Bailey, was once asked what the key was to a successful case.\u00a0 People expected him to say a spellbinding closing statement or a good jury selection process or an impressive cross-examination of a crucial witness. Instead his answer was \u201cinvestigation\u201d\u2014knowing the facts of your case up and down, forward… Read More »Facts Make the Speech Writer<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"neve_meta_sidebar":"","neve_meta_container":"","neve_meta_enable_content_width":"","neve_meta_content_width":0,"neve_meta_title_alignment":"","neve_meta_author_avatar":"","neve_post_elements_order":"","neve_meta_disable_header":"","neve_meta_disable_footer":"","neve_meta_disable_title":"","_ti_tpc_template_sync":false,"_ti_tpc_template_id":""},"categories":[336],"tags":[710,36,774,603,18,297,509,291,19,88,360,362,277,596,21,337,612,840,906],"yoast_head":"\n