Speeches That Keep an Audience Awake

"Who is buried in Grant's Tomb?"

That opening by Ron Chernow on his biography of Ulysses S. Grant got a laugh from the audience when he reminded them that the riddle came from Groucho Marx, who asked it of contestants on his TV quiz program "You Bet Your Life." (Groucho said that only half got it right.)

It established an instant connection with the audience. Not "it's a privilege and honor to be here …," but an amusing anecdote that grabbed the audience's attention.

After that opening, Chernow (who also wrote the biography that inspired the hit Broadway show Hamilton) said that he obviously couldn't talk about everything in his 900-page book on Grant, so he would only talk about Grant as a military leader. Not his years as president or businessman, just his time as a soldier.

Then he laid out the thesis of his talk, a contrarian view of Grant's military career. Conventional wisdom held that Grant was an unimaginative general relying on overwhelming force whereas Confederate general Robert E. Lee is perceived as a creative military genius. Yet Grant defeated three armies, whereas Lee never defeated one! Why the different views?

That's a pretty good model for writing a speech.

• Start with a relevant joke or amusing story.
• Focus the talk on one major point.
• State and defend an interesting proposition.

Something worth saying

The essence of effective communications is sacrifice. You have to give up things that you could say to focus on the one important idea that you want to register.

The first job in writing a speech is to decide what is important. That's not easy, says Peggy Noonan, Ronald Reagan's speechwriter. "It's harder to decide what you want to say than it is to figure out how to say it."

Reagan, known as "the great communicator," modestly explained the difference in his farewell address from the White House.

"I never thought it was my style or the words I used that made a difference; it was the content. I wasn't a great communicator, but I communicated great things, and they didn't spring full-blown from my brow, they came from the heart of a great nation: from our experience, our wisdom, and our belief in the principles that have guided us for two centuries.

Chris Anderson, who runs the TED Talks programs, says: "I've seen hundreds of people who would never have considered themselves 'naturals' give talks that brought down the house, generated buzz, maybe even changed someone's life. All of them had one thing in common: They had something worth saying."

Don't accept a speaking engagement on a subject about which you don't feel strongly, advises Tom Peters, author of In Search of Excellence. "Stick to topics you care deeply about, and don't keep your passion buttoned inside your vest. An audience's biggest turn-on is the speaker's obvious enthusiasm."

It's a good discipline to give every speech a title, one that expresses that point of view. A lazy title or no title is a good tip-off about lack of focus.

Give your talk a structure - and tell the audience what you are (and are not) going to talk about. About Grant as a military man, not his whole life or his presidency.

Form a picture of the speaking situation. Is it an after-dinner address, a lecture, a seminar? Are you the only speaker or one of several?

Plunge into what you want to say. Benjamin Netanyahu started his speech to the United Nations in 2016 with a provocative statement of the single point that he wanted the audience to take away - "What I am about to say is going to shock you: Israel has a bright future at the UN."

The worst speeches are those when speakers stick their head down and just read the speech without looking up. Speeches are written to be spoken, not read. Think of it as a conversation with a friend. Here's how Ronald Reagan handled the explosion of the space shuttle Challenger.

Ladies and gentlemen. I had planned to speak to you tonight on the State of the Union, but events of earlier today have led me to change those plans. Today is a day of mourning and remembering.

It's hard to call this a speech. Reagan talked to his audience.

What can you say that the audience hasn't heard before? Chernow found something new and provocative about Grant that makes you want to hear more (and perhaps read the book).

No speech is ever too short. "The biggest single mistake speakers make," says Chris Anderson of TED Talks, "is to try to cram too much in. An overstuffed talk makes for an under-explained idea." Most good talks run 15-25 minutes - and leave time for Q&A.

There's a story of a young speechwriter handing his first draft to Henry Kissinger, who told him that it needed more work. The speechwriter returned with a second draft. "Needs more work." After a third time, Kissinger told him, "Now I'll read it."

Keep editing your talk until the last moment, until you believe that it is perfect.

In this respect, it helps to think about addressing one person rather than a faceless audience. What you write should sound like you are talking with someone rather than "addressing" them. The most effective speeches sound as though they have been spoken and not written down at all.

And the surest way to accomplish this effectively is to rehearse. The better you know your speech, the more spontaneous it will sound. Practice makes perfect (or at least better). The best way to become a better speaker is to do a lot of speaking. The more you do it, the more confidence you build, and the better you get.